QuarkNet 2012 Week 2 Summary: The ORION Project Chris Bove, Kai Chang, William Giguere, Erik Laping

O bservations of R adiation via ION s 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 Coding o Deciphering from last year o Editing o 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 data o Voltage is optimized o Logic gate shows coincidence at a reasonable rate with respect to separation o 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 tested o Some problems have been discovered o 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 Brookhaven Lab Headless chicken Noise Gyango Cockroach Cakes Soldering - tools.html tools.html Orion Photo Orion Constellation SNO Picture Citations