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# Weak universality of spin-glass transitions in three-dimensional ±𝐽 models

## 1 Introduction

A spin-glass (SG) phenomenon has been attracting great interest both theoretically and experimentally . Applications now cover a wide range of interdisciplinary fields of statistical physics and informational physics, as treated in this special issue. However, many subjects are not well understood, in spite of efforts made over almost thirty years. One of these subjects is whether or not the SG transition of real materials can be explained by a simple random-bond spin model.

Spins of many SG materials are well-approximated by the Heisenberg spins. The simplest theoretical model is the Heisenberg model with random nearest-neighbour interactions. However, numerical studies suggest that there is no finite-temperature SG transition in this model . Kawamura  proposed the chirality mechanism in order to solve this discrepancy. The chiral-glass (CG) transition occurs without the SG order. A small but finite random anisotropy in the real materials mixes the chirality degrees of freedom and the spin degrees of freedom. This anisotropy effect induces the SG transition observed in the real materials. The scenario is based upon results that the SG transition does not occur in the isotropic model. However, Matsubara et al.  recalculated the domain-wall excess energy and the SG susceptibility, from which they suggested that the finite-temperature SG transition does possibly occur. Methods are quite similar to the previous ones . Subtle differences in the analyses of the obtained data drew an opposite conclusion.

The spin-glass problem is one of the most difficult subjects in computational physics. It can be a tough bench-mark test for a new numerical method. It may be applied to other complex systems, if successful in the spin-glass investigations. The difficulty is caused by serious slow dynamics. It requires many Monte Carlo steps to reach the equilibrium states. An observed quantity at each step has a strong correlation even after the equilibration. The system sizes which can be treated in the simulations are accordingly limited to very small ones, e.g., mostly a linear size is twenty or less in three dimensions. Size effects are generally stronger in the continuous spin systems because the spins are soft and the boundary effect propagates faster. Frustration and randomness also yield a considerable size effect. The system sizes treated previously in the studies of the Heisenberg SG models are too small to extrapolate to the thermodynamic limit. This is our motivation for reexamining the SG transition using the nonequilibrium relaxation (NER) method.

The difficulty mentioned above can be overcome by using the NER method. This method takes an opposite approach to the thermodynamic limit. Figure 1 schematically shows a comparison between the conventional equilibrium simulational method and the NER method. In the conventional method one takes the infinite time limit first by achieving the equilibrium states in finite sizes. The thermodynamic limit is taken by the finite-size scaling analysis of the obtained data. In the NER method we take the infinite size limit first by dealing with a very large system within a finite time range before the finite-size effect appears. Then, the finite-time scaling analysis  is performed to obtain the thermodynamic properties. The cost of a simulation is in the same order of $`L^{d+z}`$ for both methods. However, a coefficient factor in the NER method is much smaller than that in the conventional method. An observation time length in the NER method is sufficient if we can observe a beginning of a final relaxation to the equilibrium states (equilibrium relaxation). On the other hand, it is necessary to wait until the end of the equilibrium relaxation in the conventional method. The latter time scale is typically $`1010^2`$ times longer than the former one in the spin glass models. (For example, $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ of $`L=17`$ in figure 4 (a) or $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ at $`T=0.56`$ in figure 6 (a).) Therefore, the NER method has an advantage over the conventional method by this factor. We use the residual computational time to enlarge the system size and to increase statistical accuracy.

By using the NER method we have made it clear that the SG transition occurs in the Heisenberg model at the same finite temperature as the CG transition occurs . The estimated critical exponent $`\gamma `$ is consistent with the corresponding experimental result . The chirality mechanism is not necessary to explain the spin-glass experiments since the chirality trivially freezes if the spin freezes. However, one may question the use and the validity of the NER method in the spin-glass phenomenon. Therefore, we have corroborated our method by studying the Ising SG model. Many numerical investigations  yield consistent results on the existence of the SG transition, the critical temperature and the critical exponents. They are also consistent with the corresponding experimental results . The NER method yields consistent results for a small number of simulations as discussed in section 3.

In this procedure we have found a possibility of a weak universality: a critical exponent divided by $`\nu `$, for example $`\gamma /\nu `$, is common among models in a weak universality class. A ratio of the critical exponents $`\gamma /z\nu `$ appearing in a finite-time scaling analysis is found to be consistent between the Heisenberg model and the Ising model. We have verified that a ratio $`\gamma /\nu `$ is also consistent by evaluating the dynamic exponent $`z`$ alone. The analysis is expanded to the XY SG model and the value is also found to be consistent. These findings are quite surprising. We must reconsider the role of the spin dimensions and the distribution of the randomness in the SG phase transition.

This paper is organised as follows: In section 2 the model and the method are explained. Descriptions of the procedure of the NER method and the finite-time scaling are given. In section 3 the results on the Ising model, the Heisenberg model and the XY model are shown. Then, the possibility of a weak universality is discussed. Section 4 is devoted to a summary.

## 2 Model and Method - Nonequilibrium relaxation

A model treated in this paper is the nearest-neighbour $`\pm J`$ random-bond model,

$$=\underset{i,j}{}J_{ij}𝑺_i𝑺_j.$$
(1)
A linear size of a lattice is denoted by $`L`$. Skewed periodic boundary conditions are imposed, i.e., total numbers of spins $`N=L\times L\times (L+1)`$. An interaction $`J_{ij}`$ takes two values of $`+J`$ and $`J`$ with the same probability. The temperature $`T`$ is scaled by $`J`$.

Spins are updated by a single-spin-flip algorithm. The Metropolis (M) update is used in all models, whereas the heat-bath (H) update  is used in the Heisenberg model. Physical quantities observed in our simulations are the SG susceptibility $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$, the CG susceptibility $`\chi _{\mathrm{cg}}`$ and the Binder parameter in regard to the spin-glass transition $`g_{\mathrm{sg}}`$. These quantities are calculated through the overlap between real replicas.

First, we rewrite the thermal average by an arithmetic mean over thermally equilibrium ensembles labelled by $`\alpha `$ as

$$𝑺_i𝑺_j=\frac{1}{m}\underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{m}{}}𝑺_i^{(\alpha )}𝑺_j^{(\alpha )}=\frac{1}{m}\underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{m}{}}\underset{\mu }{\overset{x,y,z}{}}S_{i,\mu }^{(\alpha )}S_{j,\mu }^{(\alpha )}.$$
(2)
The bracket $`\mathrm{}`$ denotes the thermal average and $`m`$ denotes a number of ensembles. The index $`\mu `$ stands for three components of spins: $`x,y`$ and $`z`$. This expression is substituted into the definition of the SG susceptibility:

$$\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}=\frac{1}{N}\underset{i,j}{}\left[𝑺_i𝑺_j^2\right]_\mathrm{c}=N\left[\frac{1}{m^2}\underset{\alpha ,\beta }{\overset{m}{}}\underset{\mu ,\nu }{\overset{x,y,z}{}}(q_{\mu ,\nu }^{\alpha \beta })^2\right]_\mathrm{c},$$
(3)
where $`q_{\mu ,\nu }^{\alpha \beta }(1/N)_iS_{i,\mu }^{(\alpha )}S_{i,\nu }^{(\beta )}`$ is an overlap between the $`\mu `$ component of a spin $`i`$ on an ensemble $`\alpha `$: $`S_{i,\mu }^{(\alpha )}`$ and the $`\nu `$ component of the spin on an ensemble $`\beta `$: $`S_{i,\nu }^{(\beta )}`$. The bracket $`[\mathrm{}]_\mathrm{c}`$ denotes the configurational average.

Here, we introduce the following real replicas. Each real replica takes the same random bond configuration and the different paramagnetic initial spin state. They are updated in parallel with different random number sequences. This procedure corresponds to quenching from an infinite temperature. The thermal ensembles are realized by these real replicas which approach different equilibrium states. Therefore, we replace the thermal average by the average over these real replicas as equation (2). The indices $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ now represent real replicas. We do not take into consideration a constant term which arises from the overlap between the same replica $`\alpha =\beta `$ and use the following expressions in the simulations.

