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Benjamin Nachman

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin Nachman.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

Simulating collider physics on quantum computers using effective field theories

Simulating the full dynamics of a quantum field theory over a wide range of energies requires exceptionally large quantum computing resources. Yet for many observables in particle physics, perturbative techniques are sufficient to accurately model all but a constrained range of energies within the validity of the theory. We demonstrate that effective field theories (EFTs) provide an efficient mechanism to separate the high energy dynamics that is easily calculated by traditional perturbation theory from the dynamics at low energy and show how quantum algorithms can be used to simulate the dynamics of the low energy EFT from first principles. As an explicit example we calculate the expectation values of vacuum-to-vacuum and vacuum-to-one-particle transitions in the presence of a time-ordered product of two Wilson lines in scalar field theory, an object closely related to those arising in EFTs of the Standard Model of particle physics. Calculations are performed using simulations of a quantum computer as well as measurements using the IBMQ Manhattan machine.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

A Living Review of Machine Learning for Particle Physics

Modern machine learning techniques, including deep learning, are rapidly being applied, adapted, and developed for high energy physics. Given the fast pace of this research, we have created a living review with the goal of providing a nearly comprehensive list of citations for those developing and applying these approaches to experimental, phenomenological, or theoretical analyses. As a living document, it will be updated as often as possible to incorporate the latest developments. A list of proper (unchanging) reviews can be found within. Papers are grouped into a small set of topics to be as useful as possible. Suggestions and contributions are most welcome, and we provide instructions for participating.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

The LHC Olympics 2020: A Community Challenge for Anomaly Detection in High Energy Physics

A new paradigm for data-driven, model-agnostic new physics searches at colliders is emerging, and aims to leverage recent breakthroughs in anomaly detection and machine learning. In order to develop and benchmark new anomaly detection methods within this framework, it is essential to have standard datasets. To this end, we have created the LHC Olympics 2020, a community challenge accompanied by a set of simulated collider events. Participants in these Olympics have developed their methods using an R&D dataset and then tested them on black boxes: datasets with an unknown anomaly (or not). This paper will review the LHC Olympics 2020 challenge, including an overview of the competition, a description of methods deployed in the competition, lessons learned from the experience, and implications for data analyses with future datasets as well as future colliders.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

Expression of Interest for the CODEX-b Detector

This document presents the physics case and ancillary studies for the proposed CODEX-b long-lived particle (LLP) detector, as well as for a smaller proof-of-concept demonstrator detector, CODEX-$β$, to be operated during Run 3 of the LHC. Our development of the CODEX-b physics case synthesizes `top-down' and `bottom-up' theoretical approaches, providing a detailed survey of both minimal and complete models featuring LLPs. Several of these models have not been studied previously, and for some others we amend studies from previous literature: In particular, for gluon and fermion-coupled axion-like particles. We moreover present updated simulations of expected backgrounds in CODEX-b's actively shielded environment, including the effects of shielding propagation uncertainties, high-energy tails and variation in the shielding design. Initial results are also included from a background measurement and calibration campaign. A design overview is presented for the CODEX-$β$ demonstrator detector, which will enable background calibration and detector design studies. Finally, we lay out brief studies of various design drivers of the CODEX-b experiment and potential extensions of the baseline design, including the physics case for a calorimeter element, precision timing, event tagging within LHCb, and precision low-momentum tracking.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2020

Anomaly Detection for Physics Analysis and Less than Supervised Learning

Modern machine learning tools offer exciting possibilities to qualitatively change the paradigm for new particle searches. In particular, new methods can broaden the search program by gaining sensitivity to unforeseen scenarios by learning directly from data. There has been a significant growth in new ideas and they are just starting to be applied to experimental data. This chapter introduces these new anomaly detection methods, which range from fully supervised algorithms to unsupervised, and include weakly supervised methods.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

A Neural Resampler for Monte Carlo Reweighting with Preserved Uncertainties

Monte Carlo event generators are an essential tool for data analysis in collider physics. To include subleading quantum corrections, these generators often need to produce negative weight events, which leads to statistical dilution of the datasets and downstream computational costs for detector simulation. Building on the recent proposal of a positive resampler method to rebalance weights within histogram bins, we introduce neural resampling: an unbinned approach to Monte Carlo reweighting based on neural networks that scales well to high-dimensional and variable-dimensional phase space. We pay particular attention to preserving the statistical properties of the event sample, such that neural resampling not only maintains the mean value of any observable but also its Monte Carlo uncertainty. This uncertainty preservation scheme is general and can also be applied to binned (non-neural network) resampling. To illustrate our neural resampling approach, we present a case study from the Large Hadron Collider of top quark pair production at next-to-leading order matched to a parton shower.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Readout Rebalancing for Near Term Quantum Computers

