QuarkNet 2012Week 2 Summary:

The ORION Project

Chris Bove, Kai Chang, William Giguere, Erik Laping

Observations of

Radiation via

IONs

ORION

• Discussions with QuarkNet Alumni have provided us with an insight into our potential challenges

• Last year's focus on programming

• They ran out of time to test all the chambers and tubes

Code created last year still needs to be edited and debugged

• Note: Steve McNamara can detect the voltage levels by how the shock felt with a screwdriver

Past QuarkNet Progress

• Achieve an equipment state in which most data is free of mechanical flaws

• Receive data that is consistent with a muon passing through the proportional drift chambers and map it to a 2D track

• Improve the C++ program written last year to achieve 3D muon tracks

Goals

UltraChris

• The scientific method is not always pretty

• Noise affects data collection, if left untreated

• How proportional drift tubes work

• Soldering on circuit boards

• Troubleshooting techniques

• American Cockroach habitats

• The success of SNO

• Higgs Boson

• Cake Day is Monday

• The proportional drift tubes need time to flush out the oxygen

• Nothing is as simple/easy as it seems

What We Have Learned

• ATLAS lecture, John Allison

• SNO lecture, Rick Van Berg

• Detector Instrumentation, Mitch Newcomer

• Radiation Safety, Walter Kononenko

• Electricity Concepts, Marc Baron

• Group Theory, Steve Polgar

• CERN teleconference, Elliot Lipeles

• Proton Beam Detection, Robert Hollebeek

• Chip Testing, Mike Reilly

Presentations

• Week 2

o Get two working scintillators

o Finish testing 2 chambers

• Week 3

o Complete chamber testing

o Repair faulty tubes

o Develop proficiency in Verilog code

o Connect data collecting chips

o Start code modifications

• Week 4

o Finish necessary modifications

o Start obtaining data

o Refine tube data

o Rationalize code as needed

• Week 5

o Trip to Brookhaven Lab!

o Start working on code to find tracks in 2D

o Optimize code and fine-tune calibrations

o Create 3D track code

• End of Program

o Continue work on 3D code

o Make detailed documentation for next year's students

Long-term Plan

• Reducing noise

• Codingo Deciphering from last yearo Editingo Debugging

• Reaching appropriate thresholds

• Receiving usable signals

• Working with old components

Challenges

• This is us when Mitch, Rick, Godwin, and Walt aren't here:

The Headless Chicken

• Familiarized ourselves with equipment

• Discussed quarknet and received advice from Nathaniel Tharsis and Laura

• Reorganized and labeled equipment

• Tested and found optimum voltage for scintillators

• Searched for leaks in the air system

• Determined the best voltage for the PDT's

• Began testing proportional drift tubes

• Starting wiki later today

Progress Report

First Tube Data on Oscilloscope

Finding Optimum Voltage For Scintillators

Scintillator A (Negative)

~ 2060 V

Scintillator B (Positive)

~2030 V

• Both scintillators are now showing datao Voltage is optimizedo Logic gate shows coincidence at a reasonable rate with

respect to separationo An average of 37.4 coincidences per minute with a

separation of 74 cm

• Both power supplies have been located and tested

• The proportional drift tube chambers are now being testedo Some problems have been discoveredo Minor repairs must be made to fix some chambers

• We have two different oscilloscopes

• Obtaining signals from the PDT's

• Chamber power supplies are optimized

• Our workspace is organized and decluttered!

Current Status

At work in the lab

Finally getting a good tube signal

• Entire procedure for obtaining data

• Time scale for data acquisition

• Obtaining less noisy data

• Still having difficulty with the PDT's

• Who's hungry?

Remaining Questions

• Ultraman - http://www.fanpop.com/spots/whatever-happened-to/images/30397145/title/ultraman-photo

• Brookhaven Lab - http://www.newyorkology.com/archives/2007/05/brookhaven_lab_2.php

• Headless chicken - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

• Noise - http://www.nj.gov/dep/enforcement/noise-intro.html

• Gyango - http://webzoom.freewebs.com/godzilla_2000/gango.jpg

• Cockroach - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cockroach

• 3 Cakes - http://www.homemaidbakery.com/images/3cakes.jpg

• Soldering - http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-soldering-and-how-do-you-use-solder-tools.html

• Orion Photo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)

• Orion Constellation - http://preachrr.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/orion.jpg

• SNO - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Neutrino_Observatory

Picture Citations