## SUSY Les Houches Accord

The PYTHIA 8 program does not contain an internal spectrum calculator (a.k.a. RGE package) to provide supersymmetric couplings, mixing angles, masses and branching ratios. Thus the SUSY Les Houches Accord (SLHA) [Ska04][All08] is the only way of inputting SUSY models, and SUSY processes (see the SUSYProcesses page) cannot be run unless such an input has taken place.

The SLHA input format can also be extended for use with more general BSM models, beyond SUSY. Information specific to how to use the SLHA interface for generic BSM models is collected below, under Using SLHA for generic BSM Models, with more elaborate explanations and examples in [Des11].

Most of the SUSY implementation in PYTHIA 8 is compatible with both the SLHA1 [Ska04] and SLHA2 [All08] conventions (with some limitations for the NMSSM in the latter case). Internally, PYTHIA 8 uses the SLHA2 conventions and translates SLHA1 input to these when necessary. See the section on SUSY Processes and [Des11] for more information.

When reading LHEF files, Pythia automatically looks for SLHA information between `<slha>...</slha>` tags in the header of such files. When running Pythia without LHEF input (or if reading an LHEF file that does not contain SLHA information in the header), a separate file containing SLHA information may be specified using `SLHA:file` (see below).

Normally the LHEF would be in uncompressed format, and thus human-readable if opened in a text editor. A possibility to read gzipped files has been added, based on the Boost and zlib libraries, which therefore have to be linked appropriately in order for this option to work. See the `README` file in the main directory for details on how to do this.

Finally, the SLHA input capability can of course also be used to input SLHA-formatted `MASS` and `DECAY` tables for other particles, such as the Higgs boson, furnishing a less sophisticated but more universal complement to the standard PYTHIA 8-specific methods for inputting such information (for the latter, see the section on Particle Data and the scheme to modify it). This may at times not be desirable, so a few options can be used to curb the right of SLHA to overwrite particle data.

The reading-in of information from SLHA or LHEF files is handled by the `SusyLesHouches` class, while the subsequent calculation of derived quantities of direct application to SUSY processes is done in the `CoupSUSY`, `SigmaSUSY`, and `SUSYResonanceWidths` classes.

### SLHA Switches and Parameters

`mode` SLHA:readFrom (`default = 1`; `minimum = 0`; `maximum = 2`)
Controls from where SLHA information is read.
`option` 0 : is not read at all. Useful when SUSY is not simulated and normal particle properties should not be overwritten.
`option` 1 : read in from the `<slha>...</slha>` block of a LHEF, if such a file is read during initialization, and else from the `SLHA:file` below.
`option` 2 : read in from the `SLHA:file` below.

`word` SLHA:file (`default = void`)
Name of an SLHA (or LHEF) file containing the SUSY/BSM model definition, spectra, and (optionally) decay tables. Default `void` signals that no such file has been assigned.

`flag` SLHA:keepSM (`default = on`)
Some programs write SLHA output also for SM particles where normally one would not want to have masses and decay modes changed unwittingly. Therefore, by default, known SM particles are ignored in SLHA files. To be more specific, particle data for identity codes in the ranges 1 - 24 and 81 - 999,999 are ignored. Notably this includes Z^0, W^+- and t. The SM Higgs is modified by the SLHA input, as is other codes in the range 25 - 80 and 1,000,000 - . If you switch off this flag then also SM particles are modified by SLHA input.

`parm` SLHA:minMassSM (`default = 100.0`)
This parameter provides an alternative possibility to ignore SLHA input for all particles with identity codes below 1,000,000 (which mainly means SM particle, but also includes e.g. the Higgses in two-Higgs-doublet scenarios) whose default masses in PYTHIA lie below some threshold value, given by this parameter. The default value of 100.0 allows SLHA input to modify the top quark, but not, e.g., the Z^0 and W^+- bosons.

