Unfolding the Electromagnetic Field from Voltage Time Traces using a Neural Network Approach

International Workshop on Acoustic and Radio EeV Neutrino Detection Activities (ARENA), pp. 040

Abstract

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is designed to investigate cosmic-ray induced air showers using radio measurements. The ultimate goal of AERA is to recover the three-dimensional electromagnetic field originating from the air shower with the measured voltage time traces of the antennas, which is a challenging task. The electric field measurements are modified in the detection process by the frequency- and direction- dependent antenna response, and is superimposed by noise. We use conditional Invertible Neural Networks (cINNs) to learn posterior distributions, from which the most likely electromagnetic field given a measured voltage time trace can be inferred. We extend the method with an autoencoder to further enhance robustness, reduce the parameter space, and decouple the cINN from data shape. We will present an overview of the method and its application to simplified simulation data with typical properties of AERA and evaluate the methods reconstruction quality.

Authors 4

1. Maximilian Straub Aachen

   University of Bremen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   𝑎 RWTH Physics Institute III A, Otto-Blumenthal Str., Aachen, Germany

   𝑏 now at University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP

2. Martin Erdmann Aachen

   University of Bremen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   𝑎 RWTH Physics Institute III A, Otto-Blumenthal Str., Aachen, Germany

   𝑏 now at University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP

3. Katharina Hafner Aachen

   University of Bremen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   𝑎 RWTH Physics Institute III A, Otto-Blumenthal Str., Aachen, Germany

   𝑏 now at University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP

4. Josina Schulte Aachen

   University of Bremen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   𝑎 RWTH Physics Institute III A, Otto-Blumenthal Str., Aachen, Germany

   𝑏 now at University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP