ICHEP 2016 Chicago

Applying a ML-EM algorithm to the event reconstruction in NEXT: Performance and early results.

6 Aug 2016, 18:00

2h

Riverwalk A/B

Poster Detector: R&D and Performance Poster Session

Speaker

Mr Ander Simón Estévez (IFIC)

Description

The NEXT collaboration aims to find the neutrinoless double beta decay in Xe136. The rareness of this decay demands an exceptional background rejection. This can be obtained with an excellent energy resolution, which has been already demonstrated in the NEXT prototypes. In addition to this, the 2ß0ν decay in gas produces a characteristic topological signal which could be an extremely useful extra handle to avoid background events. The need for a satisfactory topology reconstruction has led the NEXT Collaboration to implement the Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization method (ML-EM) in the data processing scheme. ML-EM is a generic iterative algorithm for many kinds of inverse problems. Although this method is well known in medical imaging and has been used widely in Positron Emission Tomography, it has never been applied to a time projection chamber. 

After applying it in simulated data of the the DEMO detector with outstanding results, now the collaboration aims to adapt and test the algorithm in the next step of the project: the NEW detector. Early results and performance of the method in NEW will be presented in this poster.