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# New Perspectives 2020 (2.0)

US/Central
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Description

New Perspectives is a conference for, and by, young researchers in the Fermilab community. It provides a forum for graduate students, postdocs, visiting researchers, and all other young persons that contribute to the scientific program at Fermilab to present their work to an audience of peers.

New Perspectives has a rich history of providing the Fermilab community with a venue for young researchers to present their work. Oftentimes, the content of these talks wouldn’t appear at typical HEP conferences, because of its work-in-progress status or because its part of work that will not be published. However, it is exactly this type of work, frequently performed by the youngest members of our community, that forms the backbone of the research program at Fermilab. The New Perspectives Organizing Committee is deeply committed to presenting to the community a program that accurately reflects the breadth and depth of research being done by young researchers at Fermilab.

New Perspectives is organized by the Fermilab Student and Postdoc Association and serves as a preamble to the Fermilab Users Annual Meeting.

Registration
Registration Form
• Monday, August 24
• 1
Conference Opening
• Monday Morning 1
• 2
A multidisciplinary endeavor in experimentation in DAMIC

Experimental efforts of the last decades have been unsuccessful in detecting WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) in the 10-to-104 GeV/𝑐2 range, thus motivating the search for lighter Dark Matter (DM). DAMIC (DArk Matter in CCDs) experiment aims for direct detection of light DM particles (𝑚𝜒<10 GeV/𝑐2) by means of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs). Scientific fully-depleted CCDs consisting of high resistivity silicon (∼10 kΩ⋅cm) and about ten times more massive than conventional ones are used to such end. The low electronic readout noise (∼2 eV) and operation at cryogenic temperatures allow for detection thresholds of few eV. Focusing on nuclear recoil and electronic scattering as potential detection processes, DAMIC has so far set competitive constraints on the detection of low mass WIMPs (1 to 10 GeV/𝑐2), hidden-sector particles (1 to 102 MeV/𝑐2) and eV-scale hidden photons.
As a doctoral researcher, being part of the DAMIC collaboration means witnessing and taking part in all phases of experimentation. CCDs deployment out of their long-established scientific field, i.e., astronomical imaging, is a challenging, yet rewarding endeavor. The involvement of traditionally separate subjects such as background physics and cosmology adds complexity, yet brings richness to the task. The usage of analysis tools of proven effectiveness in quantitative science – from Monte Carlo methods to Bayesian inference – requires careful intellectual engagement. These are among the reasons why I get inspired daily in DAMIC.
This work presents an overview of the DAMIC experiment, describing its key aspects. The scientific results of the collaboration are also subject of discussion.

Speaker: Michelangelo Traina (LPNHE, Paris)
• 3
SuperCDMS IMPACT: Measuring the sub-keV Ionization Yield in Cryogenic Solid-State Detectors

The SuperCDMS collaboration uses cryogenic silicon and germanium detectors to directly search for dark matter. Nonbaryonic dark matter in the mass range of 1-10 GeV/c2 that interacts primarily through nuclear recoils will deposit less than a keV of energy in detectors. These energy depositions will produce phonons and electron-hole pairs. The electron-hole pairs are accelerated across the crystal by an applied voltage, producing more phonons and thus amplifying the signal via the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke (NTL) effect. The number of electron-hole pairs produced per unit energy, called the ionization yield, is a central quantity for reconstructing the recoil energy and for properly modeling the dark matter signal. However, it has not been well-characterized for sub-keV nuclear recoils. IMPACT (Ionization Measurement with Phonons At Cryogenic Temperatures) is a neutron scattering measurement that aims to measure the ionization yield in cryogenic solid-state detectors. This talk will describe the first data taking campaign at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) and the ongoing analysis of that data.

