Working group Sascha Caron

I'm a particle physicists and work since begin 2006 for the ATLAS experiment at CERN (Geneva). I was a member of the DØ experiment at Fermilab (Chicago) between 2004 and 2006 and a member of the H1 experiment at DESY (in Hamburg) between 1998 and 2004.

Together with my group I try to discover signals from new physics, e.g. physics outside our current theory of the microscopic world (the so-called Standard Model). For this we develop data science methods for astroparticle physics problems, astrophysics and theory.
Select some of the research topics from the menu bar.

For those even more interested in my physics life: a brief CV

RESEARCH: ATLAS EXPERIMENT

This is a collection of work that we are doing in ATLAS (including some links to notes, papers and relevant webpages):

Some coordination activities of group members:

• ATLAS outreach coordination (Clara Nellist, 2019)
• ATLAS Anomaly Detection working group (Clara Nellist, 2019)
• Various coordination roles in MET triggering (Sara Alderweireld, Antonia Struebig, since 2015)
• Contact for the SUSY upgrade efforts in ATLAS (2013-2014)
• Chair and member of several Editorial Boards (since data taking)
• Coordination of the ATLAS SUSY searches with missing transverse energy (2009-2010)
• Co-leader of SUSY jets+MET group (2010-2011)
• Co-leader SUSY 1-lepton (2010)
• Co-leader General Search group (2013-2015)
• Coordination of the German ATLAS SUSY group (2009-2011)
• Coordination of the ATLAS SUSY search strategy ("informal" subconvenor) (2008-2009)

Monte Carlo studies, Data analysis, software, trigger, upgrade activities:

Model-independent and General Searches for new phenomena

• ATLAS anomaly detection working group and searches (since 2018)
• A General Search for new phenomena in (almost all) ATLAS data (since 2011)
  (ATLAS CONF note with even more channels for 8 TeV) (NEW ! 2014)
  (ATLAS CONF note with all 655 channels for 7 TeV) (2012)
  
  (Publication with strategy and 13 TeV data) (2018)
  
  Trigger algorithms on Level 1
• L1 MET and HT reconstruction with the L1 topogical trigger (since 2013)
  Internal ATLAS Twiki
  
  The Search for Supersymmetry
  
• ATLAS SUSY simulation studies:
  - Pre LHC (Determine strategy for first SUSY searches, various different models)
  Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics (2008)
  Prospects for Supersymmetry and Univeral Extra Dimensions discovery based on inclusive searches at a 10 TeV centre-of-mass energy with ATLAS (2009)
  Prospects for Supersymmetry discovery based on inclusive searches at a 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy with the ATLAS detector (2010)
  - Pre LHC (Determine reach for different centre-of-mass energies)
  Studies for Charmonix conference 2010, link missing, available is:
  Simple Extrapolations for SUSY limits at different LHC centre-of-mass energies and luminosities (2011)
  - Post LHC (Determine reach for HL-LHC options)
  ATLAS note for ECFA (2013)
  ATLAS note for ICHEP ) (2014)
• ATLAS searches for Supersymmetry:
  - Since 2014 we mainly work on Searches for Chargino and Neutralinos (links to paper via ATLAS page)
  - We were involved in various MSSM related parameter scan activities
  - The first ATLAS SUSY searches with jets and missing transverse momentum
  (ICHEP preliminary from CDS) (2010)
  (2011 Paper from arxiv) (2011)
  (second 2011 Paper from spires) (2011)
  (2012 Paper from spires) (2012)
  - The most recent SUSY searches with jets and missing transverse momentum with 8 TeV data (from inspires) (2014)
  - The first ATLAS SUSY searches in channels with 1 and 2 leptons
  (ICHEP preliminary note from CDS) (2010)
  (2011 paper from arxiv) (2011)
  
  Other activities
  
• Background determination for searches with missing transverse momentum (QCD, W, top, non-collision)
• Tau reconstruction and top->tau calibration channel (2006-2009)
• Monojets and jet/etmiss validation (2007-2011)
• Muon data quality, Trigger Release Coordination
• 4 top searches (Clara Nellist, Polina Moskvitina, since 2020)

Additional (old) info: - My Outreach work and some review articles
- Interested in really old stuff? My Ph.D. thesis and diploma thesis at the RWTH Aachen can be found here.

RESEARCH: DATA SCIENCE & MACHINE LEARNING IN PARTICLE PHYSICS

Examples of our data science related research topics outside ATLAS are (see also phenomenology papers)::
- The autosourceid project to automatize point source detection and classification, see AutoSourceID
(use cases for gamma ray and optical data)
- Darkmachines initiative on Optimisation algorithms for high-dimensional particle and astrophysics applications, e.g. : first paper
- The darkmachines unsupervised challenge, see: benchmark dataset and LHC challenge
- Developing various anomaly score algorithms for LHC data analysis, e.g. rare+different
- A database for high-parameteric data in the fields of Astro and Particlephysic : Prototype at idarksurvey (based on SPOT developed with the Dutch escience center)
- Using Machine Learning and advanced data analysis to identify the nature of Dark Matter. We initated the worldwide first workshop and build a community. Go to darkmachines.org
- The the idark project with the Dutch escience center
- The BSM-AI project to use machine learning to learn the global model-data: susy-ai & bsm-ai
- The ASTRO-AI projec to use ConvNets for Astrophysics, a first paper is : ConvNets for gamma-rays
- The DeepXS project to learn cross sections: DeepXS
- Exploring physical models with active learning
- Building deep generative model based Event Generators
- Data-derived searches for New Physics and search algorithms:
work in H1 experiment, , work in ATLAS

RESEARCH: PHENOMENOLOGY & DATA SCIENCE IN PARTICLE PHYSICS

We published a few papers outside of the ATLAS, D0 and H1 collaborations. Full list of papers containing my name can be found here here . Other examples are (not complete):

• AutoSourceID-Classifier. Star-Galaxy Classification using a Convolutional Neural Network with Spatial Information (2023)
• New energy spectra in neutrino and photon detectors to reveal hidden dark matter signals (2023)
• AutoSourceID-FeatureExtractor. Optical images analysis using a Two-Step MVE Network for feature estimation and uncertainty characterization (2023)
• Towards a Benchmark for Scientific Understanding in Humans and Machines (2023)
• Mind the gap: The discrepancy between simulation and reality drives interpretations of the Galactic Center Excess (2022)
• Climbing four tops with graph networks, transformers and pairwise features (2022)
• Benchmarking energy consumption and latency for neuromorphic computing in condensed matter and particle physics (2022)
• Mixture-of-theories Training: Can We Find New Physics and Anomalies Better by Mixing Physical Theories? (2022)
• Non-Standard Neutrino Spectra From Annihilating Neutralino Dark Matter (2022)
• AutoSourceID-light. Fast Optical Source Localization via U-Net and Laplacian of Gaussian (2022)
• Rare and Different: Anomaly Scores from a combination of likelihood and out-of-distribution models to detect new physics at LHC (2021)
• The Dark Machines Anomaly Score Challenge: Benchmark Data and Model Independent Event Classification for the LHC (2021)
• Identification of point sources in gamma rays using U-shaped convolutional neural networks and a data challenge (2021)
• A comparison of optimisation algorithms for high-dimensional particle and astrophysics applications (2021)
• Interactive web-based visualization of multi-dimensional physical and astronomical data (2020)
• Combining outlier analysis algorithms to identify new physics at the LHC (2020)
• Les Houches 2019 Physics at TeV colliders: New Physics Working Group Report (2020)
• The current status of Fine Tuning in SUSY (2019)
• Active learning for physical models (2019)
• Variational autoencoder based event generator (2019)
• QCD uncertainties for gamma ray searches (2018)
• DeepXS: Fast approaximation of MSSM electroweak cross section at NLO (2018)
• SPOT: Open Source framework for scientific data repository and interactive visualization (2018)
• Anomaly-free Dark Matter with Harmless Direct Detection Constraints (2018)
• Implications of the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 Galactic Center Excess on Supersymmetric Dark Matter (2017)
• Analyzing -rays of the Galactic Center with Deep Learning (2017)
• SUSY with Dark Matter is still natural (2016)
• SUSY-AI (2016)
• The case for 100 GeV bino dark matter: A dedicated LHC tri-lepton search (2016)
• Global analysis of the pMSSM in light of the Fermi GeV excess: prospects for the LHC Run-II and astroparticle experiments (2015)
• Comparing Galactic Center MSSM dark matter solutions to the Reticulum II gamma-ray data (2015)
• A description of the Galactic Center excess in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (2015)
• Higgs, di-Higgs and tri-Higgs production via SUSY processes at the LHC with 14 TeV (2015)
• Profile likelihood maps of a 15-dimensional MSSM (2014)
• Constraints on the pMSSM from searches for squarks and gluinos by ATLAS (2012)
• Higgs and non-universal gaugino masses: no SUSY signal expected yet? (2012)
• Absorbing systematic effects to obtain a better background model in a search for new physics (2009)
• QUAERO@H1: An Interface to high-p(T) HERA event data (2006)

