Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2017 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics
Volume 62, Number 11
Wednesday–Saturday, October 25–28, 2017; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Session PH: Mini-Symposium on Instrumentation for Physics Beyond the Standard Model III |
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Chair: Alan Poon, Lawrence Berekely National Laboratory Room: Marquis B |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 10:30AM - 10:42AM |
PH.00001: Progress towards barium daughter tagging in $Xe^{136}$ decay using single molecule fluorescence imaging austin mcdonald The existence of Majorana fermions is of great interest as it may be related to the asymmetry between matter and anti-matter particles in the universe. However, the search for them has proven to be a difficult one. Neutrino-less Double Beta decay (NLDB) offers a possible opportunity for direct observation of a Majorana Fermion. The rate for NLDB decay may be as low as $\approx 1 $ $count/ton/year$ if the mass ordering is inverted. Current detector technologies have background rates between $4$ to $ 300$ $count/ton/year/ROI$ at the 100kg scale which is much larger than the universal goal of $0.1$ $count/ton/year/ROI$ desired for ton-scale detectors. The premise of my research is to develop new detector technologies that will allow for a background-free experiment. My current work is to develop a sensor that will tag the daughter ion $ Ba^{++}$ from the $Xe^{136}$ decay. The development of a sensor that is sensitive to single barium ion detection based on the single molecule fluorescence imaging technique is the major focus of this work. If successful, this could provide a path to a background-free experiment. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 10:42AM - 10:54AM |
PH.00002: Data quality assurance for the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Jordan Myslik The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is an experiment constructed to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in germanium-76 and to demonstrate the feasibility to deploy a large-scale experiment in a phased and modular fashion. It consists of two modular arrays of natural and 76Ge-enriched germanium detectors totalling 44.1 kg, located at the 4850' level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. Any neutrinoless double-beta decay search requires a thorough understanding of the background and the signal energy spectra. Data collection is monitored with a thorough regimen, instrumental background events are tagged for removal, and subsequent careful analysis of the collected data is performed to ensure that there are no deeper issues. This talk will discuss the various techniques employed to ensure the integrity of the measured spectra. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 10:54AM - 11:06AM |
PH.00003: Spectral analysis for the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR experiment Lukas Hehn The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is an experiment constructed to search for neutrinoless double-beta decays in germanium-76 and to demonstrate the feasibility to deploy a large-scale experiment in a phased and modular fashion. It consists of two modular arrays of natural and 76Ge-enriched germanium detectors totaling 44.1 kg, located at the 4850' level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. Data taken with this setup since summer 2015 at different construction stages of the experiment show a clear reduction of the observed background index around the ROI for $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay search due to improvements in shielding. In this talk we discuss the analysis approaches of the different datasets. Using models based on Monte Carlo simulations, the contribution of different background components - such as $2\nu\beta\beta$-decay, cosmogenic activation, and external radiation - can be quantified. In addition we discuss the statistical approaches to quantify the physics sensitivity of a possible $0\nu\beta\beta$-signal. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 11:06AM - 11:18AM |
PH.00004: Design Improvements to Cables and Connectors in the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Anna Reine, Christopher Haufe The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is an experiment constructed to search for neutrinoless double-beta decays in germanium-76 and to demonstrate the feasibility to deploy a large-scale experiment in a phased and modular fashion. It consists of two modular arrays of natural and 76Ge-enriched germanium p-type point contact detectors totaling 44.1 kg, located at the 4850' level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. The DEMONSTRATOR uses custom high voltage cables to bias the detectors, as well as custom signal cables and connectors to read out the charge deposited at each detector’s point contact. These low-mass cables and connectors must meet stringent radiopurity requirements while being subjected to thermal and mechanical stress. A number of issues have been identified with the currently installed cables and connectors. An improved set of cables and connectors for the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR are being developed with the aim of increasing their overall reliability and connectivity. We will discuss some of the issues encountered with the current cables and connectors, the initial performance of our improved designs, and applications for development of LEGEND, a next-generation tonne-scale 76Ge experiment. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 11:18AM - 11:30AM |