Speaker: Tyler Reynolds (University of Florida)
• 4
Search for fractionally-charged particles with CDMSlite

The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment aims to directly detect the elusive Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) by measuring ionization and phonons produced by WIMP-nucleon scattering. During its operation at the Soudan Underground Laboratory, germanium detectors were operated with a 70 Volt bias, a mode known as CDMS low ionization threshold experiment (CDMSlite), to search for low-mass WIMPs. The low energy threshold (∼ 56 eVee) achieved by CDMSlite provides sensitivity to fractionally-charged particles (FCPs). This talk will discuss an analysis of the CDMSlite data in searching for FCPs with charge as small as e/108, over a range of particle masses and velocities, and will present an exclusion limit on intensities of the particles.

Speaker: Mr Samir Banik (National Institute of Science Education and Research, HBNI, Jatani - 752050, India)
• 5
Search for millicharged particles at the LHC with the milliQan prototype

In this talk, I will present the results of a recent search for milli-charged particles using a data sample of proton-proton collisions provided by the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2018. This search was carried out with a prototype scintillator-based detector, which allows the first sensitivity to particles with charges ≤0.1e at a hadron collider. The existence of new particles with masses between 20 and 4700 MeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for charges between 0.006e and 0.3e, depending on their mass. New sensitivity is achieved for masses larger than 700 MeV. I will discuss the concept of the experiment, the results of the search, and the plan for the full milliQan detector given the successful operation of the prototype

Speaker: Luca Lavezzo (The Ohio State University)
• 10:00 AM
Monday Morning Break
• Monday Morning 2
Convener: Noemi Rocco (Argonne National Laboratory - Fermilab)
• 6
Energy reconstruction technique for very high energy muons with DUNE far detector.

DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) is a proposed long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment located in the United States. The main physics objectives of DUNE are to characterize neutrino oscillations, search for nucleon decay, and observe supernova neutrino bursts. The DUNE far detector will be located 4850' underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. It will house the world's largest liquid-argon time projection chamber. The DUNE Far Detector can be used to detect high-energy muons that arise from interactions of cosmogenic neutrinos and search for neutrinos originating in the decays of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Selecting upward-going muons reduces the background from cosmic-ray muons. The muon energy is estimated from the electromagnetic showers accompanying the muon, a technique that allows energy reconstruction up to 50 TeV.

Speaker: Jaydip Singh
• 7
Impact of Cross-Sectional Uncertainties on DUNE Sensitivity due to Nuclear Effects

In neutrino oscillation experiments precise measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters is of prime importance as well as a challenge. To improve the statistics, presently running and proposed experiments are using heavy nuclear targets. These targets introduce nuclear effects and the quantification of these effects on neutrino oscillation parameters will be decisive in the prediction of neutrino oscillation physics. Limited understanding of neutrino nucleus interactions and inaccurate reconstruction of neutrino energy causes uncertainty in the cross section. The error in the determination of cross section which contributes to systematic error introduces error in the neutrino mixing parameters that are determined by these experiments. In this work we focus on the variation in the predictions of DUNE potential, arising due to systematic uncertainties, using two different event generators-GENIE and GiBUU. These generators have different and independent cross-section models. To check the DUNE potential with the two generators we have checked the sensitivity studies of DUNE for CP violation, mass hierarchy and octant degeneracy.

Speaker: SRISHTI NAGU (UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW)
• 8
Simple Charge and Flash Matching to better constrain cosmic background in SBN’s near and far detectors.

The SBN program is made up of three liquid argon time projection chambers detectors on the Booster Neutrino Beam line at Fermilab. It will probe neutrino oscillations at the ∼1𝑒𝑉2 scale, addressing tensions pointing to the possible existence of sterile neutrinos. SBND and ICARUS are the near and far detectors at 110 m and 600 m from the source, with a mass of 112 tons and 476 tons; respectively. Being at the surface means that one of the main background sources are cosmic rays. This talk presents a straightforward method common to both detectors to match the reconstructed charge with light read-out information in order to decrease the cosmogenic background and to better identify neutrino induced interactions.

