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Oct 29

Predict before you train: Scaling Laws for particle physics foundation models

The largest machine learning models in particle physics are also the most expensive to train, yet the return on scaling a given architecture cannot be estimated before that compute is spent. Scaling laws have been fit for jets, but none has yet been shown to predict the performance of models it was not fit on. We show that, for a generic transformer pretrained on collider jets, it can be forecast. Fitting a joint model-and-data scaling law on small models alone, spanning three orders of magnitude of training compute, we predict the loss of models trained afterward with more than one hundred times more compute to within one percent. We then connect the forecast to downstream physics performance: across two standard tagging benchmarks, lower pretraining loss yields systematically lower fine-tuning loss and higher background rejection after fine-tuning. Within this model family and these tasks, a compute budget can therefore be translated into expected physics performance before any large model is trained. The final frontier model is consistent with the published numbers for current state-of-the-art physics-aware foundation models trained on the same corpus, on accuracy, AUC, and quark/gluon rejection, with a residual edge for the physics-aware model only in the high-purity tail of top tagging. We release five pretrained models spanning multiple sizes, together with the complete training recipe and code.

  • 3 authors
·
Aug 24

The Edge of Jets and Subleading Non-Global Logs

A persistent and fascinating problem at the high energy colliders are jets. Often trying to observe physics underlying the hard interactions at colliders requires experimental cuts in phase space, defining several jet or beam regions. QCD being a gauge theory that readily decays into infra-red modes, correlations between jet regions is almost inevitable, spoiling the predictivity of fixed order QCD calculations. One is faced with the task of calculating the evolution of a reduced density matrix, where successively less energetic (jet) regions are integrated out, to gain control of the calculation. I relate the decay rates governing the flow into the IR to an effective field theory expansion in soft jets, allowing a systematic and resummed calculation of these rates, while further relating them to physically observable features of the QCD cascade. To demonstrate the utility of the soft jet expansion, I present a factorization theorem for a soft subjet collinearly splitting in and out of a parent fat jet. Using the resummation properties of this factorization theorem, I elucidate the structure of the subleading non-global logs (encoding the jet correlations) in the hemisphere jet mass distribution, as well as give a collinear improvement of the leading order resummation equation, the BMS equation. I compare to other approaches to subleading resummation of NGLs, and find the collinear improvement of the leading order equation removes the need for kinematic-dependent corrections in the IR averaging procedure of the reduced density matrix, so that no further large logs can be generated in the IR. Finally I end with speculation about connections with collinear improvements of the NLO B-JIMWLK hierarchy for small-x resummation.

  • 1 authors
·
Aug 29, 2015

AllShowers: One model for all calorimeter showers

Accurate and efficient detector simulation is essential for modern collider experiments. To reduce the high computational cost, various fast machine learning surrogate models have been proposed. Traditional surrogate models for calorimeter shower modeling train separate networks for each particle species, limiting scalability and reuse. We introduce AllShowers, a unified generative model that simulates calorimeter showers across multiple particle types using a single generative model. AllShowers is a continuous normalizing flow model with a Transformer architecture, enabling it to generate complex spatial and energy correlations in variable-length point cloud representations of showers. Trained on a diverse dataset of simulated showers in the highly granular ILD detector, the model demonstrates the ability to generate realistic showers for electrons, photons, and charged and neutral hadrons across a wide range of incident energies and angles without retraining. In addition to unifying shower generation for multiple particle types, AllShowers surpasses the fidelity of previous single-particle-type models for hadronic showers. Key innovations include the use of a layer embedding, allowing the model to learn all relevant calorimeter layer properties; a custom attention masking scheme to reduce computational demands and introduce a helpful inductive bias; and a shower- and layer-wise optimal transport mapping to improve training convergence and sample quality. AllShowers marks a significant step towards a universal model for calorimeter shower simulations in collider experiments.

