Fast reconstruction-based ROI triggering via anomaly detection in the CYGNO optical TPC
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Optical-readout time projection chambers (TPCs) produce megapixel-scale images whose fine-grained topological information is essential for rare-event searches, but whose size challenges real-time data selection. We present an unsupervised, reconstruction-based anomaly-detection strategy for fast region-of-interest (ROI) extraction that operates directly on minimally processed camera frames. A convolutional autoencoder (AE) trained exclusively on pedestal images learns the detector noise morphology without labels, simulation, or fine-grained calibration. Applied to standard data-taking frames, localized reconstruction residuals identify particle-induced structures, from which compact ROIs are extracted via thresholding and spatial clustering. Using real data from the CYGNO optical TPC prototype, we compare two pedestal-trained AE configurations that differ only in their training objective, enabling a controlled study of its impact. The best configuration retains ( 93.0 ± 0.2 ) % of reconstructed signal intensity while discarding ( 97.8 ± 0.1 ) % of the image area, with an inference time of ∼25 ms per frame on a consumer GPU. The results demonstrate that careful design of the training objective is critical for effective reconstruction-based anomaly detection and that pedestal-trained AEs provide a transparent and detector-agnostic baseline for online data reduction in optical TPCs.
Authors: F D Amaro, R Antonietti, Elisabetta Baracchini, Luigi Benussi, Cesidio Capoccia, Michele Arturo Caponero, L G M de Carvalho, G Cavoto, I A Costa, A Croce, M D’Astolfo, Giulia D’Imperio, Giorgio Dho, E Di Marco, J M F dos Santos, Davide Fiorina, F Iacoangeli, Zahoor ul Islam, Ernesto Kemp, Herman P Lima Jr, Giovanni Maccarrone, R D P Mano, David José Gaspar Marques, Giovanni Mazzitelli, Pietro Meloni, A Messina, V Monno, C M B Monteiro, R A Nobrega, G M Oppedisano, Igor Fonseca Pains, E Paoletti, Fabrizio Petrucci, Stefano Piacentini, D Pierluigi, Davide Pinci, F Renga, A Russo, G Saviano, P A O C Silva, N J Spooner, Roberto Tesauro, Sandro Tomassini, Donatella Tozzi
Institutions: University of Coimbra, Roma Tre University, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma I, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Sapienza University of Rome, University of Sheffield
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,000
Funder: European Commission
OpenAlex ID: W7151506556
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