189 research outputs found
Mass hierarchy sensitivity of medium baseline reactor neutrino experiments with multiple detectors
We report the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) sensitivity of medium baseline
reactor neutrino experiments with multiple detectors. Sensitivity of
determining the MH can be significantly improved by adding a near detector and
combining both the near and far detectors. The size of the sensitivity
improvement is related to accuracy of the individual mass-splitting
measurements and requires strict control on the relative energy scale
uncertainty of the near and far detectors. We study the impact of both baseline
and target mass of the near detector on the combined sensitivity. A
figure-of-merit is defined to optimize the baseline and target mass of the near
detector and the optimal selections are 13~km and 4~kton
respectively for a far detector with the 20~kton target mass and 52.5~km
baseline. As typical examples of future medium baseline reactor neutrino
experiments, the optimal location and target mass of the near detector are
selected for JUNO and RENO-50. Finally, we discuss distinct effects of the
neutrino spectrum uncertainty for setups of a single detector and double
detectors, which indicate that the spectrum uncertainty can be well constrained
in the presence of the near detector.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
Equilibria in Second Price Auctions with Private Participation Costs
We study equilibria in second price auctions when bidders are independently and privately informed about both their values and participation costs and their joint distributions across bidders are not necessarily identical. We show that there always exists an equilibrium in this general setting with two dimensional types of ex ante heterogeneous bidders. We provide conditions under which the equilibrium is unique. Moreover, when the bidders are ex ante symmetric, we show that there is a unique symmetric equilibrium. We also identify sufficient conditions for existence of asymmetric equilibria
A New Optical Model for Photomultiplier Tubes
It is critical to construct an accurate optical model of photomultiplier
tubes (PMTs) in many applications to describe the angular and spectral
responses of the photon detection efficiency (PDE) of the PMTs in their working
media. In this study, we propose a new PMT optical model to describe both light
interactions with the PMT window and optical processes inside PMTs with
reasonable accuracy based on the optics theory and a GEANT4-based simulation
toolkit. The proposed model builds a relationship between the PDE and the
underlying processes that the PDE relies on. This model also provides a tool to
transform the PDE measured in one working medium (like air) to the PDE in other
media (like water, liquid scintillator, etc). Using two 20" MCP-PMTs and one
20" dynode PMT, we demonstrate a complete procedure to obtain the key
parameters used in the model from experimental data, such as the optical
properties of the antireflective coating and photocathode of the three PMTs.
The proposed model can effectively reproduce the angular responses of the
quantum efficiency of PMTs, even though an ideally uniform photocathode is
assumed in the model. Interestingly, the proposed model predicts a similar
level () of light yield excess observed in the experimental data
of many liquid scintillator-based neutrino detectors, compared with that
predicted at the stage of detector design. However, this excess has never been
explained, and the proposed PMT model provides a good explanation for it, which
highlights the imperfections of PMT models used in their detector simulations
Detector optimization to reduce the cosmogenic neutron backgrounds in the TAO experiment
Short-baseline reactor antineutrino experiments with shallow overburden
usually have large cosmogenic neutron backgrounds. The Taishan Antineutrino
Observatory (TAO) is a ton-level liquid scintillator detector located at about
30 m from a core of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. It will measure the
reactor antineutrino spectrum with high precision and high energy resolution to
provide a reference spectrum for JUNO and other reactor antineutrino
experiments, and provide a benchmark measurement to test nuclear databases.
Background is one of the critical concerns of TAO since the overburden is just
10 meter-water-equivalent. The cosmogenic neutron background was estimated to
be ~10% of signals. With detailed Monte Carlo simulations, we propose several
measures in this work to reduce the neutron backgrounds, including doping
Gadolinium in the buffer liquid, adding a polyethylene layer above the bottom
lead shield, and optimization of the veto strategy. With these improvements,
the neutron background-to-signal ratio can be reduced to ~2%, and might be
further suppressed with pulse shape discrimination.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Development of silicon interposer: towards an ultralow radioactivity background photodetector system
It is of great importance to develop a photodetector system with an ultralow
radioactivity background in rare event searches. Silicon photomultipliers
(SiPMs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are two ideal
candidates for low background photosensors and readout electronics,
respectively, because they are mainly composed of silicon, which can achieve
good radio-purity without considerable extra effort. However, interposers, used
to provide mechanical support and signal routes between the photosensor and the
electronics, are a bottleneck in building ultralow background photodetectors.
Silicon and quartz are two candidates to construct the low background
interposer because of their good radio-purity; nevertheless, it is non-trivial
to produce through silicon vias (TSV) or through quartz vias (TQV) on the large
area silicon or quartz wafer. In this work, based on double-sided TSV
interconnect technology, we developed the first prototype of a silicon
interposer with a size of 10~cm10~cm and a thickness of 320~m. The
electrical properties of the interposer are carefully evaluated at room
temperature, and its performance is also examined at -110~C with an
integrated SiPM on the interposer. The testing results reveal quite promising
performance of the prototype, and the single photoelectron signals can be
clearly observed from the SiPM. The features of the observed signals are
comparable with those from the SiPM mounted on a normal FR4-based PCB. Based on
the success of the silicon interposer prototype, we started the follow-up
studies that aimed to further improve the performance and yield of the silicon
interposer, and eventually to provide a solution for building an ultralow
background photodetector system
Resonant gas sensing in the terahertz spectral range using two-wire phase-shifted waveguide Bragg gratings
ABSTRACT: The development of low-cost sensing devices with high compactness, flexibility, and robustness is of significance for practical applications of optical gas sensing. In this work, we propose a waveguide-based resonant gas sensor operating in the terahertz frequency band. It features micro-encapsulated two-wire plasmonic waveguides and a phase-shifted waveguide Bragg grating (WBG). The modular semi-sealed structure ensures the controllable and efficient interaction between terahertz radiation and gaseous analytes of small quantities. WBG built by superimposing periodical features on one wire shows high reflection and a low transmission coefficient within the grating stopband. Phase-shifted grating is developed by inserting a Fabry–Perot cavity in the form of a straight waveguide section inside the uniform gratings. Its spectral response is optimized for sensing by tailoring the cavity length and the number of grating periods. Gas sensor operating around 140 GHz, featuring a sensitivity of 144 GHz/RIU to the variation in the gas refractive index, with resolution of 7 X 10 -5 RIU, is developed. In proof-of-concept experiments, gas sensing was demonstrated by monitoring the real-time spectral response of the phase-shifted grating to glycerol vapor flowing through its sealed cavity. We believe that the phase-shifted grating-based terahertz resonant gas sensor can open new opportunities in the monitoring of gaseous analytes
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