A Convolutional Neural Network based Cascade Reconstruction for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a convolutional neural network-based cascade reconstruction method for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, significantly enhancing speed and accuracy for real-time high-energy physics data analysis at the South Pole.

Contribution

It presents a novel deep learning approach using convolutional architectures with hexagonally shaped kernels tailored for IceCube, improving reconstruction accuracy and computational efficiency.

Findings

Reduces reconstruction time by 100 to 1000 times.

Improves accuracy over standard methods.

Robust against systematic uncertainties.

Abstract

Continued improvements on existing reconstruction methods are vital to the success of high-energy physics experiments, such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. In IceCube, further challenges arise as the detector is situated at the geographic South Pole where computational resources are limited. However, to perform real-time analyses and to issue alerts to telescopes around the world, powerful and fast reconstruction methods are desired. Deep neural networks can be extremely powerful, and their usage is computationally inexpensive once the networks are trained. These characteristics make a deep learning-based approach an excellent candidate for the application in IceCube. A reconstruction method based on convolutional architectures and hexagonally shaped kernels is presented. The presented method is robust towards systematic uncertainties in the simulation and has been tested on experimental data. In comparison to standard reconstruction methods in IceCube, it can improve upon the reconstruction accuracy, while reducing the time necessary to run the reconstruction by two to three orders of magnitude.