CERN-PH-TH-2014-069
MCNET-14-08
OUTP-14-05P
arXiv:1404.5630
Eur.Phys.J. C74 (2014) 3024

by: Skands, Peter (CERN) et al.

Abstract:
We present an updated set of parameters for the PYTHIA 8 event generator. We reevaluate the constraints imposed by LEP and SLD on hadronization, in particular with regard to heavy-quark fragmentation and strangeness production. For hadron collisions, we combine the updated fragmentation parameters with the new NNPDF2.3 LO PDF set. We use minimum-bias, Drell–Yan, and underlying-event data from the LHC to constrain the initial-state-radiation and multi-parton-interaction parameters, combined with data from SPS and the Tevatron to constrain the energy scaling. Several distributions show significant improvements with respect to the current defaults, for both $ee$ and $pp$ collisions, though we emphasize that interesting discrepancies remain in particular for strange particles and baryons. The updated parameters are available as an option starting from PYTHIA 8.185, by setting Tune:ee = 7 and Tune:pp = 14.