Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “timing detectors”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Reconstruction of cosmic-ray muon events with CUORE

We report the in-situ 3D reconstruction of through-going muons in the CUORE experiment, a cryogenic calorimeter array searching for neutrinoless double beta (0vββ) decay, leveraging the segmentation of the detector. Due to the slow time response of the detector, time-of-flight estimation is not feasible. Therefore, the track reconstruction is performed using a multi-objective optimization algorithm that relies on geometrical information from the detector as a whole. We measure the integral flux of cosmic-ray muons underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, and find our value to be in good agreement with other experiments that have performed a similar measurement. To our knowledge, this work represents the first demonstration of 3D particle tracking and reconstruction of through-going muons with per-event angular determination in a millikelvin cryogenic detector array. The analysis performed for this work will be critical for validating the muon-related background in CUPID, a next-generation 0vββ experiment, and for follow-up studies on detector response and on delayed products induced by cosmic-ray muons.

Adams, D. Q. [University of South Carolina]↗
NASA NTRS1999

A Search for Short-Period Accreting Pulsars with BATSE

Accreting X-ray pulsar systems can be detected and monitored by the BATSE Pulsar Monitor at full sensitivity only above the Nyquist period of 2.048 s, since it uses the DISCLA data type. Systems with shorter periods than 2 s can be observed, but with a reduced sensitivity, since only the aliased power is measured. While persistent sources in the period range below that have been found by earlier spacecraft, transient systems may still be undiscovered, due to limited time coverage of the galactic plane with all-sky instruments. BATSE data with a time resolution of 31 ms (PSR single-sweep mode) has been collected for four energy channels spanning 20-50 keV , at scheduled times for particular detectors and detector combinations which view the galactic plane. The data spans Nov 1993 to present, with a typical exposure of 15000 s per day to approximately 1/8 of the plane. An accelerated FFT-based search is in progress on these data. Data are segmented into approximately 300 second intervals, barycentered for 3 possible source directions spaced by 30 degrees about the detector normal, with the time series accelerated for each of 15 steps, each spaced by 5 x 10(exp -5). To avoid loss of coherence due to system orbital velocities, FFTs are averaged over each 1/4 day interval separately. Results of this search are presented, including examples of detection of Her X-1, Cen X-3, and other pulsars.

Wilson, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy Using WFC3: WASP-12 b, WASP-17 b, and WASP-19 b

We report an analysis of transit spectroscopy of the extrasolar planets WASP-12 b, WASP-17 b, and WASP-19 b using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We analyze the data for a single transit for each planet using a strategy similar, in certain aspects, to the techniques used by Berta et al., but we extend their methodology to allow us to correct for channel- or wavelength-dependent instrumental effects by utilizing the band-integrated time series and measurements of the drift of the spectrum on the detector over time. We achieve almost photon-limited results for individual spectral bins, but the uncertainties in the transit depth for the band-integrated data are exacerbated by the uneven sampling of the light curve imposed by the orbital phasing of HST's observations. Our final transit spectra for all three objects are consistent with the presence of a broad absorption feature at 1.4 nano meter most likely due to water. However, the amplitude of the absorption is less than that expected based on previous observations with Spitzer, possibly due to hazes absorbing in the NIR or non-solar compositions. The degeneracy of models with different compositions and temperature structures combined with the low amplitude of any features in the data preclude our ability to place unambiguous constraints on the atmospheric composition without additional observations with WFC3 to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and/or a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis.

Atmospheres↗
NASA NTRS2013

Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy Using WFC3: WASP-12b, WASP-17b, and WASP-19b

We report an analysis of transit spectroscopy of the extrasolar planets WASP-12 b, WASP-17 b, and WASP-19 b using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We analyze the data for a single transit for each planet using a strategy similar, in certain aspects, to the techniques used by Berta et al., but we extend their methodology to allow us to correct for channel- or wavelength-dependent instrumental effects by utilizing the band-integrated time series and measurements of the drift of the spectrum on the detector over time. We achieve almost photon-limited results for individual spectral bins, but the uncertainties in the transit depth for the band-integrated data are exacerbated by the uneven sampling of the light curve imposed by the orbital phasing of HST's observations. Our final transit spectra for all three objects are consistent with the presence of a broad absorption feature at 1.4 microns most likely due to water. However, the amplitude of the absorption is less than that expected based on previous observations with Spitzer, possibly due to hazes absorbing in the NIR or non-solar compositions. The degeneracy of models with different compositions and temperature structures combined with the low amplitude of any features in the data preclude our ability to place unambiguous constraints on the atmospheric composition without additional observations with WFC3 to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and/or a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis. Key words: planetary systems - techniques: photometric - techniques: spectroscopic

