History
The idea of automation of the calculations in high-energy physics is not new. It dates back to the 1960s when packages such as SCHOONSCHIP and then REDUCE had been developed.
These are symbolic manipulation codes that automatize the algebraic parts of a matrix element evaluation, like traces on Dirac matrices and contraction of Lorentz indices. Such codes have evolved quite a lot with applications not only optimized for high-energy physics like FORM but also more general purpose programs like Mathematica and Maple.
Generation of QED Feynman graphs at any order in the coupling constant was automatized in the late 70's. One of the first major application of these early developments in this field was the calculation of the anomalous magnetic moments of the electron and the muon. The first automatic system incorporating all the steps for the calculation of a cross section, from Feynman graph generation, amplitude generation through a REDUCE source code that produces a FORTRAN code, phase space integration and event generation with BASES/SPRING is GRAND. It was limited to tree-level processes in QED. In the early nineties, a few groups started to develop packages aiming at the automation in the SM.
Read more about this topic: Automatic Calculation Of Particle Interaction Or Decay
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