CRUNCH

Applying Artificial Intelligence methods to Cosmic Rays.

CRUNCH (Cosmic Ray UNveiling with CHerenkov telescopes) is a research program (PI: Antonino La Barbera) that focuses on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in the field of astroparticle physics. The program aims to use cutting-edge AI techniques to investigate the ability to infer the chemical compositions of cosmic rays using Cherenkov telescopes.

Our group exploits Machine Learning techniques, proven to be highly effective for gamma hadron discrimination in the context of TeV astronomy with IACT (Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope) and explores both already assessed methods and new algorithms, applying them to the hadronic component of the signal collected by the Cherenkov telescope, to discriminate the different elemental species of hadrons efficiently.

Our group simulates different samples of hadron-generated showers and use them to test machine, ensemble, and deep learning techniques, then we plan to verify the methods by applying them to data collected by ASTRI Mini-Array and the prototype telescope Astri-Horn.


Contact person
Antonino La Barbera

Team
Anna Anzalone
Milvia Capalbi
Osvaldo Catalano
Giovanni Contino
Valentina La Parola
Davide Mollica
Antonio Pagliaro
Pierluca Sangiorgi