  • 5 authors
·
Jan 16

ScatterPrism: convergence for generative simulation and inverse problems in particle and nuclear physics

High-fidelity simulations and complex inverse problems, such as detector modeling and unfolding, are computationally intensive bottlenecks across subatomic physics, yet essential for accurate physical interpretation. While Conditional Flow Matching (CFM) offers a robust acceleration approach, we demonstrate its standard training loss is fundamentally misleading. Specifically, utilizing a Jefferson Lab Nuclear Physics (NP) kinematic dataset (γp to ρ^0 p to π^+π^- p), we expose that CFM loss plateaus prematurely, obscuring ongoing physical refinement. To verify this disconnect is a dataset-agnostic pathology, we introduce ScatterPrism, an efficient generative surrogate evaluated against both the NP data and synthetic stress tests modeling challenging 1D distribution topologies. Coupling these benchmarks, we establish that physics-informed metrics continue improving long after standard loss converges. Consequently, we propose a multi-metric diagnostic protocol to ensure true kinematic fidelity without data memorization. Driven by NP challenges relevant to the forthcoming Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), this unified machinery has strong potential to extend to High-Energy Physics (HEP) applications, such as jet modeling. Furthermore, the framework holds promise for broader domains requiring rigorous generative reliability, including medical imaging, astrophysics, and quantitative finance.

  • 6 authors
·
Jun 4

Lorentz-Equivariant Quantum Graph Neural Network for High-Energy Physics

The rapid data surge from the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider introduces critical computational challenges requiring novel approaches for efficient data processing in particle physics. Quantum machine learning, with its capability to leverage the extensive Hilbert space of quantum hardware, offers a promising solution. However, current quantum graph neural networks (GNNs) lack robustness to noise and are often constrained by fixed symmetry groups, limiting adaptability in complex particle interaction modeling. This paper demonstrates that replacing the Lorentz Group Equivariant Block modules in LorentzNet with a dressed quantum circuit significantly enhances performance despite using nearly 5.5 times fewer parameters. Additionally, quantum circuits effectively replace MLPs by inherently preserving symmetries, with Lorentz symmetry integration ensuring robust handling of relativistic invariance. Our Lorentz-Equivariant Quantum Graph Neural Network (Lorentz-EQGNN) achieved 74.00% test accuracy and an AUC of 87.38% on the Quark-Gluon jet tagging dataset, outperforming the classical and quantum GNNs with a reduced architecture using only 4 qubits. On the Electron-Photon dataset, Lorentz-EQGNN reached 67.00% test accuracy and an AUC of 68.20%, demonstrating competitive results with just 800 training samples. Evaluation of our model on generic MNIST and FashionMNIST datasets confirmed Lorentz-EQGNN's efficiency, achieving 88.10% and 74.80% test accuracy, respectively. Ablation studies validated the impact of quantum components on performance, with notable improvements in background rejection rates over classical counterparts. These results highlight Lorentz-EQGNN's potential for immediate applications in noise-resilient jet tagging, event classification, and broader data-scarce HEP tasks.

  • 5 authors
·
Nov 3, 2024

Probing Broadband Spectral Energy Distribution and Variability of Mrk\,501 in the low flux state

We conducted a multi-wavelength analysis of the blazar Mrk\,501, utilizing observations from AstroSat (SXT, LAXPC), Swift-UVOT, and Fermi-LAT during the period August 15, 2016 to March 27, 2022. The resulting multi-wavelength light curve revealed relatively low activity of the source across the electromagnetic spectrum. Notably, logparabola and broken power-law models provided a better fit to the joint X-ray spectra from AstroSat-SXT/LAXPC instruments compared to the power-law model. During the low activity state, the source showed the characteristic harder when brighter trend at the X-ray energies. To gain insights into underlying physical processes responsible for the broadband emission, we performed a detailed broadband spectral analysis using the convolved one-zone leptonic model with different forms of particle distributions such as logparabola (LP), broken power-law (BPL), power-law model with maximum energy (ξ_{max}), and energy-dependent acceleration (EDA) models. Our analysis revealed similar reduced-χ^2 values for the four particle distributions. The LP and EDA models exhibited the lowest jet powers. The correlation analyses conducted for the LP and BPL models revealed that there is a positive correlation between jet power and bulk Lorentz factor. Specifically, in the LP model, jet power proved independent of γ_{min}, whereas in the broken power-law model, jet power decreased with an increase in γ_{min}. The jet power in the LP/EDA particle distribution is nearly 10 percent of the Eddington luminosity of a 10^7 M_odot black hole. This result suggests that the jet could potentially be fueled by accretion processes.