Speaker: Iker de Icaza Astiz (University of Sussex)
• 9
Event Reconstruction Improvements with Machine Learning in SBND

The Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is the closest of three surface level Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LAr TPCs) in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) programme at Fermilab. Situated 110m into the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB), SBND has a rich cross-section programme alongside its role in the SBN sterile neutrino search. SBND uses Pandora multi-algorithm pattern recognition to reconstruct 3D particles, complete with a particle flow hierarchy. This talk will describe recent efforts to incorporate machine learning techniques into the Pandora reconstruction workflow in SBND to improve the neutrino vertex reconstruction, track/shower identification and cosmic rejection. The results presented show significant improvements in each of these areas.

Speaker: Edward Tyley
• 10
Results from the ICARUS T600 Detector concerning the “Online Method” of Purity Monitoring

The ICARUS T600 liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) will soon begin taking data on Fermilab’s Booster Neutrino Beamline (BNB). In preparation for its operations, we present an analysis of “online” data quality monitoring of the liquid argon purity. We evaluated the performance of the algorithm on simulated cosmic ray muon interactions in the ICARUS detector. Comparing the measured and simulated electron lifetimes, we found that the lifetime can be measured accurately across a variety of possible purity conditions. To further study the robustness of the algorithm, we also evaluated its performance under varying detector conditions: with different levels of noise from the TPC electronics and with different levels of the “space charge effect”. We found that while both affect the lifetime measurement, the noise effects dominate the deviation from the measured lifetimes. We also found that with some modifications to the algorithm, the effects of noise can be somewhat mitigated.

Speaker: Olivia Bitter (Fermilab/UIC)
• 11:45 AM
Monday Morning Break 2
• Industry Panel
• 1:15 PM
Monday Midday Break
• Monday Afternoon 1
Convener: Jaroslaw Nowak
• 11
Parameterization and applications of the low momentum transfer nucleon vector form factors

We present the proton and neutron vector form factors in a convenient parametric form that is model independent and optimized for momentum transfers ≤ a few GeV2. The form factors are determined from a global fit to electron scattering data and precise charge radii measurements. We apply a new treatment of radiative corrections. We consider two classes of illustrative examples: first, neutrino-nucleon scattering cross sections at GeV energies for neutrino oscillation experiments; second, nucleon structure corrections for atomic spectroscopy. We evaluate the neutrino–nucleon scattering cross sections at GeV energies of neutrino oscillation experiments. The neutrino–nucleon charged current quasielastic cross section differs by 3–5% compared to commonly-used form factor models when the vector form factors are constrained by recent high-statistics electron-proton scattering data from the A1 collaboration. We present an influence of this data on the magnetic and Zemach radii of the proton and neutron.

Speaker: Kaushik Borah (University of Kentucky)
• 12
Radiative corrections to neutrino-nucleon scattering in effective field theory

Neutrino-nucleon charged-current quasielastic scattering is one of the main ingredients for neutrino-nucleus interaction models. Precise knowledge of this process is crucial for the successful measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters at accelerator-based facilities. Exploiting effective field theory, we factorize neutrino-nucleon quasielastic cross sections into soft, collinear, and hard functions. We evaluate soft and collinear functions from QED and provide a model for hard contributions. Performing resummation, we properly account for large logarithms and provide QED radiative corrections at order 𝛼 quantifying the resulting error. We discuss the relevance of radiative corrections depending on conditions of modern and future accelerator-based neutrino experiments.

Speaker: Oleksandr Tomalak (University of Kentucky)
• 13
Efficient Neutrino Oscillation Parameter Inference with Gaussian Process

The unified approach of Feldman and Cousins allows for estimating confidence intervals for datasets with small statistics that commonly arise in high energy physics. It has gained widespread use, for instance, in measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters in long-baseline experiments. However, the approach is computationally intensive as it is typically done in a grid-based fashion over the entire parameter space. In this talk, I will discuss a more efficient algorithm for the Feldman-Cousins approach using Gaussian processes to construct confidence intervals iteratively. I'll show that in the neutrino oscillation context, one can obtain confidence intervals fives times faster in one dimension and ten times faster in two dimensions, while maintaining an accuracy above 99.5%.

Speakers: Yiwen Xiao, Yiwen Xiao
• 14
Leptonic Unitarity: Current and Future

Significant progress has been made over the last several decades in understanding the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations, where flavor change is a consequence of neutrinos having mass and a nontrivial mixing between their mass and flavor eigenstates. Experimental data on neutrino oscillations have been collected in a number of regimes, including atmospheric, solar, reactor, and beam neutrinos. With this, and future data, we can begin to perform precision tests on the leptonic mixing matrix, including testing whether the standard framework, depending on three mixing angles and a CP-violating phase, describes the data well. In this talk, I will discuss our current understanding of the mixing matrix, as well as projections to the future including the upcoming DUNE and JUNO experiments. I will demonstrate how consistent this three-neutrino framework is in describing the data, how well we can understand if CP is violated in the lepton sector, and how well we can determine if the mixing matrix is unitary.

Speaker: Kevin Kelly
• 3:15 PM
Monday Afternoon Break
• Monday Afternoon 2
Convener: Robert Bernstein (Fermilab)
• 15
Comparing Acoustic Signals in the Buildup to a Magnet Quench with the Minimum Quench Energy

In superconducting magnets, the irreversible transition of a portion of the coils to the resistive state is called a "quench." Due to the large stored energy, quenches can lead to damage of magnet components due to localized heating, high voltage, or large mechanical forces. Unfortunately, current quench protection systems can only detect the quench after it happens, giving magnet operators very short response time (usually a few milliseconds). In this study, we examine the relationship between the energy of acoustic events in the magnet during training and the minimum quench energy (MQE), an analytical formula for the minimum possible energy needed to sustain a magnet quench. Magnet quenches and the buildups to them are still poorly understood, so this study may lead to an improved qualitative understanding of this phenomenon. This study may also be able to enhance existing efforts to attempt to use machine learning to predict quenches seconds before they happen.

Speaker: Sujay Kazi
• 16
NuMI Beam Monitoring Simulation and Data Analysis

We report on the current status of the NuMI beamline monitoring simulation and data analysis efforts.

Speaker: Yiding Yu
• 17
Mu2e Event Reconstruction

The Mu2e Experiment reconstructs particle events with helical trajectories in the detector region using raw measurements primarily from the straw tracker and crystal calorimeter. In Mu2e, there are currently two algorithms that are used for reconstruction: one which seeds helix searches using calorimeter data and one which only uses tracker data to search for helices. Both algorithms perform well in reconstructing signal events, and applying both algorithms improves detection efficiency. In reconstructing background events, the outputs from the two algorithms do not always agree; this talk will discuss improving these algorithms to increase understanding of cosmic ray backgrounds.

Speaker: Mackenzie Devilbiss (University of Michigan)
• 18
The muon $g$-2 and $\Delta \alpha$ connection

The discrepancy between the Standard Model prediction and experimental measurement of the muon magnetic moment anomaly, $\alpha_\mu=(𝑔_\mu−2)/2$, is connected to precision electroweak (EW) measurements via their common dependence on hadronic vacuum polarization effects. The same data for the total $e^+e^-\rightarrow$ hadrons cross section, $\sigma_had(𝑠)$, are used as input into dispersion relations to estimate the leading hadronic vacuum polarization contribution $\alpha^{\text{had,LO VP}}_\mu$, as well as the five-flavor hadronic contribution to the running QED coupling at the 𝑍-pole, $\Delta\alpha^{(5)}_{\text{had}}(M^2_Z)$, which enters natural relations and global EW fits. The EW fit prediction of $\Delta\alpha^{(5)}_{had}(M^2_Z)$=0.02722(41) agrees well with $\Delta\alpha^{(5)}_{had}(M^2_Z)$=0.02761(11) from the dispersion relation approach, but is suggestive of a larger discrepancy $\Delta \alpha_\mu = \alpha^{exp}_\mu-\alpha^{SM}_\mu$ than currently expected. Postulating that the $\Delta\alpha_\mu$ difference may be due to unforeseen missing $\sigma_{\text{had}}(s)$ contributions, implications for $M_W$, $\sin^2\theta^{\text{lep}}_{\text{eff}}$ and $MH$ obtained from global EW fits are investigated. Shifts in $\sigma_{\text{had}}(s)$ needed to bridge $\Delta\alpha_\mu$ are found to be excluded above $\sqrt{s}\sim$ 0.7 GeV at 95\%CL. Moreover, prospects for $\Delta\alpha_\mu$ originating below that energy are deemed improbable given the required increases in the hadronic cross section. Such hypothetical changes to the hadronic data are also found to adversely affect other related observables, such as the electron anomaly ($\alpha_e$), the rescaled ratio $R_{e/\mu}=(m_\mu/m_e)^2(\alpha^{\text{had, LOVP}}_e/\alpha^{\text{had, LOVP}}_\mu)$, and the running of the weak mixing angle at low energies.

