M. Crispim Romao, N. F. Castro, J. G. Milhano, R. Pedro, T. Vale
In this paper, we expand on the previously proposed concept of Energy Mover's Distance. The resulting observables are shown to provide a way of identifying rare processes in proton-proton collider experiments. It is shown that different processes are grouped together differently and that this can contribute to the improvement of experimental analyses. The $t\bar{t}Z$ production at the Large Hadron Collider is used as a benchmark to illustrate the applicability of the method. Furthermore, we study the use of these observables as new features which can be used in the training of Deep Neural Networks.
M. Crispim Romao, N. F. Castro, R. Pedro
In this paper we propose a new strategy, based on anomaly detection methods, to search for new physics phenomena at colliders independently of the details of such new events. For this purpose, machine learning techniques are trained using Standard Model events, with the corresponding outputs being sensitive to physics beyond it. We explore three novel AD methods in HEP: Isolation Forest, Histogram Based Outlier Detection, and Deep Support Vector Data Description; alongside the most customary Autoencoder. In order to evaluate the sensitivity of the proposed approach, predictions from specific new physics models are considered and compared to those achieved when using fully supervised deep neural networks. A comparison between shallow and deep anomaly detection techniques is also presented. Our results demonstrate the potential of semi-supervised anomaly detection techniques to extensively explore the present and future hadron colliders' data.
L. Apolinário, N. F. Castro, M. Crispim Romão, J. G. Milhano, R. Pedro, F. C. R. Peres
An important aspect of the study of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) in ultra-relativistic collisions of heavy ions is the ability to identify, in experimental data, a subset of the jets that were strongly modified by the interaction with the QGP. In this work, we propose studying deep learning techniques for this purpose. Samples of $Z+$jet events were simulated in vacuum and medium and used to train deep neural networks with the objective of discriminating between medium- and vacuum-like jets. Dedicated Convolutional Neural Networks, Dense Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks were developed and trained, and their performance was studied. Our results show the potential of these techniques for the identification of jet quenching effects induced by the presence of the QGP.
M. Crispim Romao, N. F. Castro, R. Pedro, T. Vale
In this work we assess the transferability of deep learning models to detect beyond the standard model signals. For this we trained Deep Neural Networks on three different signal models: $tZ$ production via a flavour changing neutral current, pair-production of vector-like $T$-quarks via standard model gluon fusion and via a heavy gluon decay in a grid of 3 mass points: 1, 1.2 and 1.4 TeV. These networks were trained with $t\bar{t}$, $Z$+jets and dibosons as the main backgrounds. Limits were derived for each signal benchmark using the inference of networks trained on each signal independently, so that we can quantify the degradation of their discriminative power across different signal processes. We determine that the limits are compatible within uncertainties for all networks trained on signals with vector-like $T$-quarks, whether they are produced via heavy gluon decay or standard model gluon fusion. The network trained on flavour changing neutral current signal, while struggling the most on the other signals, still produce reasonable limits. These results indicate that deep learning models are capable of providing sensitivity in the search for new physics even if it manifests itself in models not assumed during training.