In plain words: A neural network learns to draw the 3D energy pattern a particle leaves in a detector, replacing the usual step-by-step simulation of every interaction to make collision data cheaply. It reproduces key shower properties while running up to 100,000 times faster.
Abstract · Accelerating Science with Generative Adversarial Networks: An Application to 3D Particle Showers in Multi-Layer Calorimeters
Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) rely on detailed simulations of particle collisions to build expectations of what experimental data may look like under different theory modeling assumptions. Petabytes of simulated data are needed to develop analysis techniques, though they are expensive to generate using existing algorithms and computing resources. The modeling of detectors and the precise description of particle cascades as they interact with the material in the calorimeter are the most computationally demanding steps in the simulation pipeline. We therefore introduce a deep neural network-based generative model to enable high-fidelity, fast, electromagnetic calorimeter simulation. There are still challenges for achieving precision across the entire phase space, but our current solution can reproduce a variety of particle shower properties while achieving speed-up factors of up to 100,000$\times$. This opens the door to a new era of fast simulation that could save significant computing time and disk space, while extending the reach of physics searches and precision measurements at the LHC and beyond.
Michela Paganini, Luke de Oliveira, Benjamin Nachman
arXiv:1705.02355 · hep-ex, hep-ph, stat.ML · submitted May 5, 2017 · updated Dec 21, 2017
abstract · pdf · html · 6 pages, 3 figures; version accepted by Physical Review Letters (PRL)