$`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ $`=`$ $`N\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2}{m(m1)}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha >\beta }{\overset{m}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,\nu }{\overset{x,y,z}{}}}(q_{\mu ,\nu }^{\alpha \beta })^2\right]_\mathrm{c},`$ (4)
$`\chi _{\mathrm{cg}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3N}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2}{m(m1)}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha >\beta }{\overset{m}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{i,\varphi }{}}C_{i,\varphi }^{(\alpha )}C_{i,\varphi }^{(\beta )}\right)^2\right]_\mathrm{c},`$ (5)
$`g_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(AB{\displaystyle \frac{{\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,\nu ,\delta ,\rho }{}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2}{m(m1)}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha >\beta }{\overset{m}{}}}(q_{\mu ,\nu }^{\alpha \beta })^2(q_{\delta ,\rho }^{\alpha \beta })^2\right]_\mathrm{c}}{\left({\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,\nu }{}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2}{m(m1)}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha >\beta }{\overset{m}{}}}(q_{\mu ,\nu }^{\alpha \beta })^2\right]_\mathrm{c}\right)^2}}\right).`$ (6)
A number of replicas $`m`$ controls the precision of the thermal average. It is better to take a large value. We prepare eight or nine replicas for each bond configuration in this paper. The scalar chirality is defined by three neighbouring spins as $`C_{i,\varphi }^{(\alpha )}=𝑺_{i+\widehat{𝒆}_\varphi }^{(\alpha )}(𝑺_i^{(\alpha )}\times 𝑺_{i\widehat{𝒆}_\varphi }^{(\alpha )}),`$ where $`\widehat{𝒆}_\varphi `$ denotes a unit lattice vector along the $`\varphi `$ axis. In the XY model we calculate the vector chirality, which is defined by $`C_{i,\varphi }^{(\alpha )}=(1/2\sqrt{2})(J_{ij}𝑺_i^{(\alpha )}\times 𝑺_j^{(\alpha )}+J_{jk}𝑺_j^{(\alpha )}\times 𝑺_k^{(\alpha )}+J_{kl}𝑺_k^{(\alpha )}\times 𝑺_l^{(\alpha )}+J_{li}𝑺_l^{(\alpha )}\times 𝑺_i^{(\alpha )})|_z.`$ Indices $`i,j,k,l`$ denote four sites forming a square plaquette in the $`\varphi `$ direction from the $`i`$ site. Constants in a definition of $`g_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ are: $`A=3,B=1`$ for the Ising model, $`A=6,B=4`$ for the XY model and $`A=11,B=9`$ for the Heisenberg model.

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the simulation procedure. We calculate a physical quantity at each time step $`t`$ and obtain a relaxation function. Another simulation starts by changing a random bond configuration, initial spin states and a random number sequence. Then, another relaxation function is obtained. Finally, we take an average of data at each step over these different Monte Carlo runs. It should be noted that the average is over independent data. It guarantees an absence of systematic error due to correlations of the observed quantity, which we usually encounter in the conventional Monte Carlo time average. The obtained raw relaxation function is utilised by the following finite-time scaling analysis.

The most important point in the NER method is to exclude the finite-size effect from the raw relaxation function. The method is based upon taking the infinite-size limit first. If a relaxation function includes a finite-size effect, it exhibits converging behaviour because every finite system has a definite equilibrium state. This behaviour misleads us into thinking that the temperature is in the paramagnetic phase even though it is the critical temperature. Therefore, the critical temperature is always underestimated if the size is insufficient. We check the size effect by changing the lattice sizes and always confirm a time range in which the size can be considered as infinity.

The SG susceptibility is expected to diverge at the critical temperature ($`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$) as $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}(t)t^{\gamma /z\nu }`$. We obtain $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$, $`\gamma `$ and $`z\nu `$ by the finite-time scaling analysis on the relaxation functions of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}(t)`$ in the paramagnetic phase. Since the initial spin configuration is completely random, $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}(t=0)1`$. We start a set of simulations at a temperature $`T`$ that is obviously in the paramagnetic phase. The relaxation function $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}(t)`$ at this temperature increases with $`t`$ but soon converges to a finite value. As the temperature is lowered to approach the critical temperature, the relaxation function tends to show diverging behaviour. Since the temperature is still in the paramagnetic phase, the relaxation finally converges to a finite value after a correlation time $`\tau (T)`$. The spin-glass correlation increases with time and reaches the correlation length $`\xi (T)`$ after this correlation time. Two quantities relate with each other by $`z`$ as $`\tau (T)\xi ^z(T)`$. Therefore, the correlation time should diverge at $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ as

$$\tau (T)(TT_{\mathrm{sg}})^{z\nu }.$$
(7)
The correlation time can be estimated by scaling the raw relaxation function. We obtain $`\gamma /z\nu `$ and $`\tau (T)`$ so that the scaled functions $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}(t)t^{\gamma /z\nu }`$ at all temperatures plotted against $`t/\tau (T)`$ fall onto a single curve. Then, the critical temperature and the exponent $`z\nu `$ are estimated by the least-squares fitting with the equation (7). Since a ratio $`\gamma /z\nu `$ is already estimated by the scaling, $`\gamma `$ is obtained.

The NER of the Binder parameter $`g_{\mathrm{sg}}(t)`$ is calculated at the obtained $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$. Since quantity is related to the fourth-order cumulant, many bond samples are necessary to obtain meaningful data. The number of bond configurations to obtain the results in this paper is summarised in table 1. The Binder parameter is expected to diverge at $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ as $`g_{\mathrm{sg}}(t)\times L^dt^{d/z}`$, by which $`z`$ is independently obtained. Then, $`\nu `$ is estimated from a value of $`z\nu `$ obtained by the $`\tau `$-fitting explained above. All exponents are now estimated by the scaling relation. It is possible to compare the critical exponents with the experimental results.

The last procedure of our method is to corroborate the results by observing the NER of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ at the obtained $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$. It should diverge as $`t^{\gamma /z\nu }`$ with the same exponent obtained by finite-time scaling. If the exponents are inconsistent, the scaling analysis is misled by an insufficient time range or by the finite-size effect. In the Ising model we perform another check at $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ by observing the NER of the distribution function of the replica overlap, $`P(q,t)`$. The finite-time scaling plot of $`P(q,t)`$ should ride on a single scaling function with the same exponent obtained by finite-time scaling of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$. This is a direct interpretation of the finite-size scaling of $`P(q,L)`$  by $`tL^z`$.

## 3 Results

Numbers of bond configurations to obtain data at the critical temperature are summarised in table 1. The numbers at other temperatures are mostly in the same order. For each bond configuration, we prepared eight replicas for the XY and the Heisenberg model and nine replicas for the Ising model.

### 3.1 Ising model

Figure 3 shows an analysis to determine the critical temperature and the exponent. The simulation is performed just to check that our method gives results consistent with previous investigations . Therefore, the system size is very small ($`L=19`$) and the time range is very short. Finite-size effects are found to appear for $`t>5000`$ by comparing with results of $`L=29`$. Only data before this time are used in the scaling analysis. Figure 3 (b) is an example of finite-time scaling. A choice of $`\gamma /z\nu `$ is possible for $`\gamma /z\nu =0.380.40`$. A set of the correlation time at each temperature is estimated for each choice of this exponent. Then, the critical temperature is obtained as summarised in table 2. As the exponent increases, $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ decreases. We ignore a result of $`\gamma /z\nu =0.400`$ which deviates a lot from the others. Our estimates are

$$T_{\mathrm{sg}}=1.17(4),\gamma /z\nu =0.3875(75),z\nu =9.3(12),\gamma =3.7(5).$$
(8)
The results of the finite-time scaling analysis are checked by the raw NER data at the obtained critical temperature. Figure 4 (a) shows relaxation data of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ and $`g_{\mathrm{sg}}\times L^d`$. The SG susceptibility diverges algebraically with an exponent $`\gamma /z\nu =0.38`$ that is consistent with the scaling result $`\gamma /z\nu =0.3875(75)`$. The critical relaxation process begins around $`t100`$ and seems to continue to infinity. The Binder parameter also shows diverging behaviour with $`t^{d/z}`$, from which we obtain the dynamic exponent $`z=6.2(2)`$. Then, an exponent $`\nu `$ is estimated as $`\nu =1.5(3)`$. A ratio of the critical exponents $`\gamma /\nu =2.4(1)`$. The obtained results are consistent with previous numerical investigations  and the corresponding experimental results  as summarised in table 3. Since the lattice size and the time range are insufficient, the final numerical results have large error bars. As discussed in the previous section the critical temperature may be underestimated by using a small lattice. We plan to estimate them with high accuracy by large-scale NER analyses.