Speaker: Dr Alexander Keshavarzi (University of Manchester)
• Tuesday, August 25
• Tuesday Morning 1
• 19
Creating Unique Parton Shower Histories with Sector Showers

In conventional parton showers, including dipole/antenna ones, a given (Born+𝑚)-parton configuration can typically be reached via (𝑚!) different shower histories. In the context of matrix-element-correction and merging procedures, accounting for these histories mandates fairly complex and resource-intensive algorithms.
A so far little explored alternative in the shower context is to divide the branching phase spaces into distinct "sectors", each of which only receives contributions from a single branching kernel. This effectively makes the shower operator bijective, i.e., each parton configuration now has a single unique “history". Sector showers can therefore be regarded as offering the ultimate potential to alleviate the bottlenecks of conventional techniques to match or merge shower predictions and multi-leg matrix elements.
I will here present the sector formalism for antenna showers, including initial- and final-state radiation with mass and helicity dependence, and give an outlook on dedicated matching and merging schemes utilising its bijective nature.

Speaker: Christian Tobias Preuss (Monash University)
• 20
Fully-hadronic search for standard model production of four top quarks in Run II proton-proton collision events

Standard model four top quark production is a rare process with great potential to reveal new physics. Measurement of the cross section is not only a direct probe of the top quark Yukawa coupling with the Higgs, but an enhancement of this cross section is predicted by several beyond the standard model (BSM) theories. This process is studied in fully-hadronic proton-proton collision events collected during CERN LHC Run II by the CMS detector, which corresponded to an integrated luminosity of 137fb−1 and a center of mass energy of 13TeV. In order to optimize signal sensitivity with respect to QCD and hadronic ttbar backgrounds, machine-learning based tools are applied in a multi-step approach. BDT and DNN based hadronic top taggers are used to identify boosted and resolved hadronic top quark candidates in order to suppress backgrounds and categorize events by the multiplicity of reconstructed top tags, and an event-level kinematic BDT distribution is subsequently used to extract the signal. Data-driven methods are used to estimate the background. In combination with other four top channels the expected significance of this analysis is estimated to reach at least 3 standard deviations, corresponding to the “observation” of standard model four top production. These results can further be used to constrain the top quark Yukawa coupling as well as BSM (Beyond the Standard Model) parameters. A result is anticipated by the end of this year.

Speaker: Melissa Quinnan (CERN, UCSB)
• 21
The CMS Outer Tracker Upgrade for the HL-LHC

The LHC is planning an upgrade program which will smoothly bring the luminosity up to 5 * 10^34 cm^-2 s^-1, to possibly reach an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb^-1 at the end of the next decade. This scenario, called the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), will require an upgrade to the LHC detectors known as Phase-2 upgrade. The current CMS Outer Tracker will be replaced by a completely new device, in order to fully exploit the highly demanding operating conditions and the delivered luminosity. The new Tracker will also have trigger capabilities. To achieve these goals, R&D activities are ongoing to develop solutions that would make this possible. In this presentation, some design choices for the CMS Outer Tracker upgrade are discussed along with some highlights of the assembly and testing developments.