Our group members also collaborate on research topics with Astronomers and Astrophysics, especially with the application of Machine Learning methods. Examples are papers on Astroseismology and the Event Horizon Projects by Luc Hendriks and various projects within the darkmachines initiative.

Teaching

@Radboud University Nijmegen:

• since 2016 coordinator of the Master track Particle Physics and Astronomy
• each year: Machine Learning for Physics and Astronomy, Master course
  
• each year: Particles and the Cosmos, Master course
  
• each year: Standard Model and Beyond, Master course
  
• each year: Structure of matter (Nuclear and particle physics), Bachelor course, Radboud University, see blackboard course
• 2006-2011 at the University of Freiburg

  TALKS

  Talks at experiments

  • ATLAS: CERN indico (protected) search for Sascha, Sasha or Sacha Caron ;)
    
  • D0 and H1 on the collaboration webpages (mostly outdated)
    

  Some links to presentations at Conferences, Summer Schools, Workshops, Colloquia

  • Examining the Scientific Understanding of Large Language Models in Particle Physics , , HHEP EPS conference, Hamburg, 2023
  • Podium discussion on neuromorphic scientific computing, SURF day, Amersfoort, 2023
  • Large Language models for Astro + HEP , Machine Learing enabled searches for new physics in astrophysical data, Trieste, 2023
  • BSM physics and ML , Introduction to the Terascale, DESY, 2023
  • How machine learning and efficient computing can make data-intensive science more sustainable: examples and ideas from particle physics and astronomy , PE and RC Day 2022, The Graduate School for Production Ecology & Resource Conservation, Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability
  • Naar het Donkere Universum, donker materie et al met behulp van machine learning Nederlandse Vereeniging voor Weer en Sterrenkunde Arnhem, 2022
  • Supervised, unsupervised and data-derived signal regions , PhyStat Anomalies 2022
  • Signals of New Physics as Anomaly , Marie Curie symposium, 2022
  • various online talks in 2020-2021
  • darkmachines projects , DarkMatter@LHC workshop, Hamburg, 2020
    
  • Searching for new physics without knowing the signal model , Seminar RWTH Aachen, 2019
    
  • Les Houches LHC meeting 2019
    
  • Lecture at Machine Learning for HEP summer school, DESY 2019
    
  • Beyond the Standard Model , Introduction to the Terascale 2019, Hamburg, 2019
    
  • Machine Learning based Dark Matter searches , Yeti 2019, Durham, 2019
    
  • Simulating the most elementary interactions of our Universe with Machine Learning , Surfsara Super Day, 2018
    
  • Zoeken naar nieuwe fysica met de hulp van Machine learning , Triangulum Apeldoorn, 2018
    
  • Searching for new physics without knowing the signal model , IML meeting, 2018
    
  • Automatization of searches for new physics at colliders, colloquium, Bern, 2018
    
  • Lecture at Machine Learning for High Energy Physics summer school Oxford, 2018
  • CERN re-interpretation workshop, CERN, 2018
    