A time evolution of the distribution function of the overlap $`P(q,t)`$ at $`T=T_{\mathrm{sg}}=1.17`$ is shown in figure 4(b). The system size $`L=17`$. It exhibits a single Gaussian form with a peak at $`q=0`$ before the size effect of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ appears at $`t=10^5`$ as shown in figure 4(a). As the time increases, the width of the distribution grows in accordance with the divergence of the spin-glass susceptibility. It is possible to scale $`P(q,t)/t^{\gamma /2z\nu }`$ plotted versus $`qt^{\gamma /2z\nu }`$ for various time steps from $`t=10`$ to $`t=10^4`$ (figure 4 (c)). The critical exponent $`\gamma /z\nu `$ is also consistent with the finite-time scaling of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$. The scaled data deviate a little for $`t=10`$ because the time is just before the relaxation of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ reaches the critical relaxation region as shown in figure 4 (a). The distribution changes its shape to having two peaks at $`\pm q_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ after the finite-size effect appears. The shape is flat at this crossover time.

It is found that the NER function knows the critical phenomenon from its very early time steps: $`t=10100`$. The NER method is now clearly shown to be applicable to the spin glass phenomenon.

### 3.2 Heisenberg model

We apply the same analysis performed in the Ising model to the Heisenberg model. Finite-time scaling results have already been shown briefly in Ref.  and the detailed analysis will be reported elsewhere. The system size is $`L=59`$ and the time scale is 70000 Monte Carlo steps. Typical numbers of bond configurations are same as given in table 1. The finite-time scaling results are

$$T_{\mathrm{sg}}=0.20(2),\gamma /z\nu =0.39(5),z\nu =4.8(10),\gamma =1.9(5).$$
(9)
These results are checked by the raw NER at $`T=0.21`$ as shown in figure 5. The SG susceptibility diverges algebraically with an exponent $`\gamma /z\nu =0.38`$, which is consistent with the result of the finite-time scaling. We performed simulations of both Metropolis update and heat-bath update. The Metropolis result denoted by (M) and the heat-bath result denoted by (H) exhibit the same critical behaviour, while the amplitudes are different by a factor of 3.5. NER behaviours are independent from the update algorithm. The consistency supports the criticality of the SG order at this temperature. It is noted that the critical divergence begins at a very early time: $`t100`$.

The Binder parameter exhibits a critical divergence $`t^{d/z}`$ with $`z=6.2(5)`$. The value is consistent with that in the Ising model. Since $`z\nu `$ is obtained by finite-time scaling, $`\nu `$ is estimated as $`\nu =0.8(2)`$. A ratio of the critical exponent $`\gamma /\nu =2.3(3)`$. The results are compared with an experimental result  in table 3. They are not inconsistent.

### 3.3 XY model

It has been considered that there is no SG transition in this model . Only the CG transition with respect to the vector chirality is considered to occur . However, a possibility of the SG transition has recently been identified by several investigations . We applied the NER analysis on this model and our result supports the latter conclusion: the SG transition occurs.

Our finite-time scaling analysis on the XY model is not yet conclusive in regard to whether the SG transition and the CG transition occur at the same temperature or not. A system size ($`L=39`$), Monte Carlo steps ($`10^5`$) and a temperature range used in the scaling analysis are insufficient to extract a conclusion. However, as we increase the size and the steps, both critical temperatures seem to approach each other: $`T_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ increase from low and $`T_{\mathrm{cg}}`$ decrease from high. Therefore, we consider that both transitions occur simultaneously. Investigations are now being carried out and the details will be reported elsewhere. What has now been made clear is that both transitions occur in a temperature range of $`0.4<T<0.46`$. In this paper we do not examine the issue of simultaneous transition but focus on the existence of the SG transition.

Figure 6(a) shows raw NER plots of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ and $`\chi _{\mathrm{cg}}`$ near and above the critical temperature. There is no difference in $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ between $`T=0.43`$ and $`T=0.46`$ within the present time steps. They exhibit a critical divergence with the same exponent and amplitude. The SG transition is considered to occur near $`T=0.43`$. From the slope we obtain an exponent $`\gamma /z\nu =0.35`$. Note that this value is a little smaller than that of the Ising model and the Heisenberg model ($`\gamma /z\nu 0.38`$). The NER of the Binder parameter is shown in figure 6(b). It exhibits a critical divergence with an exponent $`d/z`$ with $`z=6.8(5)`$, which is also a little larger than that of the other models. However, we obtain a ratio of the critical exponents $`\gamma /\nu =2.4(2)`$, which is consistent with the other models.

### 3.4 Weak universality

The SG transition occurs in all models as shown in the preceding subsections. A ratio of the critical exponents $`\gamma /\nu `$ takes a common value around 2.4. Therefore, there is a possibility of weak universality among these transitions. Not only a value of $`\gamma /\nu `$ but the NER functions themselves suggest that the transitions are qualitatively equivalent.

Figure 7 (a) shows the NER functions of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ at the critical temperature for all the models treated in this paper. The data of the Heisenberg model with the Metropolis update are multiplied by a factor 3.5 in order to compare with a result of the Ising model and that of the Heisenberg model with the heat-bath update. These three NER functions are not distinguishable. If we take into account a correction-to-scaling term, the relaxation functions can be fitted from the first few steps (Bold lines in figure 7 (a)) by an expression :

$$At^{\gamma /z\nu }[1Bt^{w/z}].$$
(10)
Here, exponents of the leading term are set $`\gamma /\nu =2.356`$ and $`z=6.2`$. The correction-to-scaling exponent $`w=3`$. Coefficient constants are $`A=7.6`$ and $`B=0.7`$. The same expression also fits the NER function of the XY model, but with the dynamic exponent $`z=6.8`$ and a constant $`A=3.3`$. The NER functions of the Binder parameter are shown in figure 7 (b). If we multiply the result of the Ising model by a factor 2.2, it is indistinguishable from the curve of the Heisenberg model.

## 4 Summary

By applying the nonequilibrium relaxation method it has been made clear that the $`\pm J`$ models in three dimensions undergo finite-temperature spin-glass transitions. There is a possibility that these models belong to the same weak universality class with a ratio of the critical exponents $`\gamma /\nu 2.4`$. We compare our results with other numerical results and the experimental results in table 3. They agree well within the numerical errors. Since the error bars are rather large at present, further efforts to improve precision are necessary in order to prove weak universality.

The spin-glass transition of the Heisenberg model is found to be very similar to that of the Ising model. The relaxation functions of $`\chi _{\mathrm{sg}}`$ and $`g_{\mathrm{sg}}`$ and values of a ratio of the exponents $`\gamma /\nu `$ and the dynamic exponent $`z`$ are consistent between the two models. If one considers that the spin-glass transition occurs in the Ising model, it may be thought that it occurs in the Heisenberg model in the same accuracy. Only the dynamic exponent of the XY model differs from the other models. Spin-glass transition and weak universality in models with Gaussian bond distributions is a problem to be checked in future work. The type of bond distributions may be important.

The NER method has been shown to be particularly effective in the spin-glass study. Critical behaviour is observed from very early time steps even though it takes a very long time to achieve the equilibrium states. What is long is the nonequilibrium relaxation process after a short initial relaxation before the final equilibrium relaxation. This long process is discarded in conventional simulations, while it is utilised in the NER method. This is one reason why the NER method is advantageous in this system. Applications to various complex systems with slow dynamics are fruitful .

The authors would like to thank Professor Fumitaka Matsubara for guiding them in the spin-glass study and for their fruitful discussions. The author TN also thanks Professor Nobuyasu Ito and Professor Yasumasa Kanada for providing him with a fast random number generator RNDTIK. Computations were partly done at the Supercomputer Center, ISSP, The University of Tokyo.

