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Switches for Event Type and Kinematics Selection
By default, if PYTHIA is run for a hadron collider,
only QCD
processes are generated,
composed of hard interactions above
PARP(81),
with low-
processes added on so as to give the full
(parameterized) inelastic, non-diffractive cross section.
In an
collider,
production is the default, and in
an
one it is Deeply Inelastic Scattering. With the help of the
common block PYSUBS, it is possible to select the generation
of another process, or combination of processes. It is also allowed
to restrict the generation to specific incoming partons/particles
at the hard interaction. This often automatically also restricts
final-state flavours but, in processes such as resonance production
or QCD/QED production of new flavours, switches in the PYTHIA
program may be used to this end; see section
.
The CKIN array may be used to impose specific kinematics cuts.
You should here be warned that, if kinematical variables are
too strongly restricted, the generation time per event may become
very long. In extreme cases, where the cuts effectively close the
full phase space, the event generation may run into an infinite
loop. The generation of
resonance production is performed
in terms of the
and
variables, and so the ranges
CKIN(1) - CKIN(2) and CKIN(7) - CKIN(8) may be
arbitrarily restricted without a significant loss of speed.
For
processes,
is added as a third
generation variable, and so additionally the range
CKIN(27) - CKIN(28) may be restricted without any loss of
efficiency.
Effects from initial- and final-state radiation
are not included, since they are not known at the time the
kinematics at the hard interaction is selected. The sharp
kinematical cut-offs that can be imposed on the generation
process are therefore smeared, both by QCD radiation and by
fragmentation. A few examples of such effects follow.
- Initial-state radiation implies that each of the two incoming
partons has a non-vanishing
when they interact. The hard
scattering subsystem thus receives a net transverse boost,
and is rotated with respect to the beam directions.
In a
process, what typically happens is that one of the
scattered partons receives an increased
, while the
of the other parton can be reduced or increased, depending on the
detailed topology.
- Since the initial-state radiation
machinery assigns space-like virtualities to the incoming partons,
the definitions of
in terms of energy fractions and in terms of
momentum fractions no longer coincide, and so the interacting
subsystem may receive a net longitudinal boost compared with
naïve expectations, as part of the parton-shower machinery.
- Initial-state radiation gives rise to
additional jets, which in extreme cases may be mistaken for either
of the jets of the hard interaction.
- Final-state radiation gives rise to additional jets, which
smears the meaning of the basic
scattering. The assignment
of soft jets is not unique. The energy of a jet becomes dependent
on the way it is identified, e.g. what jet cone size is used.
- The beam-remnant description assigns primordial
values, which also gives a net
shift of the hard-interaction
subsystem; except at low energies this effect is overshadowed by
initial-state radiation, however. Beam remnants may also add
further activity under the `perturbative' event.
- Fragmentation will further broaden jet profiles, and make
jet assignments and energy determinations even more uncertain.
In a study of events within a given window of
experimentally defined variables, it is up to you to leave
such liberal margins that no events are missed. In other words, cuts
have to be chosen such that a negligible fraction of events migrate
from outside the simulated region to inside the interesting region.
Often this may lead to low efficiency in terms of what fraction of
the generated events are actually of interest to you.
See also section
.
In addition to the variables found in PYSUBS, also those in the
PYPARS common block may be used to select exactly what one wants
to have simulated. These possibilities will be described in the
following section.
The notation used above and in the following is that `
'
denotes internal variables in the hard-scattering subsystem,
while `
' is for variables in the c.m. frame of the
event as a whole.
- Purpose:
- to allow you to run the program with any desired
subset of processes, or restrict flavours or kinematics. If the
default values, denoted below by (D = ...), are not satisfactory,
they must be changed before the PYINIT call.
- MSEL :
- (D = 1) a switch to select between full
user control and some preprogrammed alternatives.
- = 0 :
- desired subprocesses have to be switched on in
MSUB, i.e. full user control.
- = 1 :
- depending on incoming particles, different
alternatives are used.
Lepton-lepton:
or
production (ISUB = 1 or 2).