  • Machine Learning in HEP, Dutch Theory Symposium, 2018
    
  • Finetuning of the MSSM, Finetuning workshop DESY, 2018
    
  • Accelerating the Search for Dark Matter with Machine Learning , Leiden, 2018.
  • Master Patriclephysics and Astrophysics info Master voorlichtingsdag, Nijmegen, 2017.
  • The Fine-tuning of the Minimal Supersymmetric StandardModel: Constraints by LHC,Future Colliders and Dark Matter searches EPS HEP Venice, Italy 2017.
  • Dark Matter at colliders Lectures at Summer school ISAPP 2017 - The Dark and the Visible Side of th Universe, 2017.
  • Masterclasses Masterclasses, Nijmegen, 2017.
  • Supersymmetry Phenomenology Nikhef topical lectures, 2017.
  • Dark Matter: Complex Models, Astrophysics and the LHC Astrophysics symposium, 2017.
  • Dark Matter 2: The return of the SUSY WIMPs Seminar, Groningen, 2016.
  • The case for 100 GeV Bino Dark Matter Seminar, Bonn, 2016.
  • Future of global fits for Dark Matter Dark Matter at the LHC workshop, Amsterdam, 2016.
  • Search for Dark Matter at the LHC Physics@FOM Velthoven focus session plenary, 2016.
  • LHC run 2 - Towards a greater discovery with ATLAS! Nederlands Natuurkundige Vereniging (NNV) yearly meeting plenary, Lunteren 2015.
  • SUSY searches in hadronic final states at LHC XLV International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Kreuth, 2015.
  • MSSM description of the Galactic center excess spectrum HEP-EPS conference, Vienna, 2015.
  • MSSM description of the Galactic center excess spectrum Nikhef Colloquium, Amsterdam, 2015.
  • HL-LHC prospects for strong interacting new physics LHC physics at high luminosities workshop, CERN 2015.
  • Guiding and self-guiding searches for new physics at the LHC IMAPP symposium, Nijmegen 2015.
  • MSSM description of the Galactic center excess spectrum Astronomy seminar, Nijmegen 2015.
  • needed to decline various invitations in 2013-2014
  • Exploring all possible regions of Supersymmetry with ATLAS colloquium Bruessels, 2013.
  • Higgs and Searches for new physics at the LHC BLV conference 2013, Heidelberg
    
  • Results from the LHC: ATLAS Dark Attack conference, Ascona, 2012
    
  • Recent constrains on WIMP Dark Matter from detection and production experiments Physikalisches Kolloquium, Freiburg, 2012.
  • Higgs, SUSY or something else? First results from the ATLAS experiment at the LHC FOM meeting, Veldhoven 2012, LHC focus session
    
  • LHC physics (part 1-4) Maria Laach Particle Physics Summer School 2011
    
  • Searching for Supersymmetry at ATLAS Moriond Electroweak 2011 conference plenary
    
  • Searches for new physics at ATLAS plenary, ATLAS-D meeting, Goettingen 2011.
  • First SUSY searches with ATLAS physics colloquium, RWTH Aachen 2011.
  • SUSY or the unexpected physics colloquium, Freiburg 2011.
  • First SUSY searches with ATLAS HEP seminar, Nijmegen 2011.
  • Hunting for SUSY, INFN seminar, Rome 2011.
  • First SUSY searches with ATLAS HEP seminar, Oxford 2011.
  • First SUSY searches with ATLAS DESY seminar, Hamburg and Zeuthen 2011.
  • mainy links missing from before 2011...
  • Suche nach ersten Signalen des Supersymmetrie am LHC DPG 2010, Bonn, invited session.
    
  • Dark Matter and the LHC Launch09 conference, Heidelberg.
    
  • Background determination methods for inclusive SUSY searches ATLAS Germany meeting 2009, Bonn.
  • OVERVIEW: SUSY first data ATLAS Germany meeting 2008, Munich.
  • Prospects for standard SUSY searches at the LHC ICHEP 2008 conference, Philladelphia.
    
