Online Muon Capture andDecay ExperimentMegan Alexander, Daniel Miner,

Wojtek Skulski, Frank WolfsUniversity of Rochester

Work funded by a grant from the APS WYP 2005 and agrant from the NSF.

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 2

Overview

Purpose:To capture and share data from cosmicmuons, making a “real” physics experimentaccessible to the public.

In this talk:Experimental detailsWebsite tour

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 3

Motivation

Time dilation (special relativity)Classic experiment, popular in advancedphysics labsOutreachMount Washington, NH

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 4

Detector(Scintillator + PMT)

Experiment Setup

Internet

DDC-8Circuit Board

(DSP)

Cosmic Muons

ToolsXilinxCypress EZ-USBBlackBoxApacheXML/SWF ChartsAWStats

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 5

DDC-8Developed by Wojtek Skulski.

DiagnosticOUT40 MHz * 10bits

JTAG connector

FPGA

ADC 40 MHz * 10bits (8 channels)

16 bidirectional TTL lines + 1 in(pool of extra logic I/O)

Analogsignal IN8 channels (only 1 used)withdigital offsetand gain control

RS-232

Logic connectors NIM 16 lines IN, 8 lines OUT

USB

RAM500 kB

ECL clockIN(optional)

microprocessor

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 6

Typical Muon SignalsStopping Muons:Passing Muons:

μ+

μ+

e+

μ+

ve

μ+

vµ

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 7

Web View: Waveforms

Time constant: 2.1 μs

http://wolfspc.pas.rochester.edu/muon/daq.html

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 8

Web View:Energy Spectra

http://wolfspc.pas.rochester.edu/muon/EnergySpectra.html

• Conventional muonlifetime experiments donot exploit DSP forparticle ID: this one does!

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 9

Downloadable Data

http://wolfspc.pas.rochester.edu/muon/DLData.html

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 10

Downloadable Data

View from Excel, MATLAB

APS Meeting March 2006 M.Alexander 11

Summary and Conclusion

Physics outreach enabled by hardware,software, web tools.Total unique visitors: