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Yangheng Zheng

Publications and source records attributed to Yangheng Zheng.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Learning transferable event representations for charmed baryon physics at BESIII

Deep learning has become an essential tool in high-energy physics, where the ability to learn transferable event representations can significantly improve model generalization across related physics processes. In this work, we present a Particle Transformer-based framework for learning such representations for charmed baryon physics in the BESIII experiment. The framework is implemented through large-scale pre-training on Monte Carlo simulation samples and subsequent fine-tuning for downstream analyses. Using the production and decays of the charmed baryon $Λ_c^+$ as a benchmark, we develop pre-trained models for both event classification and momentum-direction regression. The classification model learns discriminative event representations for the dominant physics categories, rejecting 97.0\% of background events at a signal efficiency of 90.0\%. Across 12 benchmark $Λ_c^+$ decay channels, fine-tuning from the pre-trained model achieves performance comparable or better than training from scratch, with particularly clear improvements in low-statistics regimes. For the regression task, the pre-trained model improves the momentum-direction prediction across the same benchmark channels. Further improvement is obtained after fine-tuning in the representative semileptonic decay $Λ_c^+ \to p K^- e^+ ν_e$. This strategy provides a scalable solution for a wide range of physics cases at BESIII and can be extended to other high energy experiments.

physics.data-an

Mountain Muography for China Jinping Underground Laboratory

The China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), located $\sim 2,400$~m beneath Jinping Mountain, is one of the world's deepest and largest ($\sim 300{,}000~\mathrm{m}^3$) underground facilities, hosting dark matter, nuclear astrophysics, and neutrino experiments. We report the first muon radiography (muography) conducted at this extraordinary depth. Cosmic muons detected by a one-ton prototype developed for the Jinping Neutrino Experiment were used to perform non-invasive subsurface density mapping over a 3~km lateral range. The 1.3~m diameter detector provides nearly isotropic acceptance and an angular resolution of $\sim 4.5^\circ$. By correlating the predicted surface muon flux distributions with the underground measurements, we reconstruct a directional opacity map that constrains the density structure of the overburden and shows excellent agreement with satellite-derived terrain models. This work demonstrates the feasibility of muography at extreme depths with kilometer-scale overburden and establishes a robust methodology for future geophysical applications and large-scale facilities, such as the full Jinping Neutrino Experiment. Based on this validated overburden model, we further predict the total muon fluxes for the eight experimental halls in CJPL-II, providing essential input for their physics programs.

hep-ex

Understanding the impact of nuclear effects on proton decay searches with the GiBUU model

Proton decay searches in the next generation of water Cherenkov detectors, such as Hyper-Kamiokande, are expected to probe the $10^{35}$-year lifetime regime where atmospheric neutrino backgrounds and systematic uncertainties begin to play an increasingly important role. In this study, we employ the GiBUU framework and reevaluate the proton decay search sensitivity for the $\textrm{p}\rightarrow\textrm{e}^{+}π^{0}$ channel by incorporating a typical event reconstruction performance in water Cherenkov detectors. Using sophisticated models implemented in GiBUU -- most notably the mean-field potential and Boltzmann transport -- which have been benchmarked against accelerator neutrino scattering data, in particular pion production, we find that the resulting proton decay signal detection efficiency and atmospheric neutrino background rate are comparable to those previously evaluated for the current and near future water Cherenkov experiments using $\textit{ad hoc}$ nuclear models. In addition to pion final-state interactions, we evaluate the impact of differences in the Fermi momentum distribution of nucleons in the nucleus, as a source of systematic uncertainty, on the signal detection efficiency and the expected background event rate. We find that the uncertainty associated with pion final-state interactions is moderate, whereas the choice of Fermi momentum distribution can significantly affect the estimated atmospheric neutrino background rate and constitutes the dominant contribution. Our study provides an independent and complementary characterisation of nuclear effects on proton decay searches and helps to refine sensitivity estimates in the regime where systematic uncertainties become more relevant.

hep-ex

Investigating Production of TeV-scale Muons in Extensive Air Shower at 2400 Meters Underground

