Benson, SeanCasais Vidal, AdriánCid Vidal, XabierPuig Navarro, Albert2020-04-222020-04-222019Benson, S., Casais Vidal, A., Cid Vidal, X., & Puig Navarro, A. (2019). Real-time discrimination of photon pairs using machine learning at the LHC. Scipost Physics, 7(5). doi: 10.21468/scipostphys.7.5.062http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21663ALP-mediated decays and other as-yet unobserved B decays to di-photon final states are a challenge to select in hadron collider environments due to the large backgrounds that come directly from the p p collision. We present the strategy implemented by the LHCb experiment in 2018 to efficiently select such photon pairs. A fast neural network topology, implemented in the LHCb real-time selection framework achieves high efficiency across a mass range of 4−20 GeV/c2. We discuss implications and future prospects for the LHCb experimenteng© 2019 S. Benson et al. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/journal article10.21468/SciPostPhys.7.5.0622542-4653open access