Enhancing event reconstruction for $γ$-ray particle detector arrays using transformers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Pirke, Markus, Son, Youngwan, Glombitza, Jonas, Schneider, Martin, Watson, Ian James, van Eldik, Christopher
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Pirke, Markus
Son, Youngwan
Glombitza, Jonas
Schneider, Martin
Watson, Ian James
van Eldik, Christopher
author_facet Pirke, Markus
Son, Youngwan
Glombitza, Jonas
Schneider, Martin
Watson, Ian James
van Eldik, Christopher
contents Gamma-ray astronomy from hundreds of GeV to PeV is confined to ground-based experiments that detect air showers induced by $γ$-rays entering Earth's atmosphere. While particle detector arrays feature huge detection areas, accurately reconstructing the primary particle properties is difficult due to the sparse sampling of the air shower and its intrinsic fluctuations. In this work, using simulations of a future water-Cherenkov array, we investigate two end-to-end deep learning approaches based on the transformer architecture with different computational complexities that utilize calibrated raw data. We benchmark both methods against well-established methods in the field in terms of $γ$-hadron separation, angular, core, and energy reconstruction. Our results show significant improvements across the whole energy range, particularly at low and intermediate energies. This work is the first to consistently demonstrate improved performance in both event reconstruction and $γ$-hadron separation using a single architecture.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09402
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Enhancing event reconstruction for $γ$-ray particle detector arrays using transformers
Pirke, Markus
Son, Youngwan
Glombitza, Jonas
Schneider, Martin
Watson, Ian James
van Eldik, Christopher
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Gamma-ray astronomy from hundreds of GeV to PeV is confined to ground-based experiments that detect air showers induced by $γ$-rays entering Earth's atmosphere. While particle detector arrays feature huge detection areas, accurately reconstructing the primary particle properties is difficult due to the sparse sampling of the air shower and its intrinsic fluctuations. In this work, using simulations of a future water-Cherenkov array, we investigate two end-to-end deep learning approaches based on the transformer architecture with different computational complexities that utilize calibrated raw data. We benchmark both methods against well-established methods in the field in terms of $γ$-hadron separation, angular, core, and energy reconstruction. Our results show significant improvements across the whole energy range, particularly at low and intermediate energies. This work is the first to consistently demonstrate improved performance in both event reconstruction and $γ$-hadron separation using a single architecture.
title Enhancing event reconstruction for $γ$-ray particle detector arrays using transformers
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09402