Speaker
Description
Traditional new-physics searches face a trade-off between coverage and sensitivity. Anomaly detection offers a way to extend their reach by searching for unusual signatures without assuming a specific signal model. Over the past decade, the field has developed a broad range of anomaly-detection paradigms and methods. More recently, the focus has begun to shift from developing new methods towards improving their sensitivity and coverage and, importantly, understanding what is required to make them useful in experiments, including questions of robustness, statistical interpretation, and integration into existing search strategies. In this talk, I will review key developments in anomaly detection and discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead as the field learns from past physics applications to improve future ones. I will also discuss the new anomaly detection task force in the BSM Working Group, which aims to consolidate ongoing efforts and help address remaining obstacles to the widespread use of anomaly detection in experiments.