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Neubauer, Mark S. (ORCID:0000000184349274)

Publications and source records attributed to Neubauer, Mark S. (ORCID:0000000184349274).

Smart pixel sensors: towards on-sensor filtering of pixel clusters with deep learning

Highly granular pixel detectors allow for increasingly precise measurements of charged particle tracks. Next-generation detectors require that pixel sizes will be further reduced, leading to unprecedented data rates exceeding those foreseen at the High- Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. Signal processing that handles data incoming at a rate of $\mathcal{O}$(40 MHz) and intelligently reduces the data within the pixelated region of the detector at rate will enhance physics performance at high luminosity and enable physics analyses that are not currently possible. Using the shape of charge clusters deposited in an array of small pixels, the physical properties of the traversing particle can be extracted with locally customized neural networks. In this first demonstration, we present a neural network that can be embedded into the on-sensor readout and filter out hits from low momentum tracks, reducing the detector's data volume by 57.1%–75.7%. The network is designed and simulated as a custom readout integrated circuit with 28 nm CMOS technology and is expected to operate at less than 300 μW with an area of less than 0.2 mm 2 . The temporal development of charge clusters is investigated to demonstrate possible future performance gains, and there is also a discussion of future algorithmic and technological improvements that could enhance efficiency, data reduction, and power per area.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

FAIR AI models in high energy physics

Abstract The findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data principles provide a framework for examining, evaluating, and improving how data is shared to facilitate scientific discovery. Generalizing these principles to research software and other digital products is an active area of research. Machine learning models—algorithms that have been trained on data without being explicitly programmed—and more generally, artificial intelligence (AI) models, are an important target for this because of the ever-increasing pace with which AI is transforming scientific domains, such as experimental high energy physics (HEP). In this paper, we propose a practical definition of FAIR principles for AI models in HEP and describe a template for the application of these principles. We demonstrate the template’s use with an example AI model applied to HEP, in which a graph neural network is used to identify Higgs bosons decaying to two bottom quarks. We report on the robustness of this FAIR AI model, its portability across hardware architectures and software frameworks, and its interpretability.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A detailed study of interpretability of deep neural network based top taggers

Abstract Recent developments in the methods of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) allow researchers to explore the inner workings of deep neural networks (DNNs), revealing crucial information about input–output relationships and realizing how data connects with machine learning models. In this paper we explore interpretability of DNN models designed to identify jets coming from top quark decay in high energy proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. We review a subset of existing top tagger models and explore different quantitative methods to identify which features play the most important roles in identifying the top jets. We also investigate how and why feature importance varies across different XAI metrics, how correlations among features impact their explainability, and how latent space representations encode information as well as correlate with physically meaningful quantities. Our studies uncover some major pitfalls of existing XAI methods and illustrate how they can be overcome to obtain consistent and meaningful interpretation of these models. We additionally illustrate the activity of hidden layers as neural activation pattern diagrams and demonstrate how they can be used to understand how DNNs relay information across the layers and how this understanding can help to make such models significantly simpler by allowing effective model reoptimization and hyperparameter tuning. These studies not only facilitate a methodological approach to interpreting models but also unveil new insights about what these models learn. Incorporating these observations into augmented model design, we propose the particle flow interaction network model and demonstrate how interpretability-inspired model augmentation can improve top tagging performance.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A FAIR and AI-ready Higgs boson decay dataset

Abstract To enable the reusability of massive scientific datasets by humans and machines, researchers aim to adhere to the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) for data and artificial intelligence (AI) models. This article provides a domain-agnostic, step-by-step assessment guide to evaluate whether or not a given dataset meets these principles. We demonstrate how to use this guide to evaluate the FAIRness of an open simulated dataset produced by the CMS Collaboration at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. This dataset consists of Higgs boson decays and quark and gluon background, and is available through the CERN Open Data Portal. We use additional available tools to assess the FAIRness of this dataset, and incorporate feedback from members of the FAIR community to validate our results. This article is accompanied by a Jupyter notebook to visualize and explore this dataset. This study marks the first in a planned series of articles that will guide scientists in the creation of FAIR AI models and datasets in high energy particle physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