MC-EKRT is a Monte-Carlo implementation of the EKRT model for computing partonic initial states in high-energy nuclear collisions. The MC-EKRT event generator is based on collinearly factorized pQCD minijet production, supplemented with a saturation conjecture to control low-pT particle production. It gives a 3-dimensional partonic initial state event-by-event, accounts for dynamical minijet-multiplicity fluctuations in the saturation and particle production, introduces a new type of spatially dependent nuclear parton distribution functions, and accounts for the energy/momentum and valence-quark-number conservations.
When you use the code, please cite the following publications:
[1] M. Kuha, J. Auvinen, K. J. Eskola, H. Hirvonen, Y. Kanakubo and H. Niemi, "MC-EKRT: Monte Carlo event generator with saturated minijet production for initializing 3+1 D fluid dynamics in high energy nuclear collisions," Phys. Rev. C 111, no.5, 054914 (2025) doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.111.054914 [arXiv:2406.17592 [hep-ph]]
[2] H. Hirvonen, M. Kuha, J. Auvinen, K. J. Eskola, Y. Kanakubo and H. Niemi, "Effects of saturation and fluctuating hotspots for flow observables in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions," Phys. Rev. C 110, no.3, 034911 (2024) doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.110.034911 [arXiv:2407.01338 [hep-ph]]
More details about the MC-EKRT model and the code can be found in Mikko Kuha's PhD thesis: M. Kuha, "Simulation of Quark-gluon Plasma Initial States with Monte-Carlo EKRT Model," 2024 https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0330-6
The DOI for the version 1.0.0 of the code introduced and used in the above publications is https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15349744
- New-ish c++ compiler that supports c++20 features (used mainly for multithreading support)
- cmake
- tbb (libtbb-dev in apt)
- boost library (libboost-dev in apt)
- GSL (libgsl-dev in apt)
- LHAPDF
Building the simulator should be as simple as running cmake . && cmake --build . in the root directory. If your lhapdf-config is not working properly (I've had a lot of issues with it at times), you may have to modify two files manually: CMakelists.txt and src/CMakelists.txt. Check the comments in those files.
If you are having trouble with the dependencies, consult fresh_install.txt, which is a listing of all the commands I used to get the simulator up and running on a freshly installed ubuntu system