Modeling Pile-Up Effects via Scale Factors in Monte Carlo Simulation
Session Number
3
Advisor(s)
Dr. Peter Dong, IMSA
Location
A123
Discipline
Physical Science
Start Date
15-4-2026 2:15 AM
End Date
15-4-2026 3:00 AM
Abstract
In high-energy physics experiments at high-luminosity colliders, a significant challenge is accurately modeling “pile-up” - the occurrence of multiple simultaneous proton-proton interactions within a single crossing. This pile-up creates excessive background noise that can mask the signal. While Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are essential for estimating both Standard Model backgrounds and potential new signals, the pile-up distribution in generated MC often differs from the actual conditions observed during data-taking. To address this discrepancy, this project focuses on creating pile-up histograms. By extracting the distribution profiles of these interactions, we derive weights that are applied to our Monte Carlo simulations. This reweighting procedure ensures that our simulated data properly models the pile-up in the data. Correctly mitigating these detector-wide effects is necessary for refining background estimations and performing high-sensitivity analyses, such as our ongoing search for the doubly charged Higgs boson (H±±).
Modeling Pile-Up Effects via Scale Factors in Monte Carlo Simulation
A123
In high-energy physics experiments at high-luminosity colliders, a significant challenge is accurately modeling “pile-up” - the occurrence of multiple simultaneous proton-proton interactions within a single crossing. This pile-up creates excessive background noise that can mask the signal. While Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are essential for estimating both Standard Model backgrounds and potential new signals, the pile-up distribution in generated MC often differs from the actual conditions observed during data-taking. To address this discrepancy, this project focuses on creating pile-up histograms. By extracting the distribution profiles of these interactions, we derive weights that are applied to our Monte Carlo simulations. This reweighting procedure ensures that our simulated data properly models the pile-up in the data. Correctly mitigating these detector-wide effects is necessary for refining background estimations and performing high-sensitivity analyses, such as our ongoing search for the doubly charged Higgs boson (H±±).