Deep underground experiments present a new avenue to probe the first interactions in extensive air showers or hadronic interactions in the extreme forward phase space. The China Jinping Underground Laboratory, characterized by a vertical rock overburden of 2,400~m, provides an exceptionally effective shield against cosmic muons with energies below 3~TeV. The surviving high-energy muons, produced in the first interactions of extensive air showers, open a unique observational window into primary cosmic rays from tens of TeV up to the PeV scale and beyond. This distinctive feature also enables detailed studies of charged hadron production in the earliest stages of shower development. Using 1,338.6 live days of data collected with a one-ton prototype detector for the Jinping Neutrino Experiment, we measured the underground muon flux originating from air showers. The results show discrepancies of about 40\% corresponding to significances of more than 2$σ$, relative to predictions from several leading hadronic interaction models. We interpret these findings from two complementary perspectives: (i) by adopting the expected cosmic-ray spectra, we constrain the modeling of the first hadronic interactions in air showers and provide novel insights into resolving the long-standing \textit{muon puzzle}; and (ii) by assuming specific hadronic interaction models, we infer the mass composition of cosmic rays, and our data favor a lighter component in the corresponding energy range. Our study demonstrates the potential of deep underground laboratories to provide new experimental insights into air shower physics and cosmic rays.

hep-ex

The Physics and Prospects of Super-Tau Charm Factories

The proposed Super tau-charm factories are a powerful new class of high-luminosity electron-positron colliders operating in the center-of-mass energy range between 2 and 7 GeV, a region that spans thresholds for tau leptons, open-charm hadrons, charmonium and charmonium-like states, hyperons, and light hadrons. With unprecedented data samples, threshold kinematics, and quantum-coherent production, these facilities offer unique opportunities to advance precision tests of the Standard Model and to search for physics beyond it. In this review, we examine the physics prospects of the Super Tau-Charm Facility, focusing on precision charm measurements, CP violation in mesons and baryons, tau lepton properties and rare decays, and nonperturbative QCD phenomena such as hadronization, spectroscopy, and time-like form factors. We also discuss the experimental landscape, technological challenges, and complementarity with existing and planned facilities. Together, these capabilities position super tau-charm factories at the forefront of the precision frontier in particle physics.

hep-ph

In-Orbit GRB Identification Using LLM-based model for the CXPD CubeSat

To validate key technologies for wide field-of-view (FOV) X-ray polarization measurements, the Cosmic X-ray Polarization Detector (CXPD) CubeSat series has been developed as a prototype platform for the Low-Energy X-ray Polarization Detector (LPD) onboard the POLAR-2 mission. The wide-FOV design significantly increases the complexity of the background environment, posing notable challenges for real-time gamma-ray burst (GRB) identification. In this work, we propose an in-orbit GRB identification method based on machine learning, using simulated spectral data as input. A training dataset was constructed using a Geant4-based simulator, incorporating in-orbit background and GRB events modeled within the 2-10 keV energy range. To meet the computational constraints of onboard processing, we employ a multimodal large language model (MLLM), which is fine-tuned using low-rank adaptation (LoRA) based on miniCPM-V2.6 and quantized to 4-bit precision. The model achieves perfect classification accuracy on validation data and demonstrates strong regression performance in estimating GRB spectral indices, with an RMSE of 0.118. Furthermore, we validate the feasibility of onboard deployment through a simulated satellite data processing pipeline, highlighting the potential of our approach to enable future real-time GRB detection and spectral analysis in orbit.

astro-ph.IM

Vision Calorimeter for Anti-neutron Reconstruction: A Baseline

In high-energy physics, anti-neutrons ($\bar{n}$) are fundamental particles that frequently appear as final-state particles, and the reconstruction of their kinematic properties provides an important probe for understanding the governing principles. However, this confronts significant challenges instrumentally with the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC), a typical experimental sensor but recovering the information of incident $\bar{n}$ insufficiently. In this study, we introduce Vision Calorimeter (ViC), a baseline method for anti-neutron reconstruction that leverages deep learning detectors to analyze the implicit relationships between EMC responses and incident $\bar{n}$ characteristics. Our motivation lies in that energy distributions of $\bar{n}$ samples deposited in the EMC cell arrays embody rich contextual information. Converted to 2-D images, such contextual energy distributions can be used to predict the status of $\bar{n}$ ($i.e.$, incident position and momentum) through a deep learning detector along with pseudo bounding boxes and a specified training objective. Experimental results demonstrate that ViC substantially outperforms the conventional reconstruction approach, reducing the prediction error of incident position by 42.81% (from 17.31$^{\circ}$ to 9.90$^{\circ}$). More importantly, this study for the first time realizes the measurement of incident $\bar{n}$ momentum, underscoring the potential of deep learning detectors for particle reconstruction. Code is available at https://github.com/yuhongtian17/ViC.

hep-ex

Experimental overview on the charmed baryon decays

The charmed baryon was first observed experimentally in 1975, one year after the charm quark's confirmation via the discovery of the $J/ψ$ particle. Studying charmed baryon decays provides a pathway to investigate both strong and weak interactions, leveraging the weak decays of the embedded charm quark. However, for approximately three decades following its discovery, experimental knowledge of charmed baryons remained significantly limited compared to those of the hidden-charm $ψ$ mesons and open-charm $D_{(s)}$ mesons. This situation changed markedly starting in 2014, when dedicated data collection for charmed baryons commenced at BESIII. In this article, we review the experimental progress achieved since 2014 in understanding the weak decays of the charmed baryons.

