New Perspectives 2024

8 Jul 2024, 08:00 → 9 Jul 2024, 22:00 America/Chicago

One West (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)

, Ishanee Pophale (Lancaster University), Michael Balcewicz (Fermilab)

New Perspectives is a conference for, and by, young researchers in the Fermilab community. It provides a forum for graduate students, postdoctoral, 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appear at typical HEP conferences, because of its work-in-progress status or because it's part of work that will not be published.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.

This year New Perspectives will be held Monday, July 8 and Tuesday, July 9, 2024. In-person attendance is strongly encouraged. 

**Note that all in-person onsite attendees who DO NOT already have site access MUST register by the end of Monday, June 24. Abstracts can still be submitted by July 1.**

New Perspectives is organized by the Fermilab Student and Postdoc Association and along with the Fermilab Users Annual Meeting.

Please reach out to us at fspa_officers@fnal.gov if you have any questions.

Monday, 8 July

Opening Remarks

MINERvA

Convener: Luis Zazueta (Syracuse University)

1 MINERvA in 10 minutes

The MINERvA experiment delves deep into the world of neutrino nucleus interactions to piece together a guidebook of measurements essential to advancing cross section models. The next generation of long baseline neutrino experiments require a significant improvement to our understanding of neutrino nucleus interactions to measure oscillation parameters to the required level of precision. The MINERvA experiment uses an on-axis flux peaking at 6 GeV from the NuMI beamline. It deployed a well understood detector with various target materials (Fe, Pb, CH, H2O, He) to achieve a better handle on the cross section scaling with target material, A, which is imperative for understanding nuclear effects. High statistics enable the extraction of exclusive cross section measurements of specific neutrino interaction channels, to offer a richer complement to inclusive measurements. Measurements in both neutrino mode as well as anti-neutrino mode pay a nod to the importance of understanding both modes to even begin to understand some of the mysteries of the universe. This talk will describe the ingredients that go into most of MINERvA's analyses: the neutrino beams that have been used, the MINERvA detector, and the strategies we use to keep our detector and flux uncertainties low.

Speaker: Maria Mehmood

NewPerspectives_MINERvAin10Minutes_Mehmood.pdf

2 Neutrino Lead interactions:Towards an FSI model benchmark

When neutrinos interact with protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus, the resulting particles can bounce around within the nucleus in a process known as Final State Interactions (FSI). However, our current models of these interactions sometimes don't match well with experimental data, especially for heavier nuclei. The MINERvA experiment allows us to study these interactions in detail. It uses five different types of nuclear targets and includes an electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) at the back of the detector. The ECAL is made of thin layers of lead and plastic, with about 4 tons of lead in total. This setup allows us to collect large data samples of neutrinos interactions with lead. By analyzing this data, we aim to improve our understanding of how neutrinos interact with heavy nuclei and improve our FSI modeling. This talk will discuss the details of the comparison of the models to the experimental data, using the MINERvA experiment to improve our techniques and to ensure our models are consistent with the latest experimental results.

Speakers: Oscar Moreno Palacios, MINERvA collaboration

2024-07-03-NewPerspectivesPracticeTalk.pdf

3 Measurement of inclusive anti neutrino cross section and ratio to neutrino cross section as a function of muon kinematics

The measurement is that of an inclusive anti neutrino cross section in terms of muon kinematics on the hydrocarbon tracker region of the MINERvA detector. An inclusive measurement in terms of muon kinematics will make for a comparatively easier comparison to model predictions, as such a measurement reduces the need for an accurate prediction of hadronic activity, which is harder to model.

Furthermore, muon kinematics are easier to reconstruct in the detector and a two-dimensional measurement yields a more pointed view of the phase space being explored. Moreover, the measured cross section can be compared to the baseline model broken down by the predicted interaction channel. Some channels dominate in certain parts of phase space and will motivate which aspects of the model require more improvement.

This measurement is extracted in anti-neutrino mode as long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments rely on a high precision understanding of both neutrino and anti-neutrino nucleus interactions. The neutrino counterpart of this measurement has already been published [1]. Model comparisons are presented for the extracted cross section measurement.
[1] D. Ruterbories et al. (MINERvA), Measurement of inclusive charged-current νμ cross sections as a function of muon kinematics at < Eν >∼ 6 GeV on hydrocarbon, Phys. Rev. D 104, 092007 (2021), arXiv:2106.16210 [hep-ex].

