Introduction to Machine Learning for Accelerator Physics

Abstract: This pair of CAS lectures gives an introduction for accelerator physics students to the framework and terminology of ML. We start by introducing the language of ML through a simple example of linear regression, including a probabilistic perspective to introduce the concepts of maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and maximum a priori (MAP) estimation. We then apply the concepts to examples of neural networks and logistic regression. Next we introduce non-parametric models and the kernel method and give a brief introduction to two other machine learning paradigms, unsupervised and reinforcement learning. Finally we close with example applications of ML at a free-electron laser.