Lepton-hadron: Deeply Inelastic Scattering (ISUB = 10; this option
is now out of date for most applications, superseded by the
'gamma/lepton' machinery).
Hadron-hadron: QCD high-
processes (ISUB = 11, 12, 13, 28,
53, 68); additionally low-
production if
CKIN(3)
PARP(81) or PARP(82), depending on
MSTP(82) (ISUB = 95). If low-
is switched on, the other
CKIN cuts are not used.
A resolved photon counts as hadron. When the photon is not resolved,
the following cases are possible.
Photon-lepton: Compton scattering (ISUB = 34).
Photon-hadron: photon-parton scattering (ISUB = 33, 34, 54).
Photon-photon: fermion pair production (ISUB = 58).
When photons are given by the 'gamma/lepton' argument in the
PYINIT call, the outcome depends on the MSTP(14) value.
Default is a mixture of many kinds of processes, as described
in section
.
- = 2 :
- as MSEL = 1 for lepton-lepton, lepton-hadron
and unresolved photons. For hadron-hadron (including resolved
photons) all QCD processes, including low-
, single and
double diffractive and elastic scattering, are included (ISUB =
11, 12, 13, 28, 53, 68, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95). The CKIN cuts are
here not used.
For photons given with the 'gamma/lepton' argument in the
PYINIT call, the above processes are replaced by other ones
that also include the photon virtuality in the cross sections. The
principle remains to include both high- and low-
processes,
however.
- = 4 :
- charm (
) production with massive matrix
elements (ISUB = 81, 82, 84, 85).
- = 5 :
- bottom (
) production with massive matrix
elements (ISUB = 81, 82, 84, 85).
- = 6 :
- top (
) production with massive matrix
elements (ISUB = 81, 82, 84, 85).
- = 7 :
- fourth generation
(
) production with
massive matrix elements (ISUB = 81, 82, 84, 85).
- = 8 :
- fourth generation
(
) production with
massive matrix elements (ISUB = 81, 82, 84, 85).
- = 10 :
- prompt photons (ISUB = 14, 18, 29).
- = 11 :
production (ISUB = 1).
- = 12 :
-
production (ISUB = 2).
- = 13 :
+ jet production (ISUB = 15, 30).
- = 14 :
-
+ jet production (ISUB = 16, 31).
- = 15 :
- pair production of different combinations of
,
and
(except
; see MSEL = 10)
(ISUB = 19, 20, 22, 23, 25).
- = 16 :
production (ISUB = 3, 102, 103, 123, 124).
- = 17 :
-
or
(ISUB = 24, 26).
- = 18 :
production, combination relevant for
annihilation (ISUB = 24, 103, 123, 124).
- = 19 :
,
and
production, excepting pair
production (ISUB = 24, 103, 123, 124, 153, 158, 171, 173, 174, 176,
178, 179).
- = 21 :
production (ISUB = 141).
- = 22 :
-
production (ISUB = 142).
- = 23 :
production (ISUB = 143).
- = 24 :
production (ISUB = 144).
- = 25 :
-
(leptoquark) production (ISUB = 145, 162,
163, 164).
- = 35 :
- single bottom production by
exchange (ISUB = 83).
- = 36 :
- single top production by
exchange (ISUB = 83).
- = 37 :
- single
production by
exchange (ISUB = 83).
- = 38 :
- single
production by
exchange (ISUB = 83).
- = 39 :
- all MSSM processes except Higgs production.
- = 40 :
- squark and gluino production (ISUB = 243, 244, 258, 259,
271-280).
- = 41 :
- stop pair production (ISUB = 261-265).
- = 42 :
- slepton pair production (ISUB = 201-214).
- = 43 :
- squark or gluino with chargino or neutralino,
(ISUB = 237-242, 246-256).
- = 44 :
- chargino-neutralino pair production (ISUB = 216-236).
- = 45 :
- sbottom production (ISUB = 281-296).
- = 50 :
- pair production of technipions and gauge bosons by
exchange
(ISUB = 361-377).