Speaker: Maria Mehmood

NewPerspectives_AnalysisTalk_Mehmood.pdf

Computational I

Convener: Luis Zazueta (Syracuse University)

4 Modeling Athermal Phonons in Novel Materials using the G4CMP Simulation Toolkit

The Geant4 Condensed Matter Physics (G4CMP) toolkit was designed to simulate the transport of charge and phonons in detectors made of Silicon and Germanium. Through these simulations, the toolkit effectively reproduces phenomena such as heat-pulse propagation times, average charge-carrier drift velocities, and phonon caustics. However, its limitation to Silicon and Germanium restricts its applicability to other fields such as material and quantum science research, as well as the exploration of new materials for Dark Matter detection. To address this, we expand the capabilities of G4CMP to include several novel materials like Sapphire (Al2O3), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Lithium Fluoride (LiF) and Calcium Fluoride (CaF2) . Specifically, we integrate parameters to facilitate the phonon kinematics simulations in G4CMP. We present various phonon caustic patterns for these materials and compare them with experimental phonon caustic images. Additionally, we create a comprehensive simulation framework, utilizing G4CMP, to assess the performance metrics of qubit chips operating in a gate-based "energy relaxation" readout scheme.

Speaker: Israel Hernandez (Illinois Institute of Technology)

New_Perspectives_2024.pdf

5 MLOps for Beam Controls

Machine learning operations (MLOps) is the standardization and streamlining of the ML development lifecycle to address the challenges associated with large-scale machine learning applications. The full MLOps pipeline consists of open-source tools: DataHub, MinIO and MLflow. It is being used for dataset management and model development to handle changing data dependencies, varying business needs, reproducibility, and diverse teams working with differing tools and skills. To demonstrate the completion of an MLOps pipeline for particle accelerator operations, we are deploying a simple script that computes settings for the Booster’s gradient magnet power supply. Once the demonstration is complete, we will develop and deploy ML-based optimization algorithms to improve Booster’s overall efficiency. This MLOps pipeline opens the gate to systematically develop and deploy ML applications for accelerator controls and diagnostics.

Speaker: Gopika Bhardwaj (Fermilab)

NewPerspectives.pptx

10:30 Coffee Break

NOvA

Convener: Thomas Wester (University of Chicago)

6 NOvA in 10 minutes

NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of two functionally identical liquid scintillator detectors placed 809 km apart. NOvA’s main goal is to search for muon (anti)neutrino disappearance and electron (anti)neutrino appearance from the NuMI beam in order to measure neutrino mixing parameters, determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, and search for CP violation in neutrinos. In this talk, I give an overview of the experiment and present recent results.

Speaker: Anna Cooleybeck (University of Wisconsin)

cooleybeckNewPerspectives3.pdf

7 Study of the Neutrino Magnetic Moment with the NOvA Near Detector

Predicted by the Standard Model as theoretical, massless particles, neutrinos have been the subject of many experiments since their first detection. It is now experimentally confirmed that neutrinos do have mass necessitating an extension to the Standard Model. Such an extension allows for other surprising neutrino properties, such as a neutrino magnetic moment, $\nu$MM. While neutrinos are observed to be neutral and do not couple to photons at leading order, higher order expansion of the interaction allows for coupling to the photon to occur and gives rise to a $\nu$MM through quantum loop effects. This is a useful property for studying the Dirac or Majorana nature of neutrinos, as the predicted value of the magnetic moment would differ. This talk focuses on an introduction to the $\nu$MM as well as discusses the current status of work being done on NO$\nu$A utilizing the Near Detector to obtain an upper limit on the $\nu$MM value.

