Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

HZTool and Rivet: Toolkit and Framework for the Comparison of Simulated Final States and Data at Colliders

B. M. Waugh, H. Jung, A. Buckley, L. Lonnblad, J. M. Butterworth

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of reproducing data–theory comparisons when using Monte Carlo event generators for hadronic final states. It introduces HZTool, a legacy Fortran library of analysis routines, and Rivet, a forthcoming object-oriented C++ framework designed to provide generator-agnostic, extensible validation using standard interfaces. The architecture emphasizes separating analyses from generators, leveraging HepMC, HEPDATA, HepML, and AIDA to enable cross-experiment reuse and easy integration with higher-level tools like JetWeb and Professor. Positioned as the successor to HZTool within the CEDAR program, Rivet aims to streamline tuning and validation across current and future colliders. The framework promises more reliable, scalable, and automated comparisons between theory and experiment.

Abstract

A common problem in particle physics is the requirement to reproduce comparisons between data and theory when the theory is a (general purpose) Monte Carlo simulation and the data are measurements of final state observables in high energy collisions. The complexity of the experiments, the obervables and the models all contribute to making this a highly non-trivial task. We describe an existing library of Fortran routines, HZTool, which enables, for each measurement of interest, a comparable prediction to be produced from any given Monte Carlo generator. The HZTool library is being maintained by CEDAR, with subroutines for various measurements contributed by a number of authors within and outside the CEDAR collaboration. We also describe the outline design and current status of a replacement for HZTool, to be called Rivet (Robust Independent Validation of Experiment and Theory). This will use an object-oriented design, implemented in C++, together with standard interfaces (such as HepMC and AIDA) to make the new framework more flexible and extensible than the Fortran HZTool.

HZTool and Rivet: Toolkit and Framework for the Comparison of Simulated Final States and Data at Colliders

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of reproducing data–theory comparisons when using Monte Carlo event generators for hadronic final states. It introduces HZTool, a legacy Fortran library of analysis routines, and Rivet, a forthcoming object-oriented C++ framework designed to provide generator-agnostic, extensible validation using standard interfaces. The architecture emphasizes separating analyses from generators, leveraging HepMC, HEPDATA, HepML, and AIDA to enable cross-experiment reuse and easy integration with higher-level tools like JetWeb and Professor. Positioned as the successor to HZTool within the CEDAR program, Rivet aims to streamline tuning and validation across current and future colliders. The framework promises more reliable, scalable, and automated comparisons between theory and experiment.

Abstract

A common problem in particle physics is the requirement to reproduce comparisons between data and theory when the theory is a (general purpose) Monte Carlo simulation and the data are measurements of final state observables in high energy collisions. The complexity of the experiments, the obervables and the models all contribute to making this a highly non-trivial task. We describe an existing library of Fortran routines, HZTool, which enables, for each measurement of interest, a comparable prediction to be produced from any given Monte Carlo generator. The HZTool library is being maintained by CEDAR, with subroutines for various measurements contributed by a number of authors within and outside the CEDAR collaboration. We also describe the outline design and current status of a replacement for HZTool, to be called Rivet (Robust Independent Validation of Experiment and Theory). This will use an object-oriented design, implemented in C++, together with standard interfaces (such as HepMC and AIDA) to make the new framework more flexible and extensible than the Fortran HZTool.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 6 sections, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. REQUIREMENTS
  3. HZTOOL
  4. RIVET
  5. CONCLUSIONS
  6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: A hadronic collision.
  • Figure 2: Predictions of various HERWIG models for jet production in $e^+e^-$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 500 GeV. From lincoltuning.