RAVE—A Detector-Independent Toolkit to Reconstruct Vertices

A detector-independent toolkit for vertex reconstruction (RAVE = “Reconstruction (of vertices) in Abstract, Versatile Environments”) is presented that allows geometric and kinematic reconstruction of vertices. Both linear and adaptive estimation techniques are covered. Non-Gaussian input data can be handled via the Gaussian-sum technique. Kinematic constraints are taken into account via the Lagrangian formalism. Finally, the toolkit also contains a simple flavor-tagger. Main design goals are ease of use, flexibility for embedding into existing software frameworks, extensibility, and openness. The implementation is based on modern object-oriented techniques, is coded in C++ with interfaces for Java and Python, and follows an open-source approach.