- = 51 :
- standard QCD
processes 381-386, with
possibility to introduce compositeness/technicolor modifications,
see ITCM(5).
- = 61 :
- charmonimum production in the NRQCD framework,
(ISUB = 421-439).
- = 62 :
- bottomonimum production in the NRQCD framework,
(ISUB = 461-479).
- = 63 :
- both charmonimum and bottomonimum production in the NRQCD framework, (ISUB = 421-439, 461-479).
- MSUB :
- (D = 500*0) array to be set when
MSEL = 0 (for MSEL
relevant entries are set in
PYINIT) to choose which subset of subprocesses to include
in the generation. The ordering follows the ISUB code given in
section
(with comments as given there).
- MSUB(ISUB) = 0 :
- the subprocess is excluded.
- MSUB(ISUB) = 1 :
- the subprocess is included.
- Note:
- when MSEL = 0, the MSUB values set by
you are never changed by PYTHIA. If you want to combine several
different `subruns', each with its own PYINIT call, into one
single run, it is up to you to remember not only to switch on
the new processes before each new PYINIT call, but also to
switch off the old ones that are no longer desired.
- KFIN(I,J) :
- provides an option to selectively
switch on and
off contributions to the cross sections from the different incoming
partons/particles at the hard interaction. In combination with the
PYTHIA resonance decay switches, this also allows you to set
restrictions on flavours appearing in the final state.
- I :
- is 1 for beam side of event and 2 for target side.
- J :
- enumerates flavours according to the KF code; see section
.
- KFIN(I,J) = 0 :
- the parton/particle is forbidden.
- KFIN(I,J) = 1 :
- the parton/particle is allowed.
- Note:
- by default, the following are switched on:
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and their antiparticles.
In particular, top is off, and has to be switched on explicitly if
needed.
- CKIN :
- kinematics cuts that can be set by you
before the PYINIT call, and that affect the region of phase space
within which events are generated. Some cuts are `hardwired' while
most are `softwired'. The hardwired ones are directly related to the
kinematical variables used in the event selection procedure,
and therefore have negligible effects on program efficiency.
The most important of these are CKIN(1) - CKIN(8),
CKIN(27) - CKIN(28), and CKIN(31) - CKIN(32).
The softwired ones are most of the remaining ones, that cannot
be fully taken into account
in the kinematical variable selection, so that generation in
constrained regions of phase space may be slow. In extreme
cases the phase space may be so small that the maximization
procedure fails to find any allowed points at all (although some
small region might still exist somewhere), and therefore switches
off some subprocesses, or aborts altogether.
- CKIN(1), CKIN(2) :
- (D = 2.,
GeV) range of allowed
values. If CKIN(2)
, the upper
limit is inactive.
- CKIN(3), CKIN(4) :
- (D = 0.,
GeV) range of allowed
values for hard
processes, with
transverse momentum
defined in the rest frame of
the hard interaction. If CKIN(4)
, the upper limit is
inactive. For processes that are singular in the limit
(see CKIN(6)), CKIN(5) provides an additional constraint.
The CKIN(3) and CKIN(4) limits can also be used in
processes. Here, however, the product
masses are not known and hence are assumed to be vanishing in the event
selection. The actual
range for massive products is thus
shifted downwards with respect to the nominal one.
- Note 1:
- for processes that are singular in the limit
, a careful choice of CKIN(3) value is
not only a matter of technical convenience, but a requirement for
obtaining sensible results. One example is the hadroproduction of
a
or
gauge boson together with a jet, discussed
in section
. Here the point is that this is a
first-order process (in
), correcting the zeroth-order
process of a
or
without any jet. A full first-order
description would also have to include virtual corrections in the
low-
region.
Generalizing also to other processes, the simple-minded higher-order
description breaks down when CKIN(3) is selected so small that
the higher-order process cross section corresponds to a non-negligible
fraction of the lower-order one. This number will vary depending on
the process considered and the c.m. energy used, but could easily be
tens of GeV rather than the default 1 GeV provided as technical
cut-off in CKIN(5). Processes singular in
should therefore only be used to describe the high-
behaviour,
while the lowest-order process complemented with parton showers
should give the inclusive distribution and in particular the one
at small
values.
Technically the case of QCD production of two jets is slightly more
complicated, and involves eikonalization to multiple parton-parton
scattering, section
, but again the conclusion
is that the processes have to be handled with care at small
values.
- Note 2:
- there are a few situations in which CKIN(3)
may be overwritten; especially when different subprocess classes
are mixed in
or
collisions, see section
.
- CKIN(5) :
- (D = 1. GeV) lower cut-off on
values,
in addition to the CKIN(3) cut above, for processes that are
singular in the limit
(see CKIN(6)).
- CKIN(6) :
- (D = 1. GeV) hard
processes, which do not
proceed only via an intermediate resonance (i.e. are
processes), are classified as singular in the limit
if either or both of the two final-state
products has a mass
CKIN(6).
- CKIN(7), CKIN(8) :
- (D =
, 10.) range of allowed scattering
subsystem rapidities
in the c.m. frame of the event,
where
. (Following the notation of this
section, the variable should be given as
, but because of its
frequent use, it was called
in section
.)
- CKIN(9), CKIN(10) :
- (D =
, 40.) range of allowed (true)
rapidities for the product with largest rapidity in a
or a
process, defined in the c.m. frame of the event,
i.e.
. Note that rapidities are counted with sign,
i.e. if
and
then
.
- CKIN(11), CKIN(12) :
- (D =
, 40.) range of allowed (true)
rapidities for the product with smallest rapidity in a
or a
process, defined in the c.m. frame of the event,
i.e.
. Consistency thus requires
CKIN(11)
CKIN(9) and
CKIN(12)
CKIN(10).
- CKIN(13), CKIN(14) :
- (D =
, 40.) range of allowed
pseudorapidities for the product with largest pseudorapidity
in a
or a
process, defined in the c.m. frame of the event, i.e.
. Note that
pseudorapidities are counted with sign, i.e. if
and
then
.
- CKIN(15), CKIN(16) :
- (D =
, 40.) range of allowed
pseudorapidities for the product with smallest pseudorapidity
in a
or a
process, defined in the c.m. frame of the event, i.e.
. Consistency
thus requires CKIN(15)
CKIN(13) and
CKIN(16)
CKIN(14).
- CKIN(17), CKIN(18) :
- (D =
, 1.) range of allowed
values for the product with largest
value in a
or a
process, defined in the
c.m. frame of the event, i.e.
.
- CKIN(19), CKIN(20) :
- (D =
, 1.) range of allowed
values for the product with smallest
value in a
or a
process, defined in the
c.m. frame of the event, i.e.
.
Consistency thus requires CKIN(19)
CKIN(17) and
CKIN(20)
CKIN(18).
- CKIN(21), CKIN(22) :
- (D = 0., 1.) range of allowed
values
for the parton on side 1 that enters the hard interaction.
- CKIN(23), CKIN(24) :
- (D = 0., 1.) range of allowed
values
for the parton on side 2 that enters the hard interaction.
- CKIN(25), CKIN(26) :
- (D =
, 1.) range of allowed Feynman-
values, where
.
- CKIN(27), CKIN(28) :
- (D =
, 1.) range of allowed
values in a hard
scattering, where
is the scattering angle in the rest frame of the
hard interaction.
- CKIN(31), CKIN(32) :
- (D = 2.,
GeV) range of allowed
values, where
is the mass of
the complete three- or four-body final state in
or
processes (while
, constrained in CKIN(1)
and CKIN(2), here corresponds to the one- or two-body central
system). If CKIN(32)
, the upper limit is inactive.
- CKIN(35), CKIN(36) :
- (D = 0.,
GeV
) range of allowed
values in
processes. Note that
for Deeply Inelastic Scattering this is nothing but the
scale,
in the limit that initial- and final-state radiation is neglected.
If CKIN(36)
, the upper limit is inactive.
- CKIN(37), CKIN(38) :
- (D = 0.,
GeV
) range of allowed
values in
processes. If
CKIN(38)
, the upper limit is inactive.
