Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 84: Gamma Astronomy II

T 84.1: Talk

Thursday, March 19, 2026, 16:15–16:30, KS 00.005

Enhancing SWGO Sensitivity to Galactic Center PeVatrons with GNNs — •Martin Schneider for the SWGO collaboration — ECAP, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) will provide continuous, wide-field monitoring of the Southern Hemisphere gamma-ray sky, offering unprecedented access to high-energy phenomena in the region around the Galactic Center. A central challenge for SWGO is achieving robust gamma/hadron separation to suppress the overwhelming cosmic-ray background, which is crucial for studies of diffuse emission and potential Galactic PeVatron activity. In this contribution, we present a new study demonstrating the advantages of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) over traditional machine-learning classifiers. Using two years of simulated SWGO observations, we evaluate how improved background rejection from GNN-based models enhances the sensitivity to a spectral cutoff in the diffuse emission near the Galactic Center. Such sensitivity is essential for testing the PeVatron hypothesis and to disentagle the sources and processes shaping this region.

Keywords: SWGO; Galactic Center; PeVatrons; Diffuse gamma-ray emission; GNNs