Title
Particle classification in the LAGO water Cherenkov detectors using clustering algorithms
Date Issued
01 October 2023
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Torres Peralta T.
Molina M.G.
Asorey H.
Sidelnik I.
Taboada A.
Mayo-García R.
Rubio-Montero A.J.
Dasso S.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
The Latin American Giant Observatory (LAGO) is a ground-based observatory studying solar or high-energy astrophysics transient events. LAGO takes advantage of its distributed network of Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCDs) in Latin America as a tool to measure the secondary particle flux reaching the ground. These secondary particles are produced during the interaction between the modulated cosmic rays flux and the atmosphere. The LAGO WCDs are sensitive to secondary charged particles, high energy photons through pair creation and Compton scattering, and even neutrons thanks to, e.g., the deuteration of protons in the water volume. The pulse shape generated by these particles depends on several factors, such as the detector geometry, the water purity, the sensor response, or the reflectivity and diffusivity of the inner coating. Due to the decentralized nature of LAGO, these properties are different for each node. Additionally, the pulse shape depends on the convolution between the response of the central photomultiplier (PMT) to individual photons and the time distribution of the Cherenkov photons reaching the PMT. Typically, a WCD gives pulses with a sharp rise time (∼10ns) and a longer decay time (∼70ns). In this work, the WCD data used is acquired using the original LAGO data-acquisition system that digitizes pulses at a sampling rate of 40 MHz and 10 bits resolution on time windows of 400ns. Here, we apply unsupervised machine learning techniques to find patterns in the WCDs data and subsequently create groups, through clustering, that can be used to provide particle separation. We use data acquired from an individual WCD, showing that density-based clustering algorithms are suitable for automatic particle separation producing good candidate groups. Improved separation would help LAGO to reconstruct in situ the properties of primary cosmic rays flux. These results open the possibility to deploy machine learning-based models in our distributed detection network for onboard data analysis as an operative prototype, allowing detectors to be installed at very remote sites.
Volume
1055
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Meteorología y ciencias atmosféricas
Sensores remotos
Ciencias de la computación
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85166482607
Source
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
ISSN of the container
01689002
Sponsor(s)
This work was partly carried out within the ‘European Open Science Cloud - Expanding Capacities by building Capabilities’ (EOSC-SYNERGY) project, co-funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 RI Programme under Grant Agreement n°857647. We acknowledge the ICTP, Italy and IAEA, Austria grant NT-17 that partially funded stays to carry out this work. The LAGO Collaboration is very thankful to all the participating institutions and to the Pierre Auger Collaboration for their continuous support.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial