Add flag in ParticleCombiner to allow different algorithm inputs for children with the same ID

Currently it is not supported to have different algorithm inputs for continuous children with the same PID. However this can be an issue for long-lived particles, when one candidate is reconstructed from long tracks and the other one is reconstructed from downstream tracks (see for example Moore!1249 (merged))

Here I try to fix the issue, enabling this possibility for a limited number of predefined particles (thanks to @mstahl for the suggestion). @mvesteri @poluekt @nnolte @rmatev can this be a viable solution?

cc @lpica

added RTA label

I let more knowledgeable people comment here. I can only say that the phrase "contiguous children" meant nothing to me until I read the comment a few lines before what you change. To me this looks like an optimization that would sometimes not make sense, as is your case. If that's correct, then please consider adding a property to combiners that disables this optimization, instead of a heuristic based on PIDs.

Also, you'd need to make sure that this optimization is not a requirement for some logic that follows in the combiner. (If that works for you, then that's probably sufficient proof.)

mentioned in merge request Moore!1104 (merged)

I see no more activity here. Is this MR still relevant ?

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mentioned in commit Moore@4e087066

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marked this merge request as ready

changed title from Draft: Fix issue with continuous children with the same PID in case of long-lived particles to Add flag in ParticleCombiner to allow different algorithm inputs for childern with the same ID

changed title from Add flag in ParticleCombiner to allow different algorithm inputs for childern with the same ID to Add flag in ParticleCombiner to allow different algorithm inputs for children with the same ID