M.S. Astro Project Talk: Zach Mason - "Reconstructing the Direction of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays using a Simulation-Based Inference Approach"

GRAND (Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection) is a proposed next-generation observatory aimed at detecting ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic particles. In this talk, Zach Mason will present a novel simulation-based inference (SBI) pipeline designed to reconstruct the arrival direction of these rare cosmic messengers from the radio signals they generate in the atmosphere. The method leverages realistic simulations from CoREAS and ZHAireS—including electric field amplitudes, antenna positions, and trigger times—to train an SBI algorithm that infers the posterior distribution over cosmic-ray arrival directions. This Bayesian framework not only provides accurate reconstructions but also delivers principled uncertainty estimates, offering a clear advantage over traditional black-box machine learning models.