  • 5 authors
·
Nov 1, 2024

Lagrangian Coherent Track Initialisation (LCTI)

Advances in time-resolved Particle Tracking Velocimetry (4D-PTV) techniques have been consistently revealed more accurate Lagrangian particle motions. A novel track initialisation technique as a complementary part of 4D-PTV, based on local temporal and spatial coherency of neighbour trajectories, is proposed. The proposed Lagrangian Coherent Track Initialisation (LCTI) applies physics-based Finite Time Lyapunov Exponent (FTLE) to build four frame coherent tracks. We locally determine the boundaries (i.e., ridges) of Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCS) among neighbour trajectories by using FTLE to distinguish clusters of coherent motions. To evaluate the proposed technique, we created an open-access synthetic Lagrangian and Eulerian dataset of the wake downstream of a smooth cylinder at a Reynolds number equal to 3900 obtained from 3D Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). The dataset is available to the public. Performance of the proposed method based on three characteristic parameters, temporal scale, particle concentration (i.e., density), and noise ratio, showed robust behaviour in finding true tracks compared to the recent initialisation algorithms. Sensitivity of LCTI to the number of untracked and wrong tracks are also discussed. We address the capability of using the proposed method as a function of a 4D-PTV scheme in the Lagrangian Particle Tracking challenge for a flow with high particle densities. Finally, the LCTI behaviour was assessed in a real jet impingement experiment. LCTI was found to be a reliable tracking tool in complex flow motions, with a strength revealed for flows with high particle concentrations.

  • 4 authors
·
Jun 21, 2021

New CTEQ global analysis of quantum chromodynamics with high-precision data from the LHC

We present the new parton distribution functions (PDFs) from the CTEQ-TEA collaboration, obtained using a wide variety of high-precision Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data, in addition to the combined HERA I+II deep-inelastic scattering data set, along with the data sets present in the CT14 global QCD analysis. New LHC measurements in single-inclusive jet production with the full rapidity coverage, as well as production of Drell-Yan pairs, top-quark pairs, and high-p_T Z bosons, are included to achieve the greatest sensitivity to the PDFs. The parton distributions are determined at NLO and NNLO, with each of these PDFs accompanied by error sets determined using the Hessian method. Fast PDF survey techniques, based on the Hessian representation and the Lagrange Multiplier method, are used to quantify the preference of each data set to quantities such as α_s(m_Z), and the gluon and strange quark distributions. We designate the main resulting PDF set as CT18. The ATLAS 7 TeV precision W/Z data are not included in CT18, due to their tension with other data sets in the global fit. Alternate PDF sets are generated including the ATLAS precision 7 TeV W/Z data (CT18A), a new scale choice for low-x DIS data (CT18X), or all of the above with a slightly higher choice for the charm mass (CT18Z). Theoretical calculations of standard candle cross sections at the LHC (such as the gg fusion Higgs boson cross section) are presented.