Speaker: Sarah Choate (University of Iowa)

new_perspectives.pdf

8 Three-Flavor Neutrino Oscillations at NOvA

NOvA, is a two-detector, long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment located at Fermilab, Batavia, IL, USA. It is designed primarily to constrain neutrino oscillation parameters such as the atmospheric mass squared splitting, $\Delta m^2_{32}$, the mixing angle, $\theta_{23}$, neutrino mass hierachy, and the CP-violating phase, $\delta_{CP}$, using $\nu_\mu \ (\bar{\nu}_\mu)$ disappearance and $\nu_e \ (\bar{\nu}_e)$ appearance data. NOvA receives a high purity 900 KW instense beam of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos from Fermilab's Neutrinos at Main Injector (NuMI) beamline. NOvA used functionally identical finely granulated liquid scintillation detectors, both situated 14.6 mrad off-axis to the beam direction. The NOvA near detector observes un-oscillated $\nu_\mu \ (\bar{\nu}_\mu)$ and beam $\nu_e \ (\bar{\nu}_e)$ events, while the far detector, which is situated 809 km away from the near detector, records un-oscillated $\nu_\mu \ (\bar{\nu}_\mu)$ and oscillated $\nu_e \ (\bar{\nu}_e)$ events. We will discuss the neutrino oscillation analysis strategy at NOvA and the latest three-flavor oscillation results from 10 years of NOvA data in this talk.

Speaker: Ishwar Singh (University of Delhi)

New-Perspectives-2024-Ishwar-Singh-Final.pdf

Neutrinos

Convener: Thomas Wester (University of Chicago)

9 Road to PROSPECT-II

The Precision Reactor Oscillation and SPECTrum (PROSPECT) experiment is based in a segmented liquid scintillator antineutrino detector situated approximately 7 meters from the highly enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Its main goal is to investigate short-baseline antineutrino oscillations.
The first phase of data collection, known as PROSPECT-I, was held from 2018 to 2019 and was used for several high-precision analyses, including multiple measurements of the $^{235}U$ antineutrino spectrum and searches for $eV$-scale sterile antineutrino oscillations.
The collaboration is now preparing for the second phase, PROSPECT-II, which features an upgraded detector design. This advancement will enhance sensitivity and statistical power, allowing for a broader range of analyses beyond those achieved in PROSPECT-I. As we transition into this new phase, new questions have arisen concerning background simulation and its potential differences from those conducted during the initial phase of the experiment. Moreover, it is essential to ascertain, through simulations, the positive effects that an improved detector could have on the study of oscillations. This information is crucial for justifying the proposed enhancements, and I will cover all of this in the talk.

Speaker: Franz Machado (Illinois Institute of Technology)

New_Perspective_2024_Road_to_PROSPECT_II_Final.pdf

10 How Matter Matters: The Story of Time Invariance Violation in Neutrino Oscillations

While neutrino oscillations provide a well motivated probe for CP violation, non-trivial matter effects and our inability to build experiments in an anti-Earth limits our studies to improper tests of its effects. These limitations in turn motivate (from CPT theorem) time invariance studies, as under certain matter potential profiles, proper time invariance and improper time invariance are the same. With this in mind, the following talk will focus on revisiting the pedagogical study of time invariance in matter-based neutrino oscillations, providing potential consequences in the case where we have a new beam source (i.e. muon storage rings) which would allow for an experiment to make time invariance channel comparisons. We discuss the above for different types of matter potential profiles, in an effort to distinguish between intrinsic and matted-induced time invariance violation, if at all, in neutrino oscillation probabilities.

Speaker: Olivia Meredith Bitter (Fermilab/Northwestern)

OMB_NP24_final2.pdf

OMB_NP24_final2.pptx

11 Real-time Anomaly Detection for Charge-based Triggering in LArTPCs

Modern particle detectors, including liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs), collect a vast amount of data, making it impractical to save everything for offline analysis. As a result, these experiments need to employ different down-selection techniques during data acquisition, referred to as triggering. In this talk, I will present a framework that would enable real-time, data-driven triggering for LArTPCs, using anomaly detection algorithms implemented on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Drawing on a study that makes use of collected charge data from the MicroBooNE LArTPC Public Dataset, I will discuss the overall performance of such algorithms and potential applications for future neutrino experiments.

