CAREER: Commissioning, Calibration, and Data Analysis of NOvA Detectors

职业：NOvA 探测器的调试、校准和数据分析

• 批准号: 0955456
• 负责人: Patricia Vahle
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: College of William and Mary
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0955456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Commissioning; Calibration; Data; Analysis

This CAREER award will enable the PI, Patricia Vahle, Assistant Professor of Physics at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, to participate in the commissioning and operation of the NOvA Integration Prototype Near Detector (IPND). This CAREER program describes a plan of research with realistic potential for broader impact which takes good advantage of the PI's experience and expertise and positions the PI to make a significant contribution to NOvA in the areas of calibration and data analysis, areas which are obviously important too for future particle physics experiments. The IPND will be installed on the surface at Fermilab starting in the summer of 2010, providing a test bed for the NOvA detector design and systems integration. After a year of running on the surface, the detector will be disassembled and reinstalled underground, becoming the NOvA near detector. The neutrino data collected with the detector allow for the development of detector calibration techniques, signal versus background separation algorithms, and tests of the simulation of nuclear hadronization and reinteraction processes, all of which are crucial to the success of the experiment. Within the broader impact, the project will be a training ground for undergraduate and graduate students and a postdoc. The IPND program offers ample short term hardware and analysis projects, ideally suited to an undergraduate summer research experience. To ensure a vibrant scientific program into the future, one needs to capture the imagination of students well before they enter college. To that end, Vahle proposes providing local high school and middle school teachers the opportunity to participate in summer research projects on site at Fermilab. In the summers she is in Williamsburg, she would exploit the relationship developed between the W&M neutrino group and the local school teachers by employing a teacher for several weeks over the summer to help develop, then implement, science events.

这个职业奖将使PI，帕特里夏Vahle，在威廉和玛丽，弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡的学院物理学助理教授，参与NOvA集成原型近探测器（IPND）的调试和操作。该职业计划描述了一项具有更广泛影响的现实潜力的研究计划，该计划充分利用了PI的经验和专业知识，并将PI定位为在校准和数据分析领域为NOvA做出重大贡献，这些领域显然对未来的粒子物理实验也很重要。IPND将于2010年夏天开始安装在费米实验室的表面，为NOvA探测器的设计和系统集成提供一个测试平台。在地面运行一年后，探测器将被拆卸并重新安装到地下，成为NOvA近距离探测器。用探测器收集的中微子数据可以开发探测器校准技术，信号与背景分离算法，以及模拟核强子化和再相互作用过程的测试，所有这些都是实验成功的关键。在更广泛的影响范围内，该项目将成为本科生和研究生以及博士后的培训基地。IPND计划提供充足的短期硬件和分析项目，非常适合本科夏季研究经验。为了确保未来充满活力的科学计划，需要在学生进入大学之前充分捕捉他们的想象力。为此，Vahle建议为当地高中和中学教师提供参加费米实验室现场夏季研究项目的机会。在夏天，她是在威廉斯堡，她将利用的关系开发的W M中微子组和当地学校的教师雇用了几个星期的教师在夏季，以帮助开发，然后实施，科学活动。