Estimation of waveform deformation with the matched filter

Abstract: In many particle physics experiments the data processing is based on the analysis of the digitized waveforms provided by the detector. While the waveform amplitude is usually correlated to the event energy, the shape may carry useful information for event discrimination. Thanks to the high signal to noise ratio they provide, matched filters are often applied. Their original design is however intended for the estimation of the waveform amplitude only. In this work we introduce an analytical extension of the original matched filter for the estimation of a possible shape deformation with respect to a reference template. The new filter is validated on simulations and, with respect to shape parameters calculated on unfiltered waveforms or derived from the original matched filter, it improves the discrimination capability by at least a factor 2 both at low and high signal to noise ratios, making it applicable to the data of several experiments.