### SLHA DECAY Tables

`flag` SLHA:useDecayTable (`default = on`)
Switch to choose whether to read in SLHA `DECAY` tables or not. If this switch is set to off, PYTHIA will ignore any decay tables found in the SLHA file, and all decay widths will be calculated internally by PYTHIA. If switched on, SLHA decay tables will be read in, and will then supersede PYTHIA's internal calculations, with PYTHIA only computing the decays for particles for which no SLHA decay table is found. (To set a particle stable, you may either omit an SLHA `DECAY` table for it and then use PYTHIA's internal `id:MayDecay` switch for that particle, or you may include an SLHA `DECAY` table for it, with the width set explicitly to zero.)

`parm` SLHA:minDecayDeltaM (`default = 1.0`)
This parameter sets the smallest allowed mass difference (in GeV, between the mass of the mother and the sum of the daughter masses) for a decay mode in a DECAY table to be switched on inside PYTHIA. The default is to require at least 1 GeV of open phase space, but this can be reduced (at the user's risk) for instance to be able to treat decays in models with very small mass splittings.

### Internal SLHA Variables

`mode` SLHA:verbose (`default = 1`; `minimum = 0`; `maximum = 3`)
Controls amount of text output written by the SLHA interface, with a value of 0 corresponding to the most quiet mode. The following variables are used internally by PYTHIA as local copies of SLHA information. User changes will generally have no effect, since these variables will be reset by the SLHA reader during initialization.

`flag` SLHA:NMSSM (`default = off`)
Corresponds to SLHA block MODSEL entry 3.

## Using SLHA for generic BSM Models

Using the `QNUMBERS` extension [Alw07], the SLHA can also be used to define new particles, with arbitrary quantum numbers. This already serves as a useful way to introduce new particles and can be combined with `MASS` and `DECAY` tables in the usual way, to generate isotropically distributed decays or even chains of such decays. (If you want something better than isotropic, sorry, you'll have to do some actual work ...) A more advanced further option is to make use of the possibility in the SLHA to include user-defined blocks with arbitrary names and contents. Obviously, standalone PYTHIA 8 does not know what to do with such information. However, it does not throw it away either, but instead stores the contents of user blocks as strings, which can be read back later, with the user having full control over the format used to read the individual entries.

The contents of both standard and user-defined SLHA blocks can be accessed in any class inheriting from PYTHIA 8's `SigmaProcess` class (i.e., in particular, from any semi-internal process written by a user), through its SLHA pointer, `slhaPtr`, by using the following methods:

bool slhaPtr->getEntry(string blockName, double& val);
bool slhaPtr->getEntry(string blockName, int indx, double& val);
bool slhaPtr->getEntry(string blockName, int indx, int jndx, double& val);
bool slhaPtr->getEntry(string blockName, int indx, int jndx, int kndx, double& val);

This particular example assumes that the user wants to read the entries (without index, indexed, matrix-indexed, or 3-tensor-indexed, respectively) in the user-defined block `blockName`, and that it should be interpreted as a `double`. The last argument is templated, and hence if anything other than a `double` is desired to be read, the user has only to give the last argument a different type. If anything went wrong (i.e., the block doesn't exist, or it doesn't have an entry with that index, or that entry can't be read as a double), the method returns false; true otherwise. This effectively allows to input completely arbitrary parameters using the SLHA machinery, with the user having full control over names and conventions. Of course, it is then the user's responsibility to ensure complete consistency between the names and conventions used in the SLHA input, and those assumed in any user-written semi-internal process code.

Note that PYTHIA 8 always initializes at least the SLHA blocks MASS and SMINPUTS, starting from its internal SM parameters and particle data table values (updated to take into account user modifications). These blocks can therefore be accessed using the `slhaPtr->getEntry()` methods even in the absence of SLHA input. Note: in the SMINPUTS block, PYTHIA outputs physically correct (i.e., measured) values of GF, m_Z, and alpha_EM(m_Z). However, if one attempts to compute, e.g., the W mass, at one loop from these quantities, a value of 79 GeV results, with a corresponding value for the weak mixing angle. We advise to instead take the physically measured W mass from block MASS, and recompute the EW parameters as best suited for the application at hand.