Speaker: Seokju Chung (Columbia University)

New Perspectives 2024 Anomaly Detection-3.pdf

12:15 Coffee Break

12:30 No-Host Lunch

DUNE/SBND

Convener: Avinay Bhat (University of Chicago)

12 SBND in 10 Minutes

The Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is one of three Liquid Argon Time
Projection Chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detectors positioned along the axis of the Booster
Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab, as part of the Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program.
The detector is currently being commissioned and is expected to take neutrino data this
year. SBND is characterized by superb imaging capabilities and will record over a million
neutrino interactions per year. Thanks to its unique combination of measurement resolution
and statistics, SBND will carry out a rich program of neutrino interaction measurements and
novel searches for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). It will enable the potential of
the overall SBN sterile neutrino program by performing a precise characterization of the
unoscillated event rate, and constraining BNB flux and neutrino-argon cross-section
systematic uncertainties. In this talk, the physics reach, current status, and future prospects
of SBND are discussed

Speaker: Vu Chi Lan Nguyen (University of Sheffield)

SBND in 10 Minutes.pdf

13 Signal discrimination for neutron-antineutron oscillation sensitivity study at DUNE

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) aims to measure neutrino oscillations as well as search for beyond the standard model physics such as baryon number violating (BNV) processes. DUNE will use a 70 kt Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) located more than 1 km underground. A promising BNV process is neutron-antineutron oscillation ($n \rightarrow \bar{n}$) which, if discovered, would offer unique insight into the baryon asymmetry of the universe. We are developing a classification algorithm that separates $n \rightarrow \bar{n}$ events from major background atmospheric neutrino interactions using DUNE far detector simulations. We will perform the classification of signals and backgrounds by analyzing key features such as the multiplicity, isotropy, and kinematics of the reconstructed events. In the future, this algorithm can be used to obtain the sensitivity of the DUNE detectors to the neutron-antineutron oscillation lifetime.

Speaker: Justin Wheeler (Fermilab)

JLW_nnbar_NewPerspectives.pptx

14 Studying Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions at SBND

The Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is a 100-ton scale Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detector positioned in the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab, as part of the Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program. Located only 110 m from the neutrino production target, SBND is expected to record millions of neutrino interaction events every year allowing neutrino-argon cross-section measurements with unprecedented precision. This talk will explore the neutrino-argon interactions being studied at SBND, highlighting expected statistics and kinematics of inclusive and exclusive channels.

Speaker: Brinden Carlson (University of Florida)

SBND Interactions New Perspectives 2024.pdf

15 Heavy Neutral Leptons searches on SBND

The Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at Fermilab is designed to provide precise measurements of neutrino oscillations using 3 Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPC) built along Fermilab's Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB). The Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND), located at only 110 m from the BNB target, will precisely characterize the neutrino flux before oscillations take place, thanks to its unprecedented neutrino interaction statistics.
The proximity of SBND to the target makes the experiment ideal for many beyond the Standard Model (BSM) searches of particles that could be produced along the neutrinos in the beam. This talk will focus on the search for HNLs, showing the sensitivity to the detection of these particles based on full beam and detector Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, it will focus on HNL decays into two-track topologies, presenting two sensitivities: one based on SBND’s current reconstruction chain and a projection of foreseen detector capabilities.

Speaker: Luis Pelegrina Gutiérrez (Universidad de Granada)

HNL_MuPi_search.pdf

16 Predicting Missing Regions in Charged Particle Tracks Using a Sparse 3D Convolutional Neural Network

The 2x2 Demonstrator is a prototype detector for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)'s Near Detector. Both the 2x2 Demonstrator and the Near Detector itself will have inactive regions wherein there is no sensitivity to charge deposition and light signals that arise from charged particle interactions with liquid argon. In the 2x2, these inactive regions are positioned in-between the active detector modules, which introduces the challenge of inferring what charge signals ought to look like in these regions.

This study explores the use of a Sparse 3D Convolutional Neural Network (ConvNet) to infer missing regions in charged particle tracks. Hits corresponding to energy depositions are voxelized into a three-dimensional (3D) grid for each track. Inactive regions within the tracks are replaced with a dense, rectangular 3D grid of voxels, ensuring consistent step sizes in X, Y, and Z directions. Voxels in these dense regions are initialized with an energy value of -1, indicating nonphysical energy or charge. The model is trained to predict which voxels should activate as part of the track and which should not, with the goal of eventually inferring the missing charge or energy values in these voxels. Results indicate that the model accurately predicts track voxels within ±1 unit in X, Y, or Z directions and effectively identifies non-track voxels, despite some overprediction. The approach shows promise in prediction of missing track regions with some accuracy.

