Summer Students @ DESY Zeuthen 2025

22 Jul 2025, 09:00 → 11 Sept 2025, 23:59 Europe/Berlin

DESY, Zeuthen

Andrew Taylor (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik)), Sarah Seibt (Z_KOM (Kommunikation)), Summer Blot (Z_ICE (IceCube+NG))

Summies_GroupPhoto_25.jpg

Tuesday 22 July

09:00 → 11:00 Welcome and Introduction

Speakers: Andrew Taylor, Sarah Seibt, Summer Blot

DESY-20250618-SummerstudentsIntro.pdf

Welcome_2025.pdf

Wednesday 23 July

09:30 → 11:00 Gamma-ray Astronomy I

Speaker: Sylvia J. Zhu (Z_HESS (High Energy Steroscopic System))

sjzhu_gammarays_2025_day1.pdf

13:30 → 14:30 Campus Tour

Conveners: Andrew Taylor (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik)), Summer Blot (Z_ICE (IceCube+NG)), Ulrike Schulz (Z_KOM (Kommunikation))

15:00 → 18:00 Warm-up Party at the Lake Summer Students and Supervisors

Thursday 24 July

09:30 → 11:00 Gamma-ray Astronomy II

Speaker: Sylvia J. Zhu (Z_HESS (High Energy Steroscopic System))

sjzhu_gammarays_2025_day2.pdf

14:00 → 14:30 Introduction Water Sports

When you want to use the boats and sups, you have to join this introduction

Convener: Marko Kossatz

Friday 25 July

09:30 → 11:00 Gamma-ray Astronomy III

Speaker: Sylvia J. Zhu (Z_HESS (High Energy Steroscopic System))

sjzhu_gammarays_2025_day3.pdf

14:00 → 16:00 Berlin City Tour

Monday 28 July

09:30 → 11:00 Particle Detectors I

Speaker: Steven Worm (Z_DET (Detektorentwicklung))

Detectors_DESY_Summer_School_2025_part1.pdf

Tuesday 29 July

09:30 → 11:00 Particle Detectors II

Speaker: Steven Worm (Z_DET (Detektorentwicklung))

Detectors_DESY_Summer_School_2025_part2.pdf

Wednesday 30 July

09:30 → 11:00 Astroparticle Theory I

Speaker: Martin Pohl (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik))

DESY_1.pdf

Thursday 31 July

09:30 → 11:00 Astroparticle Theory II

Speaker: Martin Pohl (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik))

DESY_2.pdf

Friday 1 August

09:30 → 11:00 Astroparticle Theory III

Speaker: Martin Pohl (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik))

DESY_3.pdf

Monday 4 August

09:30 → 11:00 Data Analysis I

Speaker: Robert Daniel Parsons (Z_GA (Gammaastronomie))

data_analysis.pdf

Tuesday 5 August

09:30 → 11:30 Data Analysis II

Speaker: Robert Daniel Parsons (Z_GA (Gammaastronomie))

Wednesday 6 August

10:30 → 12:00 Machine Learning I

Speaker: Dr Iftach Sadeh (Z_GA (Gammaastronomie))

20250806_sadeh_ML_0.pdf

Thursday 7 August

10:30 → 12:00 Machine Learning II

Speaker: Dr Iftach Sadeh (Z_GA (Gammaastronomie))

20250807_sadeh_ML_1.pdf

Monday 11 August

09:30 → 11:00 Standard Model I

Speaker: Clara Elisabeth Leitgeb (Z_ATLAS (Experiment ATLAS))

SummerStudent_Lecture1_11082025.pdf

Tuesday 12 August

09:30 → 11:00 Standard Model II

Speaker: Clara Elisabeth Leitgeb (Z_ATLAS (Experiment ATLAS))

SummerStudent_Lecture2_12082025.pdf

Wednesday 13 August

09:30 → 11:00 Standard Model III

Speaker: Clara Elisabeth Leitgeb (Z_ATLAS (Experiment ATLAS))

