Track Reconstruction Progress from the DMTPC Directional Dark Matter Experiment

he Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber (DMTPC) collaboration is developing prototype detectors to measure both the energies and directions of nuclear recoils. The intended application is to exploit the expected directional anisotropy of dark matter velocities at Earth to unambiguously observe dark matter induced recoils. The detector consist of low-pressure CF[subscript 4] TPC's with CCD cameras, PMT's, and charge amplifiers for readout. This talk gives an overview of the experiment and describes recent advances in hardware and analysis

An analysis of the sensitivity of a low pressure time projection chamber to a directional anisotropy due to WIMP interactions

Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2015.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 59-60).The Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber (DMTPC) collaboration is a dark matter direct detection effort which develops TPCs to observe and reconstruct nuclear recoils generated by incident particles. If some of these recoils are the result of dark matter interactions, we can in theory observe an anisotropy in the direction of these recoils which is consistent with the galactic halo models of dark matter. Such an observation would serve as convincing evidence that these incident particles have an extrasolar origin. In this thesis I discuss the workings of a TPC known as the 4-shooter, the analysis used to identify nuclear recoil candidates, and the mathematics to quantify the anisotropy of a distribution. I then discuss the ways in which the pressure of the target gas in the TPC affects rejection power, and construct a framework to determine an optimal operating pressure for the 4-shooter and future DMTPC detectors.by Evan M. Zayas.S.B

Effectiveness of flipped classroom techniques in an advanced laboratory physics course

We report preliminary observations of changes in responses to student surveys over a five year period in an advanced laboratory course for third-year physics majors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This period spanned the introduction of curriculum reforms which included the use flipped classroom techniques - facilitated by the OpenEdX platform -- for those aspects of the course material which had previously been taught by direct instruction, such as data analysis techniques and basic laboratory instrumentation. Not all variables of the classroom environment were controlled during the study period, so flipped classroom techniques cannot be identified with full confidence as the cause of the measured changes. Survey data was collected using the E-CLASS and institutionally administered subject evaluations. Improvements were observed in some metrics of interest to the course's strategic goals -- notably in students' self-reported hours per week spent on coursework and in the overall rating of the course -- while negative or null results were observed in other metrics of interest

Locust: C++ software for simulation of RF detection

The Locust simulation package is a new C++ software tool developed to simulate the measurement oftime-varying electromagneticfields using RF detection techniques. Modularity andflexibility allowfor arbitrary input signals, while concurrently supporting tight integration with physics-basedsimulations as input. External signals driven by the Kassiopeia particle tracking package are discussed,demonstrating conditional feedback between Locust and Kassiopeia during software execution. Anapplication of the simulation to the Project 8 experiment is described. Locust is publicly available athttps://github.com/project8/locust_mc.United States. Department of Energy. Office of Science. Office of Nuclear Physics (Award DE-SC0011091)Pennsylvania State University. Early Career Award (Award DE-SC0019088)United States. Department of Energy (Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830)United States. Department of Energy (Award DE-FG02-97ER41020)United States. Department of Energy (Award DE-SC0012654)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award 1205100)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award 1505678)United States. Department of Energy. Laboratory Directed Research and Development (Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344

Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy signal classification with machine learning in project 8

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique pioneered by Project 8 measures electromagnetic radiation from individual electrons gyrating in a background magnetic field to construct a highly precise energy spectrum for beta decay studies and other applications. The detector, magnetic trap geometry and electron dynamics give rise to a multitude of complex electron signal structures which carry information about distinguishing physical traits. With machine learning models, we develop a scheme based on these traits to analyze and classify CRES signals. Proper understanding and use of these traits will be instrumental to improve cyclotron frequency reconstruction and boost the potential of Project 8 to achieve world-leading sensitivity on the tritium endpoint measurement in the future

Electron radiated power in cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy experiments

© 2019 American Physical Society. US. The recently developed technique of Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) uses frequency information from the cyclotron motion of an electron in a magnetic bottle to infer its kinetic energy. Here we derive the expected radio-frequency signal from an electron in a waveguide CRES apparatus from first principles. We demonstrate that the frequency-domain signal is rich in information about the electron's kinematic parameters and extract a set of measurables that in a suitably designed system are sufficient for disentangling the electron's kinetic energy from the rest of its kinematic features. This lays the groundwork for high-resolution energy measurements in future CRES experiments, such as the Project 8 neutrino mass measurement

Project 8 Phase III Design Concept

We present a working concept for Phase III of the Project 8 experiment, aiming to achieve a neutrino mass sensitivity of 2 eV (90 % C.L.) using a large volume of molecular tritium and a phased antenna array. The detection system is discussed in detail

Results from the Project 8 phase-1 cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy detector

The Project 8 collaboration seeks to measure the absolute neutrino mass scale by means of precision spectroscopy of the beta decay of tritium. Our technique, cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy, measures the frequency of the radiation emitted by electrons produced by decays in an ambient magnetic field. Because the cyclotron frequency is inversely proportional to the electron's Lorentz factor, this is also a measurement of the electron's energy. In order to demonstrate the viability of this technique, we have assembled and successfully operated a prototype system, which uses a rectangular waveguide to collect the cyclotron radiation from internal conversion electrons emitted from a gaseous 83mKr source. Here we present the main design aspects of the first phase prototype, which was operated during parts of 2014 and 2015. We will also discuss the procedures used to analyze these data, along with the features which have been observed and the performance achieved to date

Determining the neutrino mass with cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy—Project 8

The most sensitive direct method to establish the absolute neutrino mass is observation of the endpoint of the tritium beta-decay spectrum. Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) is a precision spectrographic technique that can probe much of the unexplored neutrino mass range with O(eV) resolution. A lower bound of m(νe) ≳ 9(0.1) meV is set by observations of neutrino oscillations, while the KATRIN experiment-the current-generation tritium beta-decay experiment that is based on magnetic adiabatic collimation with an electrostatic (MAC-E) filter-will achieve a sensitivity of m(νe) ≲ 0.2 eV. The CRES technique aims to avoid the difficulties in scaling up a MAC-E filter-based experiment to achieve a lower mass sensitivity. In this paper we review the current status of the CRES technique and describe Project 8, a phased absolute neutrino mass experiment that has the potential to reach sensitivities down to m(νe) ≲ 40 meV using an atomic tritium source.United States. Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0011091