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  1. Abstract Recurrent neural networks have been shown to be effective architectures for many tasks in high energy physics, and thus have been widely adopted. Their use in low-latency environments has, however, been limited as a result of the difficulties of implementing recurrent architectures on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). In this paper we present an implementation of two types of recurrent neural network layers—long short-term memory and gated recurrent unit—within the hls4ml framework. We demonstrate that our implementation is capable of producing effective designs for both small and large models, and can be customized to meet specific design requirements for inference latencies and FPGA resources. We show the performance and synthesized designs for multiple neural networks, many of which are trained specifically for jet identification tasks at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available April 10, 2024
  2. The recent application of neural network algorithms to problems in gravitational-wave physics invites the study of how best to build production-ready applications on top of them. By viewing neural networks not as standalone models, but as components or functions in larger data processing pipelines, we can apply lessons learned from both traditional software development practices as well as successful deep learning applications from the private sector. This paper highlights challenges presented by straightforward but naïve deployment strategies for deep learning models, and identifies solutions to them gleaned from these sources. It then presents HERMES, a library of tools for implementing these solutions, and describes how HERMES is being used to develop a particular deep learning application which will be deployed during the next data collection run of the International Gravitational-Wave Observatories. 
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    The field of transient astronomy has seen a revolution with the first gravitational-wave detections and the arrival of multi-messenger observations they enabled. Transformed by the first detection of binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers, computational demands in gravitational-wave astronomy are expected to grow by at least a factor of two over the next five years as the global network of kilometer-scale interferometers are brought to design sensitivity. With the increase in detector sensitivity, real-time delivery of gravitational-wave alerts will become increasingly important as an enabler of multi-messenger followup. In this work, we report a novel implementation and deployment of deep learning inference for real-time gravitational-wave data denoising and astrophysical source identification. This is accomplished using a generic Inference-as-a-Service model that is capable of adapting to the future needs of gravitational-wave data analysis. Our implementation allows seamless incorporation of hardware accelerators and also enables the use of commercial or private (dedicated) as-a-service computing. Based on our results, we propose a paradigm shift in low-latency and offline computing in gravitational-wave astronomy. Such a shift can address key challenges in peak-usage, scalability and reliability, and provide a data analysis platform particularly optimized for deep learning applications. The achieved sub-millisecond scale latency will also be relevant for any machine learning-based real-time control systems that may be invoked in the operation of near-future and next generation ground-based laser interferometers, as well as the front-end collection, distribution and processing of data from such instruments. 
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    A bstract Discoveries of new phenomena often involve a dedicated search for a hypothetical physics signature. Recently, novel deep learning techniques have emerged for anomaly detection in the absence of a signal prior. However, by ignoring signal priors, the sensitivity of these approaches is significantly reduced. We present a new strategy dubbed Quasi Anomalous Knowledge (QUAK), whereby we introduce alternative signal priors that capture some of the salient features of new physics signatures, allowing for the recovery of sensitivity even when the alternative signal is incorrect. This approach can be applied to a broad range of physics models and neural network architectures. In this paper, we apply QUAK to anomaly detection of new physics events at the CERN Large Hadron Collider utilizing variational autoencoders with normalizing flow. 
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    Computing needs for high energy physics are already intensive and are expected to increase drastically in the coming years. In this context, heterogeneous computing, specifically as-a-service computing, has the potential for significant gains over traditional computing models. Although previous studies and packages in the field of heterogeneous computing have focused on GPUs as accelerators, FPGAs are an extremely promising option as well. A series of workflows are developed to establish the performance capabilities of FPGAs as a service. Multiple different devices and a range of algorithms for use in high energy physics are studied. For a small, dense network, the throughput can be improved by an order of magnitude with respect to GPUs as a service. For large convolutional networks, the throughput is found to be comparable to GPUs as a service. This work represents the first open-source FPGAs-as-a-service toolkit. 
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  8. null (Ed.)
    Computing needs for high energy physics are already intensive and are expected to increase drastically in the coming years. In this context, heterogeneous computing, specifically as-a-service computing, has the potential for significant gains over traditional computing models. Although previous studies and packages in the field of heterogeneous computing have focused on GPUs as accelerators, FPGAs are an extremely promising option as well. A series of workflows are developed to establish the performance capabilities of FPGAs as a service. Multiple different devices and a range of algorithms for use in high energy physics are studied. For a small, dense network, the throughput can be improved by an order of magnitude with respect to GPUs as a service. For large convolutional networks, the throughput is found to be comparable to GPUs as a service. This work represents the first open-source FPGAs-as-a-service toolkit. 
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