Machine learning-powered data cleaning for LEGEND: a semi-supervised approach using affinity propagation and support vector machines

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semi-supervised AI approach combining affinity propagation and support vector machines to efficiently clean data by removing non-physical events in the LEGEND experiment, enhancing detection sensitivity.

Contribution

The study presents a novel semi-supervised data cleaning method using affinity propagation and SVMs specifically tailored for LEGEND's neutrino detection data.

Findings

Model achieves only 0.024% sacrifice of physics events.

Effective clustering of waveform signals based on shape.

Improves data cleaning procedures for large-scale neutrino experiments.

Abstract

Neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) is a rare nuclear process that, if observed, will provide insight into the nature of neutrinos and help explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (LEGEND) will operate in two phases to search for $0\nu\beta\beta$. The first (second) stage will employ 200 (1000) kg of High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) enriched in $^{76}$Ge to achieve a half-life sensitivity of 10$^{27}$ (10$^{28}$) years. In this study, we present a semi-supervised data-driven approach to remove non-physical events captured by HPGe detectors powered by a novel artificial intelligence model. We utilize Affinity Propagation to cluster waveform signals based on their shape and a Support Vector Machine to classify them into different categories. We train, optimize, test our model on data taken from a natural abundance HPGe detector installed in the Full Chain Test experimental stand at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We demonstrate that our model yields a maximum sacrifice of physics events of $0.024 ^{+0.004}_{-0.003} \%$. Our model is being used to accelerate data cleaning development for LEGEND-200 and will serve to improve data cleaning procedures for LEGEND-1000.