Detector studies for future colliders critically rely on well-maintained software stacks to model detector concepts and to understand a detector’s limitations and physics reach. These software stacks resemble the offline software of a running experiment, including event generation, detector response simulation, reconstruction algorithms, analysis tools, and distributed computing resource management. In contrast to the software suite of running experiments, detector studies tools must be lightweight and be able to rapidly adapt to detector design changes and varying collider conditions. Moreover, the software must handle a wide range of detail during the detector development lifecycle, from first estimates based on a coarse-grained geometry during the inception phase to detailed physics studies using sophisticated reconstruction algorithms on simulated event data.
The goal of this project is the development of a single turnkey software stack that can be used for the detector studies of both FCC and CLIC communities. A large challenge is in identifying a maximum subset of detector-independent data structures and algorithms, in particular in identifying common parts of the event data model, which is a precondition for applying common reconstruction algorithms. A practical approach is required towards documentation, software dependencies and detector-specific plugin interfaces such that a low maintenance stable software core is readily usable for established and new detector study groups.
