Boosted decision trees

Abstract

Boosted decision trees are a very powerful machine learning technique. After introducing specific concepts of machine learning in the high-energy physics context and describing ways to quantify the performance and training quality of classifiers, decision trees are described. Some of their shortcomings are then mitigated with ensemble learning, using boosting algorithms, in particular AdaBoost and gradient boosting. Examples from high-energy physics and software used are also presented.