Rings of Light, Speed of AI: YOLO for Cherenkov Reconstruction

Abstract

Cherenkov rings play a crucial role in identifying charged particles in high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. Most Cherenkov ring pattern reconstruction algorithms currently used in HEP experiments rely on a likelihood fit to the photo-detector response, which often consumes a significant portion of the computing budget for event reconstruction. We present a novel approach to Cherenkov ring reconstruction using YOLO, a computer vision algorithm capable of real-time object identification with a single pass through a neural network. We obtain a reconstruction efficiency above 95% and a pion misidentification rate below 5% across a wide momentum range for all particle species.