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DOE OSTI2020

Self-absorption and Phonon Pulse Shape Discrimination in Scintillating Bolometers

In this work, we show that self-absorption of photons in scintillating bolometers can differentiate phonon pulse shapes between α (or nuclear recoil) and β/γ signals. This enables phonon pulse shape discrimination for particle identification. We establish a detector signal model that includes self-absorption and compare the simulated phonon pulse shapes with previously reported experimental results. The model predicts increase in pulse shape difference at higher self-absorption. Based on this result, we propose a new design of scintillating bolometers using 4π light reflectors for maximized self-absorption and only a single phonon readout, instead of light detectors that are typically employed for particle discrimination in scintillating bolometers.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Planar Self-similar Antennas for Broadband Millimeter-Wave Measurements

Self-similar antennas offer extremely broadband functionality and easily scalable designs. Self-similar designs with a four-arm layout are also suited for dual polarization through excitations of opposing arms, although there has only been limited use of them for millimeter-wave detectors. These antennas have been used for measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which encompass a wide frequency range and are now actively focusing more on polarization anisotropies. Here, we analyze multiple planar self-similar antenna designs with simulations in high-frequency structure simulator and ongoing physical testing. They all exhibit broadband operation between 130 and 230 GHz and can couple to both linear polarizations through the previously mentioned four-arm symmetry. Furthermore, simulations include each antenna design coupled to an extended hemispherical, AR-coated lenslet. From these, a basic bowtie-like arm design produced minimal polarization wobble with moderate beam efficiency, while a hybrid trapezoidal design provided high beam efficiency with small polarization wobble. Current fabrication versions of each are being tested, coupled to multichroic microwave kinetic inductance detectors. These planar self-similar antennas, when implemented in CMB and other detectors, could improve observations while simultaneously simplifying fabrication and detector layout.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2024

Road to PROSPECT-II

The Precision Reactor Oscillation and SPECTrum (PROSPECT) experiment is based in a segmented liquid scintillator antineutrino detector situated approximately 7 meters from the highly enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Its main goal is to investigate short-baseline antineutrino oscillations. The first phase of data collection, known as PROSPECT-I, was held from 2018 to 2019 and was used for several high-precision analyses, including multiple measurements of the $^{235}U$ antineutrino spectrum and searches for $eV$-scale sterile antineutrino oscillations. The collaboration is now preparing for the second phase, PROSPECT-II, which features an upgraded detector design. This advancement will enhance sensitivity and statistical power, allowing for a broader range of analyses beyond those achieved in PROSPECT-I. As we transition into this new phase, new questions have arisen concerning background simulation and its potential differences from those conducted during the initial phase of the experiment. Moreover, it is essential to ascertain, through simulations, the positive effects that an improved detector could have on the study of oscillations. This information is crucial for justifying the proposed enhancements, and I will cover all of this in the talk.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Road to PROSPECT-II

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

The ePIC Simulation Campaign Workflow on the Open Science Grid

The ePIC collaboration is realizing the first experiment of the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory that will allow for a precision study of the nucleons and the nucleus at the scale of sea quarks and gluons through the study of electron-proton/ion collisions. This paper will discuss the current workflow for running centralized simulation campaigns for ePIC on the Open Science Grid (OSG) infrastructure. This involves monthly releases of ePIC software and container deployments to CVMFS, generation of input datasets in HepMC format according to collaboration-defined policy, using Snakemake in CI/CD for validation and benchmarking, and submitting jobs to the OSG condor scheduler for opportunistic running on available resources. File transfers utilize XrootD, and Rucio is used for data management. The workflow is continuously refined to improve daily throughput (currently 50-100k core hours per day) and minimize job failures. Since May 2023, monthly simulation campaigns employing the workflow have cumulatively used over 20 million core hours on the OSG and produced over 350 TB of simulation data. The campaigns incorporate simulations for the broad science program of the EIC and are actively used for the detector and physics studies in preparation of the Technical Design Report (TDR).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Conceptual Design of a Scintillator-Based Fast-Ion Loss Detector for the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator

Here, a conceptual design of a scintillator-based fast-ion loss detector (FILD) has been developed for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator (W7-X). Simulations using the Monte Carlo codes ASCOT5 and BEAMS3D have been performed to calculate the expected flux of neutral beam injection (NBI)-generated fast hydrogen ions onto the conceptual detector probe head. These fast-ion loss fluxes have been calculated for several magnetic field configurations as well as probe insertion positions. At the maximum insertion position, both co-and counter-going losses with high incident pitch angles are observed; however, at retracted positions, only co-going fast ions reach the probe head. The FILDSIM code has been used to optimize the geometry of the detector entrance and collimating elements to achieve a wide velocity space coverage as well as a high velocity–space resolution. A synthetic FILD signal is calculated for the expected loss distribution via forward modeling using the instrument response function. The synthetic signal is found to largely retain the velocity space features of the loss distribution.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Aspects of Higgs Physics at a $\sqrt{s}=3$ TeV Muon Collider with detailed detector simulation

