Performance of Particle Flow Calorimetry at CLIC

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the performance of particle flow calorimetry at CLIC, addressing challenges at high energies and backgrounds, and demonstrates improved jet energy and mass resolution through algorithm modifications and background suppression techniques.

Contribution

It introduces modifications to the PandoraPFA algorithm and a background reduction method, enhancing jet energy reconstruction at multi-TeV energies at CLIC.

Findings

Jet energy resolution improves with the modified algorithm.

Background suppression significantly reduces fake missing momentum.

High granularity calorimetry achieves robust di-jet mass reconstruction.

Abstract

The particle flow approach to calorimetry can provide unprecedented jet energy resolution at a future high energy collider, such as the International Linear Collider (ILC). However, the use of particle flow calorimetry at the proposed multi-TeV Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) poses a number of significant new challenges. At higher jet energies, detector occupancies increase, and it becomes increasingly difficult to resolve energy deposits from individual particles. The experimental conditions at CLIC are also significantly more challenging than those at previous electron-positron colliders, with increased levels of beam-induced backgrounds combined with a bunch spacing of only 0.5 ns. This paper describes the modifications made to the PandoraPFA particle flow algorithm to improve the jet energy reconstruction for jet energies above 250 GeV. It then introduces a combination of timing and p_T cuts that can be applied to reconstructed particles in order to significantly reduce the background. A systematic study is performed to understand the dependence of the jet energy resolution on the jet energy and angle, and the physics performance is assessed via a study of the energy and mass resolution of W and Z particles in the presence of background at CLIC. Finally, the missing transverse momentum resolution is presented, and the fake missing momentum is quantified. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that high granularity particle flow calorimetry leads to a robust and high resolution reconstruction of jet energies and di-jet masses at CLIC.