Speaker: Maxwell Herrmann
• 9:30 AM
Tuesday Morning Break 1
• Tuesday Morning 2
• 22
Monte Carlo Integration on GPUs – The gVEGAS Algorithm

The HL-LHC upgrade will require use of new computing resources such as HPCs in their production workflows. Many of the planned HPCs will include significant computing power in the form of accelerators, in particular of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). To take advantage of these new computing resources ATLAS software and workflows must be adapted to use GPUs. One part of the ATLAS workflow that is well-suited for use on HPCs is Monte-Carlo (MC) generation. It requires little input but can be compute intensive, especially for complex physics processes involving many particles. This study is an effort to explore and revive a CUDA based GPU version of MadGraph, a MC integration and event generation package, that was last developed in 2013. A widely used MC integration program, VEGAS is parallelized for running on a GPU. The CUDA architecture is used for harnessing the power and the capability of the GPU to execute the algorithm in parallel. The performance of the CUDA version will be compared to the standard serial implementation which runs on a CPU. The study of the CUDA implementation of VEGAS will yield valuable insight that will facilitate the rewriting of VEGAS to more portable frameworks such as SYCL or Kokkos.

Speaker: Smita Darmora (Argonne National Laboratory)
• 23
Systematic Study of Spectrometer-Induced Azimuthal Asymmetries for SpinQuest

SpinQuest is a transversely polarized Drell-Yan experiment at Fermilab that will measure the Sivers asymmetry for the light antiquarks in the nucleon, using polarized NH3 and ND3 targets and the SeaQuest (E906) spectrometer. Measuring a non-zero Sivers asymmetry would provide strong evidence for non-zero sea-quark orbital angular momentum. Due to the time-dependence of the spectrometer efficiency, and the fluctuations of the beam luminosity, a false azimuthal asymmetry can be introduced that could masquerade as a Sivers asymmetry. In this study, a systematic study of false azimuthal asymmetries using SeaQuest data is presented. This work is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Medium Energy Nuclear Physics Program.

• 24
SpinQuest/E1039 FPGA Trigger

The SpinQuest(E1039) experiment is designed to extract the u-bar and d-bar Sivers functions through azimuthal asymmetry measurements of Drell-Yan induced dimuon pairs from 120 GeV/c proton beam interaction with polarized nucleon targets. A large combinatorial muon background produced in the beam dump magnet requires a trigger which identify dimuon pairs produced from the target in a high rate environment. The trigger system consists of four stations of scintillator hodoscopes whose 96 channels are digitized and processed by field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based VMEbus modules. Hodoscope hit patterns are compared to predetermined sets, chosen from Monte Carlo simulations, in a tiered lookup table to generate trigger decisions. The design and current status of the FPGA trigger as well as ongoing and planned upgrades to the trigger logic study will be presented.

Speaker: Minjung Kim
• 25
GenFit2 for SpinQuest Tracking

SpinQuest at Fermilab is a fixed-target Drell-Yan experiment that will measure the light sea quark (u¯ and d¯) Sivers functions. The experiment will use an unpolarized 120 GeV proton beam from the Fermilab Main Injector and a transversely polarized NH3 or ND3 target; the muons from the Drell-Yan process will be observed in the SeaQuest (E906) spectrometer. This Drell-Yan measurement of the Sivers function will be free from the complications of fragmentation functions and final-state interactions that are necessary for the analysis of semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering data. A non-zero value of the light sea quark Sivers functions will provide evidence of non-zero angular momentum of sea quarks, which would be an important step toward untangling the spin structure in the nucleon.

The SpinQuest experiment uses GenFit2 software, an experiment-independent, track-fitting toolkit that uses C++ libraries and the ROOT data analysis framework. GenFit2 combines the hit geometries, track representation, and fitting algorithms into a modular framework. We present the performance of track-fitting algorithms provided by GenFit2 (viz. Kalman fitter, Kalman fitter with a reference track, Deterministic annealing fitter, and Deterministic annealing fitter with reference track) in the SpinQuest analysis environment. This work is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Medium Energy Nuclear Physics Program.

