[LHAPDF-announce] LHAPDF 6.0.0 released

[Andy Buckley]

Hi LHAPDF users,

We are (very) pleased to announce the first stable release of LHAPDF6.
As previously described, this is a completely new C++ rewrite of LHAPDF
designed for future maintainability (new sets can now be released purely
as data files without needing a new library release) and to solve
fundamental problems with the existing version such as the high memory
requirement (which is the reason for the restrictive low-memory mode)
and the limitation on number of simultaneous PDF sets. Issues with the
correctness of alpha_s and similar information returned in multi-set
mode are also fixed by this release.

LHAPDF 6.0.0 is available to download and use right away from the usual
web page at http://lhapdf.hepforge.org/ and from the specific page of
LHAPDF information, installation/usage instructions, and examples at
http://lhapdf.hepforge.org/lhapdf6/

The 200 latest PDF sets from the LHAPDF5 collection have been migrated
to the new LHAPDF6 data format and are available from
http://www.hepforge.org/archive/lhapdf/pdfsets/6.0/ . Detailed
validation has only been performed for a subset of CTEQ and MSTW2008
sets so far (others may be found in the "unvalidated" subdirectory) but
generally the behaviour of sets in LHAPDF6 has been found to be
fractionally within 1/1000 of the LHAPDF5 behaviour almost everywhere. A
few remaining deviations larger than this should be addressed by the
next update release. Please let us know if you want us to prioritise
validation of any specific PDF sets (NNPDF2.3 NLO is next in line, but
validation has been held up by an issue in LHAPDF5 and we wanted to get
this release out asap.)

We recommend migrating to this new LHAPDF as soon as you are able. Code
which accessed LHAPDF5 should still work with LHAPDF6 thanks to
extensive backward compatibility wrapper code. There will be a final
release in the LHAPDF5 series this month, after which version 6 is the
only way forward! We look forward to your feedback.

Best wishes,
Andy, for the LHAPDF6 team

-- 
Dr Andy Buckley, Royal Society University Research Fellow
Particle Physics Expt Group, University of Glasgow / PH Dept, CERN