The high energy physics community is discussing where investment is needed to prepare software for the HL-LHC and its unprecedented challenges. The ROOT project is one of the central software players in high energy physics since decades. From its experience and expectations, the ROOT team has distilled a comprehensive set of areas that should see research and development in the context of data analysis software, for making best use of HL-LHCs physics potential. This work shows what these areas could be, why the ROOT team believes investing in them is needed, which gains are expected, and where related work is ongoing. It can serve as an indication for future research proposals and cooperations.
Download