Cécile Germain

Learning to discover: the Higgs boson machine learning challenge

Preamble The Higgs boson machine learning challenge (HiggsML or Challenge in short) has been set up to promote collaboration between high energy physicists and data scientists. The ATLAS experiment at CERN provided simulated data used by physicists to optimize the analysis of the Higgs boson. The Challenge is organized by a small group of ATLAS physicists and data scientists. It is hosted by Kaggle at https://www.kaggle.com/c/higgs-boson. This document provides technical background for the Challenge; reading and understanding it is not necessary to participate in the Challenge, but it is probably useful. No prior knowledge of high energy physics is required. All information on how to participate in the Challenge is available on the Kaggle web site.