SummerStudent_Lecture3_13082025.pdf

Thursday 14 August

09:30 → 11:00 Neutrino Physics I

Speaker: Walter Winter (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik))

2508_DESY_Summer_students_1.pdf

Friday 15 August

09:30 → 11:00 Neutrino Physics II

Speaker: Walter Winter (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik))

2508_DESY_Summer_students_2.pdf

Monday 18 August

09:30 → 11:00 Quantum Computing I

Speaker: Stefan Kuehn (CQTA (Centre f. Quantum Techno. a. Application))

Tuesday 19 August

09:30 → 11:00 Quantum Computing II

Speaker: Stefan Kuehn (CQTA (Centre f. Quantum Techno. a. Application))

Wednesday 20 August

09:30 → 11:00 Quantum Computing III

Speaker: Stefan Kuehn (CQTA (Centre f. Quantum Techno. a. Application))

QC_Intro_III.pdf

Thursday 21 August

09:30 → 11:00 PITZ Facility

Speaker: Sumaira Zeeshan (Z_PITZ (Betrieb und Forschung))

PITZ Overview SZ_I.pdf

Friday 22 August

09:30 → 11:00 Radiation Biology

Speakers: Anna Grebinyk (Z_PITZ (Technologie)), Sepideh Aminzadeh

Monday 25 August

13:00 → 14:30 Accelerator Physics I

Speaker: Gregor Loisch (MIN (Hochfrequenz))

Tuesday 26 August

09:30 → 11:00 Accelerator Physics II

Speaker: Gregor Loisch (MIN (Hochfrequenz))

14:00 → 16:00 DASHH/PIER Graduate Schools

2:00 - 3:00 pm: The DASHH and PIER Graduate Schools present themselves to the DESY summer students
3:00 - 3:30 pm: Former DESY Summer Students present their career paths
3:30 - 4:30 pm: DESY Canteen Extension and Terrace: Get-together with Coffee & Cookies

https://pier-hamburg.de/education/phgs/, https://www.dashh.org/
(joint online attendance in SR1 also possible)

Speaker: Silvia Alessandria (Z_LB (Leitungsbuero Zeuthen))

Wednesday 27 August

00:00 → 23:59 Trip to Hamburg

Thursday 28 August

00:00 → 23:59 Trip to Hamburg

18:00 → 20:00 Festival of International Students

This will be a BBQ event for all Summies: DESY Hamburg/Zeuthen

https://indico.desy.de/event/49320/contributions/187162/

Canteen extension

Speaker: Andrew Taylor (Z_THAT (Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik))

Friday 29 August

00:00 → 23:59 Trip to Hamburg

Saturday 30 August

00:00 → 23:59 Trip to Hamburg

Sunday 31 August

00:00 → 23:59 Trip to Hamburg

Monday 1 September

09:30 → 11:00 Data Management

Speaker: Gernot Maier (DESY)

20250901-DESY-Summerstudents-DataManagement.pdf

Wednesday 3 September

09:30 → 11:00 Beyond Standard Model I

Speaker: Ben Brueers (Z_ATUP (ATLAS-Upgrade))

2025-09-03_BB_Summerstudents_1.pdf

Friday 5 September

09:30 → 11:00 Beyond Standard Model II

Speaker: Ben Brueers (Z_ATUP (ATLAS-Upgrade))

2025-09-05_BB_Summerstudents_2.pdf

Monday 8 September

13:00 → 15:00 COAST Career Development

create awareness on strategic career planning,
reflect on what you want,
know the power of networking,
and use tools to help yourself

Speakers: Annette Leemans (PE (Personalentwicklung)), Lia Lang (DESY Zeuthen, Personal Development & Career Counseling)

Tuesday 9 September

13:00 → 13:20 Supernova Remnants as Cosmic Accelerators: Simulation-Based Insights

The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of a summer student project conducted within the Astroparticle Physics Theory group. Supernova remnants (SNRs) are key astrophysical sites for the acceleration of cosmic rays, and their observable signatures provide valuable insights into high-energy astrophysical processes. In this project, hydrodynamic simulations of supernova explosions were performed to explore the evolution of expanding shocks and their associated particle and radiation spectra. Benchmark cases, including simplified models and a well-studied remnant, were used to validate the simulation framework and assess its ability to reproduce expected physical behaviour. These studies form the basis for applying the approach to more complex scenarios of current interest. The presentation will introduce the astrophysical context, describe the methods employed, and discuss preliminary findings.

Speaker: Joana Dimitrova

13:20 → 13:40 Flux Variability and Spectral Analysis of LS I +61 303 and HESS J0632+057 with VERITAS

This project focuses on the gamma-ray binaries LS I +61 303 and HESS J0632+057, analyzed with data from the VERITAS array during the DESY Summer School. The project aimed to investigate variability in flux and spectral parameters beyond orbital modulation and to search for extended emission possibly associated with a pulsar wind nebula. To achieve these aims, the project is structured in two main stages. The first stage involves generating 1000 Monte Carlo light curves and applying Lomb–Scargle periodograms to evaluate periodicity, establish confidence levels, and estimate period uncertainties through signal injection tests. In the second stage, spectral analysis is performed using the Gammapy framework, which includes criteria for target region definition and exclusion mask creation, background estimation, spectral fitting with power-law models, and evaluation of residuals. Together, these methods provide a framework for studying phase-dependent variability and spectral evolution in gamma-ray binaries.

Speaker: Emiliia Ortynska

13:40 → 14:00 Correlation Analysis of H.E.S.S. gamma-ray and Southern Galactic Plane Survey neutral atomic hydrogen maps

This work focuses on developing automated methods for identifying correlations between two-dimensional gamma-ray maps obtained with the H.E.S.S. telescope array and three-dimensional neutral atomic hydrogen maps from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey. Detecting such correlations is important for studying the interaction of cosmic rays with the interstellar medium and for constraining the mechanisms responsible for the hadronic production of TeV gamma radiation. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was applied as the primary analysis tool. This made it possible to identify velocity slices with higher levels of statistical correspondence. The developed methods help to speed up data processing and reduce the impact of subjective factors.

Speaker: Olena Pastoven

14:00 → 14:20 LLM Applications in High Energy Astronomy

The growing complexity of telescope configurations, such as those in the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), demands efficient and reliable tools for data modeling and validation. This project presents a multi-agent application, called 'CTAgent', designed to automate the generation of Pydantic Python models directly from free-text descriptions or structured files. It also explores the use of the multi-agent framework AutoGen, as well as minimal function tools available in new OpenAI models. The system incorporates a feedback loop to verify and refine generated code before user presentation, streamlining the workflow for astrophysical data management. As an additional investigation, benchmark tests were conducted on two OpenAI large language models (GPT-o3 and GPT-5) to evaluate their reasoning capabilities in the niche of astronomy using the TevCat Catalogue. They were each tested on low and high reasoning efforts.

Speaker: Elisa Jones

14:20 → 14:40 Break

14:40 → 15:00 Characterization of Neutrino Hotspots: Minimum Angular Cut and Sensitivity to Diffuse Flux

This work evaluates the performance of a neutrino hotspot-population analysis on simulated sky maps, with the aim of quantifying the ability to distinguish injected point sources from a diffuse background and of characterizing the angular accuracy of reconstructed hotspots. First, background sky maps were compared to a Poisson distribution to justify the choice of a minimum angular separation; from this study a minimum angular cut of 1.25° is adopted for all subsequent analysis. Using this configuration, ensembles of maps were produced with injected point sources spanning a range of relative intensities (i.e., different fractions of the diffuse flux). For each ensemble, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test was applied to compare the distributions of detection significances between injected maps and pure-background maps, thereby identifying the injection levels at which the background hypothesis becomes incompatible. In parallel, the angular separation between reconstructed hotspots and the true injected positions was analyzed for each sample, yielding the distribution of angular errors and its dependence on source brightness. The results provide operational criteria (minimum angular cut and sensitivity thresholds) to guide future correlation studies between astronomical source catalogs and the hotspots identified in neutrino sky maps.

Speaker: Gulliermo Lagunas Gualda

15:00 → 15:20 Double Cascades Reconstruction Algorithm in IceCube

The study of high-energy neutrino events provides a means to probe the nature of numerous phenomena in the universe. This is because neutrinos interact with matter via the weak interaction and gravity. Neutrinos come in different flavors and can oscillate from one flavor to another. Different neutrino interactions with matter produce distinct light topologies, which can be detected by the mDOMs within the IceCube detection volume. The flavor of an incoming neutrino can only be inferred from the topology of the deposited light (track, single cascade, or double cascade). Consequently, IceCube has developed a number of reconstruction algorithms that reconstruct light topologies from the available data according to each algorithm’s model. Monopod is dedicated to single cascade reconstruction, while Taupede is designed for double cascades. This has led to the development of classification schemes that determine the type of neutrino using the best-fit values from the corresponding reconstruction algorithm.

Speaker: Kevin Kansutthiwiwat

15:20 → 15:40 Learning about radio at DESY: The first steps in a new radio antenna outreach project

Radio antennas are crucial to our day-to-day life as they cover a wide range of tasks; from amateur communications to next-generation science experiments. Therefore, outreach projects explaining how antennas work provide an excellent entry point for students into many disciplines, including astroparticle physics. Throughout this project various antennas and software defined radios (SDRs) were tested to find the best candidate to use for such a project. Despite working in a relatively simple way, antennas are used at the Radio Neutrino Observatory Greenland (RNO-G) to detect radio emission from the interaction of ultra-high energy (UHE), astrophysical neutrinos in polar ice. Being able to show students how antennas work will help inspire the next generation of astroparticle physicists.

Speaker: Amy Hall

Wednesday 10 September

09:30 → 09:50 Study of Electric Current Induced by the deflection of Blazar-induced TeV Pairs in a Homogenous IGMF

The Relativistic electron-positron pairs produced by high energy gamma rays (more than TeV) can produce about GeV cascade gamma rays via Inverse Compton Scattering. The produced +e/-e and the cascade gamma ray had been found to be absent in the gamma ray spectra of several Blazars. This absence is due to the deflection of the motion of the charged particles due to the existence of the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF). In this paper, the +e/−e pairs production rates for the Blazar 1ES 0229+200 had been used to find the electric currents induced by the deflection of pairs in a homogenous background magnetic field. The calculations were performed for pairs produced starting from distance 50 Mpc away from the source including their cooling via Inverse Compton Scattering while they travel a distance of 1 Mpc. Then the magnetic field induced by the electric current had been evaluated to be compared with the background magnetic field.

Speaker: Bahaa Asad

09:50 → 10:10 Calibration and Performance Characterization of the SST Camera Using SiPM Pixels

The SST camera of CTA is a Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) based 2048-pixel camera with 1 GSps full waveform readout. Its current prototype iteration underwent field tests in July 2025.
This work presents:
- extraction of key performance parameters of the SiPMs employed in the SST camera such as gain, resolution, and pedestal position and width, using laborartory data.
- application of resulting calibration parameters to the data taken during the recent field test campaign.
- comparison of Cherenkov shower image distributions between field data and MonteCarlo simulations.
- search for Muons in the data set, building from a previous work on a muon tagger.

Speaker: Killa Santer

10:10 → 10:30 Characterisation of Silicon Photomultipliers for Neuroimaging: KRANOS group

This presentation aims to provide an outline of a summer student research project in the K-40 Radiation for Advanced Neuroimaging Of Strokes (KRANOS) group. The collaboration is centred around research and development of the detection system which will use Silicon Photomultipliers to identify potassium-40 concentrations in the brain. After indirect electron capture, K-40 decays into Ar-40 emitting a 1.4MeV photon which is detected by the SiPM. Using a function generator, a low intensity and narrow pulsed LED source was incident upon the SiPM, allowing for measurement of the gain in each of the 64 readout channels. The linear relation between reverse bias and gain was used to tune each channel for a universal gain across the SiPM. Measurement of gain was repeated using a scanning TCT localised on two readout channels. A sodium-iodide scintillator was used to convert the gamma rays produced by the Caesium-137 into multiple lower energy photons to be absorbed by the SiPM – increasing their absorption coefficients and implementing a form of energy identification. Caesium is used to provide a high statistics gamma decay source to test the set up in the project’s short time frame.

