SpikePID: Real-Time Neuromorphic Cluster Counting in Future Drift Chambers

arXiv:2611.00104v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Cluster counting ($dN/dx$) measures discrete ionization occurrences along a charged particle track traversing a gaseous medium and is currently being proposed to serve particle identification (PID) in next-generation drift chambers, as it is expected to offer higher separation power than the traditional approach based on the ionization energy loss measurement ($dE/dx$), which has intrinsically larger statistical fluctuations. However, measuring $dN/dx$ in drift chambers proposed for future colliders requires high-resolution waveforms, which result in very large data rates. Running the reconstruction at the edge would drastically reduce the bandwidth required to transmit data off the detector.