## References


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# The BaBar Mini

## I The BaBar Experiment

BaBar is a multi-purpose detector operating at the PEP-II asymmetric $`B`$ Factory. BaBar has been taking data at and near the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ resonance since 1999, and has accumulated roughly 110 $`\text{ fb}^1`$ of luminosity to date. BaBar is fairly typical of modern High Energy Physics apparati, consisting of several quasi-independent detector subsystems arranged roughly concentricly about the $`e^+e^{}`$ interaction point. The innermost subsystem is the Silicon Vertex Tracker (Svt), with roughly 150K readout channels. Outside of the Svt is the Drift Chamber (Dch), with roughly 7K readout channels. Outside the Dch is the Cherenkov Detector (Drc), with roughly 11K readout channels. Outside the Drc is an Electromagnetic Calorimeter (Emc), with roughly 7K readout channels. Outside the Emc is the Instrumented Flux Return (Ifr), with roughly 60K readout channels.

BaBar was an early adopter of C++ and OO programming in HEP, and the vast majority of our software is written in C++ chep\_jacobsen . BaBar has used Objectivity as the primary technology for storing event data chep\_quarrie , however we are planning to change to a Root based event store by the end of 2003 chep\_kirkby .

## II BaBar Event Data Format History

BaBar’s original software design eventdesign  proposed several complimentary event data formats, as described in table 1. These formats were intended to satisfy different use cases, from quality control to reconstruction to calibration to physics analysis, with each format optimized for some specific purposes. Each format was written to separate Objectivity databases (files), so that they could be accessed and managed independently. The Raw format is an Objectivity transcription of the raw data readout by the detector online system, and was intended to be used as the input to the reconstruction chain. The Rec format represents the reconstructed physics objects, and was intended to be used for detector studies, for detailed analysis, and for single event display. The Esd format is a summary of the reconstruction results, and was intended to be the primary format used for high-statistics physics analysis. The Aod format was intended to store highly processed information specific to physics analysis. The Tag format was intended to store booleans to index and quickly select events. The (Hdr) format allows events to ‘borrow’ some subsystem data from other events, and was intended to support partial re-processing of individual subsystems.

By 2001, these data formats and their usage in BaBar had stabilized. As shown in table 1, many of the data formats were not actually used. Additionally, the Aod and Tag formats were considerably larger than foreseen, and had taken on different roles than originally intended. Subsequent sections explain why the formats were not used according to the original design, and how that led to the development of the Mini.

### II.1 The BaBar Persistence Design

BaBar’s original persistence design can be summarized as translating transient objects and transient object relationships into equivalent persistent objects and persistent references, as illustrated in figure 1 for the specific case of reconstructed tracks. The persistent objects were clustered into the various databases according to how it was anticipated they would be used. This design established the now-standard $`transientpersistenttransient`$ paradigm in a straightforward way. This design allowed analysis jobs running on (Esd) data to retrieve reconstruction details about objects on demand, by following a link back into the Rec database. This was considered an important example of how an OO database event store might provide significant new functionality compared to sequentially organized data storage technologies.

The literal translation of complex transient object trees to persistent object trees resulted in a fragmented structure, where different parts of a single physics object (a track in figure 1) were distributed across several databases. This effectively coupled the data formats and database files. For instance, a job reading tracks from Esd depended on the Rec database to provide the top level tracking persistent object. This coupling added enormously to the IO burden and the disk footprint of an analysis job running on Esd.

Similarly, the Rec format design required that transient objects be rebuilt from their constituent Raw data. This coupled the Rec format to the Raw, and required that a job reading Rec data pull in essentially the entire reconstruction code base. A Rec job thus consumed a similar amount of resources (cpu, memory, and disk) as the original reconstruction job.

An additional difficulty to accessing the Rec format was that the large size of the Rec databases precluded storing them on disk. Instead, they were accessible only through staging. As the staging space at SLAC was originally very limited, dynamic staging through the Objectivity HPSS interface was disabled, forcing users to stage Raw and Rec databases by hand. This tedious and error-prone operation proved impractical for the vast majority of BaBar physicists.

BaBar originally considered having the online system write raw event data directly in Objectivity Raw format. However, since OO database technology was new and relatively untested, a more conservative approach was taken, where the online system writes a flat file version of the raw data, which can then be transcribed into Objectivity Raw format. It was then found to be more efficient to reconstruct events by directly reading the online raw data. The Raw format was thus recast as an output instead of an input of reconstruction.

The Raw format was used to pass data between the BaBar simulation executable and its reconstruction executable. In 2002 BaBar developed a monolithic simulation plus reconstruction executable, which eliminated the need for Raw as intermediate storage. This monolithic simulation executable has been used for official BaBar Monte Carlo generation since early 2003.

### II.2 The Unused Formats

The poor performance of jobs reading the Rec format, coupled with the difficulty of accessing Rec and Raw data, made them nearly impossible to use for analysis or detector studies. Only a handful of physicists on BaBar ever made use of either of these data formats, and those uses typically involved very small event samples. Instead, most calibration and monitoring tasks run on raw online data, invoking reconstruction code as necessary to build objects, or on the expanded Aod format.

The Esd format was not finished in time for BaBar’s first data, partly because its development was given lower priority compared to developing the Raw and Rec formats. It was also felt that some experience with the BaBar detector and data analysis was necessary before the Esd could be correctly designed to meet the needs of experiment. It was instead foreseen that BaBar’s first data would be analyzed using the Rec format, from which experience the Esd format could be completed. Since BaBar never used Rec to analyze first data (see section II.3), the Esd format was never completed and never used.

The capability of events to borrow content from other events via the Hdr format was also never used, mostly because BaBar never encountered a situation which required partial re-processing. The problem of managing the dependent event databases this would have created was also never addressed. The large size of the Hdr format was principly due to large string arrays describing component names. The Hdr was recently redesigned, greatly reducing its size (see chep\_yemi ).

### II.3 The Evolution of Aod and Tag

Since it was imperative that BaBar start developing its analysis procedures even before first data, and since the formats originally intended to be used for analysis were effectively unusable, BaBar decided to expand the Aod format so that it could be used for physics analysis. This was implemented by including a ‘four-vector’ summary of the reconstruction results, together with ‘quality values’ to describe some detector-specific details.

The Aod format was spectacularly successful in enabling analysis of BaBar’s first data, allowing important physics results to be produced in a timely way. The Aod has since been BaBar’s primary physics analysis format, and it underlies all the physics results published to date. This format does however have several limitations. For one, the only track fit result stored in Aod assumes the particle which generated the track was a $`\pi `$ ( BaBar reconstruction provides all (5) stable particle track fit results). Because the energy loss due to material interactions is mass-dependent, this limitation introduces a small momentum bias when the particle is not a $`\pi `$.

Another limitation of Aod is that it reduces the detector information to ‘a set of numbers’ extracted from reconstruction objects. This greatly reduces the benefits which BaBar might have been obtained from from using OO design and interfaces in analysis. It also effectively isolated BaBar analysis from reconstruction, making it impossible to port code developments from one side to the other.

The Aod format also provides a rigid persistent representation of an event, with no way to tailor its contents for specific use cases. Consequently, most BaBar analyses operate by dumping the Aod format into an ntuple, adding data content according to thier needs. This effectively doubles BaBar’s analysis data storage needs. It also decouples analyses from each other, as different analysis working groups have developed different ntuple representations of the Aod format. The redundency and inefficiency of this analysis methodolgy was a strong motivation for BaBar’s new computing model, described in section VIII.

The Tag format also evolved when confronted with first data. To provide more flexibility when selecting events, the Tag format was expanded to include floating point and integer values as well as booleans. Thus the intent of the data formats was ‘pushed down’ one level compared with the original design, with the Aod taking the role intended originally for Esd, and Tag taking the role intended for Aod.

By contrast with Raw, Rec, and Esd, the Aod and Tag formats were developed to be completely independent of the reconstruction objects. This avoided the interdependency problems of the unused formats, at the cost of allowing no way to navigate between physics analysis objects and the reconstructed and/or raw data from which they were derived.

### II.4 The Data Format Gap

Because of the evolution of BaBar’s data formats, a large gap had developed, with no practical way to access information between raw online data and physics 4-vectors. This gap made performing routine functions like calibrations and detector diagnostics difficult and time consuming. The gap also severely limited the ability to study detector effects in physics analysis. This gap also prevented BaBar from developing a usable single event display. The data format gap was first officially recognized in 2000 in the report of an internal review of BaBar computing cmwg1 .

