Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2019
Volume 64, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2019; Denver, Colorado
Session B12: Undergraduate Research IUndergraduate
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Sponsoring Units: APS SPS Chair: Crystal Bailey, American Physical Society Room: Sheraton Plaza Court 1 |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
B12.00001: Development of a high-precision autocollimator to study short-range interactions Neipori Pelle, Casey Ferris, Woo-Joong Kim An autocollimator was developed to detect deflections of a cantilever on the picometer scale. We use this experimental setup to investigate short-range forces in both the dynamic and quasistatic regimes. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
B12.00002: Search for vector-like quark pairs with DNN jet identification in single lepton events Sam Johnson, Julie M Hogan, Greta Knefelkamp, Cody Holz We present a search for vector-like quark pairs using deep neural network (DNN) identification methods for boosted particle jets. We search for vector-like T quarks in √s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment during 2017-2018 with one charged electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and several large radius jets. The DeepAK8 identification algorithm is used to identify jets from the T quark decays, that are reconstructed from at least 3 jets and the leptons. An additional DNN is trained on events that are not categorized as a specific TT decay to separate signal from background. Compared to similar CMS searches using data collected in 2016, the sensitivity of this search has significantly increased and the new method provides more information about the mass and decay modes of the TT pairs. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
B12.00003: Search for the Type III Seesaw Mechanism with Multivariate Analysis Maine Christos, Sunil Somalwar The vanishingly small mass of neutrinos continues to be an open problem in high energy physics. The Type III Seesaw Mechanism is a model which predicts a triplet of heavy fermions with high masses that offset the low masses of neutrinos. We search for evidence of these heavy Seesaw fermions in the data taken at the CMS detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), restricting our search to only those events which result in 3 or more leptons in the final state. Past methods involved binning data in kinematic variables of the collisions and comparing to simulations of both standard model backgrounds and signal of a new model. Previous limits calculated using one-dimensional binning schemes excluded Seesaw up to a mass of 840 GeV with an observed cross section limit of .05 pb but required an observed cross section limit of .2 pb to exclude the 200 GeV masspoint as the sensitivity of of one-dimensional binning schemes declines for low masses. This study considers the application of Boosted Decision Trees (BDTs) as a method to improve sensitivity in the background dominated low mass regime. For data binned in the new BDT variable, the observed cross section limit for the 140 GeV masspoint is reduced by 57%. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
B12.00004: Monte Carlo Computational Modeling of DANSS Short-Baseline Antineutrino Oscillation Experiment Lorien A MacEnulty, David J Ernst Short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments provide insight into the potential existence and behavior of the sterile neutrino. Among these experiments is the Detector of Antineutrinos based on Solid Scintillator (DANSS), located a mechanically variable 10.7 to 12.7 m underneath a commercial reactor core in Russia. We offer a reanalysis of the most recent DANSS results by computationally imitating experimental conditions, including a Monte Carlo integration across the reactor core and detector volumes and incorporation of the detector energy resolution. We validate DANSS’s χ2-function calculations and proposed allowed region indicating possible Δm142 and sin22θ14 combinations characteristic of a four-neutrino model. Discrepancies arose in use of a ratio of counting rates at the furthest and nearest baselines as the primary data set, a strategy eliminating contribution of the average theoretical flux. To compensate for geometric disparities, we propose a slight alteration of the Monte Carlo integration. With this new strategy, the implications of the DANSS experiment are found to be greatly enhanced, suggesting a larger disallowed region. Completion of the model provides best fit values of Δm142 and sin22θ14 associated with a minimized χ2. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
B12.00005: Cosmic Ray Detector Array Project Andrew Reyes, Aram Nino Canizal, Christian Hernandez, Ricardo Mendez Supernovae across the universe eject cosmic rays that impact atomic nuclei in Earth’s atmosphere to create secondary particles like muons. In order to measure the cosmic rays and the secondary radiation, we used light sensitive Photomultiplier detectors connected to scintillator sheets by optical fibers enclosed in a light tight box. We assembled multiple detector boxes to measure the high speed muon particles and using 3 different detector boxes we formed an array. The properties of the cosmic ray muons were studied by using a four fold coincidence experimental setup. The detector signals were converted using the DRS4 digitizer and analyzed using CERN PAW package. In this conference, our results of the cosmic ray array would be presented. In addition, we would discuss how the pressure and temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere may cause variations in the collected counts of cosmic rays. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
B12.00006: Construction of a Multi-Wire Proportional Chamber for Cosmic Ray Muon Detection Emma I Pearson, Mike Reynolds, David N Joffe The Society of Physics Students (SPS) at Kennesaw State University is building a Multi-Wire Proportional Chamber (MWPC) as a tool to detect cosmic ray muons and do muon tomography. The frame for the chamber was designed in SolidWorks, and is 3D printed in one piece with a Makerbot Ultimaker 2, using PLA, a biodegradable plant-based plastic. The frame was recently redesigned to accommodate a 3/16” diameter o-ring, which will seal the chamber better, and allow the chamber to be opened later if necessary. The ability to open the chamber is useful for basic maintenance on the chambers, and it allows for testing the functionality with other types of sources. Once the frame is printed, both the sense wires and field-shaping wires needed to be attached and soldered under tension, with spacing between wires of 3 mm. The gold-plated tungsten sense wires are 25 microns in diameter, while the copper field-shaping wires are 100 microns. Since the wires are extremely fine, the process of attaching them is not trivial, so the frame also includes small grooves were added to aid in the alignment of the wires. Once the wires are attached, the chamber is sealed and a potential difference of 2000V is applied to the two different types of wire. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
B12.00007: Designing and Testing Modular Multiwire Proportional Chambers for Cosmic Ray Muon Detection Michael Z Reynolds The Society of Physics Students (SPS) at Kennesaw State University is building a series of multi-wire proportional chambers as a tool to detect cosmic ray muons with the goal of doing muography on large structures. The chamber consists of two cathode plates that enclose an array of wires and is filled with an ionizing gas. A voltage difference of approximately 2kV must be applied between the wires and the cathodes. High energy muons that pass through the chamber ionize the gas, and the resulting free electrons then avalanche towards the anode wires in a cascade of secondary ionization. This avalanche induces a current in the anode which we will detect with amplifier electronics. The chamber must be able to hold 2kV without any current leakage, which was achieved by designing custom circuit boards in a CAD program. The electric field strength inside the chamber will exceed 3 million volts per meter near the anode wires. This region is critical to avalanche formation and is based in the Paschen theory for breakdown voltages. Presently, new prototypes are being tested with alpha and beta sources to better characterize the signals that the chambers will produce. Simulations are being run in Geant and ComSol to better understand and predict results. |
Saturday, April 13, 2019 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
B12.00008: Simulations of Modular Multiwire Proportional Chambers for Cosmic Ray Muon Detection Allen Townsend The Student Physics Society (SPS) at Kennesaw State University is building a series of multi-wire proportional chambers as a tool to detect cosmic ray muons with the goal of doing muography on large structures. A simulation of the chamber’s interactions with muons and radioactive sources is being created in Geant4. The simulation is being used as both method of confirming viability of the overall chamber design and with the intention of optimizing the detector capacity for large structure muography through machine learning. We are comparing both the simulated and actual signals created by a radioactive source placed within the chamber as well as those created by cosmic ray muons. The Geant4 framework allows the modeling of the interactions of the muons with the gas mixture inside the chamber, the corresponding electron cascade, and the resulting current incident on internal wires. The first step in creating the simulation is describing the chamber geometry in SolidWorks and importing that into Geant4’s framework. Once the geometry is imported the simulated environment is set up and virtual experiments are run. |
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