Fast neural-net based fake track rejection in the LHCb reconstruction

Abstract

A neural-network based algorithm to identify fake tracks in the LHCb pattern recognition is presented. This algorithm, called ghost probability, retains more than 99 % of well reconstructed tracks while reducing the number of fake tracks by 60 %. It is fast enough to fit into the CPU time budget of the software trigger farm and thus reduces the combinatorics of the decay reconstructions, as well as the number of tracks that need to be processed by the particle identification algorithms. As a result, it strongly contributes to the achievement of having the same reconstruction online and offline in the LHCb experiment in Run II of the LHC.