The Svt provides one example of how the data format gap caused problems. In order to obtain optimal tracking resolution, the positions of the Svt wafers (alignment) must be derived from the data. The Svt alignment procedure needs both low-level data (hits) and high-level data (tracks) to perform this task. Because of the data format gap, it was found that the most efficient way of doing this was to read raw data, and reconstruct the tracks in the alignment job. The alignment job was therefore very slow, and the total procedure had a turnaround time of roughly 1 month. This was found to be longer than the time interval over which the Svt wafer positions were stable. The long turnaround time also stifled development of the alignment procedure, as it took too long to test changes. The net result was that the BaBar used a poor alignment of the Svt in reconstruct early data, degrading the effective resolution of the detector, and introducing sizeable systematic errors in many physics analysis. Svt misalignment caused the dominant systematic error in BaBar’s first $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ publication sin2beta .

### II.5 The Origins of the Mini

To solve the Svt alignment problem, a new data format was developed for storing tracks. This new format stored tracks together with their hit data in a compact, flexible, and efficient structure. This new track persistence format was used to design a new Svt alignment procedure, which reduced the turnaround time to roughly 1 day, and which produced measurably better physics results. The success of the new track data format and the new alignment procedure inspired a larger effort to develop a new data format for all of BaBar based on the same basic design. This new format was referred to as the Mini.

The Mini development project was officially begun in early 2001. A prototype of the Mini was produced in a complete re-processing of the BaBar data sample started in 2001. The prototype Mini was used to perform many detector studies, and to refine the Mini design. Unfortunately the Mini prototype did not include any information from the Emc, and so was not usable for physics analysis. The first complete version of the Mini was released in early 2002. The design and implementation of the Mini is described in the remaining sections.

## III The BaBar Mini Design Goals

The main design goal of the Mini was to persist the results of event reconstruction. To avoid the problems of the Rec format (which had the same goal), the Mini was also required to be small ($`<`$ 10 KBytes per event), self-contained (no references to objects outside the Mini), and fast (support reading at roughly 20 Hz, equivalent to reading the Aod format).

Another goal of the Mini design was to provide access to sufficient detector detail to support standard calibration, alignment, diagnostics, and algorithm development. This capability would also allow the Mini to support a detailed single event display.

The Mini was required to be able to follow changes in Conditions (alignment and calibration parameters), so that users could benefit from improved parameters without having to wait for data re-processing. This requirement would also allow analysis users to easily propagate calibration and alignment uncertainties to systematic errors in their analysis, by simply re-running with altered parameters.

To maintain compatibility with reconstruction, The Mini was required to provide access through the interfaces of actual reconstruction classes, without any significant loss in accuracy or content compared to the original reconstruction results.

To support specialized use cases, the Mini was designed to allow users to customize the persistent content according to their needs. This feature is relied on heavily in BaBar’s new computing model, as a way of reducing the need to dump data into ntuples in order to do analysis.

To leverage BaBar’s huge physics analysis code base, the Mini was required to be compatible with the existing analysis framework. Explicitly, the goal was that an average user be able to convert their analysis job to read the Mini instead of Aod without changing any physics-related code, and that the results obtained be equivalent (within floating point precision) to those obtained with the original Aod format job.

## IV  Implementation of the Mini

The Mini design goals require both access to the full detector detail through reconstruction interfaces, together with full compatibility and similar performance as the Aod (4-vector summary) format for physics analysis. The Mini satisfies these contradictory requirements by storing both high-level objects (tracks, calorimeter clusters, Cherenkov rings, particle ID, etc), and the low-level objects (Dch hits, Emc crystals, Drc phototubes, etc) from which they were made. This results in some redundancy, as some content of the high-level objects can also be extracted from their constituent low-level objects. Redundancy is generally considered a bad idea in data storage, as it can cause consistency problems. It was accepted for the Mini design as it afforded a large ( factor of 10) performance improvement when reading high-level objects (see VII for details), and because the Mini access mechanism includes safeguards against inconsistent data usage (see section VI for details).

### IV.1  High-level objects in the Mini

High-level objects in the Mini store the set of references to the low-level objects from which they were built, thus preserving the essential information of the pattern-recognition algorithm. High-level objects also store references to the other high-level objects they depend on. For instance, Drc rings store a list of Drc hit references, plus a reference to the track used to seed and fit the ring.

High-level objects also store the results of cpu-intensive functions which their transient class supports. For instance, track objects store the results of running the Kalman filter fit. Because these functions use the associated low-level objects, these stored results are redundant with the low-level objects themselves. Because these functions were invoked during reconstruction, stored results implicitly depend on the Conditions which were used when reconstruction was run. Thus, stored results of high-level objects do not follow changing Conditions. To follow new Conditions, the stored results cannot be used, and the original functions must be called on rebuilt transient objects. Details of how the Mini can be configured to use (or not) stored function results is described in section VI.

### IV.2 Low-level objects on the Mini

Where possible, the low-level objects in the Mini store raw detector readout information instead of physical quantities. Thus Dch hits are stored as TDC values and wire numbers instead of physical times and positions. Physical quantities are then computed from the raw data on the Mini using conversion algorithms and Conditions data, as implemented in the transient low-level reconstruction class accessor functions. This allows the Mini to follow Conditions changes, and to provide consistent results with reconstruction.

For some subsystems, the raw detector data are very large, and they must be compressed before being stored on the Mini. In these cases, the compressed information is still stored in detector units. For instance, Svt hits are compressed to store the average cluster position instead of all the individual strips in a cluster, but the average position is expressed in strip coordinates.

The Mini also stores a subset of low-level objects not associated to any high-level object. Monte Carlo and other studies have shown that many of the unassociated low-level objects were generated by particles produced directly or indirectly in the $`e^+e^{}`$ collision. Unassociated low-level objects can be used to identify physics objects missed due to reconstruction inefficiency, or to search for unusual physics signals not found by the standard reconstruction. Associated and unassociated low-level objects can also be combined to create a ‘complete’ set of low-level objects. This allows the Mini to be used to develop and test pattern recognition algorithms, or to be used as a source for partial re-processing.

Unfortunately, most unassociated low-level objects in a typical BaBar event do not come from the $`e^+e^{}`$ collision. Storing all of them would therefore bloat the Mini and degrade its contents. Instead, only unassociated low-level objects which pass stringent quality cuts are stored on the Mini. For instance, only those unassociated Svt hits whose arrival time is consistent with the reconstructed event time are stored on the Mini. This cut reduces the number of unassociated Svt hits by roughly a factor of 20, while keeping roughly 90% of the ‘real’ unassociated Svt hits.

## V Mini Persistence

The Mini was first implemented using Objectivity persistence, and it has recently been ported to use Root persistence, as part of BaBar’s new computing model (see section VIII). A large part of the Mini’s success was due to strict adherence to a few basic persistence design principles, described in the following sections.

The Mini persistence is controlled by the standard BaBar persistence mechanism. A dedicated loader module is run for each detector subsystem, which creates the scribes responsible for translating specific transient objects into their persistent counterpart. The event key by which a scribe identifies its transient object is configurable through the loader module Tcl interface. Thus the user can control the content of the Mini by choosing which loader modules to run, which scribes to create, and which transient objects the scribes should convert, configurable through control scripts on standard executables.

The configurability of Mini persistence was used to improve the efficiency of the Svt alignment procedure (see section II.5). By reading a custom reduced Mini holding just selected Svt track information, the iterative part of the alignment procedure was sped up from several hours to just 10 minutes per iteration. As convergence required hundreds of iterations, this speedup was essential for producing the 23 different Svt alignment sets used in the 2002 data re-processing.

For technical reasons, the Mini was not placed in a new database. Instead, the Esd database was cleared of all previous content, and the Mini was placed there. The Mini thus completely replaced the original Esd format.

### V.1 The Persistent Composite Design

The Mini persistence design is based on the persistent composite design pattern, in which a single persistent object holds the data for a collection of transient objects of a given type. Using this design, the Mini stores the contents of a BaBar event in just 11 persistent objects, minimizing the impact of the 12 bytes per persistent object Objectivity overhead. A graphical representation of the Mini persistence design is shown in figure 3.

In the persistent composite design pattern, the contents of a transient object collection are stored in persistent arrays (ooVArrays for Objectivity) of embedded objects, which have a one $``$ one relationship with transient objects.