Speaker: Abinash Pun (New Mexico State University)
• 26
The Polarized-Target System for the SpinQuest Experiment at Fermilab

The SpinQuest experiment at Fermilab aims to measure the Sivers asymmetry for the u¯ and d¯ sea quarks in the range of 0.1 <xB< 0.5 using the Drell-Yan production of dimuon pairs. A nonzero Sivers asymmetry would provide an evidence for nonzero orbital angular momentum of the sea quarks. The proposed beam intensity is 1.5~×~1012 of 120 GeV unpolarized proton/sec. The experiment utilizes a target system consisting of a 5T superconducting magnet, transversely polarized NH3 and ND3 targets, a 4He evaporation refrigerator, a 140 GHz microwave source and a large pumping system. The expected average target polarization is 80% for the protons and 32% for the deuterons. The polarization will be measured with three NMR coils per target cell. A quench analysis and simulation in the superconducting magnet are performed to determine the maximum intensity of the proton beam before the magnet become resistive. The simulation of quenches in the superconducting magnets is a multiphysics problem of high complexity. The heat transfer from metal to helium goes through different transfer and boiling regimes as a function of temperature, heat flux, and transferred energy. All material properties are temperature dependent. A GEANT based simulation is used to calculate the heat deposited in the magnet and the subsequent cooling processes are modeled using the COMSOL Multiphysics.

Speaker: Zulkaida Akbar (University of Virginia)
• 27
Dilution factor calculation and its contribution to SpinQuest systematic error

The spin of the nucleon is well established but the contribution to this intrinsic
value from its constituent partons is still under intense investigation. As part of
a global effort to map out these individual contributions, the SpinQuest experiment at Fermilab aims to add significantly to the level of information available
on sea-quarks by measuring their Sivers function. To separate the contributions
of ̄u and ̄d quarks to the Sivers asymmetry, the experiment uses both NH3 and
ND3 polarized targets, interacting with an incoming unpolarized 120 GeV/c
proton beam. The dimuons from the Drell-Yan process are detected to analyze
the azimuthal asymmetry. The incoming proton beam will also interact with
other materials that are present in the experimental beam path, such as the
target cell walls, the aluminum insert ladder, the microwave horn, liquid helium
and nitrogen in the ammonia target. The figure of merit in our extracted Sivers
function is directly dependent on both the magnitude of polarization and the
interaction rate from these various unwanted materials resulting in a dilution
factor. With the use of MCFM (Monte Carlo simulation at femtobarn), a par-
ton distribution based cross-section generator we can analyze the contributions
from unmeasured cross-sections from these various materials to find the degree
of dilution and the corresponding kinematic sensitivity. This contribution to
the experimental systematic error and its management is reviewed in this presentation.

Speaker: Anchit Arora
• 11:45 AM
Tuesday Morning Break 2
• Career Seminar
• 1:15 PM
Tuesday Afternoon Break
• Tuesday Afternoon
Convener: Kendall Mahn (Michigan State University)
• 28
Gluon Digitization for Quantum Computers

The efficient digitization required for the quantum simulations of QCD can be obtained by approximating continuous SU(3) gluon fields by discrete subgroups. In this talk, we discuss on-going efforts to develop this program of digitization: deriving improved discrete group lattice actions, classical simulations for quantifying systematic errors, and implementable circuits for digital quantum computers.

Speaker: Dr Henry Lamm (Fermilab)
• 29
Constraining the Neutral Current Pi0 Background for MicroBooNE's Single-Photon Search

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs) are an important technology in the field of experimental neutrino physics due to their exceptional calorimetric and position resolution capabilities. In particular, their ability to distinguish electrons from photons is crucial for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. The MicroBooNE experiment is utilizing LArTPC technology to investigate the MiniBooNE low-energy excess, which could be either electron-like or photon-like in nature. On the photon-like side, MicroBooNE is searching for single-photon events, the most common of which result from neutral current (NC) Δ radiative decays. However, this search is complicated by the significantly more common neutrino-induced NC resonant 𝜋0 production process. This talk presents the method for constraining this NC 𝜋0 background for the single photon analysis by selecting two-photon events which are characteristic of the NC 𝜋0 topology. The selected sample is then used to constrain the systematic uncertainty on the NC Δ radiative decay measurement.

