Towards a foundation model for heavy-ion collision experiments through point cloud diffusion

Abstract: A novel point cloud diffusion model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions, capable of ultra-fast generation of event-by-event collision output, is introduced. When trained on UrQMD cascade simulations, the model generates realistic collision event output containing 26 distinct hadron species, as a list of particle momentum vectors along with their particle ID. From solving inverse problems to accelerating model calculations or detector simulations, the model can be a promising general purpose tool for heavy-ion collisions beneficial to both theoretical studies and experimental applications.