The CMS RPC gas gain monitoring system: an overview and preliminary results

The status of the CMS RPC Gas Gain Monitoring (GGM) system developed at the Frascati Laboratory of INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) is reported on. The GGM system is a cosmic ray telescope based on small RPC detectors operated with the same gas mixture used by the CMS RPC system. The GGM gain and efficiency are continuously monitored on-line, thus providing a fast and accurate determination of any shift in working point conditions. The construction details and the first result of GGM commissioning are described.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, uses lnfprepCMS.sty, presented by L. Benussi at RPC07, Mumbai, INDIA 200

Improved Neutron Capture Cross Section Measurements with the n_TOF Total Absorption Calorimeter

The n_TOF collaboration operates a Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) [1] for measuring neutron capture cross-sections of low-mass and/or radioactive samples. The results obtained with the TAC have led to a substantial improvement of the capture cross sections of (237)Np and (240)Pu [2]. The experience acquired during the first measurements has allowed us to optimize the performance of the TAC and to improve the capture signal to background ratio, thus opening the way to more complex and demanding measurements on rare radioactive materials. The new design has been reached by a series of detailed Monte Carlo simulations of complete experiments and dedicated test measurements. The new capture setup will be presented and the main achievements highlighted

Characterization of the New n TOF Neutron Beam: Fluence, Profile and Resolution

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The Role of Fe and Ni for S-process Nucleosynthesis and Innovative Nuclear Technologies

The accurate measurement of neutron capture cross sections of all Fe and Ni isotopes is important for disentangling the contribution of the s-process and the r-process to the stellar nucleosynthesis of elements in the mass range 60 < A < 120. At the same time, Fe and Ni are important components of structural materials and improved neutron cross section data is relevant in the design of new nuclear systems. With the aim of obtaining improved capture data on all stable iron and nickel isotopes, a program of measurements has been launched at the CERN Neutron Time of Flight Facility n_TOF

Neutron Capture Measurements on Minor Actinides at the n_TOF Facility at CERN : Past, Present and Future

The successful development of advanced nuclear systems for sustainable energy production and nuclear waste management depends on high quality nuclear data libraries. Recent sensitivity studies and reports [1-3] have identified the need for substantially improving the accuracy of neutron cross-section data for minor actinides. The n_TOF collaboration has initiated an ambitious experimental program for the measurement of neutron capture cross sections of minor actinides. Two experimental setups have been constructed for this purpose: a Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) [4] for measuring neutron capture cross-sections of low-mass and/or radioactive samples and a set of two low neutron sensitivity C(6)D(6) detectors for the less radioactive materials.Peer reviewe

Study of Photon Strength Function of Actinides : the Case of U-235, Np-238 and Pu-241

The decay from excited levels in medium and heavy nuclei can be described in a statistical approach by means of Photon Strength Functions and Level Density distributions. The study of electromagnetic cascades following neutron capture based on the use of high efficiency detectors has been shown to be well suited for probing the properties of the Photon Strength Function of heavy (high level density) and/or radioactive (high background) nuclei. In this work we have investigated for the first time the validity of the recommended PSF of actinides, in particular U-235, Np-238 and Pu-241. Our study includes the search for resonance structures in the PSF below S-n and draws conclusions regarding their existence and their characteristics in terms of energy, width and electromagnetic nature.Peer reviewe