Embedded classes translate to and from their transient counterparts, but otherwise provide no interface. They are implemented as simple structs of primitive data types, with no dependence on any persistence technology. Because they are persistence-free, the same embedded classes can be used by different persistence mechanisms, making it easy to port persistent composite classes other persistence technologies.

Associations between objects on the Mini are stored in the persistent composite objects as a single reference (OORef for Objectivity) to other persistent composites. Specific objects in other composites are then referenced as the index into the corresponding embedded array. This results in much less overhead than storing explicit references, as an index (typically 2 bytes) is much smaller than an OORef (12 bytes).

### V.2 Data Packing on the Mini

To minimize the size of the Mini, its data contents are packed, according to the following rules.

* Boolean data are stored as a single bit.
* Integer data are stored using as many bits as required by their range.
* Float data are packed and stored as integers. The Least Significant Bit  of the packed data (LSB) corresponds to roughly 1% of the intrinsic detector resolution of the quantity being stored. Float data with an extreme natural range are packed logarithmically, using an algorithm which is locally flat to avoid binning artifacts in histograms (see figure 4).
* Packed integer and float values are truncated at physically reasonable ranges, not ‘worst possible’ ranges. Values beyond the physically reasonable range are flagged as under or overflows.
* Strings are stored as a key (integer) in a string $``$ integer map. The map is stored outside the Mini event data.
* Small data fields are combined (bitwise OR) to fill a standard type (char, short, or long) word.
* Data members of embedded classes are all aligned to either char, short, or long word boundaries (one choice per class), to ensure that embedded object arrays are compact in memory.
* To avoid the Objectivity overhead of storing and retrieving virtual tables, embedded classes have no virtual functions, including no virtual destructor.
* Direct data members of persistent composite classes are aligned to long word boundaries, to be consistent with Objectivity persistent object alignment
* To avoid creating persistent memory fragments, variable arrays (ooVArrays) are sized exactly once, either on initialization or in the constructor body.

## VI Accessing Mini Data

As described in the previous section, the Mini persists several levels of data which overlap in content. The Mini is designed so that the user must decide which level of detail is appropriate when reading back the Mini. In making this decision, the user must balance the greater detail and (potentially) greater accuracty which are available when reading low-level data, against the greater speed possible when reading high-level data. The Mini persistence provides a very precise degree of access control, so that some objects may be read with high precision while others are read with lower precision. Similarly, it is possible to read an event initially at low precision, and later upgrade some or all objects to higher precision once the event or the objects in it pass cuts. Maintaining coherent and correct data contents under these general conditions is however difficult, and involves a level of expertise beyond that of the average user.

To make it easier for users to correctly configure reading the Mini, a set of self-consistent access modes are provided which roughly span the available options. While some users may need to optimize their Mini jobs by directly controling the persistent access, it is expected that most Mini users will choose one of these five access modes: micro, cache, extend, refit, and raw. The access mode is set in a user job through the levelOfDetail global Tcl variable, which is then used by the sequences which read and prepare the Mini data for analysis. The specifics of these different modes are described below. A comparison of the access speed in these different modes is given in table 3.

The Mini user can also control how the BaBarConditions Database chep\_babar  is accessed. For instance, a user can configure their Mini job to use the same Conditions as were used when the data were originally processed, or the most recent Conditions, or even to override the Conditions Database and use explicitly-provided constants. Conditions access configuration is most relevant to refit and raw modes.

### VI.1 Cache Mode

Cache mode refers to reading the Mini so that high-level objects are built from the stored function results instead of low-level data. Only a summary of the low-level information can be obtained in cache mode. For instance, in cache mode, the track transient object can provide the number and logical identity of the hits from which it was fit, but it cannot produce the actual hit objects. Since a cache mode job doesn’t read or process any low-level data, it is much faster than a refit job run on the same data.

In cache mode, all the stored track fits can be used. The default version of the mini stores all the unique mass hypothesis Kalman fits, evaluated at their point of closest approach to the Z axis, plus the $`\pi `$ fit evaluated where the track exits the tracking volume.

### VI.2 Micro Mode

Micro mode is a variant of cache mode where some features are turned off, in order to make the Mini behave more like the Aod format. For instance, since Aod stores only $`\pi `$ track fits, in micro mode the Mini track provides only the $`\pi `$ fit. Micro mode is intended to make it easy to compare and validate the Mini against the Aod format. Since micro mode is no faster than cache mode, and yet returns less accurate values, it is not recommended for use in physics analysis.

### VI.3 Extend Mode

Extend mode is a variant of cache mode in which the validity range of a track is extended from the range of the fit result stored on the Mini, up to the first hit. Otherwise, extend mode behaves exactly as cache mode. The persistent data read in extend mode are exactly the same as in cache mode, but since more tracking functions are called, extend is somewhat slower to read than cache.

In extend mode, the fit results stored on the Mini are interpreted as a multi-dimensional ‘hit’, constraining all the track parameters to the stored fit values. These ‘constraint hits’ are used to create a Kalman track fit object, which is an instance of the same Kalman fit class used to fit tracks in BaBar reconstruction. The Kalman fit adds the effects of passive material and magnetic field distortions as the track traverses the the detector, extending the range over which the stored track can provide physically accurate parameters. Since hits are not read in extend mode, extended tracks are valid from the origin out to the first hit.

An example where extend mode is useful is reconstructing long-lived particles which decay outside the beampipe, such as $`K^0`$. In cache mode (and when using the Aod format), these particles are vertexed using fit results measured inside the beampipe. In extend mode, track fit results are measured at the decay vertex, so that the reconstructed parameters of the $`K^0`$ are more accurate and less biased.

### VI.4 Refit Mode

In refit mode, the function results stored with the high-level objects are ignored, and high-level transient objects are rebuilt from constituent low-level objects. Because refit mode involves reading more data and performing more computation to create the high-level objects, it is substantially slower than either cache or extend mode. Because new Conditions are read and used when rebuilding the transient objects, a refit mode job can follow changing Conditions, or even changes in some reconstruction algorithms. Refit mode is intended to support detector studies, single event display, specialized analyses that depend on low-level data, and analyses that need to use new Conditions or algorithms.

### VI.5 Raw Mode

In raw mode, high-level objects stored on the Mini are ignored. Both assigned and unassigned low-level objects are are read and combined together into ‘complete’ lists, and the reconstruction pattern recognition algorithms are run on those. Raw mode is intended to support development of pattern-recognition reconstruction algorithms, to support re-processing, and to support event mixing studies. Because raw mode invokes pattern recognition algorithms, it is slower than refit mode.

While the high-level objects created when reading the Mini in raw mode are similar to those read in the other modes, they are not necessarily identical, as the initial sets of low-level objects are not exactly the same as those used when running reconstruction on raw online data.

Raw mode is still under development as a user option, though it has been tested in a limited form.

## VII Performance of the Mini

General performance numbers for the Mini, such as size on disk and read speed under various conditions are listed in tables 3 and 2. Performance of the Aod format is given for comparison. As efforts to optimize the read speed of the Mini have only just begun, these numbers should be considered provisional. Table 4 gives a breakdown of where time is currently spent in a typical Mini analysis job. This clearly shows that unpacking data plays a very minor role in the performance.

## VIII BaBar’s New Computing Model

In April 2002 BaBar computing was reviewed by a combined internal and external review board. Among other recommendations, the report of this committee 2002\_review  suggested that BaBar reconsider its Analysis Model in light of the opportunities offered by the Mini. In response to these recommendations, a new Computing Model was adopted by the collaboration in December 2002. This model introduces two major changes, first that the BaBar event store be converted to use Root persistence instead of Objectivity, and second that the existing physics analysis format (Aod) be replaced with a new format more consistent with the Mini. After some discussion, a reduced Mini customized for analysis has been chosen as the Aod format replacement.

To replace the Aod format, the analysis reduced Mini must have a similar size on disk and read-back speed as Aod. The starting point for achieving this is to store only those quantities referenced in cache mode. Performance results from a prototype analysis reduced Mini are given in tables 3 and 2, showing that it is similiar to Aod. A major effort is now underway at BaBar to improve the read-back performance. Based on profiles of a standard analysis job, the largest time sinks come from inefficiency in the reconstruction code invoked when reading the Mini, and in the analysis interface to the Mini (see table 4). Based on the problems already identified, the read speed is expected in increase by between a factor of 2 and 10.

