On the anomalous afterglow seen in a chameleon afterglow search

We present data from our investigation of the anomalous orange-colored afterglow that was seen in the GammeV Chameleon Afterglow Search (CHASE). These data includes information about the broad band color of the observed glow, the relationship between the glow and the temperature of the apparatus, and other data taken prior to and during the science operations of CHASE. While differing in several details, the generic properties of the afterglow from CHASE are similar to luminescence seen in some vacuum compounds. Contamination from this, or similar, luminescent signatures will likely impact the design of implementation of future experiments involving single photon detectors and high intensity light sources in a cryogenic environment.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Search for axion-like particles using a variable baseline photon regeneration technique

We report the first results of the GammeV experiment, a search for milli-eV mass particles with axion-like couplings to two photons. The search is performed using a "light shining through a wall" technique where incident photons oscillate into new weakly interacting particles that are able to pass through the wall and subsequently regenerate back into detectable photons. The oscillation baseline of the apparatus is variable, thus allowing probes of different values of particle mass. We find no excess of events above background and are able to constrain the two-photon couplings of possible new scalar (pseudoscalar) particles to be less than 3.1x10^{-7} GeV^{-1} (3.5x10^{-7} GeV^{-1}) in the limit of massless particles.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. This is the version accepted by PRL and includes updated limit

Results on Common Left/Right Divisors of Skew Polynomials

Since being introduced by Oystein Ore in his 1933 paper, “Theory of Non-Commutative Polynomials” [6], non-commutative, skew, or Ore polynomials have been studied extensively. One prominent application of skew polynomials is in the generation of codes. This paper covers some key facets of the structure of skew polynomials and aims to find a divisor polynomial for two given polynomials that satisfies certain properties of divisibility

The upgraded data acquisition system for beam loss monitoring at the Fermilab Tevatron and Main Injector

A VME-based data acquisition system for beam-loss monitors has been developed and is in use in the Tevatron and Main Injector accelerators at the Fermilab complex. The need for enhanced beam-loss protection when the Tevatron is operating in collider-mode was the main driving force for the new design. Prior to the implementation of the present system, the beam-loss monitor system was disabled during collider operation and protection of the Tevatron magnets relied on the quench protection system. The new Beam-Loss Monitor system allows appropriate abort logic and thresholds to be set over the full set of collider operating conditions. The system also records a history of beam-loss data prior to a beam-abort event for post-abort analysis. Installation of the Main Injector system occurred in the fall of 2006 and the Tevatron system in the summer of 2007. Both systems were fully operation by the summer of 2008. In this paper we report on the overall system design, provide a description of its normal operation, and show a number of examples of its use in both the Main Injector and Tevatron.Comment: 24 page

Codes and Sequences for Information Retrieval and Stream Ciphers

Given a self-similar structure in codes and de Bruijn sequences, recursive techniques may be used to analyze and construct them. Batch codes partition the indices of code words into m buckets, where recovery of t symbols is accomplished by accessing at most tau in each bucket. This finds use in the retrieval of information spread over several devices. We introduce the concept of optimal batch codes, showing that binary Hamming codes and first order Reed-Muller codes are optimal. Then we study batch properties of binary Reed-Muller codes which have order less than half their length. Cartesian codes are defined by the evaluation of polynomials at a subset of points in F_q. We partition F_q into buckets defined by the quotient with a subspace V. Several properties equivalent to (V intersect ) = {0} for all i,j between 1 and mu are explored. With this framework, a code in F_q^(mu-1) capable of reconstructing mu indices is expanded to one in F_q^(mu) capable of reconstructing mu+1 indices. Using a base case in F_q^3, we are able to prove batch properties for codes in F_q. We generalize this to Cartesian Codes with a limit on the degree mu of the polynomials. De Bruijn sequences are cyclic sequences of length q^n that contain every q-ary word of length n exactly once. The pseudorandom properties of such sequences make them useful for stream ciphers. Under a particular homomorphism, the preimages of a binary de Bruijn sequence form two cycles. We examine a method for identifying points where these sequences may be joined to make a de Bruijn sequence of order n. Using the recursive structure of this construction, we are able to calculate sums of subsequences in O(n^4 log(n)) time, and the location of a word in O(n^5 log(n)) time. Together, these functions allow us to check the validity of any potential toggle point, which provides a method for efficiently generating a recursive specification. Each successful step takes O(k^5 log(k)), for k from 3 to n

Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on a Hydrocarbon Target at E_{\nu} ~ 3.5 GeV

We have isolated muon anti-neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic interactions occurring in the segmented scintillator tracking region of the MINERvA detector running in the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. We measure the flux-averaged differential cross-section, d{\sigma}/dQ^2, and compare to several theoretical models of quasi-elastic scattering. Good agreement is obtained with a model where the nucleon axial mass, M_A, is set to 0.99 GeV/c^2 but the nucleon vector form factors are modified to account for the observed enhancement, relative to the free nucleon case, of the cross-section for the exchange of transversely polarized photons in electron-nucleus scattering. Our data at higher Q^2 favor this interpretation over an alternative in which the axial mass is increased.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Added correlation between neutrino and anti-neutrino results in ancillary text files (CSV

HyperCP: A high-rate spectrometer for the study of charged hyperon and kaon decays

The HyperCP experiment (Fermilab E871) was designed to search for rare phenomena in the decays of charged strange particles, in particular CP violation in $\Xi$ and $\Lambda$ hyperon decays with a sensitivity of $10^{-4}$. Intense charged secondary beams were produced by 800 GeV/c protons and momentum-selected by a magnetic channel. Decay products were detected in a large-acceptance, high-rate magnetic spectrometer using multiwire proportional chambers, trigger hodoscopes, a hadronic calorimeter, and a muon-detection system. Nearly identical acceptances and efficiencies for hyperons and antihyperons decaying within an evacuated volume were achieved by reversing the polarities of the channel and spectrometer magnets. A high-rate data-acquisition system enabled 231 billion events to be recorded in twelve months of data-taking.Comment: 107 pages, 45 Postscript figures, 14 tables, Elsevier LaTeX, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth.