MadGraph5_aMC@NLO Reaches 10,000 Citations

In 2012, two major teams in particle physics simulation joined forces: the MadGraph5 team, known for its ability to simulate any Standard Model (SM) or Beyond Standard Model (BSM) process at Leading Order (LO), and the MC@NLO team, pioneers in matching Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) QCD calculations with parton showers. This collaboration gave birth to MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, a groundbreaking framework that revolutionized event generation for high-energy collisions.

The culmination of this effort was the MadGraph5_aMC@NLO paper, published in the Journal of High Energy Physics in 2014. This 158-page paper introduced a tool that enabled researchers worldwide to simulate any SM or BSM model at QCD NLO accuracy, making precision predictions accessible to the entire community. Building on the flexibility of MadGraph5 (released three years earlier), the new framework integrated automated NLO computations with parton shower matching, setting a new standard for collider phenomenology.

The evolution didn’t stop there. In 2018, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO expanded its capabilities to include fixed-order electroweak corrections, further enhancing its precision for processes at the energy frontier.

Over the years, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO has become a cornerstone of theoretical and experimental studies. It serves as the main event generator for the CMS experiment at CERN and is widely used across all LHC experiments and beyond. Its versatility also inspired the development of numerous tools that rely on it as a matrix-element provider, including Herwig, MadDM, MadSpin, and many others.

Today, the MadGraph5_aMC@NLO paper has reached an extraordinary milestone: 10,000 citations. This achievement reflects its profound impact on particle physics research and its role in shaping the future of collider phenomenology.