hep-ex

Understanding neutrino pion production with the GiBUU model

Pion production is a major source of systematic uncertainty in neutrino oscillation measurements. We report a systematic investigation of neutrino-induced pion production using MINERvA and MicroBooNE data within the GiBUU theoretical framework. The analysis begins by establishing baseline model parameters using inclusive and pionless data from MINERvA, MicroBooNE, and T2K experiments. We then examine the role of in-medium effects, including resonance broadening and nucleon-nucleon final-state interactions. While agreement with individual datasets can be achieved through specific model configurations, we demonstrate the difficulty of a unified description across all experiments: MINERvA measurements prefer minimum in-medium modifications, whereas MicroBooNE data require the maximum in-medium enhancement, revealing the complexity and richness of the underlying nuclear dynamics.

hep-ex

Performance of a Large-Volume Cryogenic Pure CsI Detector for CEνNS and Low-Energy Rare-Event Searches

A cryogenic detector system based on two 3.3 kg high-purity CsI crystals was developed and characterized at approximately 95 K. Each wedge-shaped crystal was coupled to dual-ended 3-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for scintillation readout. The measured light yields were $28.7 \pm 0.9$ and $29.3 \pm 1.0$ photoelectrons per keV electron-equivalent (PE/keV$_{ee}$) for the two crystals, with corresponding energy resolutions of 7.2 \% and 7.7 \% (FWHM) at 59.6 keV. The detector demonstrated excellent spatial uniformity, low intrinsic radioactivity, and stable operation over a continuous one-month period. Optical photon simulations using Geant4 reproduced the observed light collection trends, providing guidance for detector optimization. These results establish cryogenic pure CsI as a scalable technology for low-threshold rare-event searches.

physics.ins-det

Characterization and Optimization of a Cryogenic Pure CsI Detector with Remarkable Light Yield and Unprecedented Energy Resolution for CLOVERS Experiment

In this study, we comprehensively characterized and optimized a cryogenic pure CsI (pCsI) detector. We utilized a {$\SI{2}{cm}\times\SI{2}{cm}\times\SI{2}{cm}$} cube crystal coupled with a HAMAMATSU R11065 photomultiplier tube, achieving a remarkable light yield of \SI{35.2}{PE/\keV_{ee}} and an unprecedented energy resolution of \SI{6.9}{\%} at {\SI{59.54}{\keV}}. Additionally, we measured the scintillation decay time of pCsI, which was significantly shorter than that of CsI(Na) at room temperature. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of temperature, surface treatment, and crystal shape on light yield. Notably, the light yield peaked at approximately \SI{20}{\K} and remained stable within the range of \SI{70}--\SI{100}{\K}. The light yield of the polished crystals was approximately 1.5 times greater than that of the ground crystals, whereas the crystal shape exhibited minimal influence on the light yield. These results are crucial for the design of the \SI{10}{\kg} pCsI detector for the future CLOVERS (Coherent eLastic neutrinO(V)-nucleus scattERing at China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS)) experiment.`

physics.ins-det

The Ghent Hybrid Model in NuWro: a new neutrino single-pion production model in the GeV regime

Neutrino-induced single-pion production constitutes an essential interaction channel in modern neutrino oscillation experiments, with its products building up a significant fraction of the observable hadronic final states. Frameworks of oscillation analyses strongly rely on Monte Carlo neutrino event generators, which provide theoretical predictions of neutrino interactions on nuclear targets. Thus, it is crucial to integrate state-of-the-art single-pion production models with Monte Carlo simulations to prepare for the upcoming systematics-dominated landscape of neutrino measurements. In this work, we present the implementation of the Ghent Hybrid model for neutrino-induced single-pion production in the NuWro Monte Carlo event generator. The interaction dynamics includes coherently-added contributions from nucleon resonances and a non-resonant background, merged into the pythia branching predictions in the deep-inelastic regime, as instrumented by NuWro. This neutrino-nucleon interaction model is fully incorporated into the nuclear framework of the generator, allowing it to account for the influence of both initial- and final-state nuclear medium effects. We compare the predictions of this integrated implementation with recent pion production data from accelerator-based neutrino experiments. The results of the novel model show improved agreement of the generator predictions with the data and point to the significance of the refined treatment of the description of pion-production processes beyond the $Δ$ region.

hep-ph

The Pixel Charging-up effect in Gas Micro-Pixel Detectors

This study investigates the charging-up effect on the Topmetal-II- chip in Gas Micro-Pixel Detectors(GMPD). It is found that this effect differs from the charging-up typically observed in gas detector multiplier devices and increases the relative gain of the detector. The research indicates that this effect originates from the accumulation of charges on the insulating layer of the chip's pixel surface. Iterative simulations using COMSOL and GARFIELD++ are employed to model the variation of detector relative gain with the charging-up effect, and a simple yet effective model is proposed, which aligns well with experimental data. The feasibility of validating the deposition of resistive materials and adjusting the local voltage distribution on the chip to suppress charging-up effects and enhance the relative gain is also verified.

physics.ins-det

Effectiveness Study of Calibration and Correction Algorithms on the Prototype of the POLAR-2/LPD Detector

Gaseous X-ray polarimetry refers to a class of detectors used for measuring the polarization of soft X-rays. The systematic effects of such detectors introduce residual modulation, leading to systematic biases in the polarization detection results of the source. This paper discusses the systematic effects and their calibration and correction using the Gas Microchannel Plate-Pixel Detector (GMPD) prototype for POLAR-2/Low-Energy X-ray Polarization Detector (LPD). Additionally, we propose an algorithm that combines parameterization with Monte Carlo simulation and Bayesian iteration to eliminate residual modulation. The residual modulation after data correction at different energy points has been reduced to below 1%, and a good linear relationship is observed between the polarization degree and modulation degree. The improvement in modulation degree after correction ranges from 2% to 15%, and the results exceed those of the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) above 5 keV.

astro-ph.IM

Recent Progress in Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays of Charmed Hadrons

We present a comprehensive review of purely leptonic and semileptonic decays of $D^{0(+)}$, $D_s^{+}$, and charmed baryons (including $Λ_c^{+}$, $Ξ_c$ and $Ω_c$). The precise studies of these decays help deepen our understanding and knowledge of quantum chromodynamics via measuring decay constants and form factors, and test the Standard Model through examining the unitarity of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and lepton flavor universality. We give an overview of the theoretical and experimental tools before discussing the recent progress. The data sets collected by BESIII near the production thresholds of $D\bar{D}$, $D_s^{(*)+}D_s^{(*)-}$ and $Λ_c^{+}\barΛ_c^{-}$ offer important opportunities for studies of charm physics.

hep-ex

Reconstruction Algorithm for a Novel Cherenkov Scintillation Detector

For future MeV-scale neutrino experiments, a Cherenkov scintillation detector, CSD, is of particular interest for its capability to reconstruct both energy and direction for charged particles. A type of new target material, slow liquid scintillator, SlowLS, which can be used to separate Cherenkov and scintillation lights, is one of the options for the neutrino detectors. A multi-hundred ton spherical CSD is simulated using a Geant4-based Monte Carlo software, which handles the detailed the micro processes of MeV particles and optical photons and the functions for photomultiplier, PMT, and readout electronics. Twelve SlowLS samples are simulated and studied to cover a wide range of scintillation light yields and scintillation emission time constants. Based on the detailed knowledge of the signal processes, simplified functions are constructed to predict the charge and time signals on the PMTs to fulfill an efficient reconstruction for the energy, direction, and position of charged particles. The performance of the SlowLS reconstruction, including the resulting energy, angular, and position resolution, and particle identification capability, is presented for these samples. The dependence of the performance on the scintillation light yield and emission time constants is understood. This study will be a guideline for future MeV-scale neutrino CSD design and SlowLS development for the interested physics goals.

physics.ins-det

Simulation on the Transparency of Electrons and Ion Back Flow for a Time Projection Chamber based on Staggered Multiple THGEMs

The IBF and the transparent rate of electrons are two essential indicators of TPC, which affect the energy resolution and counting rate respectively. In this paper, we propose several novel strategies of staggered multi-THGEM to suppress IBF, where the geometry of the first layer THGEM will be optimized to increase the electron transparent rate. By Garfield++ simulation, the electron transparency rate can be more than 90% of single THGEM with a optimized large hole. By simulating these configurations of triple and quadruple THGEM structures, we conclude that the IBF can be reduced to 0.2% level in an optimized configuration denoted as "ACBA". This strategy for staggered THGEM could have potential applications in future TPC projects.

physics.ins-det

Quenching of fluorescence for linear alkylbenzene

Linear alkylbenzene (LAB) based liquid scintillator is adopted as the central detector for the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) liquid scintillator detectors. A quenching factor measurement instrument is designed based on the Compton scattering process. Two different quenchers for the liquid scintillator have been investigated and the result shows that the scintillation light of the JUNO liquid scintillator can be quenched to a level. The emission spectrum with the absence of the quencher is also showing a desired behavior.

physics.ins-det