1. CRAnE: A JAS-based Data Acquisition System for Cosmic Rays Jennifer Docktor & Manuel Reyes Mentors Tom Glanzman & Willy Langeveld August 13, 2003 Department of Energy Office of Science Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

2. Cosmic Rays High-energy protons collide with atoms in Earth’s upper atmosphere Air shower particles with sufficient energy to reach the surface (mostly muons) are recorded as cosmic ray events by ground detectors Origin of high energy cosmic rays is not fully understood; the prevailing theory suggests extensive B-fields surrounding supernova remnants accelerate protons in space to near-light speeds. http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/qadir/q2953.html

3. Endeavor supported by the National Science Foundation Educate high school students and teachers about high-energy physics and involve them in research SLAC workshop June 19 – July 3, 2003 –Built 10 cosmic ray telescopes (CRTs) that will be used to conduct experiments in their classrooms QuarkNet

4. CRT Design

5. CRT design Scintillator panels Plastic produces a small flash of light when a charged particle passes through it Scintillator panels Light guides Polished Lucite “light guides”

6. Opaque materials for light shielding CRT design

7. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) Convert light pulses into amplified electrical pulses PMT

8. Voltage converters (base) Converts low voltage (5V DC) from the logic board to high voltage for the PMT CRT design

9. QuarkNet logic board version 2.0 GPS unit

10. CRT Construction Week (June 23 – 27, 2003) MannyJen

18. CRTExperiments (Only a very few examples) CRT Experiments (Only a very few examples) 1.Measure angular distribution of cosmic ray flux through the paddles. 2.Muon flux experiments, such as by varying altitude or indoor/outdoor. 3. Air shower experiments (requires collaboration with other schools) determine frequency, patterns, direction, and characteristics of air showers

19. Why CRAnE? Data from the logic board is not easy to work with. For the purpose of a high school classroom, graphical data is more accessible. CRAnE (Cosmic Ray Analysis Environment) acts as a bridge between the raw output of the board and the needs of a classroom.

20. Raw Data Format

21. CRAnE Interface

22. CRAnE in Action!

23. Java Analysis Studio (JAS) Java – platform independent, relatively portable Java Analysis Studio (JAS) is a freely available data analysis package that provides graphing capabilities. http://jas.freehep.org CRAnE acts as a plug-in to JAS, extending its operation to include cosmic ray data processing.

24. Features of CRAnE Reads serial port output of CRT logic board Collects and saves relevant cosmic ray event data Maintains plots of cosmic ray rates in real- time CRAnE currently provides users with two graphs presenting information on the observed cosmic ray rate

25. Plot 1: CR rate vs. Time The first graph displays the cosmic ray rate observed in n- minute intervals over time

26. Plot 2: Time interval histogram The second graph is a histogram of the time elapsed between consecutive cosmic ray events detected by the CRT

27. The Future of CRAnE Currently, the plan is to distribute CRAnE software along with the CRTs to the high schools interested in carrying out experiments CRAnE will also be made freely available for download on the Internet http://www.slac.stanford.edu/quarknet/crane (Under Construction)

28. Suggested Improvements CRAnE currently uses the internal clock time of the user’s computer for graph data. Future versions will hopefully parse the GPS time data from the logic board. More graphical representations of the data should be supplied to users. CRAnE should also be able to recreate a graph from saved data files.

29. Acknowledgments SULI and the DOE Office of Science Tom Glanzman and Willy Langeveld Project mentors Tony Johnson and Max Turri JAS developers

30. Questions?