  • 13 authors
·
Nov 12, 2020

Scaling Particle Collision Data Analysis

For decades, researchers have developed task-specific models to address scientific challenges across diverse disciplines. Recently, large language models (LLMs) have shown enormous capabilities in handling general tasks; however, these models encounter difficulties in addressing real-world scientific problems, particularly in domains involving large-scale numerical data analysis, such as experimental high energy physics. This limitation is primarily due to BPE tokenization's inefficacy with numerical data. In this paper, we propose a task-agnostic architecture, BBT-Neutron, which employs a binary tokenization method to facilitate pretraining on a mixture of textual and large-scale numerical experimental data. We demonstrate the application of BBT-Neutron to Jet Origin Identification (JoI), a critical categorization challenge in high-energy physics that distinguishes jets originating from various quarks or gluons. Our results indicate that BBT-Neutron achieves comparable performance to state-of-the-art task-specific JoI models. Furthermore, we examine the scaling behavior of BBT-Neutron's performance with increasing data volume, suggesting the potential for BBT-Neutron to serve as a foundational model for particle physics data analysis, with possible extensions to a broad spectrum of scientific computing applications for Big Science experiments, industrial manufacturing and spacial computing. The project code is available at https://github.com/supersymmetry-technologies/bbt-neutron.

  • 13 authors
·
Nov 28, 2024

Proper motions of spectrally selected structures in the HH 83 outflow

We continue our program of investigation of the proper motions of spectrally separated structures in the Herbig-Haro outflows with the aid of Fabry-Perot scanning interferometry. This work mainly focuses on the physical nature of various structures in the jets. The aim of the present study is to measure the proper motions of the previously discovered kinematically separated structures in the working surface of the HH 83 collimated outflow. We used observations from two epochs separated by 15 years, which were performed on the 6m telescope with Fabry-Perot scanning interferometer. We obtained images corresponding to different radial velocities for the two separate epochs, and used them to measure proper motions. In the course of our data analysis, we discovered a counter bow-shock of HH 83 flow with positive radial velocity, which makes this flow a relatively symmetric bipolar system. The second epoch observations confirm that the working surface of the flow is split into two structures with an exceptionally large (250 km\ s^{-1}) difference in radial velocity. The proper motions of these structures are almost equal, which suggests that they are physically connected. The asymmetry of the bow shock and the turning of proper motion vectors suggests a collision between the outflow and a dense cloud. The profile of the Halpha line for the directly invisible infrared source HH 83 IRS, obtained by integration of the data within the reflection nebula, suggests it to be of P Cyg type with a broad absorption component characteristic of the FU Ori like objects. If this object underwent an FU Ori type outburst, which created the HH 83 working surfaces, its eruption took place about 1500 years ago according to the kinematical age of the outflow.

  • 3 authors
·
Jun 21, 2021

pyAmpliCol: fast tree-level matrix elements

Tree-level matrix elements sit at the heart of collider event generation, but their cost rises rapidly just where additional resolved radiation becomes most important. We present pyAmpliCol, a public generator aimed at extending the practical reach of colour-resolved matrix elements to higher multiplicities. It builds on the colour-ordered, off-shell-current strategy of AmpliCol, providing fast access to individual leading-colour flows while retaining the option of next-to-leading or exact full colour. The latter introduces its own high-multiplicity bottleneck: the dense interference of factorially many colour orderings. pyAmpliCol addresses this contraction with a fast Fourier transform on the symmetric group, preserving the exact colour result while avoiding the direct pairwise sum. Representative full-colour benchmarks demonstrate substantial speedups over the reference calculations considered here. It supports Standard Model processes and a broad class of UFO models, selected or summed helicities, vectorised evaluation and controllable numerical precision. It further provides colour- and spin-correlated Born quantities and tree-level colour connections at arbitrary perturbative order, opening the same framework to local subtraction and other higher-order applications. Together, these capabilities connect high-multiplicity matrix elements to their use in event generation, merging, parton showers and precision calculations within a single generator.

  • 6 authors
·
Oct 7

Optical Emission Model for Binary Black Hole Merger Remnants Travelling through Discs of Active Galactic Nuclei

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been proposed as plausible sites for hosting a sizable fraction of the binary black hole (BBH) mergers measured through gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra (LVK) experiment. These GWs could be accompanied by radiation feedback due to the interaction of the BBH merger remnant with the AGN disc. We present a new predicted radiation signature driven by the passage of a kicked BBH remnant throughout a thin AGN disc. We analyse the situation of a merger occurring outside the thin disc, where the merger is of second or higher generation in a merging hierarchical sequence. The coalescence produces a kicked BH remnant that eventually plunges into the disc, accretes material, and inflates jet cocoons. We consider the case of a jet cocoon propagating quasi-parallel to the disc plane and study the outflow that results when the cocoon emerges from the disc. We calculate the transient emission of the emerging cocoon using a photon diffusion model typically employed to describe the light curves of supernovae. Depending on the parameter configuration, the flare produced by the emerging cocoon could be comparable to or exceed the AGN background emission at optical, and extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. For instance, in AGNs with central engines of sim 5times10^{6} M_odot, flares driven by BH remnants with masses of sim 100 M_odot can appear in about sim[10-100] days after the GW, lasting for few days.

  • 4 authors
·
Apr 20, 2023

CAvity DEtection Tool (CADET): Pipeline for automatic detection of X-ray cavities in hot galactic and cluster atmospheres

The study of jet-inflated X-ray cavities provides a powerful insight into the energetics of hot galactic atmospheres and radio-mechanical AGN feedback. By estimating the volumes of X-ray cavities, the total energy and thus also the corresponding mechanical jet power required for their inflation can be derived. Properly estimating their total extent is, however, non-trivial, prone to biases, nearly impossible for poor-quality data, and so far has been done manually by scientists. We present a novel and automated machine-learning pipeline called Cavity Detection Tool (CADET), developed to detect and estimate the sizes of X-ray cavities from raw Chandra images. The pipeline consists of a convolutional neural network trained for producing pixel-wise cavity predictions and a DBSCAN clustering algorithm, which decomposes the predictions into individual cavities. The convolutional network was trained using mock observations of early-type galaxies simulated to resemble real noisy Chandra-like images. The network's performance has been tested on simulated data obtaining an average cavity volume error of 14 % at an 89 % true-positive rate. For simulated images without any X-ray cavities inserted, we obtain a 5 % false-positive rate. When applied to real Chandra images, the pipeline recovered 91 out of 100 previously known X-ray cavities in nearby early-type galaxies and all 14 cavities in chosen galaxy clusters. Besides that, the CADET pipeline discovered 8 new cavity pairs in atmospheres of early-type galaxies and galaxy clusters (IC4765, NGC533, NGC2300, NGC3091, NGC4073, NGC4125, NGC4472, NGC5129) and a number of potential cavity candidates.

  • 4 authors
·
Apr 11, 2023

Radio observations point to a moderately relativistic outflow in the fast X-ray transient EP241021a

Fast X-ray transients (FXRTs) are short-lived X-ray outbursts with diverse progenitor scenarios, including compact object mergers, stellar core-collapses and tidal disruption events. The Einstein Probe (EP) has enabled the rapid discovery and follow-up of dozens of FXRTs, revealing that while some of them overlap with traditional gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), a larger fraction of FXRTs have no associated gamma-ray counterpart down to deep limits. The origin of these gamma-ray dark FXRTs and their connection to the diverse landscape of stellar explosions remains an open question, which can be tackled through the study of their multi-wavelength counterparts and environment. In this paper, we present long-term radio observations of the gamma-ray dark EP241021a, which exhibits sustained radio emission for over 100 days, placing it among the longest-lived radio afterglows. We detect signature of interstellar scintillation in early epochs, allowing us to constrain the angular size and Lorentz factor of the emitting region. Our observations point to an outflow that is at least mildly relativistic with Lorentz factor > 4. Afterglow modeling favors a moderately relativistic and collimated outflow interacting with a low-density interstellar medium. The derived beaming-corrected kinetic energy and low radiative efficiency are consistent with a standard relativistic explosion which did not produce bright gamma-rays. Alternatively, a highly-relativistic structured jet remains consistent with our observations if seen substantially off-axis. In the latter case, the initial X-ray flare detected by EP would be caused by the slower ejecta from the lateral wings intercepting our line of sight rather than by traditional prompt-emission mechanisms within the jet core.

  • 10 authors
·
May 13, 2025

Jet-ISM Interaction in the Radio Galaxy 3C293: Jet-driven Shocks Heat ISM to Power X-ray and Molecular H2 emission

We present a 70ks Chandra observation of the radio galaxy 3C293. This galaxy belongs to the class of molecular hydrogen emission galaxies (MOHEGs) that have very luminous emission from warm molecular hydrogen. In radio galaxies, the molecular gas appears to be heated by jet-driven shocks, but exactly how this mechanism works is still poorly understood. With Chandra, we observe X-ray emission from the jets within the host galaxy and along the 100 kpc radio jets. We model the X-ray spectra of the nucleus, the inner jets, and the X-ray features along the extended radio jets. Both the nucleus and the inner jets show evidence of 10^7 K shock-heated gas. The kinetic power of the jets is more than sufficient to heat the X-ray emitting gas within the host galaxy. The thermal X-ray and warm H2 luminosities of 3C293 are similar, indicating similar masses of X-ray hot gas and warm molecular gas. This is consistent with a picture where both derive from a multiphase, shocked interstellar medium (ISM). We find that radio-loud MOHEGs that are not brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), like 3C293, typically have LH2/LX~1 and MH2/MX~1, whereas MOHEGs that are BCGs have LH2/LX~0.01 and MH2/MX~0.01. The more massive, virialized, hot atmosphere in BCGs overwhelms any direct X-ray emission from current jet-ISM interaction. On the other hand, LH2/LX~1 in the Spiderweb BCG at z=2, which resides in an unvirialized protocluster and hosts a powerful radio source. Over time, jet-ISM interaction may contribute to the establishment of a hot atmosphere in BCGs and other massive elliptical galaxies.

  • 6 authors
·
Jan 5, 2015

The GRACE project: Hard X-ray giant radio galaxies and their duty cycle

The advent of new generation radio telescopes is opening new possibilities on the classification and study of extragalactic high-energy sources, specially the underrepresented ones like radio galaxies. Among these, Giant Radio Galaxies (GRG, larger than 0.7 Mpc) are among the most extreme manifestations of the accretion/ejection processes on supermassive black holes. Our recent studies have shown that GRG can be up to four times more abundant in hard X-ray selected (i.e. from INTEGRAL/IBIS and Swift/BAT at >20 keV) samples and, most interestingly, the majority of them present signs of restarted radio activity. This makes them the ideal test-bed to study the so far unknown duty cycle of jets in active galactic nuclei. Open questions in the field include: How and when jets are restarted? How jets evolve and what's their dynamic? What is the jet's duty cycle and what triggers them? Our group has recently collected a wealth of radio data on these high-energy selected GRGs, allowing us to study their jet formation and evolution from the pc to kpc scales, across different activity epochs. In particular, thanks to our EVN large programme, we were able to probe the new radio phase in the core of these giants. Furthermore, we are devoting an effort to the exploitation of new radio surveys data for the discovery of new classes of counterparts of Fermi/LAT catalogues. In particular, we are unveiling the hidden population of radio galaxies associated with gamma-ray sources.

  • 17 authors
·
Jan 13, 2025

The Radio--X-ray Correlation of High-Redshift AGN: A Numerical Study of Inverse-Compton Scattering of the CMB Photons in Relativistic Jets

Relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei are expected to exhibit strong redshift evolution in their radiative output due to the increasing energy density of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We investigate the role of inverse Compton (IC) scattering of CMB photons in regulating the radio and X-ray emission from large-scale jets using three-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations coupled with a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian particle framework. By keeping the jet dynamics and ambient medium properties fixed across redshifts, we are able to isolate the impact of the cosmological evolution of the CMB on the jet radiation. From our simulations, we construct synthetic spectral energy distributions and intensity maps considering synchrotron and IC/CMB losses along with particle acceleration from shocks. We are able to reproduce the weak redshift dependence of radio luminosity and the strong enhancement of X-ray emission toward high redshift that is observed in radio-loud quasars. At high redshift, the X-ray luminosity follows the expected (1+z)^4 scaling, confirming IC/CMB as the dominant mechanism driving the X-ray enhancement. The resulting X-ray-to-radio flux ratio increases systematically with redshift and is consistent with observational constraints. Finally, we show that slower jets exhibit a stronger redshift evolution of the X-ray enhancement than faster jets, highlighting the critical role of jet propagation length scales and particle energy evolution. The simulations also naturally reproduce the steepening of the radio spectral index with redshift - the α-z relation - thus providing a unified framework that allows to interpret the multiwavelength properties of high-redshift radio sources.

  • 8 authors
·
May 29

Learning to Trigger: Reinforcement Learning at the Large Hadron Collider

High-throughput scientific facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider depend on real-time event filtering (triggering) under tight constraints on bandwidth, latency, and storage. In practice, trigger menus are largely static and hand-tuned and can become suboptimal as detector conditions, pileup, and background composition drift over time. We cast online threshold tuning as a sequential decision-making problem: a reinforcement learning agent ingests streaming summaries of recent rates and signal-sensitive features and updates trigger thresholds to maximize signal efficiency while tracking a target background rate within a tolerance band. We adapt Group-Filtered Policy Optimization (GFPO) to streaming control and introduce two variants (GFPO-F, GFPO-FR) that enforce background rate feasibility during training. On a benchmark that emulates realistic collider operation, we study two representative triggers: a total transverse energy (H_{T}) trigger sensitive to pileup variation, and an anomaly-detection (AD) trigger based on reconstruction loss for rare or non-standard signatures. On Monte Carlo streams, our agent increases the fraction of in-tolerance time intervals by 48\% (H_T) and 28\% (AD), with a cumulative gain of up to 2\% in signal efficiency on those in-tolerance intervals. Transferring from simulation to real collision data (CMS Run 283408), the same agent, without fine-tuning, achieves a 56\% (H_T) and 28\% (AD) in-tolerance improvement over baselines, with further signal-efficiency gain on both triggers. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of RL-based trigger control on real Large Hadron Collider collision data. Code is available at https://github.com/Zixind/GFPO_LHC (see repo for details).

Reconstructions of electron-temperature profiles from EUROfusion Pedestal Database using turbulence models and machine learning

This study uses plasma-profile data from the EUROfusion pedestal database, focusing on the electron-temperature and electron-density profiles in the edge region of H-mode ELMy JET ITER-Like-Wall (ILW) pulses. We make systematic predictions of the electron-temperature pedestal, using the density profiles and engineering parameters of the pulses as inputs. We first present a machine-learning algorithm that, given more inputs than theory-based modelling and 80\% of the database as training data, can reconstruct the remaining 20\% of temperature profiles within 20\% of the experimental values, including accurate estimates of the pedestal width and location. The most important engineering parameters for these predictions are magnetic field strength, particle fuelling rate, plasma current, and strike-point configuration. This confirms the potential of accurate pedestal prediction using large databases. Next, we take a simple theoretical approach assuming a local power-law relationship between the gradients of density (R/L_{n_e}) and temperature (R/L_{T_e}): R/L_{T_e}=Aleft(R/L_{n_e}right)^α with αapprox 0.4 fits well in the steep-gradient region. When A and α are fit independently for each pedestal, a one-to-one correlation emerges, also valid for JET-C data. For α= 1, A equiv η_e, a known control parameter for turbulence in slab-ETG theory. Measured values of η_e in the steep-gradient region lie well above the slab-ETG stability threshold, suggesting a nonlinear threshold shift or a supercritical turbulent state. Finally, we test heat-flux scalings motivated by gyrokinetic simulations, and we provide best-fit parameters for reconstructing JET-ILW pedestals. These models require additional experimental inputs to reach the accuracy of the machine-learning reconstructions.

  • 6 authors
·
Apr 24, 2025