CAREER: Enabling a Rich Astro-particle and Exotic Physics Program in DUNE

粒子物理学的标准模型是20世纪物理学形成性的智力发展。虽然2012年希格斯玻色子机制的发现是标准模型的最高成就，但仍有许多未解之谜，包括难以捉摸的中微子的作用。中微子是基本粒子，很少与普通物质相互作用。标准模型预测了三种类型的无质量中微子。然而，通过实验，我们知道中微子的质量确实很小，但它们却遍布宇宙。因为它们有质量，所以它们可以从一种类型变成另一种类型。测量这些变化的特性，并将它们与理论预测进行比较，为发现中微子如何塑造我们的宇宙提供了一条有希望的途径。为此，中微子界正着手进行一项具有挑战性的任务，通过深地下中微子实验（DUNE）来完成中微子物理的图像，这将是一个巨大的，40,000吨的仪器，用于在南达科他州桑福德实验室地下约一英里处检测中微子相互作用。该设施将在未来10年内建成，将观察费米实验室产生的中微子的相互作用，并将行驶800英里到达DUNE，由于其体积大，还可以探测来自天体物理源的粒子。这项工作旨在开发寻找和识别新物理学信号的方法。DUNE实验为丰富的天体粒子和奇异物理搜索计划提供了独特的机会，包括：观测低能天体物理中微子，例如来自超新星核心坍缩的中微子，从而使其成为多信使天体物理学，以及搜索其他罕见过程，例如质子衰变和中子-反中子振荡。如果观测到，这些特征将对粒子物理学、天体物理学和宇宙学产生深远的影响。这些信号的稀缺性要求对整个DUNE探测器的时间投影室（TPC）数据进行连续、高分辨率的读出和处理。这种数据采集（DAQ）方案的结果数据速率大得令人难以接受，这带来了一个挑战：开发能够显著减少数据并有效地自触发零死区时间的读出和DAQ系统。该合同将执行一项独特且雄心勃勃的研发计划，以开发涉及部署在FPGA设备上的卷积神经网络（cnn）的新型读出和触发技术，包括在即将于2019年开始的SBND实验中演示其中一些技术。这个职业奖将加强哥伦比亚大学学生的本科研究经验，包括代表性不足的群体。该项目还将提供独特的机会，参与读出电子、探测器研发、数据处理和数据分析的计算机科学应用等前沿研究，并通过PI开发和组织的一系列研讨会，进一步促进物理和非物理专业学生的跨学科研究机会。该奖项将在尼维斯实验室的本科生研究经验（REU）计划中提供额外的两年名额，特别是对粒子物理学感兴趣的非物理专业学生。还将通过在当地高中的讲座和尼维斯科学-哈德逊公共讲座系列向公众和当地高中生进行宣传。被招募的暑期高中学生将开发一种超新星爆发的虚拟现实可视化，就像在液态氩气TPC中“看到”的那样。这个可视化将在每年的世界科学节上展示。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Standard Model of particle physics was a formative intellectual development of 20th century physics. While the discovery of the Higgs mechanism in 2012 was a crowning achievement for the Standard Model, many mysteries remain, including the role of the elusive neutrino. Neutrinos are elementary particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter. The Standard Model predicts three types of massless neutrinos. However, experimentally, we know that neutrinos do have very small masses, and yet they permeate the universe. Because they have mass, they can change from one type to another. Measuring properties of these changes, and comparing them to theoretical predictions, provides a promising pathway to discover how neutrinos shape our universe. To that end, the neutrino community is embarking on a challenging quest to complete the picture of neutrino physics through the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which will be a massive, 40,000-ton instrument optimized to detect neutrino interactions about a mile underground at Sanford Lab in South Dakota. This facility, being built during the next 10 years, will observe interactions of neutrinos produced at Fermilab and traveling 800 miles to DUNE and, due to its large volume, can also detect particles coming from astrophysical sources. This work seeks to develop ways to look for and identify signals for new physics.The DUNE experiment offers a unique opportunity for a rich astro-particle and exotic physics search program, including: observations of low-energy astrophysical neutrinos, e.g. from supernova core-collapse, thus lending itself to multi-messenger astrophysics, and searches for other rare processes, e.g. proton decay and neutron-antineutron oscillation. If observed, these signatures would have profound implications for particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The rarity of these signals requires continuous, high-resolution readout and processing of Time Projection Chamber (TPC) data from the entire DUNE detector. The resulting data rates for such a data acquisition (DAQ) scheme are prohibitively large and create a challenge: to develop readout and DAQ systems that are capable of significant data reduction and efficient self-triggering with zero deadtime. This award will carry out a unique and ambitious R&D program to develop novel readout and triggering techniques involving Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) deployed on FPGA devices, including a demonstration of some of these techniques at the upcoming SBND experiment, beginning in 2019.This CAREER award will strengthen the undergraduate research experience of Columbia University students, including underrepresented groups. The project will also provide unique opportunities of involvement in cutting edge research in readout electronics, detector R&D, and computer science applications for data handling and data analysis, and further promote interdisciplinary research opportunities for physics and non-physics majors through a Seminar Series developed and organized by the PI. The award will sponsor an additional slot in Nevis Lab's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program for two years, specifically for non-physics majors interested in particle physics. Outreach to the public and local high-school students will also be carried out through lectures at local high schools and the Nevis Science-on-Hudson public lecture series. Recruited summer high-school students will develop a virtual reality visualization of a supernova burst, as "seen" in a Liquid Argon TPC. This visualization will be demonstrated annually at the World Science Festival.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.