Introductory Remarks

• Elliott McCrory (Fermilab)
• Sandra Charles (Fermilab)

Room: Curia II

CMS Upgrade for the High-Luminosity LHC: Outer Tracker Detectors

• Alex Walsh (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Lorenzo Uplegger.

Automation of Synchrotron Radiation Beam Monitor for IOTA the Ring

• Leonardo Rodriguez Gutierrez (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Alexandr Romanov A summary of the project to build a prototype model to approximate and study the behavior of the synchrotron radiation beam on the monitors, as well as studying different algorithms for automatizing the procedure of focusing these monitors.

Calculating Residual Dose in Mu2e Downstream Hall

• Ricardo Lopez Lemus (University of Michigan)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Vitaly Pronskikh. This project sets to meet two objectives. Firstly, use a newly developed code packed called FermiCORD to calculate the residual dose in the Mu2e DS hall. Due to the fact that running accelerator-based experiments can result in neutron activation of their surroundings, radiation can persist even after beam is off. Therefore, one of the main motivations of calculating the dose in Mu2e’s downstream hall is to know its severity for compliance with safety standards. In other words, we wish to know how long personnel can be in parts of the hall to limit the amount of radiation exposure they may receives during times like maintenance. The second objective of the project is to provide feedback for new users of the code after having been someone unfamiliar with it or its development. Despite the useful tools that the package offers, it has had little use outside of those who originally played a part in its development. This issue has been attributed to the difficulty of understanding aspects of the code when going in blind. Part of the project involves resolving this problem by creating more introductory material to assist users when using package for the first time.

Diagnostic Evaluation of NuMI Hadron Monitor Ion Chambers

• Bernadette Haig (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Katsuya Yonehara The Hadron Monitor in the NuMI beamline is a critical piece of equipment for tracking the center position of the beam during normal operation, as well as for monitoring the target’s deterioration in the long term. Over the past four years, since the current Monitor was installed, some pixels have been begun to perform poorly and the Monitor exhibits an overall loss of linearity. By analyzing data from the Hadron Monitor over that time, several potential sources of this loss have been identified. Additionally, an apparatus has been designed that will attempt to conclusively diagnose one of these sources - impurity of the He gas that floods the Hadron Monitor’s ion chambers.

Making Nb3Sn Film

• Robert Ridgway (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Sam Posen The research division's goal is to create and use Nb3Sn in SRF Cavities because of their more efficient superconducting properties. The goal of my project is to use COMSOL simulations to predict geometric locations of tin vapor as it arrives onto the inner surface of a niobium SRF Cavity. The simulations are devised to help further the design procedures that will help achieve the overall goal of uniform Nb3Sn formation.

Applying Deep Learning Algorithms to Alarm/Anomaly Detection for Grid Jobs

• Erik Torres (SIST)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Michael Kirby With a complex system of distributed computing, failures within the OSG infrastructure can be difficult to recognize and distinguish because of the rapidly changing dynamics of job scheduling and misbehaving infrastructure. The project dealt with utilizing Deep Learning algorithms from tensorflow and the monitoring data of the Fermilab GPGrid to develop an anomaly detection program to identify abnormal behaviors within the system.

The Search for Massive Primordial Black Holes in the Milky Way

• Marika McGhee (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Dr. Jim Annis, Center for Particle Astrophysics - FNAL Abstract: Massive Primordial Black Holes (MPBH) could constitute the majority of the dark matter, an idea revived by the LIGO observations of merging 30 solar mass black holes. In this model, the mass distribution of MPBH ranges from 0.01 to 100 solar masses, peaking perhaps at 50 solar masses. This project uses the Dark Energy Survey data to perform a microlensing measurement of massive compact objects at 10-100 solar masses. Microlensing occurs when MPBH passes in front of a background star, briefly brightening the output from that star. The key idea is that a microlensing event has a duration of roughly t = 2.5 years and thus masses in the range expected for MPBH are observable in the DES. In this project, we created mock light curve events for stars in the Dark Energy Survey (DES). First, we reduce our sample size by removing galaxies and over-saturated objects. We then utilized the initial magnitudes, the observation times, and the calculated errors in our code. By using these data, as well as varying unknown parameters of the MPBHs, we create approximately 50,000 light curves per sampled star. These mock light curves will support in determining the efficiency of the current fitting algorithm, as well as any future algorithms. Our project will directly support the creation of efficiency maps which will help determine the number of actual events to expect within the DES.

Search for Contact Interactions in Dileption Channels at the Compact Muon Solenoid

• Daniel Salazar-Gallegos (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Pushpa Bhat and Leonard Spiegel Presently, the Standard Model (SM) states that there exists three generations of quarks and leptons. Each generation is distinguished by the fermion rest mass where higher generations have higher masses. Under the SM, qq ̅→l^- l^+ follow the Drell-Yan (DY) process. If the process were to also follow a Contact Interaction (CI) model, it would be the first evidence for quark/lepton compositeness. This implies quarks and leptons are composed of yet more elementary particles, which are sometimes called preons. Using Monte Carlo simulation we can demonstrate the asymmetries between the DY and CI models. Specifically, the invariant mass spectra of dilepton events and the Collin-Soper angle distribution show significant variation between the two models. From there, the simulation is compared to data. In the absence of evidence for CI, higher limits can be set for the energy threshold for compositeness.

