Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78: 478
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5948-0

Special Article – Tools for Experiment and Theory

PARTONS: PARtonic Tomography Of Nucleon Software

A computing framework for the phenomenology of Generalized Parton Distributions

¹ IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
² ECT*/Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Villa Tambosi, Strada delle Tabarelle 286, 38123, Villazzano, TN, Italy
³ Institut de Physique Nucléaire d’Orsay, CNRS-IN2P3, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91406, Orsay, France
⁴ University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA
⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma, P. le A. Moro 2, 00185, Roma, Italy
⁶ National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), 00-681, Warsaw, Poland
⁷ Dpto. Ciencias Integradas, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Fis., Mat. y Comp., Fac. Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, 21071, Huelva, Spain
⁸ CAFPE, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain

^* e-mail: herve.moutarde@cea.fr

Received: 3 April 2018
Accepted: 29 May 2018
Published online: 11 June 2018

Abstract

We describe the architecture and functionalities of a C++ software framework, coined PARTONS, dedicated to the phenomenology of Generalized Parton Distributions. These distributions describe the three-dimensional structure of hadrons in terms of quarks and gluons, and can be accessed in deeply exclusive lepto- or photo-production of mesons or photons. PARTONS provides a necessary bridge between models of Generalized Parton Distributions and experimental data collected in various exclusive production channels. We outline the specification of the PARTONS framework in terms of practical needs, physical content and numerical capacity. This framework will be useful for physicists – theorists or experimentalists – not only to develop new models, but also to interpret existing measurements and even design new experiments.