The VALOR Software Development Kit (SDK)

The VALOR Software Development Kit (SDK) is a highly abstracted, experiment-agnostic neutrino oscillation analysis framework used across multiple experiments.

Experiment-specific VALOR analyses are built on top of the VALOR SDK, primarily through XML configuration files. These define:

• Event samples: A list of samples to be included in the fit, each corresponding to a specific combination of beam configuration, detector, and observed topology.
• Reconstructed kinematics: The variables and binning scheme for each sample’s reconstructed distribution to be fit.
• Contribution modes: A list of modes (typically generator-level MC truth interaction channels) tracked separately for each fit distribution. A carefully chosen set of modes ensures proper application of systematic uncertainties and physics hypotheses.
• MC-truth distributions: For each mode in each sample, the MC-truth kinematic variables and binning are specified for every reconstructed bin. These enable systematics and physics hypotheses to be applied correctly. The combined multi-dimensional distribution, spanning both reconstructed and MC-truth variables for each mode in every sample, is referred to as an MC template.
• Systematic parameters: The list of systematics to include in the fit.
• Systematic priors and correlations: The prior uncertainties and input correlations between systematic parameters.
• Systematic impacts: A detailed specification of how each systematic parameter modifies kinematic bins in the MC templates for each mode and sample.
• Physics hypotheses: The chosen oscillation framework (e.g., three-flavour, 3+1 sterile, etc.), the parameters of interest, their fit ranges, and any external constraints.

For a detailed description of the SDK, see here.

The official GitHub repository for the SDK, is maintained here.

Please note that the SDK is made available under the VALOR Restrictive Academic Research License.