Promotionsvortrag Physik: „Event Reconstruction For Particle Detector Arrays Using Template-Based And Machine Learning Methods“

Ankündigung des Promotionsvortrags von: Frau Franziska Leitl

The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) is a next-generation WCD experiment designed to expand WCD observations to the Southern sky for the first time. As SWGO is still under development, optimizing its event reconstruction algorithms is crucial to ensure optimal in-strument performance and to support SWGO’s goals of investigating the Universe’s highest-en-ergy gamma rays and their origins.

In this work, two different approaches were developed to reconstruct the energy, core position, and arrival direction of gamma rays for SWGO. The first method employs a template-based ap-proach, achieving an energy resolution of up to 20%, exceeding that of current-generation instru-ments and the initial expectations of the experiment, and a core resolution of roughly 3m, allowing for effective data-quality cuts. The novel template-based direction reconstruction shows promise in improving the instrument’s angular resolution above 100 TeV compared to the current standard algorithm. The second method explores novel machine learning approaches based on Graph Neu-ral Networks (GNNs) and Graphformer architectures. Compared to the respective standard meth-ods, the GNN improved energy reconstruction, reaching resolutions close to 15%, while the Graphformer significantly enhanced core and angular resolutions, with gains of up to 25%.

Both the template- and deep-learning-based algorithms promise an excellent event reconstruction capability for SWGO, indicating a strong point-source sensitivity and the ability to probe the high-est-energy gamma rays produced across the Universe.

(Vortrag auf Englisch)

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