No Arabic abstract
Detector response to a high-energy physics process is often estimated by Monte Carlo simulation. For purposes of data analysis, the results of this simulation are typically stored in large multi-dimensional histograms, which can quickly become both too large to easily store and manipulate and numerically problematic due to unfilled bins or interpolation artifacts. We describe here an application of the penalized spline technique to efficiently compute B-spline representations of such tables and discuss aspects of the resulting B-spline fits that simplify many common tasks in handling tabulated Monte Carlo data in high-energy physics analysis, in particular their use in maximum-likelihood fitting.
This article presents the motivation for developing a comprehensive modeling framework in which different models and parameter inputs can be compared and evaluated for a large range of jet-quenching observables measured in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC. The concept of a framework us discussed within the context of recent efforts by the JET Collaboration, the authors of JEWEL, and the JETSCAPE collaborations. The framework ingredients for each of these approaches is presented with a sample of important results from each. The role of advanced statistical tools in comparing models to data is also discussed, along with the need for a more detailed accounting of correlated errors in experimental results.
This paper describes the Monte Carlo simulation developed specifically for the VCS experiments below pion threshold that have been performed at MAMI and JLab. This simulation generates events according to the (Bethe-Heitler + Born) cross section behaviour and takes into account all relevant resolution-deteriorating effects. It determines the `effective solid angle for the various experimental settings which are used for the precise determination of photon electroproduction absolute cross section.
In statistical data assimilation (SDA) and supervised machine learning (ML), we wish to transfer information from observations to a model of the processes underlying those observations. For SDA, the model consists of a set of differential equations that describe the dynamics of a physical system. For ML, the model is usually constructed using other strategies. In this paper, we develop a systematic formulation based on Monte Carlo sampling to achieve such information transfer. Following the derivation of an appropriate target distribution, we present the formulation based on the standard Metropolis-Hasting (MH) procedure and the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) method for performing the high dimensional integrals that appear. To the extensive literature on MH and HMC, we add (1) an annealing method using a hyperparameter that governs the precision of the model to identify and explore the highest probability regions of phase space dominating those integrals, and (2) a strategy for initializing the state space search. The efficacy of the proposed formulation is demonstrated using a nonlinear dynamical model with chaotic solutions widely used in geophysics.
Monte-Carlo (MC) methods, based on random updates and the trial-and-error principle, are well suited to retrieve particle size distributions from small-angle scattering patterns of dilute solutions of scatterers. The size sensitivity of size determination methods in relation to the range of scattering vectors covered by the data is discussed. Improvements are presented to existing MC methods in which the particle shape is assumed to be known. A discussion of the problems with the ambiguous convergence criteria of the MC methods are given and a convergence criterion is proposed, which also allows the determination of uncertainties on the determined size distributions.
Recently, a Monte Carlo method has been presented which allows for the form-free retrieval of size distributions from isotropic scattering patterns, complete with uncertainty estimates linked to the data quality. Here, we present an adaptation to this method allowing for the fitting of anisotropic 2D scattering patterns. The model consists of a finite number of non-interacting ellipsoids of revolution (but would work equally well for cylinders), polydisperse in both dimensions, and takes into account disorientation in the plane parallel to the detector plane. The method application results in three form-free distributions, two for the ellipsoid dimensions, and one for the orientation distribution. It is furthermore shown that a morphological restriction is needed to obtain a unique solution.