Speaker: Andrew Mogan (University of Tennessee - Knoxville)
• 30
Systematic Studies for a Photon-like Low Energy Excess Search at MicroBooNE

The MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab was built to primarily investigate the “low energy excess” (LEE) of electron neutrino and antineutrino charged current quasi-elastic events observed in the MiniBooNE experiment. One of the possible interpretations of the MiniBooNE LEE is that it is comprised of neutrino-induced single-photon events. MicroBooNE is testing this hypothesis via a study of neutral current resonant delta production with subsequent radiative decay. This talk will cover the related studies to fully understand the systematic uncertainties of this single photon analysis, including re-weighting Monte Carlo events to estimate the effect of many flux and cross-section uncertainties as well as detector systematics. The analysis has secondary signal studies including neutral current pion production and subsequent decay which are used to constrain our final measurements. Simulations of this constraint predicting the impact on the results will also be shown.

Speaker: Gray Yarbrough (University of Tennessee Knoxville)
• 31
Constraining Dirt’’ Backgrounds for the MicroBooNE Single Photon Low Energy Excess Search

MicroBooNE, a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber with an active volume of 85 metric tons, is located on the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab and has been collecting data since fall 2015. One of its primary physics goals is to investigate the low-energy excess (LEE) of events observed by the MiniBooNE experiment in their measurement of charged current quasi-elastic-like electron neutrino (νe CCQE) events. Dirt’' backgrounds are beam-induced neutrino events originating outside the detector, producing final states inside the active detector volume mimicking the νe CCQE signature, and are non-negligible in the MiniBooNE search. The MicroBooNE search for anomalous single photon production in neutral current neutrino interactions, as a possible LEE interpretation, requires a good understanding of dirt backgrounds due to MicroBooNE’s higher surface-to-volume ratio than MiniBooNE. This talk will describe an analysis developed to select and isolate dirt events in MicroBooNE for the single photon LEE search, demonstrating good data to Monte Carlo agreement.

Speaker: Keng Lin
• 32
A Convolutional Neural Network for Shower Energy Reconstruction in MicroBooNE

The MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab is designed to test the low energy excess of electron-like events observed in the MiniBooNE experiment. The MicroBooNE detector consists of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) in which ionization electrons created by charged particles traversing the detector are collected by a set of three anode wire planes. The wire readout is combined with the drift time of the ionization electrons to reconstruct the 3D path of the charged particle. Electrons from neutrino interactions will create electromagnetic showers, which appear in the wire planes as a region of charge that must be identified by a "clustering" algorithm. Electron energy reconstruction methods in MicroBooNE currently rely on the combination of a clustering algorithm and a linear calibration between the shower energy and charge contained in the cluster. Recent effort has been made to improve this reconstruction process through the use of a convolutional neural network (CNN). This talk will cover the current status of the CNN method and show initial comparisons between the CNN and the traditional clustering method. Near-future directions for improving and validating the performance of the CNN will also be discussed.

Speaker: Nick Kamp (MIT)
• 33
A Charged-Current Muon-Neutrino Veto for the Inclusive Electron-Neutrino Analysis in MicroBooNE

One of the main goals for the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab is to investigate the “low energy excess” (LEE) of electromagnetic events observed by the MiniBooNE experiment. MicroBooNE uses the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beamline as its neutrino source. Muon neutrinos dominate this beam, with only ~0.5% of the composition being electron neutrinos. To achieve the high purity electron neutrino selection needed to understand the nature of the MiniBooNE result, the muon neutrino background must be significantly reduced. This talk presents methods to identify and therefore veto charged-current muon neutrino events in MicroBooNE, as well as progress from ongoing LEE analyses using this veto.

Speaker: Erin Yandel
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