HST↗
NASA NTRS1991

The UCSD high energy X-ray timing experiment cosmic ray particle anticoincidence detector

The HEXTE, part of the X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE), is designed to make high sensitivity temporal and spectral measurements of X-rays with energies between 15 and 250 keV using NaI/CsI phoswich scintillation counters. To achieve the required sensitivity it is necessary to provide anticoincidence of charged cosmic ray particles incident upon the instrument, some of which interact to produce background X-rays. The proposed cosmic ray particle anticoincidence shield detector for HEXTE uses a novel design based on plastic scintillators and wavelength-shifter bars. It consists of five segments, each with a 7 mm thick plastic scintillator, roughly 50 cm x 50 cm in size, coupled to two wavelength-shifter bars viewed by 1/2 inch photomultiplier tubes. These segments are configured into a five-sided, box-like structure around the main detector system. Results of laboratory testing of a model segment, and calculations of the expected performance of the flight segments and particle anticoincidence detector system are presented to demonstrate that the above anticoincidence detector system satisfies its scientific requirements.

Hink, P. L.↗
DOE OSTI2025

HRPPD photosensors for RICH detectors with a high resolution timing capability

Recently, a new version of DC-coupled High Rate Picosecond Photodetectors (DC-HRPPDs) substantially re-designed for use at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) has been developed. A first batch of seven “EIC HRPPDs” was manufactured in early 2024. These HRPPDs are DC-coupled photosensors based on Micro-Channel Plates (MCPs) that have an active area of 104 mm by 104 mm, 32 × 32 direct readout pixel array at a pitch of 3.25 mm, peak quantum efficiency in excess of 30%, exceptionally low dark count rates and timing resolution of 15–20 ps for a single photon detection. As such, these photosensors are very well suited for Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) detectors that can additionally provide high resolution timing capability, especially in a configuration where a detected charged particle passes through the sensor window, which produces a localized flash containing a few dozens of Cherenkov photons in it.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1985

Results of a study to build a gamma-ray telescope in an external tank

In response to the ever-present need for a very large gamma-ray detector for energies greater than 100 MeV, a concept to build a telescope of 250,000 sq cm sensitive area using a Space Shuttle External Tank (ET) is presented. In the Space Station era, for the first time, large detectors can be constructed on-orbit which would otherwise be limited in size by the launch vehicle. The ET will serve both as the spacecraft and the Cherenkov pressure vessel. The significant feature is that the sensitive area will be forty times that of the high energy detector on GRO and will be able to locate even the faintest sources from the GRO survey to a few arc minutes. The detection technique is based upon that originally proposed by Greisen.

Koch, D.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Picosecond Timing Resolution Measurements of Low Gain Avalanche Detectors with a 120 GeV Proton Beam for the TOPSiDE Detector Concept

This paper presents results that take a critical step toward proving 10 ps timing resolution’s feasibility for particle identification in the TOPSiDE detector concept for the Electron-Ion Collider. Measurements of LGADs with a thickness of 35 μm and 50 μm are evaluated with a 120 GeV proton beam. The performance of the gain and timing response is assessed, including the dependence on the reverse bias voltage and operating temperature. The best timing resolution of UFSDs in a test beam to date is achieved using three combined planes of 35 μm thick LGADs at -30°C with a precision of 14.3 ± 1.5 ps.

Particle tracking detectors↗
DOE OSTI2024

Demonstration of event position reconstruction based on diffusion in the NEXT-white detector

