High Energy Physics event selection with Gene Expression Programming

Gene Expression Programming is a new evolutionary algorithm that overcomes many limitations of the more established Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming. Its application to event selection in high energy physics data analysis is presented using as an example application the selection of K-S particles produced in e(+)e(-) interactions at 10 GeV and reconstructed in the decay mode K-S -> pi(+)pi(-). The algorithm was used for automatic identification of classification criteria for signallbackground separation. For the problem studied and for data samples with signal to background ratios between 0.25 and 5, the classification accuracy obtained with the criteria developed by the GEP algorithm was in the range of 92-95%. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.