The Muon Collider is one of the most promising future collider facilities with the potential to reach multi-TeV center-of-mass energy and high luminosity. Due to the significant Higgs boson production cross section in muon-antimuon collisions at such high energies, the collider offers an excellent opportunity for in-depth exploration of Higgs boson properties. It holds the capability to significantly advance our understanding of the Higgs sector to a very high level of precision. However, the presence of beam-induced background resulting from the decay of the beam muons poses unique challenges for detector development and event reconstruction. In this paper, the prospects for measuring various Higgs boson properties at a center-of-mass energy of 3 TeV are presented, using a detailed detector simulation in a realistic environment. The study demonstrates the feasibility of achieving high precision results with the current state-of-the-art detector design. In addition, the paper discusses the detector requirements necessary to achieve this level of accuracy.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Studies of time resolution, light yield, and crosstalk using SiPM-on-tile calorimetry for the future Electron-Ion Collider

We recently proposed a high-granularity calorimeter insert for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) that is based on plastic scintillator tiles readout with silicon photomultipliers. In this work, we concretize its design by characterizing its building blocks with measurements of light yield, optical crosstalk, and timing resolutions using cosmic-rays, an LED, and a beta source. We also compared two approaches for the optical isolation of cells: "megatiles" with grooved boundaries between cells, and a 3D-printed plastic frame hosting individual cells. Further, we found that the latter suppresses optical crosstalk to negligible levels while providing an easier assembly method. Overall, these performance studies can help inform calorimeter design and realistic simulations of 5D showers (time, energy, position) for the EIC and other experiments.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRS2019

Benchmarking Simulations of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager with Calibrations

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a balloon-borne 𝛾-ray (0.2-5 MeV) telescope designed to study astrophysical sources. COSI employs a compact Compton telescope design utilizing 12 high-purity germanium double-sided strip detectors and is inherently sensitive to polarization. In 2016, COSI was launched from Wanaka, New Zealand and completed a successful 46-day flight on NASA’s new Super Pressure Balloon. In order to perform imaging, spectral, and polarization analysis of the sources observed during the 2016 flight, we compute the detector response from well-benchmarked simulations. As required for accurate simulations of the instrument, we have built a comprehensive mass model of the instrument and developed a detailed detector effects engine which applies the intrinsic detector performance to Monte Carlo simulations. The simulated detector effects include energy, position, and timing resolution, thresholds, dead strips, charge sharing, charge loss, crosstalk, dead time, and detector trigger conditions. After including these effects, the simulations closely resemble the measurements, the standard analysis pipeline used for measurements can also be applied to the simulations, and the responses computed from the simulations are accurate. We have computed the systematic error that we must apply to measured fluxes at certain energies, which is 6.3% on a rage. Here we describe the detector effects engine and the benchmarking tests performed with calibrations.

Sleator, Clio C.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Frontiers in computing for artificial intelligence

An emerging diversity of computational platforms offers many different approaches to adopting the paradigm of artificial intelligence to the study of electron-ion collisions. Here we review several leading candidates in this computational frontier and their workflows for experimental applications of artificial intelligence that may impact the future Electron-Ion Collider. We discuss the motivation for exploring novel methods to solve artificial intelligence and machine learning problems including with customized devices, quantum simulation, and heterogeneous computing systems. Furthermore, these technologies offer promising approaches to address some of the leading concerns of future computing that may impact the Electron-Ion Collider but they will require further development and testing in order to support future planning efforts.

detector design and construction technologies and ↗

DOE OSTI2025

Griffin Capability Improvements in Support of Ex-core Deep-Penetration Problems

Advanced reactor designs, especially portable reactors that are designed to be located closer to humans and operate autonomously, require the ability to accurately compute the ex-core neutron and gamma flux solutions in terms of shielding design optimization to reduce dose rates at the vessel boundary and detector signal prediction to drive the reactor control system. The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program has prioritized improvements to the Griffin discrete ordinates (SN) solver for deep-penetration problems in fiscal year 2025. Significant advancements have been made to the Griffin methodologies for solving ex-core deep-penetration problems for steady-state, fixed-source and transient calculations. This work presents the methodology improvements as well as a comprehensive demonstration with a Transient Test Reactor model and measurements.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Design and construction of Cosmic Muon Veto for the mini-ICAL detector at IICHEP, Madurai

A 51-kiloton magnetised Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector, using Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) as active detector elements, aims to study atmospheric neutrinos. A prototype - 1/600 of the weight of ICAL, called mini-ICAL was installed in the INO transit campus at Madurai. A modest proof-of-principle cosmic muon veto detector of about 1 m×1 m×0.3 m dimensions was set up a few years ago, using scintillator paddles. The measured cosmic muon veto efficiency of 99.98% and simulation studies of muon-induced background events in the ICAL detector surrounded by an efficient veto detector were promising. This led to the idea of constructing a bigger cosmic muon veto around the mini-ICAL detector. Details of the design, fabrication, quality control, and construction of the detector including the electronics, trigger, and DAQ systems planned will be briefly presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2020

NDX: Neutron Dose Rate Meters with Extended Capabilities

Particle accelerators, irradiation facilities, and nuclear power plants would benefit from using neutron dose rate meters featuring improved energy response covering full range of expected neutron energies, improved dynamic range of measured dose rates while providing the real-time data, and improved ability to operate in harsh radiation environments including heavy photon backgrounds and pulsed beams. The novel design of the neutron moderator for the NDX dose rate meter implements a layer of a Beryllium-loaded medium Z material which, similar to the earlier known WENDI detectors, allows the device to detect higher energy neutron flux and convert it to dose. Using Beryllium helps to fill the known dip in the response functions around 5-50 MeV. Optimized design parameter set, obtained using FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations, features the NDX moderator made of polyethylene embedding a layer of BeCu alloy inside, with the dose rate response constant within ±10% in the neutron energy range from about 100 keV to 500 MeV, and ±25% essentially in the full energy range above thermal. A new sensor technique implemented in the NDX is based on using the Ionization Chamber (IC) filled with 3He gas to capture the moderated neutron fluence, and includes a symmetric IC filled with regular 4He to evaluate the contributions due to the non-neutron ionizing radiation. Advantages of the method include large accessible dynamic range, relative insensitivity of the IC probes to photon radiation fields, and the ability to subtract their contribution. Two prototype NDX detectors were built, calibrated, and operated in various conditions at the CEBAF 12 GeV electron accelerator at JLab. The first results showed reliable neutron dose rate measurements in the presence of overwhelming photon radiation fields, and at practical high dose rate levels of up to approximately 10 Sv/h. Detector design, operation, first results, and further development plans are presented.

Degtiarenko, Pavel V.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Generalizing to new geometries with Geometry-Aware Autoregressive Models (GAAMs) for fast calorimeter simulation

Generation of simulated detector response to collision products is crucial to data analysis in particle physics, but computationally very expensive. One subdetector, the calorimeter, dominates the computational time due to the high granularity of its cells and complexity of the interactions. Generative models can provide more rapid sample production, but currently require significant effort to optimize performance for specific detector geometries, often requiring many models to describe the varying cell sizes and arrangements, without the ability to generalize to other geometries. Here, we develop a geometry-aware autoregressive model, which learns how the calorimeter response varies with geometry, and is capable of generating simulated responses to unseen geometries without additional training. The geometry-aware model outperforms a baseline unaware model by over 50% in several metrics such as the Wasserstein distance between the generated and the true distributions of key quantities which summarize the simulated response. A single geometry-aware model could replace the hundreds of generative models currently designed for calorimeter simulation by physicists analyzing data collected at the Large Hadron Collider. This proof-of-concept study motivates the design of a foundational model that will be a crucial tool for the study of future detectors, dramatically reducing the large upfront investment usually needed to develop generative calorimeter models.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRS2023

2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: Pathways to Realizing Multi-Functional Integrated Astrophotonic Instruments

Photonic technologies offer numerous functionalities that can be used to realize astrophotonic instruments. The most spectacular example to date is the ESO Gravity instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile that combines the light-gathering power of four 8 m telescopes through a complex photonic interferometer. Fully integrated astrophotonic devices stand to offer critical advantages for instrument development, including extreme miniaturization when operating at the diffraction-limit, as well as integration, superior thermal and mechanical stabilization owing to the small footprint, and high replicability offering significant cost savings. Numerous astrophotonic technologies have been developed to address shortcomings of conventional instruments to date, including for example the development of photonic lanterns to convert from multimode inputs to single mode outputs, complex aperiodic fiber Bragg gratings to filter OH emission from the atmosphere, complex beam combiners to enable long baseline interferometry with for example, ESO Gravity, and laser frequency combs for high precision spectral calibration of spectrometers. Despite these successes, the facility implementation of photonic solutions in astronomical instrumentation is currently limited because of (1) low throughputs from coupling to fibers, coupling fibers to chips, propagation and bend losses, device losses, etc, (2) difficulties with scaling to large channel count devices needed for large bandwidths and high resolutions, and (3) efficient integration of photonics with detectors, to name a few. In this roadmap, we identify 24 key areas that need further development. We outline the challenges and advances needed across those areas covering design tools, simulation capabilities, fabrication processes, the need for entirely new components, integration and hybridization and the characterization of devices. To realize these advances the astrophotonics community will have to work cooperatively with industrial partners who have more advanced manufacturing capabilities. With the advances described herein, multi-functional integrated instruments will be realized leading to novel observing capabilities for both ground and space based platforms, enabling new scientific studies and discoveries.

astrophotonics↗

NASA NTRS2003

Monte Carlo Simulations of the Response of the MARIE Instrument

The MARIE instrument aboard Mars Odyssey functions as a telescope for the detection of charged, energetic, nuclei. The directionality that leads to the telescope description is achieved by requiring coincident signals in two designated detectors in MARIE s silicon detector stack for the instrument to trigger. Because of this, MARIE is actually a bi directional telescope. Triggering particles can enter the detector stack by passing through the lightly shielded front of the instrument, but can also enter the back of the instrument by passing through the bulk of Odyssey. Because of this, understanding how to relate the signals recorded by MARIE to astrophysically important quantities such as particle fluxes or spectra exterior to the spacecraft clearly requires detailed modeling of the physical interactions that occur as the particles pass through the spacecraft and the instrument itself. In order to facilitate in the calibration of the MARIE data, we have begun a program to simulate the response of MARIE using the FLUKA [1] [2] Monte Carlo radiation transport code.

Andersen, V.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Simulating Alpha Particles Incident on MKID Chips for Quantum Sensitivity Analysis

Superconducting quantum devices, such as microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs), are highly sensitive instruments used in quantum computing and advanced sensing technologies. However, their extreme sensitivity also makes them vulnerable to background noise from natural sources like radiation. One significant contributor to this noise is alpha particles emitted by 210Po, a radon decay daughter that accumulates on surfaces near the detector. This project investigates how alpha particles emitted from 210Po interact with MKID chips. These particles can deposit energy on the detector surface, disrupting its operation and generating false signals. Understanding the energy and behavior of these particles is crucial for improving the design and reliability of quantum devices. To explore this, we first modeled the decay chain starting from 210Pb to 210Po using differential equations. This allowed us to predict how the activity of alpha-emitting isotopes changes over time, reaching a steady state after about two years. Next, we simulated alpha particle interactions with the MKID chip using the Geant4 software toolkit. We built a detailed computer model of the detector housing, including the copper lid where alpha particles originate, the silicon chip, and a thin aluminum sensor layer. Alpha particles were emitted isotropically from just beneath the copper lid’s surface, mimicking natural decay conditions. The simulation tracked how these particles deposit energy on the chip, generating electron-hole pairs and phonons. The results provide insight into the behavior of the resultant electron-hole pairs and phonons, giving us a clear understanding of the energy deposition distribution on the chip. This work supports efforts to mitigate background noise in superconducting sensors, advancing their use in quantum computing and sensitive physics experiments.

Hall, Matthew [Fermilab; UCLA]↗

NASA NTRS2002

Software for Processing Flight and Simulated Data of the ATIC Experiment

ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter) is a balloon borne experiment designed to measure the cosmic ray composition for elements from hydrogen to iron and their energy spectra from approx.50 GeV to near 100 TeV. It consists of a Si-matrix detector to determine the charge of a CR particle, a scintillator hodoscope for tracking, carbon interaction targets and a fully active BGO calorimeter. ATIC had its first flight from McMurdo, Antarctica from 28/12/2000 to 13/01/2001. The ATIC flight collected approximately 25 million events. A C++-class library for building different programs for processing flight and simulated data of the ATIC balloon experiment is described. This library is compatible with the ROOT-system and includes classes and methods for solving a number of problems as the following: Reading data files in different formats (raw-data format, ROOT-format, ASCII-format, different formats for simulated data); Transferring all these formats to the only inner format of the library; Reconstruction of trajectories of primary particles with BGO calorimeter only. The Monte-Carlo simulations with GEANT code were used to obtain the basic tables for computing error corridors and chi(sup 2)-values for the trajectories. Obtaining error corridors for searching for signal of primary particle in the Si-matrix; Searching for hit of primary particle in the Si-matrix with using of error corridor and other criteria (chi(sup 2)-values, agreement between signals in Si-matrix and in the upper layer of scintillator and others); Determination of charge of primary particle; Determination of energy deposit in BGO calorimeter.

Panov, A. D.↗