Event Generator Generators: From Prediction to Classification

Particle physics aims to explain the beauty of the subatomic world, and high-energy physics champions this endeavor. Progress towards this goal is made by comparing outcomes of collision experiments to theory predictions. Deviations herald new phenomena, and inform new analyses and experiments. Central to this paradigm are Event Generators, which translate abstract theory concepts into concrete predictions.

These tools need to be cutting-edge realizations of the theory.

This has spurred many advances in simulating Quantum Chromodynamics, at the expense of modeling the structure of the Standard-Model of particle physics (SM) in its full richness, and of describing new interactions in an unbiased manner. This one-sided strategy is ill-suited to guide a broad collider- and non-collider program.

At this juncture, careful descriptions of the full SM and systematic assessments of constraints on new interactions from collider data are essential. This mandates comprehensive calculations and a high degree of transferability. Similarly, searches for light dark matter (often described by complex theories) cannot rely on rudimentary simulations.

Theoretically sound event generation and signal-versus-background classification must go hand-in-hand to exploit the full potential of present and future measurements.

This proposal aims to supply both comprehensive new simulation tools, and well-defined signal hypothesis tests, in a framework that allows generating flexible Event Generators.