Alex Pearwin

Scattering Cross Sections in the Standard Model

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This post has been archived. It's pretty old and likely concerns topics that are avoidable by using more modern tools and techniques. The original text is preserved below for posterity but it may no longer be relevant or correct.

As part of my degree I’m taking a computing course which requires two project reports. The first was on e+e− → μ+μ− scattering, mediated via the photon and the Z boson.

I wrote the report in LaTeX, with the main program being written in Python. As an extension, I rewrote the bulk of the Python script in C in order to compare the relative performance of the two languages.

I’ve open-sourced the entire project, which you can view on GitHub.

Compiling

The C script should compile on just about any system with gcc using

$ gcc -Wall cross_section.c -o cross_section

The LaTeX document has a few dependencies.

  1. atlasphysics which is bundled in the repository.
  2. feynmp is found here. There’s a nice guide to installing feynmp on OS X here.
  3. Standard packages such as amsmath, graphicx, subfig and float. I use the MacTex distribution for OS X, which ships with these packages by default.

You can view the final compiled report on GitHub.