Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Annual Meeting of the Four Corners Section of the APS
Volume 58, Number 12
Friday–Saturday, October 18–19, 2013; Denver, Colorado
Session K5: Particle Physics IV: Experiment |
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Chair: Robert Wilson, Colorado State University Room: 251 |
Saturday, October 19, 2013 11:15AM - 11:27AM |
K5.00001: Controlled Freezing of Liquid Xenon on a Cryogenic Probe for Single Daughter Atom Detection in EXO Christopher Chambers The EXO experiment is designed to search for zero-neutrino double beta decay of the isotope Xe$^{\mathrm{136}}$, in order to better understand the nature of neutrinos. Since the daughter of this decay is barium (Ba$^{\mathrm{136}})$, detecting the presence of Ba$^{\mathrm{136}}$ at a decay site (called ``barium tagging") is the best way to reject backgrounds in the search for this decay. This would involve detecting a single barium ion from within a macroscopic volume of liquid xenon. One proposed barium tagging method is to trap the barium ion in frozen xenon at the end of a cold probe, and then detect the ion by its fluorescence in the solid xenon. Our group at CSU has begun testing designs for cold probes inside our liquid xenon cell. We demonstrate successful freezing of liquid xenon at the end of a probe, and I discuss improvements in the design, as well as trapping/detecting barium ions. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 19, 2013 11:27AM - 11:39AM |
K5.00002: The Development of a 1-ton scale Cryogenic Detector Development Test Facility Forrest Craft, Norm Buchanan, Thomas Cummings, John Jablonski, David Warner, Ryan Wasserman The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) has been proposed to use an intense neutrino beam created at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) directed toward the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), in Lead, SD to study neutrino properties. The liquid argon far detector at SURF will need to be equipped with photon detector equipment to reduce cosmic ray background (for a surface located detector) and provide a trigger for non-beam-related events such as supernovae neutrinos and proton decay. Many of these photon detectors are developed and manufactured at institutions that do not possess the equipment to do full scale cryogenic performance and calibration verification before installation in the SURF facility. To test the performance of the full sized LBNE photon detectors and their support equipment at cryogenic temperature a 1 ton scale test facility required development and implementation. A large scale cryogenic facility presented several safety and logistics concerns that were carefully controlled and mitigated before the detector could be brought online. With the facility now running with full liquid argon future plans for testing and detector improvement can be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 19, 2013 11:39AM - 11:51AM |
K5.00003: Readout and Monitoring Electronics Development for a Prototype Photon Detector Tom Cummings, Norm Buchanan, Dave Warner Current silicon photomultiplier devices require specialized interfacing hardware. We have developed electronics to accommodate these devices for the use of photon detection. These electronics are designed to isolate ambient noise, trim bias voltages for individual silicon photomultiplier devices, and amplify signals from photon activity. A dedicated voltage trimmer is being developed to reduce noise introduced into the system from a power source. This device also has the capability of digitally controlling the output to each silicon photomultiplier device, with a resolution of 50mV. The amplifier being developed uses two, high-speed operational amplifiers to amplify photon signals. Additionally, this board contains a discriminated pulse generator (NIM), triggered on photon events. Both trigger level and pulse width are digitally controlled via LabVIEW software. We have also developed methods of remotely monitoring fill levels of cryogenic liquid. The system designed utilizes a capacitive controller to monitor the liquid level, by detecting an increase in capacitance, due to an increase in liquid volume. The measurements of this controller are fed directly into LabVIEW software via USB. The current status of these electronics will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 19, 2013 11:51AM - 12:03PM |
K5.00004: Measurement and Simulation of Cosmic Ray Background in LArTF for MicroBooNE Katherine Woodruff In an effort to characterize the cosmic ray background in MicroBooNE, a 80-ton Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) being built at Fermilab, our research group at New Mexico State University (NMSU) has built a plastic-scintillator cosmic ray detector. The detector measures the cosmic ray rate and angular dependence at the Liquid Argon Test Facility (LArTF), where MicroBooNE will be located during its run beginning in 2014. The detector data is compared to a Cosmic-Ray Shower Generator (CRY) Monte Carlo simulation. A description of the detector and simulation setups and results will be presented, and implications of the measured rates on the MicroBooNE detector will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 19, 2013 12:03PM - 12:15PM |
K5.00005: Simulation of DRIFT Dark Matter Detector Matthew Williams The DRIFT dark matter experiment has the potential to provide strong evidence for dark matter by showing the presence of directionality in WIMP-nuclear recoils. The orientation of nuclear recoils is detected through the use of low pressure time projection chambers, but potential setbacks for directional capability include the random walk behavior of low energy recoils and thermal diffusion. Through Monte-Carlo simulation I aim to statistically assess the directional capability of the detector and its potential design improvements. This simulation models the galactic WIMP halo, ionization tracks from nuclear recoils, and the resulting current signals. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 19, 2013 12:15PM - 12:27PM |
K5.00006: Attenuation Length Measurements of Custom Wavelength Shifting Fibers Dylan Adams, Norm Buchanan, John Harton This research focuses on studying optical fibers and their applications in high-energy particle detectors. By measuring the intensity of a light signal at the site it enters the fiber, and at a distance down the fiber, we calculate the attenuation length of the fiber (distance for signal to change by factor of e). As high energy particles move through argon detectors, the argon atoms excite and subsequently emit photons at 128nm. These particles typically are from cosmic events (such as a supernova) or injected from an accelerator. Currently, photon detectors are relatively inefficient at collecting photons at this deep UV wavelength. This light, at 128 nm, excites a wavelength-shifting component (TPB, tetra-phenyl-butadiene) doped into the fibers, which emits light in the near UV visible spectrum, around 400 nm. Studying how different TPB application processes change the attenuation length of candidate fibers gives information about how the light signal is degraded from the initial argon scintillation light to the light signal read by the silicon photomultipliers (the photon detectors). So far measurements have been practiced on a bar with an external cladding, and been made on fibers doped with TPB and annealed fibers doped with TPB. [Preview Abstract] |
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