Towards Tensor Network Models for Low-Latency Jet Tagging on FPGAs
This addresses the need for low-latency, resource-efficient inference in high-energy physics trigger systems, representing an incremental improvement with domain-specific application.
The paper tackled real-time jet tagging in high-energy physics by developing Tensor Network models as compact alternatives to deep neural networks, achieving competitive performance with sub-microsecond latency on FPGAs.
We present a systematic study of Tensor Network (TN) models $\unicode{x2013}$ Matrix Product States (MPS) and Tree Tensor Networks (TTN) $\unicode{x2013}$ for real-time jet tagging in high-energy physics, with a focus on low-latency deployment on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Motivated by the strict requirements of the HL-LHC Level-1 trigger system, we explore TNs as compact and interpretable alternatives to deep neural networks. Using low-level jet constituent features, our models achieve competitive performance compared to state-of-the-art deep learning classifiers. We investigate post-training quantization to enable hardware-efficient implementations without degrading classification performance or latency. The best-performing models are synthesized to estimate FPGA resource usage, latency, and memory occupancy, demonstrating sub-microsecond latency and supporting the feasibility of online deployment in real-time trigger systems. Overall, this study highlights the potential of TN-based models for fast and resource-efficient inference in low-latency environments.