OpenMAPP: open meta-analysis in particle physics

Lead Research Organisation: University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

Modern particle physics experiments are conducted via huge international facilities and collaborations, resulting in hundreds of scientific papers aimed at myriad types of measurement. More than a decade of activity at the Large Hadron Collider in particular has failed to show up strong statistical evidence for any "simple" hypothetical models of new physics, but that does not mean that these studies have been worthless -- rather, their full power has not been exploited because they have been considered in isolation. If we could combine
them all together, we should be able to make much stronger investigations of new-physics models, including more complex ones far beyond those which originally motivated each study.

Unfortunately, the existing studies are not gathered together in a single format for repurposing: they are stored in different ways, across different systems and databases, and with their essential data and code designed for use in different toolkits. The OpenMAPP project will build the necessary links between these systems to allow their combination, by extending Web applications, controlling simulations and gathering predictions in a common statistical format, and figuring out how to combine measurements in a consistent way. These systems will also provide an ecosystem within which new experimental studies can be designed and stored better than before, so the particle physics of the future can always be used in combination with measurements from the past.

Publications

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