Reconstruction of $τ$ lepton pair invariant mass using an artificial neural network

Abstract

The reconstruction of the invariant mass of $τ$ lepton pairs is important for analyses containing Higgs and Z bosons decaying to $τ^{+}τ^{-}$, but highly challenging due to the neutrinos from the $τ$ lepton decays, which cannot be measured in the detector. In this paper, we demonstrate how artificial neural networks can be used to reconstruct the mass of a di-$τ$ system and compare this procedure to an algorithm used by the CMS Collaboration for this purpose. We find that the neural network output shows a smaller bias and better resolution of the di-$τ$ mass reconstruction and an improved discrimination between a Higgs boson signal and the Drell-Yan background with a much shorter computation time.

11 pages, 7 figures