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At least 973 records · Page 54

Recoil imaging for dark matter, neutrinos, and physics beyond the Standard Model

Recoil imaging entails the detection of spatially resolved ionization tracks generated by particle interactions. This is a highly sought-after capability in many classes of detector, with broad applications across particle and astroparticle physics. However, at low energies, where ionization signatures are small in size, recoil imaging only seems to be a practical goal for micro-pattern gas detectors. This white paper outlines the physics case for recoil imaging, and puts forward a decadal plan to advance towards the directional detection of low-energy recoils with sensitivity and resolution close to fundamental performance limits. The science case covered includes: the discovery of dark matter into the neutrino fog, directional detection of sub-MeV solar neutrinos, the precision study of coherent-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, the detection of solar axions, the measurement of the Migdal effect, X-ray polarimetry, and several other applied physics goals. We also outline the R&D programs necessary to test concepts that are crucial to advance detector performance towards their fundamental limit: single primary electron sensitivity with full 3D spatial resolution at the $\sim$100 micron-scale. These advancements include: the use of negative ion drift, electron counting with high-definition electronic readout, time projection chambers with optical readout, and the possibility for nuclear recoil tracking in high-density gases such as argon. We also discuss the readout and electronics systems needed to scale-up such detectors to the ton-scale and beyond.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

A Blessing in Disguise -- Characterisations of ProtoDUNE photon showers for neutrino measurements in DUNE

This thesis presents three studies performed on ProtoDUNE, a prototype liquid argon time projection chamber for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). The first study concerns the readout of detector data by the FELIX data acquisition system, as well as compression studies performed on the same data. The second study concerns the identification of photons created in neutral pion decay, which form a major background to neutrino-produced electrons. The distinction between electrons and photons is based on the differing energy deposition in the initial part of the particle showers they produce. The third study concerns the energy reconstruction of these particle showers in the detector. They have a known energy profile and can thus be used to calibrate the energy reconstruction of particle showers in general, a vital requirement for DUNE’s physics goals.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Detectors and diagnostics for multiprobe radiography using high-energy short-pulse lasers

Multiprobe radiography requires the following diagnostic capabilities at minimum: radiographic source diagnostics, spectroscopy, imaging, and tomography diagnostics. Depending on the repetition rate of the radiation sources, the diagnostics may be a single-shot diagnostic, such as photographic (radiochromic and X-ray films for high energy photons) films, or a multiple-shot diagnostic for repetitive source operations, such as a high-speed framing camera. Due to the drastically different detector physics of electrons, photons at different energies (keV to 10s of MeV in the radiography context), heavy ions such as protons, alphas, and neutrons, see, for example, Ref. [1, 2] for an overview, different types or configurations of detectors and constructions may be required for multiprobe radiography applications. Some of the common detector metricsinclude, independent of the particle/photon species, sensitivities or efficiency, energy resolution, spatial or temporal resolutions and others. Some unique detection scenarios arise in a multiprobe radiography setting, for example, crosstalk mitigation and particle identification (ID) when X-ray and higher energy photons, relativistic electrons, neutrons, other hadrons, and heavy particles coexist at the detector location.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Character of energy flow in air shower core

Energy per charged particle near the core of air showers was measured by 9 energy flow detectors, which were the combination of Cerenkov counters and scintillators. Energy per particle of each detector was normalized to energy at 2m from the core. The following results were obtained as to the energy flow: (1) integral frequency distribution of mean energy per particle (averaged over 9 detectors) is composed of two groups separated distinctly; and (2) showers contained in one group show an anisotropy of arrival direction.

Mizushima, K.↗

Atmospheric neutrinos observed in underground detectors

Atmospheric neutrinos are produced when the primary cosmic ray beam hits the atmosphere and initiates atmospheric cascades. Secondary mesons decay and give rise to neutrinos. The neutrino production was calculated and compared with the neutrino fluxes detected in underground detectors. Contained neutrino events are characterized by observation of an interaction within the fiducial volume of the detector when the incoming particle is not observed. Both the neutrino flux and the containment requirement restrict the energy of the neutrinos observed in contained interactions to less than several GeV. Neutrinos interact with the rock surrounding the detector but only muon neutrino interactions can be observed, as the electron energy is dissipated too fast in the rock. The direction of the neutrino is preserved in the interaction and at energies above 1 TeV the angular resolution is restricted by the scattering of the muon in the rock. The muon rate reflects the neutrino spectrum above some threshold energy, determined by the detector efficiency for muons.

Gaisser, T. K.↗

High Density Faraday Cup Array or Other Open Trench Structures and Method of Manufacture Thereof

A detector array and method for making the detector array. The detector array includes a substrate including a plurality of trenches formed therein, and a plurality of collectors electrically isolated from each other, formed on the walls of the trenches, and configured to collect charged particles incident on respective ones of the collectors and to output from the collectors signals indicative of charged particle collection. In the detector array, adjacent ones of the plurality of trenches are disposed in a staggered configuration relative to one another. The method forms in a substrate a plurality of trenches across a surface of the substrate such that adjacent ones of the trenches are in a staggered sequence relative to one another, forms in the plurality of trenches a plurality of collectors, and connects a plurality of electrodes respectively to the collectors.

