Monte Carlo Event Generators have developed into essential tools in High Energy Physics. Without them it is questionable if it at all would be possible to embark on large scale experiments such as the LHC. The main aim of the project is to develop models to increase our understanding of QCD at very high energies. Especially in the region between hard and soft interactions, conventional perturbation theory is expected to break down. We will exploit an alternative model by Mueller, which we have modified and implemented in a program called DIPSY. This program can be used to simulate events both in proton and heavy ion (HI) collisions.
The conventional event generators are not well equipped to handle HI collisions, and instead combinations of hydro- dynamical evolution and Glauber models are typically used to predict features of the final states. We want to remedy this by developing DIPSY to give a detailed picture of individual initial- and final-state partons, and together with a modified string fragmentation model obtain exclusive hadronic final states for both proton and HI collisions. In this way we can get a better handle on possible collective effects in the latter, resulting in a better understanding of the transition into the Quark-Gluon Plasma phase.
Other parts of this project concerns improving the formal precision of event generators, especially for for processes that are important backgrounds for the search of BSM physics.