Evaluation of Photos Monte Carlo ambiguities in case of four fermion final states

With the increasing precision requirements and growing spectrum of applications of Monte Carlo simulations the evaluation of different components of such simulations and their systematic ambiguities become of utmost interest. In the following, we will address the question of systematic errors for Photos Monte Carlo for simulation of bremsstrahlung corrections in final states, which can not, in principle, be identified as a decay of resonances. It is possible, because the program features explicit and exact parametrization of phase space for multi-body plus multi photon final states. The Photos emission kernel for some processes consist of complete matrix element, in the remaining cases appropriate approximation is used. Comparisons with results of simulations, from generators based on exact phase space and exact fixed order matrix elements, can be used. For the purpose of such validations Photos provides an option to restrict emissions to single photon only. In the current work we concentrate on final state bremsstrahlung in q (q) over bar (e(+)e(-))-> l(+)l(-)l(+)l(-)gamma and gamma gamma -> l(+)l(-)gamma processes. The reference distributions used as a cross-check are obtained from the fixed-order MadGraph Monte Carlo simulations. For the purpose of validation we concentrate on those phase space regions where Photos is not expected to work on the basis of its design alone. These phase space regions of hard, non-collinear photons, do not contribute to large logarithmic terms. We find that in these phase space regions the differences between Photos and MadGraph results do not surpass a few percent and these regions, in turn, contribute about 10% to the observed process rates. This is encouraging in view of the possible ambiguities for precise calculation of realistic observables.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the issue of systematic errors in Photos Monte Carlo simulations and how to validate them by comparing with other generators. It is found that the differences between Photos and MadGraph results in certain phase space regions do not exceed a few percent, which is encouraging for the precise calculation of realistic observables.