Bower, Christopher A.↗

Quantity of 135I Released from the AGR 5/6/7 Experiment

A series of four Advanced Reactor Technologies (ART) experiments have been conducted in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). From 2006 through 2020, these experiments supported the development and qualification of the new U.S. tristructural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel for Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTR). Each Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) experiment consisted of multiple fueled capsules, each plumbed for independent temperature control using a mix of helium and neon gases. The gas leaving a capsule was routed to individual Fission Product Monitor (FPM) detectors. For intact fuel particles, the TRISO particle coatings provide a substantial barrier to fission product release. However, particles with failed coatings, whether because of a minute percentage of initially defective particles, those which fail during irradiation, or those designed to fail (DTF) particles, can release fission products to the flowing gas stream. Because reactive fission product elements like iodine and cesium quickly deposit on cooler capsule components and piping structures as the effluent gas leaves the reactor core, only the noble fission gas isotopes of Kr and Xe tend to reach FPM detectors. The FPM system utilizes High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors coupled with a thallium activated sodium iodide NaI(Tl) scintillator. The HPGe detector provides individual isotopic information, while the NaI(Tl) scintillator is used as a gross count rate meter. During irradiation, the 135mXe concentration reaching the FPM detectors is from both direct fission and by decay of the accumulated 135I. About 2.5 hours after irradiation (ten 15.3 minute 135mXe half lives) the directly produced 135mXe has decayed and only the longer lived 135I remains as a source. Decay systematics dictate that 135mXe will be in secular equilibrium with its 135I parent, such that its production rate very nearly equals the decay rate of the parent, and its concentration in the flowing gas stream will appear to decay with the parent half life. This equilibrium condition enables the determination of the amount of 135I released from the fuel particles by measurement of the 135mXe at the FPM following reactor shutdown. In this paper, the 135I released will be reported.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Cosmic Ray Background Removal With Deep Neural Networks in SBND

In liquid argon time projection chambers exposed to neutrino beams and running on or near surface levels, cosmic muons, and other cosmic particles are incident on the detectors while a single neutrino-induced event is being recorded. In practice, this means that data from surface liquid argon time projection chambers will be dominated by cosmic particles, both as a source of event triggers and as the majority of the particle count in true neutrino-triggered events. In this work, we demonstrate a novel application of deep learning techniques to remove these background particles by applying deep learning on full detector images from the SBND detector, the near detector in the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino Program. We use this technique to identify, on a pixel-by-pixel level, whether recorded activity originated from cosmic particles or neutrino interactions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Design and performance of the Fermilab Constant Fraction Discriminator ASIC

Here, we present the design and performance characterization results of the novel Fermilab Constant Fraction Discriminator ASIC (FCFD) developed to readout low gain avalanche detector (LGAD) signals by directly using a constant fraction discriminator (CFD) to measure signal arrival time. Silicon detectors with time resolutions less than 30ps will play a critical role in future collider experiments, and LGADs have been demonstrated to provide the required time resolution and radiation tolerance for many such applications. The FCFD has a specially designed discriminator that is robust against amplitude variations of the signal from the LGAD that normally requires an additional correction step when using a traditional leading edge discriminator. The application of the CFD directly in the ASIC promises to be more reliable and reduces the complication of evolving time-walk corrections throughout the operational lifetime of the detector system. We will present a summary of the measured performance of the FCFD for input signals generated by internal charge injection, LGAD signals from an infrared laser, and LGAD signals from minimum-ionizing particles. The mean time response for LGAD signals with charge ranging between 5 and 26 fC has been measured to vary no more than 10ps, orders of magnitude more stable than an uncorrected leading edge discriminator based measurement, and effectively removes the need for any additional time-walk correction. The measured contribution to the time resolution from the FCFD ASIC is found to be 10ps for signals with charge above 20fC.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

X-ARAPUCA Photon Detectors in SBND

The Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) for detecting neutrinos from Fermilab's Booster Neutrino Beam. Located 110 m downstream of the beam target, SBND collects both ionization electrons and scintillation photons from particle interactions within the detector volume. The photon detection system (PDS) consists of both PMTs and X-ARAPUCAs, a novel technology featuring large area cost-effective coverage with single photo-electron resolution at cryogenic temperatures. SBND utilizes two types of X-ARAPUCAs: one sensitive to vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) scintillation light produced and one sensitive to visible light for the light reflected off TPB-coated reflective foils. SBND is the only experiment currently testing the X-ARAPUCA technology in a neutrino beam over a period of several years, and will provide critical information for deployment in future detectors like DUNE. This poster will cover the calibration and early performance of X-ARAPUCAs in SBND.

