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

这项职业奖励将使国际和平研究所、弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡威廉与玛丽学院物理学助理教授帕特里夏·瓦勒参与新星集成近探测器原型(IPND)的调试和操作。这一职业计划描述了一个具有更广泛影响的现实潜力的研究计划，该计划充分利用了国际和平研究所的经验和专业知识，并使国际和平研究所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试验台。在地表运行一年后，探测器将被拆卸并重新安装在地下，成为新星附近的探测器。通过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作用过程的测试，所有这些都对实验的成功至关重要。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训练场。IPND项目提供充足的短期硬件和分析项目，非常适合本科生夏季研究体验。为了确保未来有一个充满活力的科学计划，一个人需要在学生进入大学之前就抓住他们的想象力。为此，Vahle建议为当地高中和中学教师提供在Fermilab现场参与暑期研究项目的机会。在威廉斯堡的夏天，她会利用W&amp；M中微子小组与当地学校教师之间发展起来的关系，在夏天雇佣一名教师几周时间，帮助制定并实施科学活动。

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.