  • Tau identification efficiency from top events and tau-electron seperation with early data ATLAS Germany meeting 2008, Munich.
  • Search strategies for unknown new physics ATLAS Statistics workshop 2007, CERN.
  • Search strategy for SUSY et al. at LHC SUSY-BSM LHC workshop 2007, Bonn.
  • An interface to high pt HERA event data: Quaero@H1 DIS 2007 conference, Munich.
  • Search strategy for SUSY et al. at LHC SUSY-BSM LHC workshop 2006, Aachen.
  • Analysis status and plans in Freiburg ATLAS Germany meeting 2006, Heidelberg.
  • The Silicon Track Trigger at D0 Beauty 2005 conference, Assisi.
  • Ideas to improve the discovery potential at LHC HEP seminar 2005, Freiburg.
  • Status of the D0 experiment NIKHEF annual meeting (jaarvergadering) 2004, Nijmegen.
  • General Search for new phenomena HERA - LHC workshop, 2004, CERN.
  • General Search for new phenomena NIKHEF 2004
  • Searches and EW measurements at HERA 5th Rencontres du Vietnam (2004) converence Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Hanoi.
  • Resumee of Aachen activities in H1 Seminar Aachen 2003.
    
  • Jet Production at HERA QCD 2002 High-Energy Physics International Conference, Montpellier.
  • Jets and QCD in photon proton reactions International Europhysics Conference On High-Energy Physics (HEP 2001), Budapest.
  • Three-jet production in deep-inelastic scattering and photoproduction at HERA 8th International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and QCD (DIS 2000), Liverpool.
  TEAM

  TEAM

  Our research team:
  (Interested in Beyond the Standard Model or Dark Matter searches, ATLAS detector/trigger or phenomenology? Send me a mail)
  
  Post Docs:

  • Dr. Uraz Odyurt (computing, work with Ana Verbanescu and Roel Aaij)

  Phd students:

  • Polina Moskvitina (ATLAS, Machine Learning)
  • Jochem Kip (Dark Matter pheno, with Wim Beenakker)

  Master and Bachelor students:
  various

Former students and Post Docs:

• Dr. Sydney Otten (PhD, Machine Learning, with SURF, now entrepreneur ML startup, 2023)
• Dr. Zhongyi Zhang (Post Doc, Dark Matter, with Wim Beenakker, 2023)
• Yoris Marcet (Bachelor student, large language models, 2023)
• Dr. Luc Hendriks (PhD, Machine Learning and Dark Matter, within idark, now entrepreneur startup ixxi, 2023)
• Julian Fransen (Bachelor, reinforcement learning, 2023)
• Glenn Viveen (Bachelor, denoising gravitational waves, with Alex Kolmus, 2022)
• Dr. Clara Nellist (Post doc, then Assistant Professor UvA, 2022)
• Luc Builtjes (Master, 4 top classification networks, 2022)
• Dr. Bob Stienen (PhD, Machine Learning in phenomenology, within idark, still at RU, 2021)
• Chris van den Oetelaar (Master, point source ID, 2021)
• Daniel Kok (Master, quantum KNN for ING and HEP, 2021)
• Dr. Jeroen Schouwenberg (PhD, Generic Searches within ATLAS, 2020, now in health)
• Gido Verheijen (Bachelor, 2020)
• Remco Volmer (Master, ATLAS anomaly detection with VAE, 2020)
• Eric Teunis de Boone (Bachelor, dwarf galaxies j-factors, 2020)
• Tim Voeten (Master, 2019)
• Inge van Rens (Master, simulations with GANs, 2019)
• Chris van den Oetelaar (Bachelor, 2019)
• Bren Schaap (Bachelor, Honors program, Neutrino mixing, 2019)
• Joost Remie (Bachelor, 2019)
• Marco Nelissen (Bachelor, 2018)
• Wieske de Swart (Bachelor, GANs, data science and HEP, 2018)
• Dr. Sara Alderweireldt (former postdoc, ATLAS General Search, Dark Matter and Trigger, within ATLAS, then CERN fellow, 2018)
• Jonas Wuerzinger (Master, MSSM scans in ATLAS, 2018)
• Sjoerd Ypma (Master, interpretation generic searches in ATLAS, 2018)
• Dr. Antonia Struebig (PhD, ATLAS MET trigger, searches for squarks and gluinos, 2018)
• Alex Campa (Master, Dark Matter in dwarf galaxies, 2017)
• Ruud Peters (Master, Finetuning in the MSSM, 2017)
• Nikolas Morshuis (Bachelor, 2016, MSSM Dark Matter)
  