Readout errors are a significant source of noise for near term intermediate scale quantum computers. Mismeasuring a qubit as a 1 when it should be 0 occurs much less often than mismeasuring a qubit as a 0 when it should have been 1. We make the simple observation that one can improve the readout fidelity of quantum computers by applying targeted X gates prior to performing a measurement. These X gates are placed so that the expected number of qubits in the 1 state is minimized. Classical post processing can undo the effect of the X gates so that the expectation value of any observable is unchanged. We show that the statistical uncertainty following readout error corrections is smaller when using readout rebalancing. The statistical advantage is circuit- and computer-dependent, and is demonstrated for the $W$ state, a Grover search, and for a Gaussian state. The benefit in statistical precision is most pronounced (and nearly a factor of two in some cases) when states with many qubits in the excited state have high probability.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2020

Supervised Jet Clustering with Graph Neural Networks for Lorentz Boosted Bosons

Jet clustering is traditionally an unsupervised learning task because there is no unique way to associate hadronic final states with the quark and gluon degrees of freedom that generated them. However, for uncolored particles like $W$, $Z$, and Higgs bosons, it is possible to approximately (though not exactly) associate final state hadrons to their ancestor. By labeling simulated final state hadrons as descending from an uncolored particle, it is possible to train a supervised learning method to create boson jets. Such a method much operates on individual particles and identifies connections between particles originating from the same uncolored particle. Graph neural networks are well-suited for this purpose as they can act on unordered sets and naturally create strong connections between particles with the same label. These networks are used to train a supervised jet clustering algorithm. The kinematic properties of these graph jets better match the properties of simulated Lorentz-boosted $W$ bosons. Furthermore, the graph jets contain more information for discriminating $W$ jets from generic quark jets. This work marks the beginning of a new exploration in jet physics to use machine learning to optimize the construction of jets and not only the observables computed from jet constituents.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Simulation-Assisted Decorrelation for Resonant Anomaly Detection

A growing number of weak- and unsupervised machine learning approaches to anomaly detection are being proposed to significantly extend the search program at the Large Hadron Collider and elsewhere. One of the prototypical examples for these methods is the search for resonant new physics, where a bump hunt can be performed in an invariant mass spectrum. A significant challenge to methods that rely entirely on data is that they are susceptible to sculpting artificial bumps from the dependence of the machine learning classifier on the invariant mass. We explore two solutions to this challenge by minimally incorporating simulation into the learning. In particular, we study the robustness of Simulation Assisted Likelihood-free Anomaly Detection (SALAD) to correlations between the classifier and the invariant mass. Next, we propose a new approach that only uses the simulation for decorrelation but the Classification without Labels (CWoLa) approach for achieving signal sensitivity. Both methods are compared using a full background fit analysis on simulated data from the LHC Olympics and are robust to correlations in the data.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

DCTRGAN: Improving the Precision of Generative Models with Reweighting

Significant advances in deep learning have led to more widely used and precise neural network-based generative models such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). We introduce a post-hoc correction to deep generative models to further improve their fidelity, based on the Deep neural networks using the Classification for Tuning and Reweighting (DCTR) protocol. The correction takes the form of a reweighting function that can be applied to generated examples when making predictions from the simulation. We illustrate this approach using GANs trained on standard multimodal probability densities as well as calorimeter simulations from high energy physics. We show that the weighted GAN examples significantly improve the accuracy of the generated samples without a large loss in statistical power. This approach could be applied to any generative model and is a promising refinement method for high energy physics applications and beyond.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

New Method for Silicon Sensor Charge Calibration Using Compton Scattering

In order to cope with increasing lifetime radiation damage expected at collider experiments, silicon sensors are becoming increasingly thin. To achieve adequate detection efficiency, the next generation of detectors may have to operate with thresholds below 1000 electron-hole pairs. The readout chips attached to these sensors should be calibrated to some known external charge, but there is a lack of traditional sources in this charge regime. We present a new method for absolute charge calibration based on Compton scattering. In the past, this method has been used for calibration of scintillators, but to our knowledge never for silicon detectors. Here it has been studied using a 150 micron thick planar silicon sensor on an RD53A readout integrated circuit.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2020

ABCDisCo: Automating the ABCD Method with Machine Learning

The ABCD method is one of the most widely used data-driven background estimation techniques in high energy physics. Cuts on two statistically-independent classifiers separate signal and background into four regions, so that background in the signal region can be estimated simply using the other three control regions. Typically, the independent classifiers are chosen "by hand" to be intuitive and physically motivated variables. Here, we explore the possibility of automating the design of one or both of these classifiers using machine learning. We show how to use state-of-the-art decorrelation methods to construct powerful yet independent discriminators. Along the way, we uncover a previously unappreciated aspect of the ABCD method: its accuracy hinges on having low signal contamination in control regions not just overall, but relative to the signal fraction in the signal region. We demonstrate the method with three examples: a simple model consisting of three-dimensional Gaussians; boosted hadronic top jet tagging; and a recasted search for paired dijet resonances. In all cases, automating the ABCD method with machine learning significantly improves performance in terms of ABCD closure, background rejection and signal contamination.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Anomaly Detection with Density Estimation

We leverage recent breakthroughs in neural density estimation to propose a new unsupervised anomaly detection technique (ANODE). By estimating the probability density of the data in a signal region and in sidebands, and interpolating the latter into the signal region, a likelihood ratio of data vs. background can be constructed. This likelihood ratio is broadly sensitive to overdensities in the data that could be due to localized anomalies. In addition, a unique potential benefit of the ANODE method is that the background can be directly estimated using the learned densities. Finally, ANODE is robust against systematic differences between signal region and sidebands, giving it broader applicability than other methods. We demonstrate the power of this new approach using the LHC Olympics 2020 R\&D Dataset. We show how ANODE can enhance the significance of a dijet bump hunt by up to a factor of 7 with a 10\% accuracy on the background prediction. While the LHC is used as the recurring example, the methods developed here have a much broader applicability to anomaly detection in physics and beyond.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Unfolding Quantum Computer Readout Noise

In the current era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers, noisy qubits can result in biased results for early quantum algorithm applications. This is a significant challenge for interpreting results from quantum computer simulations for quantum chemistry, nuclear physics, high energy physics, and other emerging scientific applications. An important class of qubit errors are readout errors. The most basic method to correct readout errors is matrix inversion, using a response matrix built from simple operations to probe the rate of transitions from known initial quantum states to readout outcomes. One challenge with inverting matrices with large off-diagonal components is that the results are sensitive to statistical fluctuations. This challenge is familiar to high energy physics, where prior-independent regularized matrix inversion techniques (`unfolding') have been developed for years to correct for acceptance and detector effects when performing differential cross section measurements. We study various unfolding methods in the context of universal gate-based quantum computers with the goal of connecting the fields of quantum information science and high energy physics and providing a reference for future work. The method known as iterative Bayesian unfolding is shown to avoid pathologies from commonly used matrix inversion and least squares methods.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2020

OmniFold: A Method to Simultaneously Unfold All Observables

Collider data must be corrected for detector effects ("unfolded") to be compared with many theoretical calculations and measurements from other experiments. Unfolding is traditionally done for individual, binned observables without including all information relevant for characterizing the detector response. We introduce OmniFold, an unfolding method that iteratively reweights a simulated dataset, using machine learning to capitalize on all available information. Our approach is unbinned, works for arbitrarily high-dimensional data, and naturally incorporates information from the full phase space. We illustrate this technique on a realistic jet substructure example from the Large Hadron Collider and compare it to standard binned unfolding methods. This new paradigm enables the simultaneous measurement of all observables, including those not yet invented at the time of the analysis.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Resource Efficient Zero Noise Extrapolation with Identity Insertions

In addition to readout errors, two-qubit gate noise is the main challenge for complex quantum algorithms on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. These errors are a significant challenge for making accurate calculations for quantum chemistry, nuclear physics, high energy physics, and other emerging scientific and industrial applications. There are two proposals for mitigating two-qubit gate errors: error-correcting codes and zero-noise extrapolation. This paper focuses on the latter, studying it in detail and proposing modifications to existing approaches. In particular, we propose a random identity insertion method (RIIM) that can achieve competitive asymptotic accuracy with far fewer gates than the traditional fixed identity insertion method (FIIM). For example, correcting the leading order depolarizing gate noise requires $n_\text{CNOT}+2$ gates for RIIM instead of $3n_\text{CNOT}$ gates for FIIM. This significant resource saving may enable more accurate results for state-of-the-art calculations on near term quantum hardware.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2020

Simulation Assisted Likelihood-free Anomaly Detection

Given the lack of evidence for new particle discoveries at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it is critical to broaden the search program. A variety of model-independent searches have been proposed, adding sensitivity to unexpected signals. There are generally two types of such searches: those that rely heavily on simulations and those that are entirely based on (unlabeled) data. This paper introduces a hybrid method that makes the best of both approaches. For potential signals that are resonant in one known feature, this new method first learns a parameterized reweighting function to morph a given simulation to match the data in sidebands. This function is then interpolated into the signal region and then the reweighted background-only simulation can be used for supervised learning as well as for background estimation. The background estimation from the reweighted simulation allows for non-trivial correlations between features used for classification and the resonant feature. A dijet search with jet substructure is used to illustrate the new method. Future applications of Simulation Assisted Likelihood-free Anomaly Detection (SALAD) include a variety of final states and potential combinations with other model-independent approaches.

hep-ph↗