31 August 2026 to 4 September 2026
University of Malta
Europe/Malta timezone

Prompt GRB classification through waterfalls and deep learning

1 Sept 2026, 10:00
20m
Aula Prima (University of Malta)

Aula Prima

University of Malta

Valletta Campus, St Paul Street Valletta VLT 1216, Malta

Speaker

Nicolò Cibrario

Description

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most energetic phenomena in the Universe and provide a unique laboratory for physics under extreme conditions. Rapid classification of GRBs based on their prompt emission is essential to guide timely multi-wavelength and multi-messenger follow-up observations.
In this work, we present a data-driven pipeline for GRB classification based on observations from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Our method introduces waterfall plots as a novel data representation, encoding a broad set of key prompt emission properties into high-dimensional images. We reduce the dimensionality of these data using a self-supervised deep learning approach, followed by a semi-supervised algorithm that assigns classification probabilities to each event.
Our approach enables near real-time classification of newly detected GRBs, delivering both a predicted progenitor class and a probabilistic estimate, making it well suited for integration into rapid follow-up frameworks.

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