Alignment of the CMS Muon System with Cosmic-Ray and Beam-Halo Muons

Abstract The CMS muon system has been aligned using cosmic-ray muons collected in 2008 and beam-halo muons from the 2008 LHC circulating beam tests. After alignment, the resolution of the most sensitive coordinate is 80 microns for the relative positions of superlayers in the same barrel chamber and 270 microns for the relative positions of endcap chambers in the same ring structure. The resolution on the position of the central barrel chambers relative to the tracker is comprised between two extreme estimates, 200 and 700 microns, provided by two complementary studies. With minor modifications, the alignment procedures can be applied using muons from LHC collisions, leading to additional significant improvements. * See Appendix A for the list of collaboration members arXiv:0911.4022v2 [physics.ins-det] 8 Feb 2010 FERMILAB-PUB-10-163-CMS Introduction The primary goal of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment [1] is to explore particle physics at the TeV energy scale exploiting the proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) The muon system consists of hundreds of independent tracking chambers mounted within the CMS magnetic field return yoke. Three technologies are employed: Drift Tube (DT) chambers on the five modular wheels of the barrel section, Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC) on the six endcap disks (illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2) and Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) throughout. The DTs and CSCs are sufficiently precise to contribute to the momentum resolution of highmomentum muons (several hundred GeV/c) assuming that these chambers are well-aligned relative to the CMS tracker, a one-meter radius silicon strip and pixel detector. Between the tracker and the muon system are electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters (ECAL and HCAL, respectively) for particle identification and energy measurement, as well as the solenoid coil for producing an operating magnetic field strength of 3.8 T in which to measure charged-particle momenta (all shown in The CMS collaboration is developing multiple techniques to align the DT and CSC chambers and their internal layers. Photogrammetry and in-situ measurement devices [3] provide realtime monitoring of potential chamber movements on short timescales and measurements of degrees of freedom to which tracks are only weakly sensitive. Track-based alignment, the subject of this paper, optimizes component positions for a given set of tracks, directly relating the active elements of the detectors traversed by the charged particles in a shared coordinate frame. Methods using tracks are employed both to align nearby components relative to one another and to align all muon chambers relative to the tracker. A challenge to track-based alignment in the CMS muon system is the presence of large quantities of material between the chambers. As a central design feature of the detector, 20-60 cm layers of steel are sandwiched between the chambers to concentrate the magnetic field and absorb beam-produced hadrons. Consequently, uncertainties in track trajectories become significant as muons propagate through the material, making it necessary to develop alignment procedures that are insensitive to scattering, even though typical deviations in the muon trajectories (3-8 mm) are large compared to the intrinsic spatial resolution (100-300 µm). Two types of approaches are presented in this paper: the relative alignment of nearby structures, which avoids extrapolation of tracks through material but does not relate distant coordinate frames to each other, and the alignment using tracks reconstructed in the tracker, which allows for a more sophisticated treatment of propagation effects by simplifying the interdependence of alignment parameters. This paper begins with a brief overview of the geometry of the muon system and conventions to be used thereafter (Section 2), followed by presentations of three alignment procedures: (a) internal alignment of layers within DT chambers using a combination of locally fitted track segments and survey measurements (Section 3); (b) alignment of groups of overlapping CSC chambers relative to one another, using only (c) alignment of each chamber relative to the tracker, using the tracks from the tracker, propagated to the muon system with a detailed map of the magnetic field and material distribution of CMS (Section 5). Procedure (c), above, completes the alignment, relating all local coordinate frames to a shared frame. Its performance is greatly improved by supplying internally aligned chambers from procedure (a), such that only rigid-body transformations of whole chambers need to be considered. Procedures (b) and (c) both align CSC chambers relative to one another, but in different ways: (b) does not need many tracks, only about 1000 per chamber, to achieve high precision, and (c) additionally links the chambers to the tracker. With the first LHC collisions, groups of CSCs will be interaligned using (b) and these rigidbody groups will be aligned relative to the tracker with (c). As more data become available, comparisons of results from (b) and (c) yield highly sensitive tests of systematic errors in (c). Although the ideal tracks for these procedures are muons from LHC collisions, this paper focuses on application of the procedures using currently available data, namely cosmic rays (a and c) and beam-halo muons from circulating LHC beam tests in September 2008 (b). In particular, (c) requires a magnetic field to select high-quality, high-momentum muons and concurrent operation of the tracker and muon systems. The CMS Collaboration conducted a monthlong data-taking exercise known as the Cosmic Run At Four Tesla (CRAFT) during OctoberNovember 2008, with the goal of commissioning the experiment for extended operation The formalism and results of each procedure are presented together. Details of the data transfer and the computing model which were used to implement these procedures are described in Ref. Geometry of the Muon System and Definitions Muon chambers are independent, modular track detectors, each containing 6-12 measurement layers, sufficient to determine the position and direction of a passing muon from the intersections of its trajectory with the layer planes (&quot;hits&quot;). The DT layers are oriented nearly perpendicular to lines radially projected from the beamline, and CSC layers are perpendicular to lines parallel with the beamline. Hits are initially expressed in a local coordinate frame (x, y, z) defined by the layers: z = 0 is the plane of the layer and x is the more precisely measured (or the only measured) of the two plane coordinates. On CSC layers, the most precise measurement is given by cathode strips, which fan radially from the beamline A semi-local coordinate system for the entire chamber is defined with x, y, and z axes nominally parallel to the layers&apos; axes, but with a single origin. Within this common frame, the positions of hits from different layers can be related to each other and combined by a linear fit into segments with position (x,ȳ) and direction ( dx dz , dy dz ). The nominal x direction of every chamber is perpendicular to the beamline and radial projections from the beamline