• Jonas Wuerzinger (Bachelor Honours, 2016, DM spectrum uncertainties)
  
• Joep Leenaarts (Bachelor, 2016, Squark decays to W,Z and Higgs bosons at LHC)
• Melissa van Beekveld (with Wim Beenakker) (Master, 2016, GC excess interpretation and LHC)
• Luc Hendriks (with Bram Achterberg, Astro) (Master, 2015, GC excess MSSM solutions)
• Jelmer van Amen (Master, 2015, ATLAS Generic Searches)
• Renz Bakx (Bachelor, 2015, ATLAS Monojets)
• Dr. Geert-Jan Besjes (PhD, 2015, ATLAS SUSY interpretations, squark/gluinos, moved to University of Copenhagen)
• Jeroen Schouwenberg (Master, 2015, ATLAS L1MET trigger, stays in the team)
• Marie Lanfermann (Master, 2014, Higgs+DM, now Geneva PhD student)
• Remco Castelijn (Master, 2014, Higgs+DM, now Nikhef PhD student)
• Daphne van den Elzen (Bachelor, Neutralinos pairs at LHC, 2014)
• Melissa van Beekveld (Bachelor, Higgs+DM in ATLAS, 2013)
• supervised 8 more PhD students in Freiburg during Habilitation
• Dr. Simone Amoroso (Freiburg) (2011-2015)
• Dr. Kathrin Störig (Freiburg) (2008-2012)
• Dr. Michael Rammensee (Freiburg) (2008-2012)
• Dr. Debra Lumb (Freiburg) (2006-2010)
• Dr. Florian Ahles (Freiburg) (2006-2010)
• Dr. Stefan Horner (Freiburg) (2007-2011)
• Dr. Janet Dietrich (Freiburg) (2006-2010)
• Dr. Jens Koenrath (Freiburg) (2006-2009)
• supervised 10 Master students (Freiburg and Aachen, 2004-2010)
  

Contact

	Dr. Sascha Caron Associate Professor Radboud University Nijmegen and Nikhef Email: scaron at cern.ch
	Tel. in Nijmegen: +31 24 365 3660 Tel. at CERN: +41 22 76 76049
	in Nijmegen: Experimental High Energy Physics Huygens building (room: HG02.828) Heyendaalseweg 135 6525 AJ Nijmegen The Netherlands	at CERN: Bld. 54 Room 3-002

 

Brief CV

Sascha Caron is associate professor at the Radboud University in Nijmegen and a senior researcher within the Nikhef consortium. He is a leading researcher at the ATLAS experiment at CERN where he was co-responsible for the first searches for Dark Matter and Supersymmetry and initiated generic “data-derived” searches for new physics. Caron also works on phenomenology, astrophysics and the application of machine learning methods. His research focus is the search for signals from new physics. Caron is a main author of >70 publications with >6000 citations and co-author of >900 publications (h-index>100).
Other recent activities: He is the PI of the ’IDARK’ project with the Netherlands eScience Center, the ’quantum generators’ project with the Dutch supercomputer center SURFsara and the AI/ML convener of the “Les Houches workshop\ ” series for Physics at TeV colliders. He also co-founded and co-coordinates the international darkmachines initiative, which aims to accelerate searches for Dark Matter with machine learning.

Past experience:
• 1999 Dipl. Phys. at RWTH Aachen
• 1999-2005 Member of the H1 experiment at DESY, Hamburg
• 2002 Dr. rer. nat. at RWTH Aachen
• 2003 Post Doctoral Research associate at RWTH Aachen
• 2004-2006 Member of the D0 experiment at Fermilab, Chicago
• 2004-2006 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at NIKHEF Amsterdam
• since 2006 Member of the ATLAS experiment at CERN, Geneva
• 2006-2011 Akademischer Rat aZ (lecturer) at University of Freiburg
• 2008 Selected young investigator in 'Eliteprogramm Landesstiftung Baden-Wuerttemberg'
• 2011 Habilitation at the University of Freiburg, Privatdozent
• since 2011 Faculty member at Radboud University Nijmegen and Nikhef, Associate (before Assistant) Professor