Speaker: Hilary Utaegbulam (University of Rochester)

Predicting Missing Regions in Charged Particle Tracks Using a Sparse 3D Convolutional Neural Network

17 First Physics Studies with DUNE Near Detector Prototype (2x2)

The Near Detector (ND) of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) allows high-statistics characterization of the DUNE beam close to the source. It is important to understand the capabilities of DUNE ND at the prototyping stage. The DUNE ND Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) prototype, known as the "2x2 demonstrator", will begin data taking in the summer 2024, using the NuMi anti-neutrino beam. Initial analysis goals include the inclusive charged-current (CC) measurement of the number of all charged final state particle tracks (called "multiplicity"), and the mesonless CC cross-section measurement. These measurements will demonstrate the capabilities of the LArTPC of DUNE's ND and will help develop event simulation and reconstruction techniques for the first round of DUNE analysis.

Speaker: Mr Muhammad Bilal Azam (Illinois Institute of Technology)

newPerspectives_talk_8Jul2024_v2.pptx

CMS

Convener: Niam Patel (Lancaster University)

18 Efficiency Analysis of ML-Based Anomaly Detection Triggers for Emerging Jets

Novel machine learning-based anomaly detection Level 1 (L1) triggers are currently under development at CMS, namely AXOL1TL and CICADA. The former employs a variational autoencoder, while the latter utilizes a convolutional autoencoder. These triggers aim to balance rate reduction with model independence, enabling the selection of potentially significant events that might be overlooked by traditional triggers relying on basic kinematic variable selections. Consequently, they have the potential to enhance signals indicative of physics beyond the Standard Model, such as those associated with emerging jets. Such signals are predicted by models featuring a composite dark sector where long-lived particles decay into Standard Model jets with displaced tracks and numerous vertices. This study evaluates the efficiency of these anomaly detection triggers in selecting events with emerging jets produced via the s-channel production of two dark quarks.

Speaker: Roy Cruz (University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez)

ADTriggers4EMJs

19 ML based algorithm for primary vertex identification

The CMS detector at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) will operate in challenging conditions with expected pile-up of up to 200 collisions per bunch crossing, necessitating the development of a more resilient primary vertex (PV) reconstruction method to ensure the integrity of data analysis and the efficiency of the CMS triggering system. This contribution describes preliminary studies on a new ML based PV-Finder method for PV identification. The method is based on a model trained using Kernel Density Estimations (KDEs) derived from the positions of reconstructed tracks at the beamline, incorporating uncertainties from track parameters. It also utilizes target histograms, modeled as Gaussian distributions centered on the actual ground truth values of specific primary vertices.

Speaker: Tetiana Mazurets (University of Puerto Rico)

PV-Finder approach.pdf

20 Performance of the PS module for particle pT discrimination in the CMS Phase-2 Outer Tracker

The Large Hadron Collider will undergo a luminosity upgrade targeting a peak instantaneous luminosity ranging from 5 to 7.5x10$^{34}$cm$^{-2}$. The overall goal of the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is to achieve 3000 to 4000 fb$^{-1}$ proton collisions at a 13 to14 TeV center of mass energy. Due to the hard environmental condition in the HL-LHC, the outer tracker of the CMS experiment will also require adequate changes called Phase-2 upgrades. The strip tracker that is currently in the detector will be replaced with new modules, one of which is the pixel-strip (PS) module. This module features both a pixel and a strip silicon sensor.
The module can correlate hits from high momentum particles on the two sensors in order to create short track segments called stubs. The PS module was tested at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility, where half of each sensor was irradiated in order to mimic the harsh conditions found in the HL-LHC. The experiment was designed in order to evaluate the module’s accuracy in presenting tracking information, ${p_T}$ discrimination capabilities, and performance at the irradiation levels found in the HL-LHC. In this talk, I will present the results from the test beam that took place at Fermilab. I will also discuss the performance of the module before and after irradiation above the target fluence 1.4x10$^{15}$ $_{neq}$ ⋅ cm$^{2}$, and a special focus will be given to the stub reconstruction efficiency.

