An Evaluation of Representation Learning Methods in Particle Physics Foundation Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chen, Michael, Kansal, Raghav, Gandrakota, Abhijith, Hao, Zichun, Ngadiuba, Jennifer, Spiropulu, Maria
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Chen, Michael
Kansal, Raghav
Gandrakota, Abhijith
Hao, Zichun
Ngadiuba, Jennifer
Spiropulu, Maria
author_facet Chen, Michael
Kansal, Raghav
Gandrakota, Abhijith
Hao, Zichun
Ngadiuba, Jennifer
Spiropulu, Maria
contents We present a systematic evaluation of representation learning objectives for particle physics within a unified framework. Our study employs a shared transformer-based particle-cloud encoder with standardized preprocessing, matched sampling, and a consistent evaluation protocol on a jet classification dataset. We compare contrastive (supervised and self-supervised), masked particle modeling, and generative reconstruction objectives under a common training regimen. In addition, we introduce targeted supervised architectural modifications that achieve state-of-the-art performance on benchmark evaluations. This controlled comparison isolates the contributions of the learning objective, highlights their respective strengths and limitations, and provides reproducible baselines. We position this work as a reference point for the future development of foundation models in particle physics, enabling more transparent and robust progress across the community.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_12829
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Evaluation of Representation Learning Methods in Particle Physics Foundation Models
Chen, Michael
Kansal, Raghav
Gandrakota, Abhijith
Hao, Zichun
Ngadiuba, Jennifer
Spiropulu, Maria
Machine Learning
We present a systematic evaluation of representation learning objectives for particle physics within a unified framework. Our study employs a shared transformer-based particle-cloud encoder with standardized preprocessing, matched sampling, and a consistent evaluation protocol on a jet classification dataset. We compare contrastive (supervised and self-supervised), masked particle modeling, and generative reconstruction objectives under a common training regimen. In addition, we introduce targeted supervised architectural modifications that achieve state-of-the-art performance on benchmark evaluations. This controlled comparison isolates the contributions of the learning objective, highlights their respective strengths and limitations, and provides reproducible baselines. We position this work as a reference point for the future development of foundation models in particle physics, enabling more transparent and robust progress across the community.
title An Evaluation of Representation Learning Methods in Particle Physics Foundation Models
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12829