Acceleration of matrix element computations for precision measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces two innovative methods to significantly accelerate matrix element computations for precision measurements at hadron colliders, enhancing efficiency for top quark mass and Higgs boson studies.

Contribution

It presents novel approaches using low-discrepancy sequences and jet energy scale factorization to reduce computation time by a factor of 90 in the matrix element technique.

Findings

Achieved a 90-fold reduction in computation time.

Introduced low-discrepancy sequences for Monte Carlo integration.

Developed a new factorization approach for jet energy scale.

Abstract

The matrix element technique provides a superior statistical sensitivity for precision measurements of important parameters at hadron colliders, such as the mass of the top quark or the cross section for the production of Higgs bosons. The main practical limitation of the technique is its high computational demand. Using the concrete example of the top quark mass, we present two approaches to reduce the computation time of the technique by a factor of 90. First, we utilize low-discrepancy sequences for numerical Monte Carlo integration in conjunction with a dedicated estimator of numerical uncertainty, a novelty in the context of the matrix element technique. Second, we utilize a new approach that factorizes the overall jet energy scale from the matrix element computation, a novelty in the context of top quark mass measurements. The utilization of low-discrepancy sequences is of particular general interest, as it is universally applicable to Monte Carlo integration, and independent of the computing environment.