Noble element time projection chambers are a leading technology for rare event detection in physics, such as for dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay searches. Time projection chambers typically assign event position in the drift direction using the relative timing of prompt scintillation and delayed charge collection signals, allowing for reconstruction of an absolute position in the drift direction. In this paper, alternate methods for assigning event drift dis tance via quantification of electron diffusion in a pure high pressure xenon gas time projection chamber are explored. Data from the NEXT-White detector demonstrate the ability to achieve good position assignment accuracy for both high and low-energy events. Using point-like energy deposits from 83m Kr calibration electron captures (E ~ 45 keV), the position of origin of low-energy events is determined to 2 cm precision with bias < 1 mm. A convolutional neural network approach is then used to quantify diffusion for longer tracks (E ≥ 1.5 MeV), from radiogenic electrons, yielding a precision of 3 cm on the event barycenter. The precision achieved with these methods indicates the feasibility energy calibrations of better than 1% FWHM at Q ββ in pure xenon, as well as the potential for event fiducialization in large future detectors using an alternate method that does not rely on primary scintillation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Performance and Commissioning of the BigBite Timing Hodoscope for Nucleon Form Factor Measurements at Jefferson Lab

The BigBite Timing Hodoscope detector is the primary subject of this thesis. The Super BigBite Spectrometer is a Jefferson Lab Hall A Collaboration project that has and will continue to measure nucleon electromagnetic form factors. This spectrometer includes the Timing Hodoscope which provides high resolution particle timing data for scattered electrons in the electron arm of BigBite. The Timing Hodoscope utilizes 90, 25 × 25 × 600 mm3 scintillator bars stacked on top of each other to form a single detector plane, and these bars are connected to 180 photo-multiplier tubes via light guides. Particles collide with the scintillating material creating a shower of optical photons and these particle events in the bars are collected to generate signals that are readout by the data acquisition (DAQ) electronics. NINO ASIC amplifier-discriminator cards output signals from the photo-multiplier tubes into analogue and logic signals, which are sent to analogue-to-digital (ADC) and time-to-digital (TDC) converter data acquisition readout modules. This data is then used for analysis of the detector. The focus of this thesis is the construction, commissioning, calibration, and performance of the BigBite Timing Hodoscope before and during the first of five nucleon electromagnetic form factor experiments at Jefferson Lab Hall A. Before the neutron magnetic form factor, G n M, experiment, cosmic ray data was collected during commissioning to confirm proper operation of the Timing Hodoscope electronics by observing the ADC and TDC data. Commissioning studies for charge normalization, gain matching, and other ADC and TDC detector data variables were performed before moving the detector into Hall A. Following installation in Hall A, several calibration studies were implemented to fine-tune the detector in preparation for use in the experiment. The calibration studies included analysis of timing cuts, TDC alignment, the time-walk effect, time difference offsets, and scintillator velocity corrections. Once the Timing Hodoscope was well-calibrated, data-taking during the experiment commenced and the beam-on-target data was used to characterize the Timing Hodoscope performance during the G n M experiment run-time. The performance analysis included studies observing energy deposit, cluster size, rates, accidentals, pile-up, tracking efficiency, position resolution, and time resolution. After application of physics cuts to ensure a data set comprised of particle tracks corresponding to elastic electrons, which is the main data of interest for measurement of G n M, the Timing Hodoscope is shown on average across all kinematic settings to have a >98% tracking efficiency, a position resolution of 4-6 cm in the non-dispersive plane and 1.5-2 cm in the dispersive plane, and a time resolution of 500-750 ps. These performance results are compared to a GEANT4 based performance simulation of the BigBite Timing Hodoscope for reference, showing to what degree the measured performance values match those taken from the simulation.

Marinaro, Ralph↗
NASA NTRS2014

NuSTAR Observations of X-Ray Bursts from the Magnetar 1E 1048.1-5937

We report the detection of eight bright X-ray bursts from the 6.5 s magnetar 1E 1048.1−5937, during a 2013 July observation campaign with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. We study the morphological and spectral properties of these bursts and their evolution with time. The bursts resulted in count rate increases by orders of magnitude, sometimes limited by the detector dead time, and showed blackbody spectra with kT is approx. 6-8 keV in the T90 duration of 1-4 s, similar to earlier bursts detected from the source. We find that the spectra during the tail of the bursts can be modeled with an absorbed blackbody with temperature decreasing with flux. The burst flux decays followed a power law of index 0.8-0.9. In the burst tail spectra, we detect a is approx. 13 keV emission feature, similar to those reported in previous bursts from this source as well as from other magnetars observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.We explore possible origins of the spectral feature such as proton cyclotron emission, which implies a magnetic field strength of B is approx. 2×10(exp15) G in the emission region. However, the consistency of the energy of the feature in different objects requires further explanation.