NUISANCE-GENIE Validation and Sample Additions

• Adrian Orea (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Minerba Betancourt This project involved working with two programs, NUISANCE and GENIE, to validate published plots and add in a sample for future analysis. The plots that were validated were those from the 2016 publication with the MINERvA detector and slides from the NuInt meeting. Afterwards, I added a new sample into NUISANCE so that further analysis can be done with it, for validation or tuning.

SRF Cavities - Strength of Nb3Sn

• Yvette Yvette Luna Guerra (University of Michigan)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Camille Ginsburg Testing the mechanical properties of Nb3Sn to ensure the viability to be used for the alternate material of the inner surface of the SRF cavities.

Monte Carlo Investigation of Muons in a Liquid-Argon TPC

• Kevin Ingles (University of South Alabama)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Alberto Marchionni and Tom Junck We want to compare the analytical models of energy loss with the numerical ones inside of GEANT4 as a cross check to ensure that the simulations are accurate.

Binary Neutron Star merger rate predictions from observations of dwarf galaxies

• Karen Perez Sarmiento (Macalester College)

Room: Curia II Supervisors: Alex Drlica-Wagner and Marcelle Soares-Santos. Binary Neutron Star (BNS) mergers are interesting events in the field of multi-messenger astronomy because they are promising sources of detectable gravitational wave signals and electromagnetic transients. Here I present a new method to determine the rate of BNS mergers based on observational evidence for one such event having occurred in the dwarf galaxy Reticulum II. We compare results with other methods reported in the literature and discuss the impact on expected rate of events to be detected by the ground-based gravitational wave observatory LIGO.

Mu2e Tracker Electronics

• Daniel Aguilera (Illinois Institute of Technology)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Vadim Rusu

Next Generation Tunable Microwave Cavities for the search of Dark Matter Axions using Nonlinear Dielectric Films

• Marlene Ortega (Brown University)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Daniel Bowring Experiments such as the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) utilize high-Q, tunable microwave cavities permeated by a strong magnetic field to stimulate the axion Primakoff interaction. The tunability of the cavity resonance frequency is crucial, allowing for efficient scanning of the large axion mass range. Future iterations of the ADMX microwave cavity experiment will require new methods to finely tune cavities. A promising method for achieving a sensitive frequency response is to coat the walls of the cylindrical cavity with a nonlinear dielectric material. The resonant frequency of the cavity depends on the inverse of the square root of the dielectric constant, while the dielectric constant depends on the temperature and voltage applied to the films. Thus, this tuning method would save space, introduce minimal noise and mitigate the thermal noise caused by the tuning rods. The purpose of this project is to characterize the behavior of a nonlinear dielectric material, Strontium Titanate SrTiO3, at low temperatures. Here I present the measured frequency response of several samples on a coplanar waveguide resonator and the analysis of the frequency spectra using simulations and an approximate analytic model of the resonator.

Development of Liquid Helium Flow Rate and Heat Transfer Models for LMQXFA Cold Masses

• Coleman Tolliver (SIST intern)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Roger Rabehl The LMQXFA cold masses are quadrupole, superconducting magnets that function at 1.9 K that are slated to be used as upgrades for the High Luminosity LHC. To reach operating temperature, chilled gas and eventually liquid helium flows through the magnets’ vents. If the cold mass is cooled too quickly, thermal contractions could damage internal components. The goal of this project was to create mathematical models for the flow rate and heat transfer in the magnets to 4.5 K, the temperature of liquid helium, using Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The models will help estimate the rate at which operators can safely cool the magnets.

Cold Mass Position Sensor Mu2e

• Josh Helsper (Northern Illinois University)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Thomas Strauss

GEM Talk: Analyzing Noise for the Muon Silicon Scanner

• Miguelangel Marchán (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Room: Curia II The development of a silicon muon tomography detector is a joint project between Fermilab and National Security Technologies, LLC. The goal of this detector is to detect nuclear materials better than technology in the past. Using silicon strip detectors and readout chips used by experiments at CERN we have been developing the detector. This summer we have been testing components of the detector and have been analyzing noise characteristics.

GEM Talk: Cryogenic Development for the South Pole Telescope

• Andrea Bryant (University of Chicago)

Room: Curia II Supervisor: Brad Benson The South Pole Telescope is a premier millimeter-wavelength observation instrument located at the South Pole. Its precision is based upon its large number of superconducting bolometers that must be cryogenically cooled. I will present my work on the cryocoolers used.

Analyzing Lock-In Amplifier Techniques Using Python

• Doneisha Steele (GEM)
• Doneisha Steele (University of Delaware)

Room: Curia II Lock- in amplifiers work by extracting a signal that has been exposed to a noisy environment. It is very powerful where the signal can be detected even if it is much smaller than the accompanying noise. This is done by multiplying the signal by a reference function and filtering the result through a low pass filter. The purpose of this project is to analyze two mathematical approaches for the implementation of a lock-in amplifier to aid in noise reduction

Private Feedback Session Room: Curia II Only SIST and GEM interns, plus SIST Committee, may attend