Design of a wavelength frame multiplication system using acceptance diagrams

The concept of Wavelength Frame Multiplication (WFM) was developed to extend the usable wavelength range on long pulse neutron sources for instruments using pulse shaping choppers. For some instruments, it is combined with a pulse shaping double chopper, which defines a constant wavelength resolution, and a set of frame overlap choppers that prevent spurious neutrons from reaching the detector thus avoiding systematic errors in the calculation of wavelength from time of flight. Due to its complexity, the design of such a system is challenging and there are several criteria that need to be accounted for. In this work, the design of the WFM chopper system for the potential future liquids reflectometer at the European Spallation Source (ESS) is presented, which makes use of acceptance diagrams. They prove to be a powerful tool for understanding the work principle of the system and recognizing potential problems. The authors assume that the presented study can be useful for design or upgrade of further instruments, in particular the ones planned for the ESS.Comment: Published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section

An improved elliptic guide concept for a homogeneous neutron beam without direct line of sight

Ballistic neutron guides are efficient for neutron transport over long distances, and in particular elliptically shaped guides have received much attention lately. However, elliptic neutron guides generally deliver an inhomogeneous divergence distribution when used with a small source, and do not allow kinks or curvature to avoid a direct view from source to sample. In this article, a kinked double-elliptic solution is found for neutron transport to a small sample from a small (virtual) source, as given e.g. for instruments using a pinhole beam extraction with a focusing feeder. A guide consisting of two elliptical parts connected by a linear kinked section is shown by VITESS simulations to deliver a high brilliance transfer as well as a homogeneous divergence distribution while avoiding direct line of sight to the source. It performs better than a recently proposed ellipse-parabola hybrid when used in a ballistic context with a kinked or curved central part. Another recently proposed solution, an analytically determined non-linear focusing guide shape, is applied here for the first time in a kinked and curved ballistic context. The latter is shown to yield comparable results for long wavelength neutrons as the guide design found here, with a larger inhomogeneity in the divergence but higher transmission of thermal neutrons. It needs however a larger (virtual) source and might be more difficult to build in a real instrument

Reconstruction of tau leptons and prospects for SUSY in ATLAS

Final states with tau leptons may play a special role among the broad variety of signatures for the production of supersymmetric particles at the LHC. The algorithms for tau reconstruction and identification are discussed, which are essential ingredients to reject the huge background from QCD processes. The status of analyses of SUSY tau lepton final states within the ATLAS experiment at the LHC are presented, which range from a study of semi-inclusive discovery prospects to more exclusive processes with two tau leptons from neutralino2 decays and their implications for the determination of SUSY parameters. Also, the prospects for exploiting tau lepton polarization are discussed

Generic guide concepts for the European Spallation Source

The construction of the European Spallation Source (ESS) faces many challenges from the neutron beam transport point of view: The spallation source is specified as being driven by a 5 MW beam of protons, each with 2 GeV energy, and yet the requirements in instrument background suppression relative to measured signal vary between 10$^{-6}$ and 10$^{-8}$. The energetic particles, particularly above 20 MeV, which are expected to be produced in abundance in the target, have to be filtered in order to make the beamlines safe, operational and provide good quality measurements with low background. We present generic neutron guides of short and medium length instruments which are optimized for good performance at minimal cost. Direct line of sight to the source is avoided twice, with either the first point out of line of sight or both being inside the bunker (20\,m) to minimize shielding costs. These guide geometries are regarded as a baseline to define standards for instruments to be constructed at ESS. They are used to find commonalities and develop principles and solutions for common problems. Lastly, we report the impact of employing the over-illumination concept to mitigate losses from random misalignment passively, and that over-illumination should be used sparingly in key locations to be effective. For more widespread alignment issues, a more direct, active approach is likely to be needed

Bi-spectral beam extraction in combination with a focusing feeder

Bi-spectral beam extraction combines neutrons from two different kind of moderators into one beamline, expanding the spectral range and thereby the utilization of an instrument. This idea can be realized by a mirror that reflects long wavelength neutrons from an off-axis colder moderator into a neutron guide aligned with another moderator emitting neutrons with shorter wavelengths which will be transmitted through the mirror. The mirror used in such systems is typically several meters long, which is a severe disadvantage because it reduces the possible length of a focusing device in design concepts requiring a narrow beam at a short distance from the source, as used in many instruments under development for the planned European Spallation Source (ESS). We propose a shortened extraction system consisting of several mirrors, and show that such an extraction system is better suited for combination with a feeder in an eye of the needle design, illustrated here in the context of a possible ESS imaging beamline.Comment: Published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section

The dependence of the gravity effect in elliptic neutron guides on the source size

Elliptic neutron guides are expected to be widely used for construction of long neutron beamlines at the future European Spallation Source and other facilities due to their superiour transmission properties compared to conventional straight guides. At the same time, neutrons traveling long distances are subject to the action of gravity that can significantly modify their flight paths. In this work, the influence of gravity on a neutron beam propagating through elliptic guides is studied for the first time in a systematic way with Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that gravity leads to significant distortions of the phase space during propagation through long elliptic guides, but this effect can be recovered by a sufficiently large source size. The results of this analysis should be taken into account during design of long neutron instruments at the ESS and other facilities

VITESS 3 Virtual Instrumentation Tool for the European Spallation Source

VITESS is a software widely used for simulation of neutron scattering experiments. Although originally motivated by instrument design for the European Spallation Source, all major neutron sources are available. Existing as well as future instruments on reactor or spallation sources can be designed and optimized, or simulated in a virtual experiment to prepare a measurement, including basic data evaluation. This note gives an overview of the VITESS software concept and usage. New developments are presented, including a 3D visualization of instruments and neutron trajectories, a numerical optimization routine and a parallelization tool allowing to split VITESS simulations on a computer cluste

Bi spectral extraction through elliptic neutron guides

In this paper we present the results of investigating a suggested guide extraction system utilizing both a thermal and a cold moderator at the same time, the so called bi spectral extraction. Here, the thermal moderator has line of sight to the sample position, and the neutrons from the cold source are reflected by a supermirror towards the sample. The work is motivated by the construction of the European Spallation Source ESS but the results are general and can be used at any neutron source. Due to the long pulse structure, most instruments at ESS will be long, often exceeding 50 m from moderator to detector. We therefore investigate the performance of bi spectral extraction for instrument lengths of 30 m, 56 m, 81 m and 156 m. In all these cases, our results show that we can utilize both moderators and thus high intensity in a wide wavelength band in the same instrument at a cost of flux of 5 30 for neutrons with wavelength larger than 1 . In general, the divergence distribution is smooth at the sample position for all wavelength