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Machine Learning for Event Reconstruction in the CMS Phase-2 High Granularity Calorimeter Endcap

by Théo Cuisset

Submission summary

Authors (as registered SciPost users): Théo Cuisset
Submission information
Preprint Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01851v1  (pdf)
Date submitted: Oct. 5, 2025, 3:11 p.m.
Submitted by: Théo Cuisset
Submitted to: SciPost Physics Proceedings
Proceedings issue: The 2nd European AI for Fundamental Physics Conference (EuCAIFCon2025)
Ontological classification
Academic field: Physics
Specialties:
  • High-Energy Physics - Experiment
Approaches: Experimental, Computational
Disclosure of Generative AI use

The author(s) disclose that the following generative AI tools have been used in the preparation of this submission:

Used GPT-5 for language advice

Abstract

The high-luminosity era of the LHC will offer greatly increased number of events for more precise Standard Model measurements and Beyond Standard Model searches, but will also pose unprecedented challenges to the detectors. To meet these challenges, the CMS detector will undergo several upgrades, including the replacement of the current endcap calorimeters with a novel High-Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL). To make optimal use of this innovative detector, new and original algorithms are being devised. A dedicated reconstruction framework, The Iterative Clustering (TICL), is being developed within the CMS Software (CMSSW). This new framework is designed to fully exploit the high spatial resolution and precise timing information provided by HGCAL. Several key ingredients of the object reconstruction chain already rely on Machine Learning (ML) techniques and their usage is expected to further develop in the future. The existing reconstruction strategies will be presented stressing the role played by ML techniques to exploit the information provided by the detector. The areas where ML techniques are expected to play a role in the future developments will be also discussed.

Current status:
Awaiting resubmission

Reports on this Submission

Report #1 by Anonymous (Referee 1) on 2025-11-27 (Invited Report)

Strengths

1- The paper is very clear. 2- It does a good job in giving a good overview of what the contribution was about in a limited space.

Weaknesses

Because of the space constraints

Report

I and a colleague have reviewed the paper named "Machine Learning for Event Reconstruction in the CMS Phase-2 High Granularity Calorimeter Endcap" with great interest. Despite the limited space, the paper achieves to give a good overview of the subject. I do not have any major comment on the content, just a few recommendations to improve the clarity of the paper.

Content:

  • At the end of section 1, it is mentioned that the HGCAL will feature 6m channels, and Figure 3 is suggesting that about 1M sensor will be active in a typical event. Taking the numbers at face value, this seems to imply an average occupancy of 15-20% which seems high. I believe this deserves a comment somewhere.
  • The usefulness of figure 4 is unclear. It seems a pretty standard picture of an electron doing bremsstrahlung. Perhaps the author can decide whether there is added value in the HGCAL context for figure 4, and, if so, clarify in the text.
  • It might be useful to better quantify the benefits of the ML approaches, for example by reporting numerical improvements observed in the cited reference (e.g., percentage gain in resolution, efficiency, background rejection) and/or by explicitly stating the metrics used to evaluate performance (AUC, ROC, etc.)

Minor editorial - Figure 2 is referenced before figure 1: how about swapping them? - I don’t see a reason to keep writing tricksters in italics after they have been introduced in the first paragraph of section 2.

Recommendation

Publish (easily meets expectations and criteria for this Journal; among top 50%)

  • validity: -
  • significance: -
  • originality: -
  • clarity: -
  • formatting: -
  • grammar: -

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