Program Overview

See the Indico Timetable here.

Students are encouraged to arrive on Sunday, March 4, 2018.  Preregistration will begin at the hotel. Each morning there will be a bus pick up from the hotel to Wilson Hall at Fermilab before the plenary lecture begins at 8:30. Personal vehicles can be used to get onsite at the lab.

Monday, March 5, will consist of an introduction and 3 plenary lectures in the morning, followed by training in the afternoon. This training will consist of several stations, or ’rounds’, where students will be trained in handling radioactive sources and charged particle beams. In addition, we will train for oscilloscope use.

Tuesday, March 6,  through Friday, March 9,  and Monday, March 12, through Thursday, March 16:
Students will start with a 1-hour plenary lecture at 8:30 am, then be split into four groups of about 10 students each. The bus will take groups to their respective areas, depending on what track they are scheduled for on that day, as shown in the table below.

The Tracks

Students will rotate through four tracks. The tracks will include about two and a half hours of lectures and/or equipment setup. This will be followed by lunch. After lunch, there will be another four and a half more hours of lab work.

Test Beam

Instructors: Jessica Metcalfe, Ewa Skup, Adam Watts, Jason St. John, Mandy Rominsky

Day 1:

Arrive at the facility between 9:30 and 9:45.
Safety discussion and tour of both MCenter and MTest (~30 minutes, depends on questions they ask)
Call for search and secure
While waiting for search and secure:

  1. Intro discussion about test beam (~20 min+ questions)
    Where does the beam come from? (slides)
  2. Split group in half – one set to MTest, one set to MCenter
MTest:
  • Split further into Cherenkov group and MWPC group
  • Make a run plan: Cherenkov group will want to do do pressure scans, MWPC can look at data at the same time, but might also want to let them look at different momentum while Cherenkov group analyzes data
  • Students can swap detectors mid afternoon if they want. If one group is waiting on the other, take them to look at signals.
MCenter:
  • Build a trigger, delay signals
  • Get ToF working, see signals, make a DAQ with the DRS4 boards
  • Read out the wire chambers

At 5pm, the students go back WH to head home for the night.

Day 2:

Arrive at facility between 9:30 and 9:45
Groups will start out in the same beamline as they ended the previous day – spend about 1-2 hours there finishing up studies if they need to. Then the groups will swap and the MCenter students move to MTest, the MTest students move to MCenter. Repeat the above program.

 

Neutrinos

The Neutrino track consists of 4 stations. Each station will occupy a sub-group of 3-4 students for one day. For the two day exposure, each sub-group will cycle  on either stations 1&4 or 2&3. This will give everyone experience with the noble liquid environment used for both neutrino and dark matter detectors.

  1. TallBo:  Studying photon collection systems in a liquid argon environment.
    Mentors: Evan Niner, Matt Toups, Kirsty Duffy, David Caratelli

    1. LED Calibration
    2. Light Detection in Liquid Argon
    3. Taking Data 
  2. Xelda: Energy calibration and particle ID in a liquid xenon time projection chamber.
    1. Mentors: Hugh Lippincott, Dylan Temples, Amy Cottle, Dan Baxter
  3. Gas Discharge Studies:
    1. This test stand will investigate an interesting property related to electric discharges in gas.  Hardware experience gained includes use of high voltage power supplies, using vacuum pumps and pressurized gases, and triggering an external readout.
    2. Mentors: Sarah Lockwitz, Jonathan Paley, Cat  James
  4. Purity Monitors:
    1. Hands-on setup and bench measurements of a Purity Monitor in vacuum and argon gas mixtures.
    2. Also, depending on status, measurements of the LAr purity in the Material Test Stand.
    3. Mentors: Alan Hahn, Carlos Escobar, Ernesto Kemp, Aria Soha

