{"work":{"id":"0a124b0b-e1e6-41ae-a91f-ed60c1566abd","openalex_id":null,"doi":null,"arxiv_id":"1412.7420","raw_key":null,"title":"LHAPDF6: parton density access in the LHC precision era","authors":null,"authors_text":"A","year":2014,"venue":"hep-ph","abstract":"The Fortran LHAPDF library has been a long-term workhorse in particle physics, providing standardised access to parton density functions for experimental and phenomenological purposes alike, following on from the venerable PDFLIB package. During Run 1 of the LHC, however, several fundamental limitations in LHAPDF's design have became deeply problematic, restricting the usability of the library for important physics-study procedures and providing dangerous avenues by which to silently obtain incorrect results. In this paper we present the LHAPDF 6 library, a ground-up re-engineering of the PDFLIB/LHAPDF paradigm for PDF access which removes all limits on use of concurrent PDF sets, massively reduces static memory requirements, offers improved CPU performance, and fixes fundamental bugs in multi-set access to PDF metadata. The new design, restricted for now to interpolated PDFs, uses centralised numerical routines and a powerful cascading metadata system to decouple software releases from provision of new PDF data and allow completely general parton content. More than 200 PDF sets have been migrated from LHAPDF 5 to the new universal data format, via a stringent quality control procedure. LHAPDF 6 is supported by many Monte Carlo generators and other physics programs, in some cases via a full set of compatibility routines, and is recommended for the demanding PDF access needs of LHC Run 2 and beyond.","external_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.7420","cited_by_count":null,"metadata_source":"pith","metadata_fetched_at":"2026-05-25T17:26:05.352090+00:00","pith_arxiv_id":"1412.7420","created_at":"2026-05-09T06:35:40.212708+00:00","updated_at":"2026-05-25T17:26:05.352090+00:00","title_quality_ok":true,"display_title":"Buckley, J","render_title":"Buckley, J"},"hub":{"state":{"work_id":"0a124b0b-e1e6-41ae-a91f-ed60c1566abd","tier":"hub","tier_reason":"10+ Pith inbound or 1,000+ external citations","pith_inbound_count":39,"external_cited_by_count":null,"distinct_field_count":2,"first_pith_cited_at":"2019-06-24T16:28:20+00:00","last_pith_cited_at":"2026-05-20T18:00:03+00:00","author_build_status":"not_needed","summary_status":"needed","contexts_status":"needed","graph_status":"needed","ask_index_status":"not_needed","reader_status":"not_needed","recognition_status":"not_needed","updated_at":"2026-05-26T18:36:46.863814+00:00","tier_text":"hub"},"tier":"hub","role_counts":[{"context_role":"background","n":11},{"context_role":"method","n":9},{"context_role":"baseline","n":1},{"context_role":"dataset","n":1}],"polarity_counts":[{"context_polarity":"background","n":11},{"context_polarity":"use_method","n":9},{"context_polarity":"baseline","n":1},{"context_polarity":"use_dataset","n":1}],"runs":{},"summary":{},"graph":{},"authors":[]}}