Isobel Mawby (Lancaster)

Pandora: The Hope Left in the Jar for Reconstruction at The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

Abstract: The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino experiment located in the USA. It is primarily a neutrino oscillation experiment that seeks to resolve the remaining unknowns of neutrino oscillation physics—most notably whether CP is violated in neutrino oscillations, a key ingredient in explaining the matter–antimatter asymmetry of our Universe. Uniquely, DUNE’s wide-band neutrino beam and long baseline will enable the first simultaneous measurement of all oscillation parameters, putting the long-held assumption of unitarity to the test.

DUNE will employ liquid-argon time projection chamber technology to capture neutrino interactions with unprecedented topological and calorimetric resolution. Such fine-grain images demand a sophisticated, automatic reconstruction software to unlock the experiment’s physics potential. Pandora is one of the primary reconstruction paradigms employed by DUNE and its prototypes, with an impressive track record across the SBN programme.

In this talk, I will present an overview of the mechanics of Pandora, highlighting the power of its multi-algorithm approach and exploring its targeted use of AI. I will demonstrate the use of Pandora across the physics programme of DUNE, from the published pion cross-section measurements of ProtoDUNE, to the early atmospheric and future beam oscillation analyses. After an initial focus on Pandora at the far detector, I will turn to the near detector, where the reconstruction faces the formidable challenge of disentangling up to 50(!) neutrino interactions.