MAGNETAR 1E 1048.1-5937↗
DOE OSTI2020

First measurements with the CMS DAQ and Timing Hub prototype-1

The DAQ and Timing Hub is an ATCA hub board designed for the Phase-2 upgrade of the CMS experiment. In addition to providing high-speed Ethernet connectivity to all back-end boards, it forms the bridge between the sub-detector electronics and the central DAQ, timing, and trigger control systems. One important requirement is the distribution of several high-precision, phase-stable, and LHC synchronous clock signals for use by the timing detectors. The current paper presents first measurements performed on the initial prototype, with a focus on clock quality. It is demonstrated that the current design provides adequate clock quality to satisfy the requirements of the Phase-2 CMS timing detectors.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Calibration of the charge and energy loss per unit length of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber using muons and protons

In this paper, we describe a method used to calibrate the position- and time-dependent response of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber anode wires to ionization particle energy loss. The method makes use of crossing cosmic-ray muons to partially correct anode wire signals for multiple effects as a function of time and position, including cross-connected TPC wires, space charge effects, electron attachment to impurities, diffusion, and recombination. The overall energy scale is then determined using fully-contained beam-induced muons originating and stopping in the active region of the detector. Using this method, we obtain an absolute energy scale uncertainty of 2% in data. We use stopping protons to further refine the relation between the measured charge and the energy loss for highly-ionizing particles. This data-driven detector calibration improves both the measurement of total deposited energy and particle identification based on energy loss per unit length as a function of residual range. As an example, the proton selection efficiency is increased by 2% after detector calibration.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Status and perspectives of the ICARUS experiment at the Fermilab Short Baseline Neutrino program

In this study, the ICARUS collaboration has employed the 760 t T600 detector in a successful three-year physics run at the underground LNGS laboratory, performing a sensitive search for LSND-like anomalous ν e appearance in the CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso beam, which contributed to the constraints on the allowed neutrino oscillation parameters to a narrow region around Δm 2 ~ 1 eV 2 . After a significant overhaul at CERN, the T600 detector has been installed at Fermilab. In 2020 the cryogenic commissioning began with detector cool down, liquid Argon filling and recirculation. ICARUS then started its operation collecting the first neutrino events from the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) and the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam off-axis, which were used to test the ICARUS event selection, reconstruction and analysis algorithms. ICARUS successfully completed its commissioning phase in June 2022, moving then to data taking for neutrino oscillation physics, aiming at first to either confirm or refute the claim by Neutrino-4 short-baseline reactor. ICARUS will also jointly search for evidence of sterile neutrinos together with the Short-Baseline Near Detector, within the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino program experiment, and will perform measurements of neutrino cross sections with both beams and several Beyond Standard Model searches with the NuMI beam. In this paper, the main technical achievements of the ICARUS detector subsystems (Time Projection Chambers, Light Detection System, Cosmic Ray Tagger, Trigger and Data Acquisition) obtained with both BNB and NuMI neutrino beams during the commissioning phase, will be presented in terms of the overall detector performance and capability to select and reconstruct neutrino events.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmic Background Rejection of the ICARUS experiment at Fermilab

The Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab aims to explore significant regions of parameter space, applicable to sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale, as suggested by existing experimental anomalies. To this purpose it exploits Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detectors located along the Booster Neutrino Beamline to measure both νe appearance and νµ disappearance: the Short Baseline Neutrino Detector and the ICARUS-T600 detector at 110 and 600 m from the neutrino source, respectively. The ICARUS T-600 Far Detector, located at shallow depth, is surrounded by a Cosmic Ray Tagger system to mitigate the cosmic ray background. On average ~ 11 muon tracks are expected to cross the detector during the ~ 1 ms drift time. The cosmic ray tagger is composed of plastic scintillator bars, ensuring near 4π coverage of the detector aiming at tagging cosmic muons and thus reject 𝛾s produced by muon interactions in the surrounding materials that can generate an electromagnetic showers mimicking a νe signal. The system allows one to disentangle cosmic rays from particles originated in a neutrino interaction inside the detector by measuring their position and crossing time. A synchronization of the cosmic ray tagger with the ICARUS photon detection system with a nanosecond accuracy allows one to reject cosmic particles recorded during the beam spill and thus select an enriched sample of neutrino triggered events ahead of the event reconstruction. An overview of the cosmic ray tagger system as well as its role in the neutrino events identification and cosmic background rejection will be presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