In the new BaBar Computing Model, the analysis reduced Mini will store only the cache mode information. The remainder of the Mini information will be stored in a separate file. The complete Mini will be accessed by reading both the reduced and remainder information. Thus BaBar will store event data in a coherent format, split into pieces specialized for analysis and detector studies, with no redundancy and easy navigation between the two pieces.

A requirement of the new computing model is that the Aod replacement be accessible interactively. As part of satisfying this requirement, BaBar has chosen Root as the persistence technology for the Aod replacement, since it has been shown to work as a HEP event store technology both at BaBar and elsewhere, and because the Root/CINT interface is a standard interactive access mechanism. To satsify this requirement, the Mini is being ported to Root persistence. The Mini Root persistent implementation uses base classes developed at BaBar which allow interactive access to packed data contents of embedded objects, by dynmaically linking class functions into Root echarles .

A key feature of the new computing model is the ability to create custom output streams for physics groups, by exploiting the configurability of the Mini. Coupled with the interactive access capabilty afforded by Root persistence, it is hoped that custom streams can replace the Aod format dump ntuples used in most analyses. This will substantially reduced the computing and human resources used in analysis.

Because BaBar is a functioning experiment, the new computing model must be introduced in a way that does not disrupt ongoing efforts, and quickly enough that its benefits can be exploited before the experiment ends. The plan is to develop and deploy the new computing model within calendar year 2003.

## IX Conclusions

BaBar has introduced a new event data format refered to as the Mini. This format addresses deficiencies in BaBar’s older formats.

BaBar has just completed a full data re-processing, in which the complete Mini replaced the unused Raw, Rec, and Esd formats. This reduced the volume of data produced in reconstruction by a roughly factor of 10, significantly improving the efficiency of the event reconstruction farm, and requiring half as many data servers compared to previous processings. BaBar’s data storage costs were also cut by roughly the same factor of 10.

BaBar is now starting to use the Mini for physics analysis. An ambitious new computing model has been adopted, in which a reduced form of the Mini will replace the current physics analysis format. When the new computing model is deployed in late 2003, BaBar will have a coherent event data format covering most of the needs of the experiment, finally satisfying the intent of the original format design.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors wish to recognize the achievements of the BaBar offline software developers who designed and implemented the BaBar reconstruction framework and event persistence, which has been spectacularly successful in enabling BaBar to produce high quality physics results, and which laid the foundation for developing the Mini.


text:
# Lemma 1.

On finite index reflection subgroups of discrete reflection groups.

A. Felikson, P. Tumarkin

Abstract. Let $`G`$ be a discrete group generated by reflections in hyperbolic or Euclidean space, and $`HG`$ be a finite index subgroup generated by reflections. Suppose that the fundamental chamber of $`G`$ is a finite volume polytope with $`k`$ facets. In this paper, we prove that the fundamental chamber of $`H`$ has at least $`k`$ facets.

1. Let $`𝕏`$ be hyperbolic space $`^n`$, Euclidean space $`𝔼^n`$ or spherical space $`𝕊^n`$. A polytope in $`𝕏`$ is called a Coxeter polytope if all its dihedral angles are integer parts of $`\pi `$. A convex polytope in $`𝕏`$ admits a Coxeter decomposition if it is tiled by finitely many Coxeter polytopes such that any two tiles having a common facet are symmetric with respect to this facet. The tiles of the decomposition are called fundamental polytopes.

In this paper we show that if the polytope admitting a Coxeter decomposition has exactly $`k`$ facets then the fundamental polytope has at most $`k`$ facets (Theorem 1). In particular, consider a finite covolume discrete group $`G`$ generated by reflections in hyperbolic or Euclidean space and a finite index reflection subgroup $`HG`$. If the fundamental chamber of $`G`$ has exactly $`k`$ facets, then the fundamental chamber of $`H`$ has at least $`k`$ facets.

The authors are grateful to E. B. Vinberg for useful discussions and remarks.

2. A polytope $`P𝕏`$ is called acute-angled if its dihedral angles are less or equal to $`\frac{\pi }{2}`$. The minimal plane containing a face of a polytope we call an extension of this face. The proof of Theorem 1 is based on the following fact proved by E. M. Andreev (see ):

Let $`P𝕏`$ be an acute-angled polytope. If two faces of $`P`$ have no common points then the extensions of these faces have no common points.

A convex polytope with fixed Coxeter decomposition will be denoted by $`P`$, the fundamental polytope of the decomposition will be denoted by $`F`$. A hyperplane $`H`$ is called a mirror of the decomposition if it contains a facet of a fundamental polytope and contains no facet of $`P`$.

Let $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ be a Coxeter decomposition of $`P`$. A dihedral angle of $`P`$ formed up by facets $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ is called fundamental in the decomposition $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ if no mirror of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ contains $`\alpha \beta `$.

###### Lemma 1.

Let $`PX`$ be a convex polytope with exactly $`k`$ facets. Let $`\alpha `$ be a hyperplane decomposing $`P`$ into polytopes $`P_1`$ and $`P_2`$. If each of $`P_1`$ and $`P_2`$ has at least $`k+1`$ facets then $`\alpha `$ intersects the inner part of each facet of $`P`$ (in particular, $`\alpha `$ cuts no dihedral angle). Furthermore, if $`P_1`$ is a Coxeter polytope then $`P`$ is a Coxeter polytope, too.

###### Proof.

Let $`\beta _1,\mathrm{},\beta _k`$ be the facets of $`P`$. Suppose that $`\alpha `$ does not intersect the inner part of $`\beta _1`$. Then $`\beta _1`$ contains no facet of either $`P_1`$ or $`P_2`$. If $`\beta _1`$ contains no facet of $`P_1`$ then $`P_1`$ has at most $`k`$ facets (one facet is contained in $`\alpha `$ and the rest facets are contained in $`\beta _2,\mathrm{},\beta _k`$).

Suppose that $`P_1`$ is a Coxeter polytope. Then the extensions of two facets of $`P_1`$ have a common point if and only if the facets have a common point (). Each facet of $`P`$ contains some facet of $`P_1`$. Clearly, the corresponding dihedral angles of $`P`$ and $`P_1`$ coincide. Thus, $`P`$ is a Coxeter polytope.

###### Lemma 2.

Let $`PX`$ be a convex polytope and $`\alpha `$ be a hyperplane containing an inner point of each facet of $`P`$. Suppose that $`\alpha `$ decomposes $`P`$ into polytopes $`P_1`$ and $`P_2`$, where $`P_1`$ is a Coxeter polytope. Then $`\alpha `$ contains no vertex of $`P`$.

###### Proof.

Suppose that $`\alpha `$ contains a vertex $`A`$ of $`P`$. Let $`s`$ be a sphere centered in $`A`$ (if $`A`$ is an ideal vertex of a hyperbolic polytope consider a horosphere $`s`$ centered in $`A`$). Consider a section $`p`$ of $`P`$ by $`s`$. Let $`p_1`$ be a section of $`P_1`$ by $`s`$. Since $`\alpha `$ intersects the inner part of each facet of $`P`$, the set of facets of the spherical (Euclidean) polytope $`p`$ coincides with the set of facets of $`p_1`$ without the facet $`\alpha s`$. By Lemma 1 $`P`$ is a Coxeter polytope. Hence, $`p_1`$ and $`p`$ are Coxeter polytopes too. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_1)`$ be the Coxeter diagrams of $`p`$ and $`p_1`$ and $`v`$ be a node of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_1)`$ corresponding to $`\alpha s`$. Then $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p)=\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_1)v`$.

Suppose that $`A`$ is not an ideal vertex. Then $`p`$ and $`p_1`$ are spherical simplices of the same dimension. This is impossible, since these polytopes have different numbers of facets. Suppose that $`A`$ is an ideal vertex. Since any compact Euclidean Coxeter polytope is a direct product of simplices, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_1)`$ is a disjoint union of connected parabolic diagrams. But the subdiagram $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_1)v=\mathrm{\Sigma }(p)`$ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_1)`$ is a disjoint union of connected parabolic diagrams too. This is impossible by the definition of connected parabolic diagram. The contradiction proves the lemma.

###### Lemma 3.

Let $`P`$ be either a convex finite volume polytope in $`^n`$ or $`𝔼^n`$ or a convex polytope in $`𝕊^n`$ containing no pair of antipodal points of the sphere. Let $`\alpha `$ be a hyperplane containing an inner point of each facet of $`P`$. Suppose $`\alpha `$ decomposes $`P`$ into polytopes $`P_1`$ and $`P_2`$. If $`\alpha `$ contains no vertex of $`P`$ then neither $`P_1`$ nor $`P_2`$ is acute-angled.

###### Proof.

Suppose $`P_1`$ is an acute-angled polytope. Let $`H`$ be a face of $`P_2`$ different from an ideal vertex. Let us prove that the extension of $`H`$ contains a face of $`P_1`$. If $`H`$ is a facet the statement is true by the assumption. Let $`H_t`$ be a face of codimension $`t`$ different from an ideal vertex. Suppose inductively that the statement is true for the faces of codimension smaller than $`t`$. Consider $`H_t`$ as an intersection of a facet $`H_1`$ with a face $`H_{t1}`$ of codimension $`t1`$ (here $`H_1`$ and $`H_{t1}`$ are the faces of $`P_2`$). By the assumption the extensions of $`H_1`$ and $`H_{t1}`$ contain some faces of the acute-angled polytope $`P_1`$. Thus, by  the corresponding faces of $`P_1`$ have a common point. Therefore, the extension of $`H_t`$ contain some face of $`P_1`$. We have proved that the extension of any face of $`P_2`$ different from an ideal vertex contains a face of $`P_1`$.

Let $`A`$ be a vertex of $`P`$ contained in $`P_2`$. By the hypothesis of the lemma $`A`$ does not belong to $`\alpha `$. Let $`AB_1`$,…,$`AB_r`$ be the edges of $`P`$ incident to $`A`$. We have proved that each of these edges contains a face of $`P_1`$. Thus, the points $`B_1`$,…,$`B_r`$ are the vertices of $`P_1`$. Hence, $`A`$ is a unique common vertex of $`P`$ and $`P_2`$. Let $`H`$ be any facet of $`P`$ that is not incident to $`A`$ (this facet exists, since $`P`$ is a finite volume polytope and $`P`$ is not spherical polytope containing a pair of antipodal points). Then $`H`$ is contained in one half-space with respect to $`\alpha `$. The contradiction with the hypothesis proves the lemma.

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`P`$ be a finite volume convex polytope in $`^n`$ or $`𝔼^n`$ with exactly $`k`$ facets. If $`P`$ admits a Coxeter decomposition $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ with fundamental polytope $`F`$, then $`F`$ has at most $`k`$ facets.

###### Proof.

Suppose the contrary. Let $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ be a Coxeter decomposition of $`P`$ with fundamental polytope $`F`$ bounded by more than $`k`$ facets. Without loss of generality we can assume that the theorem is true for any polytope in $`^n`$ ($`𝔼^n`$) bounded by less than $`k`$ facets.

Let $`M`$ be a set of convex polytopes such that if $`P_1M`$ then

1) each facet of $`P_1`$ is contained either in a mirror of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ or in a facet of $`P`$;

2) $`P_1`$ has exactly $`k`$ facets.

Since a number of mirrors in a Coxeter decomposition is finite, $`M`$ is a finite nonempty set. Let $`P_{min}M`$ be a polytope minimal with respect to inclusion. Let $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}`$ be a restriction of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ to the polytope $`P_{min}`$. Then $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}`$ is a Coxeter decomposition with the fundamental polytope $`F`$. Note that $`P_{min}`$ has $`k`$ facets and $`F`$ has more than $`k`$ facets.

Let $`\varphi `$ be a dihedral angle of $`P_{min}`$. Suppose that $`\varphi `$ is not fundamental in $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}`$. Let $`\beta `$ be a mirror of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}`$ decomposing $`\varphi `$. Then $`\beta `$ decomposes $`P_{min}`$ into two polytopes $`P_{min}^{}`$ and $`P_{min}^{\prime \prime }`$, where each of $`P_{min}^{}`$ and $`P_{min}^{\prime \prime }`$ has at most $`k`$ facets. If $`P_{min}^{}`$ has exactly $`k`$ facets, we have a contradiction with the minimal property of $`P_{min}`$ in $`M`$. Hence, $`P_{min}^{}`$ has less than $`k`$ facets. Consider a restriction $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}^{}`$ of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}`$ to the polytope $`P_{min}^{}`$. $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}^{}`$ is a Coxeter decomposition with the fundamental polytope $`F`$, where $`F`$ has more than $`k`$ facets. This contradicts to the assumption that the theorem is true for any polytope in $`^n`$ ($`𝔼^n`$) bounded by less than $`k`$ facets. Thus, any dihedral angle of $`P_{min}`$ is fundamental.

Let $`N`$ be a set of polytopes such that if $`P_1N`$ then $`P_1`$ is bounded by exactly $`k`$ facets of $`P_{min}`$ and by a mirror of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{min}`$. Clearly, $`N`$ is a finite nonempty set. Let $`P_1N`$ be a polytope minimal with respect to inclusion.

Let $`\alpha `$ be a mirror decomposing $`P_{min}`$ into polytopes $`P_1`$ and $`P_2`$. If $`\varphi `$ is a dihedral angle of $`P_1`$ formed up by two facets of $`P_{min}`$ then $`\varphi `$ is fundamental as it is already proved. Let $`\varphi `$ be a dihedral angle of $`P_1`$ formed up by $`\alpha `$ and a facet of $`P_{min}`$. Suppose that $`\varphi `$ is not fundamental. Let $`\beta `$ be a mirror decomposing $`\varphi `$. Suppose that $`\beta `$ intersects an inner part of each facet of $`P_{min}`$. Then $`\beta `$ cuts a polytope $`P_1^{}P_1`$ from $`P_{min}`$ such that $`P_1^{}N`$. This contradicts to the minimal property of $`P_1`$ in $`N`$. Now suppose that $`\varphi `$ does not intersect some facets of $`P_{min}`$. Then $`\beta `$ cuts a polytope $`P_1^{}P_1`$ from $`P_{min}`$ such that $`P_1^{}`$ has at most $`k`$ facets. This is impossible by the minimal property of $`P_{min}`$ in $`M`$ and the assumption that the theorem is true for any polytope in $`^n`$ ($`𝔼^n`$) bounded by less than $`k`$ facets.

Thus, any dihedral angle of $`P_1`$ is fundamental and $`P_1`$ is a Coxeter polytope. By Lemma 2, $`\beta `$ contains no vertex of $`P_{min}`$. By Lemma 3 $`P_1`$ is not an acute-angled polytope. The contradiction to the fact that any Coxeter polytope is acute-angled proves the theorem.

Remark 1. Clearly, the theorem is false for $`𝕊^n`$. An additional assumption that $`P`$ contains no pair of antipodal points makes the theorem true but trivial. With this assumption both polytopes $`P`$ and $`F`$ are simplices (see  for the classification of spherical Coxeter polytopes).

Remark 2. The theorem is false without the assumption that $`P`$ is of finite volume. For example, let $`G`$ be a group generated by the reflections with respect to two divergent hyperplanes $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$ in $`^n`$ (or two parallel hyperplanes in $`𝔼^n`$). Then $`G`$ has an index 2 subgroup generated by the reflections with respect to $`m_1`$, $`m_2`$ and $`h`$, where $`h`$ is perpendicular to $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$.

Remark 3. Let $`P𝕏`$ be a finite volume Coxeter polytope with $`k`$ facets and $`G_P`$ be a group generated by the reflections with respect to the facets of $`P`$. There are some examples of polytopes such that the group $`G_P`$ can be generated by less than $`k`$ generators. However, in these examples some generators are not reflections. This leads to the conjecture that $`G_P`$ can not be generated by less than $`k`$ reflections. If the conjecture is true, we can prove the following corollary of Theorem 1:

Let $`G`$ be a discrete group generated by reflections in $`^n`$ or $`𝔼^n`$, $`F`$ be a fundamental chamber of $`G`$ and $`HG`$ be a finite index subgroup generated by reflections. If $`F`$ is a finite volume polytope with $`k`$ facets then $`H`$ can not be generated by less than $`k`$ reflections.

Independent University of Moscow
E-mail addresses: felikson@mccme.ru
E-mail addresses: pasha@mccme.ru