ML-based Fast Simulation of FARICH Responses

A fast simulation of the detector response is a vital task in high-energy physics (HEP). Traditional Monte-Carlo methods form the backbone of modern particle physics simulation software but are computationally expensive. We present a machine-learning-based approach to fast simulation of the Focusing Aerogel Ring Imaging Cherenkov (FARICH) detector response. Given a particle track and momentum, the goal is to generate realistic samples of photon hits on the detector matrix. We propose a conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) with a lightweight convolutional architecture that reproduces the projected detector response conditioned on particle parameters. We compare the cGAN against a linear statistical baseline using metrics applied to probability maps and to the reconstructed velocity distributions. The cGAN provides a high inference throughput and a good agreement with Geant4 reference. Further work is needed to ensure complete reconstructed velocity reproduction.