SMASH as an event generator for heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper reviews SMASH, a hadronic transport model used for simulating non-equilibrium dynamics in heavy-ion collisions, emphasizing its software infrastructure, performance, and applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the SMASH event generator, highlighting its development, capabilities, and potential for future improvements in heavy-ion collision simulations.

Findings

Effective modeling of hadron dynamics in heavy-ion collisions

Robust software infrastructure with extensive testing and continuous integration

Performance analysis and future improvement strategies

Abstract

In this article we present an overview of the SMASH hadronic transport approach that is applied for non-equilibrium dynamics of hadrons in \heavyion\ collisions. We will give an overview about the ingredients of the approach and the applications for the dynamical description of \heavyion\ collisions and for calculations of fundamental properties of the hadron gas. The main emphasis of the article will be the infrastructure for sustainable software development that we have developed over the last 10 years including extensive unit tests and continuous integration. We will also provide one section about the performance of the code and how it can be analyzed and improved in the future.