PH.00005: The performance of the upgraded Los Alamos Neutron Source Takeyasu Ito Los Alamos National Laboratory has been operating an ultracold (UCN) source based on a solid deuterium (SD2) UCN converter driven by spallation neutrons for over 10 years. It has recently been successfully upgraded, by replacing the cryostat that contains the cold neutron moderator, SD2 volume, and vertical UCN guide. The horizontal UCN guide that transports UCN out of the radiation shield was also replaced. The new design reflects lessons learned from the 10+ year long operation of the previous version of the UCN source and is optimized to maximize the cold neutron flux at the SD2 volume, featuring a close coupled cold neutron moderator, and maximize the transport of the UCN to experiments. During the commissioning of the upgraded UCN source, data were collected to measure its performance, including cold neutron spectra as a function of the cold moderator temperature, and the UCN density in a vessel outside the source. In this talk, after a brief overview of the design of the upgraded source, the results of the performance tests and comparison to prediction will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 11:30AM - 11:42AM |
PH.00006: nEDM@SNS Systematics Studies/ Operational test-bed Apparatus at PULSTAR Ekaterina Korobkina, Robert Golub, Paul Huffman, Kent Leung, Christian White, Austin Reid, Adam Lipman, Monique Martone, Chad Barrow, Brad Fillippone, Christopher Swank, Ricardo Alacron, Robert Dipert, Wolfgang Korsh, Chris Crawford, Vince Cianciolo The neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source will probe the existence of a nEDM down to $\sim 5 \times 10^{-28}$ e$\cdot$cm. The technique uses a $<0.5$K liquid-$^4$He-filled cryogenic environment containing both polarized $^3$He and trapped ultracold neutrons (UCN). Due to the technical and operational challenges in the experiment, a smaller-scale apparatus is needed to minimize both risk and commissioning/operational time. The design mirrors that of the larger-scale apparatus, but without an electric field and a turn-around time of order a week as compared to several months. Using the small-scale device, we will develop operational techniques for UCN -$^3$He spin manipulations and quantify the systematic effect related to magnetic field gradients. The apparatus will use neutrons from the NC State UCN source and polarized $^3$He from a MEOP system. At present we have completed commissioning of the new non-magnetic dewar and are assembling and testing cryogenic essentials of the apparatus [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 11:42AM - 11:54AM |
PH.00007: Magnetic Field Shape Optimization for the SNS nEDM apparatus, applications specific to spin species. Christopher Swank Spin behavior undergoing Larmor precession in fluctuating fields is predicted by the spectrum of its field correlation function, which reduces to a sum of the field-image Fourier coefficients weighted by the conditional density of the spin species. Recently it was shown how scattering with energy exchange from an ensemble of scatterers in thermal equilibrium can be incorporated into the continuous time random walk. Results agree for models of 1,2 and 3 dimensions, previously in disagreement. The new model is incorporated into the magnetic field optimization to directly minimize the conditional probability weighted Fourier coefficients in the target region for the SNS nEDM experiment. The optimization technique directly minimizes terms responsible for the relaxation and frequency shifts over the total volume of the cell, and is implemented for the design of the Holding and RF fields used to manipulate the neutron and $^3$He spins. Fabrication defects present in the coils may result in field inhomogeneities that require shimming in situ. Techniques for identifying these inhomogeneities include a magnetic probe array, position dependent sensitivity of an array of SQUIDs, and in theory, analysis of the spectrum of the neutron and $^3$He can provide a sensitive and detailed field map. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 11:54AM - 12:06PM |
PH.00008: Magnetic Field Design for the LANL nEDM Experiment Ryan Dadisman A recent UCN source upgrade at LANSCE makes possible an order of magnitude advancement in the measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment by use of the familiar Ramsey method of separated oscillatory fields. A highly uniform B0 magnetic field is required to achieve sufficiently long spin-relaxation times and to suppress the false EDM caused by the geometric phase effect. We identified a multi-gap solenoid as an ideal candidate to simultaneously achieve the uniformity requirements, via optimization of the gap lengths between and current within different sections, and provide plentiful access to the fiducial region. Results from initial tests of the coil when installed in the magnetic shield house enclosing the experiment will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 28, 2017 12:06PM - 12:18PM |
PH.00009: Magnetic Field Monitoring in the SNS and LANL Neutron EDM Experiments Alina Aleksandrova The SNS neutron EDM experiment requires the ability to precisely control and monitor the magnetic field inside of the fiducial volume. However, it is not always practical (or even possible) to measure the field within the region of interest directly. To remedy this issue, we have designed a field monitoring system that will allow us to reconstruct the field inside of the fiducial volume using noninvasive measurements of the field components at discrete locations external to this volume. A prototype probe array (consisting of 12 single-axis fluxgate magnetometer sensors) was used to monitor the magnetic field within the fiducial volume of an in-house magnetic testing apparatus. In this talk, the design and results of this test will be presented, and the possible implementation of this field monitoring method may have in the room temperature LANL neutron EDM experiment will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
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