- CKIN(39), CKIN(40) :
- (D = 4.,
GeV
) the
range
allowed in DIS processes, i.e. subprocess number 10. If
CKIN(40)
, the upper limit is inactive. Here
is
defined in terms of
. This formula is not quite
correct, in that (i) it neglects the target mass (for a
proton), and (ii) it neglects initial-state photon radiation
off the incoming electron. It should be good enough for loose cuts,
however. These cuts are not checked if process 10 is called for two
lepton beams.
- CKIN(41) - CKIN(44) :
- (D = 12.,
, 12.,
GeV) range of
allowed mass values of the two (or one) resonances produced in a `true'
process, i.e. one not (only) proceeding through a single
-channel resonance (
). (These are the ones listed
as
in the tables in section
.)
Only particles with a width above PARP(41) are considered as
bona fide resonances and tested against the CKIN
limits; particles with a smaller width are put on the mass shell
without applying any cuts. The exact interpretation of the CKIN
variables depends on the flavours of the two produced resonances.
For two resonances like
(produced from
), which are not identical and which are not
each other's antiparticles, one has
CKIN(41)
CKIN(42), and
CKIN(43)
CKIN(44),
where
and
are the actually generated masses of the two
resonances, and 1 and 2 are defined by the order in which they are
given in the production process specification.
For two resonances like
, which are identical, or
, which are each other's antiparticles, one instead
has
CKIN(41)
CKIN(42), and
CKIN(43)
CKIN(44).
In addition, whatever limits are set on CKIN(1) and, in
particular, on CKIN(2) obviously affect the masses actually
selected.
- Note 1:
- if MSTP(42) = 0, so that no mass smearing is
allowed, the CKIN values have no effect (the same as for
particles with too narrow a width).
- Note 2:
- if CKIN(42)
CKIN(41) it means that
the CKIN(42) limit is inactive; correspondingly, if
CKIN(44)
CKIN(43) then CKIN(44) is inactive.
- Note 3:
- if limits are active and the resonances are
identical, it is up to you to ensure that
CKIN(41)
CKIN(43) and
CKIN(42)
CKIN(44).
- Note 4:
- for identical resonances, it is not possible to
preselect which of the resonances is the lighter one; if, for
instance, one
is to decay to leptons and the other to quarks, there is no
mechanism to guarantee that the lepton pair has a mass smaller
than the quark one.
- Note 5:
- the CKIN values are applied to all relevant
processes equally, which may not be what one desires if
several processes are generated simultaneously. Some caution is
therefore urged in the use of the CKIN(41) - CKIN(44) values.
Also in other respects, you are recommended to take proper
care: if a
is only allowed to decay into
, for example,
setting its mass range to be 2-8 GeV is obviously not a
good idea.
- CKIN(45) - CKIN(48) :
- (D = 12.,
, 12.,
GeV) range of
allowed mass values of the two (or one) secondary resonances produced in
a
process (like
) or
even a
(or 3) process (like
). Note that these
CKIN values only affect the secondary resonances; the
primary ones are constrained by CKIN(1), CKIN(2) and
CKIN(41) - CKIN(44) (indirectly, of course, the choice of
primary resonance masses affects the allowed mass range for the
secondary ones). What is considered to be a resonance is defined
by PARP(41); particles with a width smaller than this are
automatically put on the mass shell. The description closely
parallels the one given for CKIN(41) - CKIN(44). Thus, for
two resonances that are not identical or each other's
antiparticles, one has
CKIN(45)
CKIN(46), and
CKIN(47)
CKIN(48),
where
and
are the actually generated masses of the two
resonances, and 1 and 2 are defined by the order in which they are
given in the decay channel specification in the program (see e.g.
output from PYSTAT(2) or PYLIST(12)). For two
resonances that are identical or each other's antiparticles,
one instead has
CKIN(45)
CKIN(46), and
CKIN(47)
CKIN(48).
- Notes 1 - 5:
- as for CKIN(41) - CKIN(44), with trivial
modifications.
- Note 6:
- setting limits on secondary resonance masses is
possible in any of the channels of the allowed types (see above).
However, so far only
and
have been fully implemented, such that an arbitrary mass range
below the naïve mass threshold may be picked. For other possible
resonances, any restrictions made on the allowed mass range
are not reflected in the cross section; and further it is not
recommendable to pick mass windows that make a decay on the
mass shell impossible.
- CKIN(49) - CKIN(50) :
- allow minimum mass limits to be passed
from PYRESD to PYOFSH. They are used for tertiary and higher
resonances, i.e. those not controlled by CKIN(41) - CKIN(48).
They should not be touched by the user.
- CKIN(51) - CKIN(56) :
- (D = 0.,
, 0.,
, 0.,
GeV)
range of allowed transverse momenta in a true
process. This
means subprocesses such as 121-124 for
production, and
their
,
and
equivalents.
CKIN(51) - CKIN(54) corresponds
to
ranges for scattered partons, in order of appearance,
i.e. CKIN(51) - CKIN(52) for the parton scattered off the beam
and CKIN(53) - CKIN(54) for the one scattered off the target.
CKIN(55) and CKIN(56) here sets
limits for the
third product, the
, i.e. the CKIN(3) and CKIN(4)
values have no effect for this process. Since the
of the Higgs
is not one of the primary variables selected, any constraints here
may mean reduced Monte Carlo efficiency, while for these processes
CKIN(51) - CKIN(54) are `hardwired' and therefore do not cost
anything. As usual, a negative value implies that the upper limit is
inactive.
- CKIN(61) - CKIN(78) :
- allows to restrict the range of kinematics
for the photons generated off the lepton beams with the
'gamma/lepton' option of PYINIT. In each quartet of numbers,
the first two corresponds to the range allowed on incoming side 1 (beam)
and the last two to side 2 (target). The cuts are only applicable for a
lepton beam. Note that the
and
(
) variables are the basis
for the generation, and so can be restricted with no loss of
efficiency. For leptoproduction (i.e. lepton on hadron) the
is
uniquely given by the one
value of the problem, so here also
cuts
are fully efficient. The other cuts may imply a slowdown of the program,
but not as much as if equivalent cuts only are introduced after events
are fully generated. See [Fri00] for details.
- CKIN(61) - CKIN(64) :
- (D = 0.0001, 0.99, 0.0001, 0.99) allowed
range for the energy fractions
that the photon take of the respective
incoming lepton energy. These fractions are defined in the
c.m. frame of the collision, and differ from energy fractions
as defined in another frame. (Watch out at HERA!) In order to
avoid some technical problems, absolute lower and upper limits
are set internally at 0.0001 and 0.9999.
- CKIN(65) - CKIN(68) :
- (D = 0.,
, 0.,
GeV
) allowed
range for the space-like virtuality of the photon, conventionally called
either
or
, depending on process. A negative number means that
the upper limit is inactive, i.e. purely given by kinematics. A nonzero
lower limit is implicitly given by kinematics constraints.
- CKIN(69) - CKIN(72) :
- (D = 0.,
, 0.,
) allowed range of
the scattering angle
of the lepton, defined in the c.m. frame
of the event. (Watch out at HERA!) A negative number means that
the upper limit is inactive, i.e. equal to
.
- CKIN(73) - CKIN(76) :
- (D = 0.0001, 0.99, 0.0001, 0.99) allowed
range for the light-cone fraction
that the photon take of the respective incoming lepton energy. The light-cone is defined by the
four-momentum of the lepton or hadron on the other side of the
event (and thus deviates from true light-cone fraction by mass
effects that normally are negligible). The
value is related to
the
and
(
) values by
if mass terms are
neglected.
- CKIN(77), CKIN(78) :
- (D = 2.,
GeV) allowed range for
,
i.e. either the photon-hadron or photon-photon invariant mass. A
negative number means that the upper limit is inactive.
Next: The General Switches and
Up: The Process Generation Program
Previous: The Main Subroutines
Contents
Stephen Mrenna
2007-10-30