A collaborative resource for data curation, validation and simulation

The successful interpretation of data from modern high energy particle physics experiments is a complex process involving not only the actual measurement of data points themselves but also the input of a variety of theoretical or phenomenological models and processes. The Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) in Durham, with its strong phenomenolgical base is ideally suited to address this need and the projects proposed in this grant application serve to do this in three related ways: (1) Data Curation. The HEPDATA project will continue to compile HEP Experimental scattering data and associated bibliographic information from particle physics experiments around the world and make these freely available to the entire physics community, thus not only making data easily accessible but also promoting the data to a wide audience. It will also continue to host the UK mirror of the SLAC/SPIRES databases and also the Berkeley PDG web pages all of which are heavily used by the HEP research program. HEPDATA will also continue to provide a server for Parton Distribution Function (PDF) codes and also to continue to develop and maintain LHAPDF the new library of PDF funtions for use in future analyses, including the LHC. (2) Data Comparison/Validation. The Durham group will continue to collaborate with UCL on the CEDAR project funded in the last PPARC E-science round, which combines the data from HEPDATA directly with the JETWEB program which compares the data distributions with the output from Monte Carlo (MC) generators, the programs used to simulate the physics in the detectors. CEDAR will thus allow the parameters of the MC generators to be easily adjusted to fit as wide a range of data sets as possible hence making the predictions more reliable. (3) Data Simulation. HERWIG is one of the key Monte Carlo generators which will be used in the LHC analyses. A large fraction of the worldwide expertise is now at Durham working through the GridPP Applications Interface line on the new re-write of HERWIG in C++ (Herwig++) needed for the LHC analyses. It is proposed to continue this development and also the essential support and development needed in the longer term to make HERWIG a core analysis tool for the experimental progamme.