Accelerating LHC event generation with simplified pilot runs and fast PDFs

Bothmann, Enrico; Buckley, Andy; Christidi, Ilektra A.; Gütschow, Christian; Höche, Stefan; Knobbe, Max; Martin, Tim; Schönherr, Marek

Abstract

Poor computing efficiency of precision event generators for LHC physics has become a bottleneck for Monte-Carlo event simulation campaigns. We provide solutions to this problem by focusing on two major components of general-purpose event generators: The PDF evaluator and the matrix-element generator. For a typical production setup in the ATLAS experiment, we show that the two can consume about 80% of the total runtime. Using NLO simulations of pp→ℓ+ℓ−+jets and pp→tt¯+jets as an example, we demonstrate that the computing footprint of LHAPDF and SHERPA can be reduced by factors of order 10, while maintaining the formal accuracy of the event sample. The improved codes are made publicly available.

Citation

Bothmann, E., Buckley, A., Christidi, I. A., Gütschow, C., Höche, S., Knobbe, M., Martin, T., & Schönherr, M. (2022). Accelerating LHC event generation with simplified pilot runs and fast PDFs. The European Physical Journal C, 82(12), Article 1128. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11087-1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 29, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2022
• Publication Date: Dec 14, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 29, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 31, 2023
• Journal: The European Physical Journal C
• Print ISSN: 1434-6044
• Publisher: SpringerOpen
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 82
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: 1128
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11087-1
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1176923