Application of transfer learning to neutrino interaction classification

Training deep neural networks using simulations typically requires very large numbers of simulated events. This can be a large computational burden and a limitation in the performance of the deep learning algorithm when insufficient numbers of events can be produced. We investigate the use of transfer learning, where a set of simulated images are used to fine tune a model trained on generic image recognition tasks, to the specific use case of neutrino interaction classification in a liquid argon time projection chamber. A ResNet18, pre-trained on photographic images, was fine-tuned using simulated neutrino images and when trained with one hundred thousand training events reached an F1 score of 0.896 ± 0.002 compared to 0.836 ± 0.004 from a randomly-initialised network trained with the same training sample. The transfer-learned networks also demonstrate lower bias as a function of energy and more balanced performance across different interaction types.