Dalager, Olivia [Fermilab]↗

Performance of the reconstruction and identification of high-momentum muons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

The CMS detector at the LHC has recorded events from proton-proton collisions, with muon momenta reaching up to 1.8 TeV in the collected dimuon samples. These high-momentum muons allow direct access to new regimes in physics beyond the standard model. Because the physics and reconstruction of these muons are different from those of their lower-momentum counterparts, this paper presents for the first time dedicated studies of efficiencies, momentum assignment, resolution, scale, and showering of very high momentum muons produced at the LHC. These studies are performed using the 2016 and 2017 data sets of proton-proton collisions at &surd;s = 13 TeV with integrated luminosities of 36.3 and 42.1 fb−1, respectively.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Performance study of a 3×1×1 m 3 dual phase liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber exposed to cosmic rays

We report the results of the analyses of the cosmic ray data collected with a 4 tonne (3×1×1 m 3 ) active mass (volume) Liquid Argon Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) operated in a dual-phase mode. We present a detailed study of the TPC's response, its main detector parameters and performance. The results are important for the understanding and further developments of the dual-phase technology, thanks to the verification of key aspects, such as the extraction of electrons from liquid to gas and their amplification through the entire one square metre readout plain, gain stability, purity and charge sharing between readout views.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Search for Dark Showers from Higgs Boson Decays Through the Photon Portal

One of the primary goals of the CMS detector is to find particles beyond the standard model. We present a search for dark showers produced from decays of the Higgs boson using collision data from the CMS experiment at the LHC. These dark showers then decay into jets made entirely of photons, which we can observe in the detector. Thus, our analysis focuses on reconstructing and analyzing these jets and maximizing signal selection efficiency for data from the Monte Carlo simulation. The photon signature of dark jets can then be confirmed via an invariant-mass distribution of these two photon jets. If found, these particles would provide evidence of physics theories beyond the Standard Model.

MacMullin, Alexandra [Skidmore Coll.]↗

Rapid spatial analysis of surrogate TRISO fuel particles using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy image analysis

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) mapping enables rapid elemental and spatial analysis of solid samples. In this work, surrogate TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) particles with various layers consisting of Zr, W, C, and Si were used to demonstrate the use of a new thickness measurement tool developed to analyze elemental images generated from LIBS maps. Zr particles with varying outer-layer thicknesses ranging from 16 to 32 μm were measured with scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and LIBS with both a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) detector and an intensified charged coupled device (ICCD) detector. LIBS maps of particles were completed using CMOS and ICCD spectrometers with effective spatial resolutions of 4 and 2 μm, respectively. The novel thickness measurement tool identified layer regions within a LIBS map and then identified the locations of the boundaries between these layers. The tool then generated up to 1000 random profiles stemming radially from the center region, which were used to measure the layer thickness/radius. This image analysis tool demonstrated LIBS's ability to provide values comparable with SEM-EDS (3.7% relative difference) along with a 95% reduction in measurement time. Furthermore, the precision of these measurements was on par with the SEM-EDS measurements at <15% relative standard deviation. Following the analysis of the Zr particles, W particles with increased complexity (e.g., five versus three layers) were analyzed using both the CMOS and ICCD spectrometers simultaneously. The spatial dimensions were extracted with an average relative difference of 2.7% and an average relative standard deviation of 9%.

Andrews, Hunter B. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory ↗

Acceleration mechanisms for energetic particles in the earth's magnetosphere

By analyzing data on energetic particle fluxes measured simultaneously with detector systems on several earth satellites, signatures of different acceleration mechanisms for these particles were searched for. One of the samples is an event observed on ATS-6 and IMP-7. IMP-7 was in the dusk quarter at 38 earth radii while ATS-6 was located at local midnight at a distance of 6.6 earth radii. Although the flux variations as observed on the two spacecraft both showed 1.5 min periodicity, there was a 40-second time lag with IMP-7 behind. The results indicate that the particles are accelerated by magnetic field line annihilation, with the x-point located at about 10 earth radii.

Schiferl, S.↗

Particle charge spectrometer

An airflow through a tube is used to guide a charged particle through the tube. A detector may be used to detect charge passing through the tube on the particle. The movement of the particle through the tube may be used to both detect its charge and size.

Fuerstenau, Stephen D.↗

Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in sNN=5.36TeV O16+O16 and Ne20+Ne20 collisions with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents the first measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy coefficients , which quantify the -order Fourier modulation of charged-particle azimuthal distributions, for in and collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2025. The coefficients are measured as a function of transverse momentum ( ), collision centrality, and event multiplicity. They are extracted using two complementary methods: two-particle correlations with a template-fit subtraction of short-range nonflow contributions, and four-particle subevent cumulants, which intrinsically suppress nonflow effects and provide sensitivity to flow fluctuations. The results show a clear hierarchy and a nonmonotonic dependence on , reaching a maximum around , consistent with trends observed in heavy-ion collisions. Detailed comparisons between the two collision systems reveal an enhanced in central collisions, consistent with theory expectations based on the predicted prolate deformation of neon nuclei, in contrast to the slightly tetrahedral structure predicted for oxygen. The four-particle cumulant results highlight strong event-by-event fluctuations and provide the greatest sensitivity to nuclear shape effects. These measurements can place new constraints on the initial geometry and the hydrodynamic response in light-ion collisions, offering valuable input for models of nuclear structure.

Aad, G↗