Vidya Manian

Jairo Orozco Sandoval, Vidya Manian, Sudhir Malik

Jet point cloud images are high dimensional data structures that needs to be transformed to a separable feature space for machine learning algorithms to distinguish them with simple decision boundaries. In this article, the authors focus on jet category separability by particle and jet feature extraction, resulting in more efficient training of a simple deep neural network, resulting in a computational efficient interpretable model for jet classification. The methodology is tested with three to five categories of jets from the JetNet benchmark jet tagging dataset, resulting in comparable performance to particle flow network. This work demonstrates that high dimensional datasets represented in separable latent spaces lead to simpler architectures for jet classification.

Diego F. Vasquez Plaza, Vidya Manian

Jet flavor tagging plays an important role in precise Standard Model measurement enabling the extraction of mass dependence in jet-quark interaction and quark-gluon plasma (QGP) interactions. They also enable inferring the nature of particles produced in high-energy particle collisions that contain heavy quarks. The classification of bottom jets is vital for exploring new Physics scenarios in proton-proton collisions. In this research, we present a hybrid deep learning architecture that integrates edge convolutions with transformer self-attention mechanisms, into one single architecture called the Edge Convolution Transformer (ECT) model for bottom-quark jet tagging. ECT processes track-level features (impact parameters, momentum, and their significances) alongside jet-level observables (vertex information and kinematics) to achieve state-of-the-art performance. The study utilizes the ATLAS simulation dataset. We demonstrate that ECT achieves 0.9333 AUC for b-jet versus combined charm and light jet discrimination, surpassing ParticleNet (0.8904 AUC) and the pure transformer baseline (0.9216 AUC). The model maintains inference latency below 0.060 ms per jet on modern GPUs, meeting the stringent requirements for real-time event selection at the LHC. Our results demonstrate that hybrid architectures combining local and global features offer superior performance for challenging jet classification tasks. The proposed architecture achieves good results in b-jet tagging, particularly excelling in charm jet rejection (the most challenging task), while maintaining competitive light-jet discrimination comparable to pure transformer models.

Andrew Ferguson, Marisa LaFleur, Lars Ruthotto et al. · stanford

This community paper developed out of the NSF Workshop on the Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Mathematical and Physics Sciences (MPS), which was held in March 2025 with the goal of understanding how the MPS domains (Astronomy, Chemistry, Materials Research, Mathematical Sciences, and Physics) can best capitalize on, and contribute to, the future of AI. We present here a summary and snapshot of the MPS community's perspective, as of Spring/Summer 2025, in a rapidly developing field. The link between AI and MPS is becoming increasingly inextricable; now is a crucial moment to strengthen the link between AI and Science by pursuing a strategy that proactively and thoughtfully leverages the potential of AI for scientific discovery and optimizes opportunities to impact the development of AI by applying concepts from fundamental science. To achieve this, we propose activities and strategic priorities that: (1) enable AI+MPS research in both directions; (2) build up an interdisciplinary community of AI+MPS researchers; and (3) foster education and workforce development in AI for MPS researchers and students. We conclude with a summary of suggested priorities for funding agencies, educational institutions, and individual researchers to help position the MPS community to be a leader in, and take full advantage of, the transformative potential of AI+MPS.

Juvenal Bassa, Vidya Manian, Sudhir Malik et al.

Jet classification in high-energy particle physics is important for understanding fundamental interactions and probing phenomena beyond the Standard Model. Jets originate from the fragmentation and hadronization of quarks and gluons, and pose a challenge for identification due to their complex, multidimensional structure. Traditional classification methods often fall short in capturing these intricacies, necessitating advanced machine learning approaches. In this paper, we employ two neural networks simultaneously as an ensemble to tag various jet types. We convert the jet data to two-dimensional histograms instead of representing them as points in a higher-dimensional space. Specifically, this ensemble approach, hereafter referred to as Ensemble Model, is used to tag jets into classes from the JetNet dataset, corresponding to: Top Quarks, Light Quarks (up or down), and W and Z bosons. For the jet classes mentioned above, we show that the Ensemble Model can be used for both binary and multi-categorical classification. This ensemble approach learns jet features by leveraging the strengths of each constituent network achieving superior performance compared to either individual network.

Victor D. Martinez, Vidya Manian, Sudhir Malik

This article presents, for the first time, the application of diffusion models for generating jet images corresponding to proton-proton collision events at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The kinematic variables of quark, gluon, W-boson, Z-boson, and top quark jets from the JetNet simulation dataset are mapped to two-dimensional image representations. Diffusion models are trained on these images to learn the spatial distribution of jet constituents. We compare the performance of score-based diffusion models and consistency models in accurately generating class-conditional jet images. Unlike approaches based on latent distributions, our method operates directly in image space. The fidelity of the generated images is evaluated using several metrics, including the Fréchet Inception Distance (FID), which demonstrates that consistency models achieve higher fidelity and generation stability compared to score-based diffusion models. These advancements offer significant improvements in computational efficiency and generation accuracy, providing valuable tools for High Energy Physics (HEP) research.

Estefania Alfaro-Mejia, Carlos J Delgado, Vidya Manian

Spectral Unmixing is an important technique in remote sensing used to analyze hyperspectral images to identify endmembers and estimate abundance maps. Over the past few decades, performance of techniques for endmember extraction and fractional abundance map estimation have significantly improved. This article presents an ensemble model workflow called Autoencoder Graph Ensemble Model (AEGEM) designed to extract endmembers and fractional abundance maps. An elliptical kernel is applied to measure spectral distances, generating the adjacency matrix within the elliptical neighborhood. This information is used to construct an elliptical graph, with centroids as senders and remaining pixels within the geometry as receivers. The next step involves stacking abundance maps, senders, and receivers as inputs to a Graph Convolutional Network, which processes this input to refine abundance maps. Finally, an ensemble decision-making process determines the best abundance maps based on root mean square error metric. The proposed AEGEM is assessed with benchmark datasets such as Samson, Jasper, and Urban, outperforming results obtained by baseline algorithms. For the Samson dataset, AEGEM excels in three abundance maps: water, tree and soil yielding values of 0.081, 0.158, and 0.182, respectively. For the Jasper dataset, results are improved for the tree and water endmembers with values of 0.035 and 0.060 in that order, as well as for the mean average of the spectral angle distance metric 0.109. For the Urban dataset, AEGEM outperforms previous results for the abundance maps of roof and asphalt, achieving values of 0.135 and 0.240, respectively. Additionally, for the endmembers of grass and roof, AEGEM achieves values of 0.063 and 0.094.

Harshini Gangapuram, Vidya Manian

Brain responses related to working memory originate from distinct brain areas and oscillate at different frequencies. EEG signals with high temporal correlation can effectively capture these responses. Therefore, estimating the functional connectivity of EEG for working memory protocols in different frequency bands plays a significant role in analyzing the brain dynamics with increasing memory and cognitive loads, which remains largely unexplored. The present study introduces a Bayesian structure learning algorithm to learn the functional connectivity of EEG in sensor space. Next, the functional connectivity graphs are taken as input to the graph convolutional network to classify the working memory loads. The intrasubject (subject-specific) classification performed on 154 subjects for six different verbal working memory loads produced the highest classification accuracy of 96% and average classification accuracy of 89%, outperforming state-of-the-art classification models proposed in the literature. Furthermore, the proposed Bayesian structure learning algorithm is compared with state-of-the-art functional connectivity estimation methods through intersubject and intrasubject statistical analysis of variance. The results also show that the alpha and theta bands have better classification accuracy than the beta band.