New developments in event generator tuning techniques

Humboldt-University BerlinE-mail: vseggern@physik.hu-berlin.deData analyses in hadron collider physics depend on background simulations performed by MonteCarlo (MC) event generators. However, calculational limitations and non-perturbative effectsrequire approximate models with adjustable parameters. In fact, we need to simultaneously tunemany phenomenological parameters in a high-dimensional parameter-space in order to make theMC generator predictions fit the data. It is desirable to achieve this goal without spending toomuch time or computing resources iterating parameter settings and comparing the same set ofplots over and over again. We present extensions and improvements to the MC tuning system,Professor, which addresses the aforementioned problems by constructing a fast analytic model ofa MC generator which can then be easily fitted to data. Using this procedure it is for the first timepossible to get a robust estimate of the uncertainty of generator tunings. Furthermore, we can usethese uncertainty estimates to study the effect of new (pseudo-) data on the quality of tunings andtherefore decide if a measurement is worthwhile in the prospect of generator tuning. The potentialof the Professor method outside the MC tuning area is presented as well.13th International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics Research,ACAT2010February 22-27, 2010Jaipur, India