REST-for-Physics, a ROOT-based framework for event oriented data analysis and combined Monte Carlo response

TL;DR

REST-for-Physics is a ROOT-based framework designed for event data analysis in rare event searches, emphasizing traceability, validation, and scalability, applicable to various detector technologies beyond its initial scope.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive, scalable ROOT-based framework tailored for rare event searches, with modular tools for detector response, signal processing, and event identification, adaptable to different detection technologies.

Findings

Framework successfully used in gaseous TPC experiments

Provides detailed metadata for traceability and validation

Flexible and adaptable to various detector types

Abstract

The REST-for-Physics (Rare Event Searches Toolkit for Physics) framework is a ROOT-based solution providing the means to process and analyze experimental or Monte Carlo event data. Special care has been taken on the traceability of the code and the validation of the results produced within the framework, together with the connectivity between code and data stored registered through specific version metadata members. The framework development was originally motivated to cover the needs at Rare Event Searches experiments (experiments looking for phenomena having extremely low occurrence probability like dark matter or neutrino interactions or rare nuclear decays), and its components naturally implement tools to address the challenges in these kinds of experiments; the integration of a detector physics response, the implementation of signal processing routines, or topological algorithms for physical event identification are some examples. Despite this specialization, the framework was conceived thinking in scalability, and other event-oriented applications could benefit from the data processing routines and/or metadata description implemented in REST, being the generic framework tools completely decoupled from dedicated libraries. REST-for-Physics is a consolidated piece of software already serving the needs of different physics experiments - using gaseous Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) as detection technology - for background data analysis and detector characterization, as well as generic detector R\&D. Even though REST has been exploited mainly with gaseous TPCs, the code could be easily applied or adapted to other detection technologies. We present in this work an overview of REST-for-Physics, providing a broad perspective to the infrastructure and organization of the project as a whole. The framework and its different components will be described in the text.