Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Joint Spring 2014 Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 59, Number 2
Thursday–Saturday, March 20–22, 2014; Abilene, Texas
Session F2: High Energy and Nuclear Physics |
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Room: Hunter Welcome Center Lynay Conference Room |
Friday, March 21, 2014 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
F2.00001: Beam Systematic Studies for the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment Timothy Watson The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, will be the largest accelerator-based study of neutrinos ever performed when it comes online in 2025. It is poised to be the flagship of U.S. particle physics in the coming decades. One of the main goals of LBNE is to examine the newly confirmed phenomena of neutrino oscillation. Such an experiment demands a very high level of precision stemming from high intensity proton beams. To this end, the UTA High Energy Physics group has been leading systematic studies of the neutrino beam and design optimization of the beamline, primarily responsible for neutrino generation. Presented here are the studies of two systematic effects on the spectrum of the neutrino energies in the detector, resulting from the variations of the target density and the incident proton beam angle on target. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
F2.00002: Long Term Multiplication Behavior Studies of the 30cmx 30cm prototype Gas electron Multiplier Ying Wun Yvonne Ng, Jaehoon Yu, Seongtae Park, Andy White The Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) technology is one of the next generation radiation detector technologies that utilized the ionization in gaseous medium and the electron avalanche to detect a magnified charge value from various radiation and charge particles. With its low building cost, low discharge rate and high resolution, GEM is currently being considered to be one of the candidate gap detectors for the International Linear Collider (ILC) in Japan. It is therefore of crucial for us to study the long term stability of amplification power of the detector. Using cosmic radiation as our radiation source, data has been taken continuously in the past 2 years by the high energy physics group in University of Texas at Arlington to characterize the stability of the 30cmx30cm detector. Effect of atmospheric pressure to the detector amplification is eliminated by a correction algorithm. Noise study has been done to eliminate excessive noise produced by the detector as well as its readout chip. Result shows that the detector gives us a stable 35fC average MPV for the cosmic MIPs with few fC of chamber noise and about 0.5 of chip noise. GEM should work well as a digital calorimeter for uses in the ILC project. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
F2.00003: Status of the SeaQuest Experiment (Fermilab-E906) Larry Donald Isenhower SeaQuest (Fermilab E906), using protons from the 120 GeV Main Injector, began its commissioning run in November, 2013. In February, 2014 it began taking production data. It is starting with an initial beam intensity approximately 20\% of the eventual rate of $10^{13}$ protons over a 5 second period, once per minute. Even at the lower beam rate, SeaQuest will make a number of measurements in kinematic ranges with a precision that have not been possible in previous experiments. It will probe the light antiquark sea of the nucleon to follow up on measurements made by Fermilab E866/NuSea, with a goal of answering important questions raised by that experiment. SeaQuest will determine the ratio of the anti-down to anti-up quarks in the nucleon at Bjorken x up to 0.45, where x is the fraction of longitudinal momentum of the anti-quark. Above x=0.25, NuSea data indicate this ratio could be changing in a surprising manner with the ratio dipping below one. SeaQuest is designed to operate in this kinematic region where the number of anti-quarks in the nucleon is extremely small. Upgrades of the spectrometer will be outlined from its initial 2012 engineering run. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:06PM - 3:18PM |
F2.00004: Measuring the Spin Crisis with PHENIX and COMPASS Michael Daugherity The proton spin crisis remains one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental particle physics today. Recent progress in polarized spin measurements by the PHENIX Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider as well as plans for the COMPASS-II upgrade at CERN will shed new light on this puzzle. Both projects require new state-of-the-art detectors which have significant contributions from ACU undergraduates. This presentation will review current status and future plans for tackling the proton spin crisis. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:18PM - 3:30PM |
F2.00005: PHENIX W-Boson Trigger Efficiency Analysis Ramsey Towell The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory studies polarized proton-proton collisions to learn more about the spin structure of the proton. PHENIX's data acquisition system is able to record several thousand events each second. However, millions of collisions occur every second, so a forward trigger is required to select rare events of interest. To study the sea quark contribution to the spin structure of the proton, the interesting events are single high transverse momentum muons produced in the decay of W bosons. The muon trigger upgrade includes two sets of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) in both muon arms. The recently completed RHIC run was the first extended run since the new forward trigger was fully commissioned. Initial studies indicate that the RPCs performed well and significant data was collected. Additional careful and systematic studies have been performed to determine the RPC efficiencies for each module and each run. Changes in efficiencies have been correlated to known hardware changes during the run. Results of the analyzed data showing the RPC efficiencies will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:30PM - 3:42PM |
F2.00006: Analysis of W-Boson Trigger-Rates for PHENIX Andrew Miller PHENIX is the largest experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. One of the major goals of PHENIX is to investigate the spin structure of the proton. A primary way that PHENIX is achieving this is by measuring the W-boson asymmetry in polarized-proton collisions. The recently completed forward trigger upgrade has been specifically designed to select high transverse momentum muons that are largely from the decay of W-bosons. One important component of this trigger upgrade is the two stations of resistive plate chambers (RPCs) in each of the two muon arms. These chambers were used to collect extensive data from polarized-proton collisions for the first time during the 2013 Run. Trigger rates from this system were analyzed to determine when all components were functioning properly. Correlating changes in the trigger rates with changes in the configuration of the trigger or hardware will allow the data to be analyzed appropriately. By taking the current detector status into account, a more precise W-asymmetry measurement will be attainable. This presentation will discuss the method and results of this analysis including trigger rates as a function of beam intensity. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:42PM - 3:54PM |
F2.00007: Involving Undergraduates in Nuclear Physics Research Rusty Towell The Abilene Christian University Nuclear Physics Research Group has a history of studying the structure of the nucleon for over 30 years. The incorporation of a large number of undergraduates has been an integral part of this effort. Our current research focuses on measurements that will improve our understanding of the anti-quark and spin structure of the proton. Students have always been a part of our involvement in the PHENIX, SeaQuest, and NIFFTE collaborations. The physics goals, current status, and how students have contributed to each of these experiments will be reviewed. [Preview Abstract] |
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