A Request for Infrastructure Support for the MECO Project

MECO 项目基础设施支持请求

• 批准号: 0245360
• 负责人: Ed Hungerford
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: University of Houston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-08-01 至 2007-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0245360&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Request; Infrastructure; Support; MECO; Project

This is a proposal for infrastructure support in order to continue the work of the Houston group in developing the Muon to Electron Conversion (MECO) (AGS Experiment 940) tracking detector. Traditionally, support for the group's research has been obtained from the US Department of Energy - Nuclear Sciences. However, it appears unlikely that infrastructure funds to support personnel working on MECO will continue from this source. NSF is currently providing support for materials and equipment. The MECO experiment is one of two experiments which constitute the Rare Symmetry Violating Processes (RSVP) physics program currently under development by the NSF. RSVP is a Major Research Equipment (MRE) program, approved by the National Science Board in February 2001, and currently scheduled to begin construction in FY 2006. The program is at present in an R&D phase, supported by R&RA funds from the Division of Physics. Intellectual Merit One of the principal intellectual endeavors in current physics exploration is the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model, and there are good reasons to believe that the Standard Model is at best incomplete. For example, the hierarchy of elementary particle masses has no explanation. Further, the recent observation of neutrino mixing requires at least a revision of the Standard Model to allow mass mixing in the lepton as well as the quark sector. The MECO experiment is a search for violation of Lepton Flavor in the charged lepton sector via the direct conversion of a muon to an electron within the field of an atomic nucleus. The proposed sensitivity of this experiment is three-to-four orders of magnitude below current limits; well below the levels predicted by several extensions to the Standard Model, including Supersymmetry.The University of Houston is the sub-system manager for the MECO tracking detector. This tracker measures the energy of the ejected conversion electrons and is crucial to background rejection and the ultimate sensitivity of the experiment. It is composed of a cylindrical, thin-walled, straw-tube composite, ~290 cm long and ~88 cm in diameter. The proposed project will fund infrastructure so that work can proceed along three parallel paths: (1) development of computer models, calibrated to small prototype detectors, to simulate the electronic response of the detector, (2) study of the mechanical design and construction techniques required to produce a full-scale detector, and (3) development of readout electronics capable of data acquisition at the expected singles rates, digitization, and presentation for event storage in a computer buffer. Broader ImpactsThis proposal will provide support for the education of students in both physics and modern distributed signal processing. The MECO international collaboration consists of eleven institutions, and the Houston group is presently discussing cooperative participation in the integrated circuit development with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Engineering Physics Department at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. It also appears that the development of the proposed rescaled digitizing integrated circuit (IC) can find application in many high-rate, multi-channel data acquisition applications from non-destructive testing to medicine.

这是一项基础设施支持提案，以继续休斯顿小组在开发Muon to Electron转换(MECO)(AGS实验940)跟踪探测器方面的工作。传统上，该小组的研究得到了美国能源部-核科学部的支持。然而，支持MECO工作人员的基础设施资金似乎不太可能从这个来源继续下去。NSF目前正在为材料和设备提供支持。MECO实验是构成NSF目前正在开发的罕见对称破坏过程(RSVP)物理计划的两个实验之一。RSVP是一项重大研究设备(MRE)计划，于2001年2月由国家科学委员会批准，目前计划于2006财年开始建设。该计划目前正处于研发阶段，由物理系的研发基金提供支持。智力价值当前物理探索中的主要智力努力之一是在标准模型之外寻找新的物理，有充分的理由相信标准模型充其量也是不完整的。例如，基本粒子质量的等级没有任何解释。此外，最近观察到的中微子混合至少需要对标准模型进行修订，以允许在轻子和夸克部分进行质量混合。MECO实验是通过在原子核场内将Muon直接转化为电子，在带电的轻子部分寻找轻子特征的违反。这项实验的灵敏度比目前的极限低三到四个数量级；远低于标准模型的几个扩展所预测的水平，包括超对称性。休斯顿大学是MECO跟踪探测器的子系统经理。这个跟踪器测量被抛出的转换电子的能量，对背景抑制和实验的最终灵敏度至关重要。它由长约290厘米、直径约88厘米的圆柱形、薄壁、稻草管复合材料组成。拟议的项目将为基础设施提供资金，使工作可以沿着三条平行路线进行：(1)开发计算机模型，校准到小型原型探测器，以模拟探测器的电子响应；(2)研究生产全尺寸探测器所需的机械设计和建造技术；(3)开发能够以预期的单速率采集数据的读出电子设备，数字化，并将事件存储在计算机缓冲区中。更广泛的影响这项建议将为学生在物理和现代分布式信号处理方面的教育提供支持。MECO国际合作由11个机构组成，休斯顿小组目前正在与劳伦斯·伯克利实验室和北京清华大学工程物理系中国讨论合作参与集成电路开发。研究还表明，所提出的可重新定标的数字化集成电路(IC)的开发可以在从无损检测到医学的许多高速、多通道数据采集应用中找到应用。