Photodetection

Syllabus Photodetectors

  1. Scintillator
    1. scintillator chemistry, fabrication, mass production.
    2. scintillator and wavelength shifter optical properties
  2. Scintillation counters
    1. Photomultiplier properties and operation
    2. Radioactive sources and scintillator excitation
    3. Scintillation counter fabrication, optical properties
  3. Photon detectors (SiPM Basic Survival Guide)
    1. SIPM single photon signal, signal shape, gain, linerarity
    2. photomultiplier single photon signal, signal shape, gain, linearity
  4. Signal Propagation and Detector Triggering
    Instructor: Dr. Richard Tesarek

    1.  Signal Propagation:
      1. Transmission Lines (discussion)
        1. Characteristic Impedance
        2. Speed of propagation
        3. Reflection & Transmission
        4.  Pulse shaping*
      2. Transmission Lines (Lab)
        1. Measure characteristic impedance for RG-58, RG-174, Ribbon Cable (twist & flat)
        2. Measure cable length using reflections
        3. Observe reflections at Tee, various cable configurations
        4. Proper setup to “spy” on signal using an oscilloscope
        5. Examine signals on a “bus” with multiple pick-offs
        6. Passive Pulse Shaping: Clip line example*
    2. Triggering and Detector Calibration:
      1. Triggering and Detector Calibration (discussion)
        1. Discriminators and Logic gates
          1. Detector characterization & calibration
          2. Efficiency measurements and uncertainties*
      2. Scintillator Test Setup (Lab)
        1. Test discriminators & logic gates
        2. Setup coincidences of multiple scintillator paddles
        3. Setup test stand for plateau/measuring relative scintillator counter gain

*May cover, time permitting

Silicon Detectors

Day 1  GROUP 1  GROUP 2  GROUP 3  GROUP 4
9:45 10:30 Introductory lecture/discussion
10:30 11:15 Lab D Lab D TCAD TCAD
11:15 12:00 TCAD TCAD Lab D Lab D
Lunch
13:00 15:00 TCAD TCAD LASER CV
15:00 17:00 LASER CV TCAD TCAD
Day 2
9:30 10:30 CV LASER TCAD TCAD
10:30 12:00 CV LASER TCAD TCAD
Lunch
13:00 15:00 TCAD TCAD CV LASER
15:00 17:00 Analysis/Retest/Strip Sensor

 

Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11 are free days, and activities are up to the student’ s discretion. (For ideas about attractions in the near by area, see our Social Program.

On the morning of March 16, the last day of classes, students will make another set of rounds, this time consisting of representatives from industries associated with particle physics, such as data acquisition electronics, crystal growers, silicon photomultiplier vendors, etc. The afternoon will consist of 3 more plenary lectures, concentrating on the future of particle detection.  Graduation will take place at the end of the day.

Group: 1 2 3 4
Mar 6 (Tue) Test Beam Day 1 Neutrinos Day 1 Photodetection Day 1 Silicon Day 1
Mar 7 (Wed) Test Beam Day 2 Neutrinos Day 2 Photodetection Day 2 Silicon Day 2
Mar 8 (Thu) Neutrinos Day 1 Photodetection Day 1 Silicon Day 1 Test Beam Day 1
Mar 9 (Fri) Neutrinos Day 2 Photodetection Day 2 Silicon Day 2 Test Beam Day 2
Mar 10 (Sat) Free Day
Mar 11 (Sun) Free Day
Mar 12 (Mon) Photodetection Day 1 Silicon Day 1 Test Beam Day 1 Neutrinos Day 1
Mar 13 (Tue) Photodetection Day 2 Silicon Day 2 Test Beam Day 2 Neutrinos Day 2
Mar 14 (Wed) Silicon Day 1 Test Beam Day 1 Neutrinos Day 1 Photodetection Day 1
Mar 15 (Thu) Silicon Day 2 Test Beam Day 2 Neutrinos Day 2 Photodetection Day 2
Mar 16 (Fri) Industry & Tours