Speaker: Amber Threlfall

10:30 → 10:50 Break

10:50 → 11:10 4D Phase Space Analysis Aimed at x-y Coupling Characterization of Electron Beams

The aim of this presentation is to give overview of a Summer Student Project, done within the Photo-Injector Teststand at DESY Zeuthen (PITZ). Emittance (volume in the trace space occupied by the beam) and plane coupling of the beam are important measures of the beam quality. Emittance should be low and there should be no x-y coupling. At the PITZ accelerator, recent measurements indicated significant beam coupling, therefore the main focus of the project was developing a tool for quantization of this coupling, as well as detection of the region of the beam in which coupling is the highest. The method used at PITZ for 4D phase space characterization, which was used to give information about transverse beam space coupling, is called Virtual Pepper Pot method. Series of emittance measurement scans were analyzed and compared for different beamline parameters such as laser position on the cathode, electron gun solenoid current and effect of presence of gun quadrupoles. The presentation will outline methods applied and discuss preliminary observations.

Speaker: Naida Ustavdic

11:10 → 11:30 Beam-Based Alignment of the RF Gun using Phase-Scan

Matching and ASTRA at PITZ This summer student project focuses on Beam-Based Alignment (BBA) procedures of the RF photogun at PITZ, addressing challenges that impact both the precision and overall performance of the high-brightness electron source. One of the issues encountered is that the beam is deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field and a possible residual field, complicating the task of achieving accurate centering of the laser at the photocathode. To investigate this deviation in greater detail, the study utilizes the RF gun phase range where the beam experiences strong RF focusing while its energy varies significantly. This phase region is particularly sensitive to the laser’s offset from the cathode center, which is assumed to coincide with the electric axis of the RF gun cavity. In addition, external and parasitic magnetic fields in the region of interest cannot be measured on-site with sufficient accuracy. To address these limitations, the basic measurement for laser BBA at PITZ — the detection of the beam centroid position on the scintillating (YAG) screen, located 0.803 m downstream of the cathode — was reproduced using ASTRA tracking simulations. This approach makes it possible to determine not only the laser offset on the cathode, but also to estimate the effective transverse magnetic field in the gun–drift section and to evaluate the screen coordinates of the laboratory axis. One practical result of these studies is the development and implementation of Helmholtz coils around the gun cavity to compensate for the influence of the Earth’s (remnant) field.

Speaker: Chiara Vinotto

11:30 → 11:50 An Introduction to Matrix Product State Algorithms

Tensor Networks were developed in Many-Body Quantum Physics for describing many-body wavefunctions. Matrix Product States are a simple 1D ansatz which lends itself to efficient computation and as such have been explored for many applications in MBQP and beyond. I give an overview of some of the most common MPS algorithms and their uses: the Tensor Cross Interpolation for efficiently finding MPS representations of functions; Density Matrix Renormalisation Group for finding the ground state of Hamiltonians; and Time Evolving Block Decimation for time evolution. Uses of MPS for manipulating functions are presented as well as applications to the Ising model and for simulating quantum electrodynamics with the Schwinger model.

Speaker: Nicholas Woodford

11:50 → 12:10 Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks for Classification

In this project, I investigate quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs) for quantum machine learning. The models are applied to binary classification tasks using subsets of the MNIST dataset for benchmarking, with simulations carried out on PennyLane devices. Different circuit encodings and optimization settings are tested, and parameter sweeps are performed to study how factors such as learning rate and batch size influence performance. The presentation will summarize the implementation, results, and potential relevance of QCNNs for physics-related applications.

Speaker: Harutyu Vasilyan

12:30 → 14:00 Summer student & organizers lunch

Summer students and Organizers eat lunch together