Speaker: Olivia Gzamouranis (Fermilab)

New Perspectives 2024- Olivia Gzamouranis.pdf

g-2

Convener: Niam Patel (Lancaster University)

21 Muon $g-2$ in 10 minutes

The Muon $g-2$ experiment at Fermilab will measure the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $a_{\mu}$, to an unprecedented precision of 140 parts-per-billion (ppb). This anomaly receives contributions from all sectors of the Standard Model (SM), and beyond, via loop diagrams at the muon-photon vertex. As such, any divergence of $a_{\mu}$ from the SM is indirect evidence of new physics. In August 2023, the collaboration published their second of three planned measurements of $a_\mu$, constituting two years of data-taking and total uncertainty of 215 ppb. This new measurement is consistent with the first Fermilab measurement and a previous measurement at Brookhaven National Laboratory, giving the world average $a_{\mu}$ a combined precision of 190 ppb! Furthermore, comparison with a data-driven calculation of $a_{\mu}$ presents a $\geq5 \sigma$ tension with the SM. An intriguing ambiguity remains, however, when comparing with results obtained using Lattice QCD techniques, which indicate consistency with the SM. This talk will provide an introduction to the Muon $g-2$ experiment: exploring its principles, status, and importance, as well as its complexities.

Speaker: Samuel Grant (University College London)

new_perspectives_24_sgrant.pdf

new_perspectives_24_sgrant.pptx

16:00 Break

ANNIE

Convener: Filippo Varanini (INFN Padova)

22 ANNIE in 10 minutes

The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE) is a 26-tonne water Cherenkov detector in the Booster Neutrino beam. The water is gadolinium-loaded, greatly improving neutron detection efficiency. This enables ANNIE to make measurements of neutron multiplicity for beam-induced neutrino interactions, leading to reduced uncertainties in neutrino energy estimation for current and next-generation neutrino oscillation experiments. In addition, ANNIE serves as a testbed for new technologies, including Water-based Liquid Scintillator (WbLS), and Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors (LAPPD). This talk gives an overview of the ANNIE experiment and physics program.

Speaker: Cathal Sweeney

240708_csweeney_annie_in_10_new_perspectives.pdf

Computational II

Convener: Filippo Varanini (INFN Padova)

23 SBND Analysis using ML Reconstruction Chain

As part of the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermilab, the Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is positioned in the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) and explores neutrino-argon interactions with unprecedented statistics. SBND is a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC). Electrons produced through ionization drift toward three wire planes, providing signals that form 2D images of particle trajectories. I introduce the Scalable Particle Imaging using Neural Embeddings (SPINE) framework, which employs a Machine Learning (ML)-based 3D reconstruction using a series of neural networks. Here, we present SPINE’s reconstruction chain, analysis approaches, and results from our latest simulation samples.

Speaker: Castaly Fan (University of Florida)

cfan-New_Perspectives_2024_final.pdf

SBND Analysis using ML Reconstruction Chain (slides)

MiniBooNE & MicroBooNE

Convener: Filippo Varanini (INFN Padova)

24 MiniBooNE in 10 Minutes

In this talk, I will give an overview of the MiniBooNE experiment. MiniBooNE's 818-tonne mineral oil Cherenkov detector took data at Fermilab's Booster Neutrino Beam from 2002 to 2019 in both neutrino and antineutrino mode. The most notable result from this 17-year run is an as-yet unexplained 4.8𝜎 excess of electron-like events. This excess has historically been interpreted under the hypothesis of short-baseline $\nu_\mu(\bar{\nu}_\mu)\to\nu_e(\bar{\nu}_e)$ oscillations involving a fourth sterile neutrino state; however, tension in the global sterile neutrino picture has led the community to consider alternative explanations, typically involving photon or 𝑒+𝑒− final states. I will discuss the present status of the MiniBooNE anomaly. I will also cover other important results from the MiniBooNE experiment, including neutrino cross section measurements and sub-GeV dark matter constraints.

Speaker: Nicholas Kamp

MB10min_NewPerspsectives2024.pdf

25 MicroBooNE in 10 minutes

MicroBooNE is an 85-tonne liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiment at
Fermilab, situated on-axis relative to the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) with a baseline of 470
m, and off-axis from the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam. The experiment collected
data from 2015 to 2021 and currently has the largest set of neutrino-argon interaction data in the
world. LArTPCs have excellent capabilities in calorimetric energy reconstruction and particle
identification, which allow MicroBooNE to conduct fundamental physics searches. One of
MicroBooNE’s driving physics goals is to explore the source of the low-energy excess of
electromagnetic events reported by MiniBooNE. Additionally, MicroBooNE’s physics program
includes measurements of neutrino-argon cross sections and a variety of other beyond the
standard model physics searches. Detector simulation and event reconstruction advancements
developed through these physics searches are useful for the broader short- and long-baseline
oscillation programs. This talk will give a brief overview of the MicroBooNE experiment,
highlighting the latest major results

Speaker: Kate Pletcher (Michigan State University)

MicroBooNE in 10 Minutes Pletcher-1.pdf

26 Optimal Transport for e/π⁰ Particle Classification in LArTPC Neutrino Experiments

Separation of electron signals from π⁰ backgrounds is crucial for neutrino oscillation measurements and searches for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics in current and future Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) experiments. e/π⁰ separation has been a reconstruction challenge since both e and π⁰ present as electromagnetic showers, and often only one out of the two showers produced by π⁰ is reconstructed correctly. This research aims to improve the performance of e/π⁰ separation using optimal transport (OT), by leveraging on the topological differences in the showers produced by the two particles. OT is a method which compares two distributions by finding the most efficient way to transform, or “move” from one to the other. This work uses the MicroBooNE open samples public dataset to test the e/π⁰ separation performance of the method on events which incorporate realistic modeling of LArTPC detector response. Reconstructed 3D energy deposits are projected onto a plane perpendicular to the primary shower, allowing OT to better detect the topological differences between the two types of particles without the need to separately reconstruct all the showers in the events. Different distance metrics for OT are tested and preliminary results on e/π⁰ separation are presented.

Speaker: Chuyue “Michaelia” Fang (UCSB)

Optimal Transport for e_π⁰ Particle Classification in LArTPC Neutrino Experiments.pdf

27 First Measurements of Differential Cross Sections In Kinematic Imbalance Variables With The MicroBooNE Detector

Making high-precision measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters requires an unprecedented understanding of neutrino-nucleus scattering. In this presentation, we present the first muon neutrino charged current double-differential cross sections in kinematic imbalance variables. These variables characterize the imbalance in the plane transverse to an incoming neutrino. We use events with a single muon above 100 MeV/c, a single final state proton above 300 MeV/c, and no recorded final state pions. Thus, these variables act as a direct probe of nuclear effects such as final state interactions, Fermi motion, and multi-nucleon processes. We also present a complementary ongoing analysis using electron neutrinos. This channel is of the utmost importance for the extraction of neutrino oscillation parameters by making high-precision measurements. Our measurements allow us to constrain systematic uncertainties associated with neutrino oscillation results performed by near-future experiments of the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program, as well as by future large-scale experiments like DUNE.

Speaker: Maitreyee Moudgalya (The University of Manchester)

New Perspectives_8thJuly_uBooNE_TKI_programme_MM_final2.pdf

Kuhn Barn: Social BBQ

Tuesday, 9 July

SpinQuest

Convener: Thomas Murphy

28 SpinQuest in 10 Minutes

The E1039/SpinQuest experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory uses a 120 GeV proton beam from the Main Injector, incident upon transversely polarized protons and deuterons using $NH_3$ and $ND_3$ targets, respectively. SpinQuest will perform the first measurement of the Sivers asymmetry in Drell-Yan (pp) and (pd) scattering from sea quarks, thereby contributing to the world data to extract the Sivers function for the light sea quarks. This function describes the correlation between the momentum direction of the struck quark and the spin of its parent nucleon. A non-vanishing Sivers function for the sea quarks is evidence that there is sea quark orbital angular momentum (OAM). There are additional opportunities to study transverse-spin effects with the SpinQuest experiment, particularly the transverse single-spin asymmetry (TSSA) in ( J/\psi ) production. An update on the current status and progress of the experiment will be given.

Speaker: Md Forhad Hossain (New Mexico State University)

NP2024_Forhad.pdf

29 Overview of SpinQuest Polarized Target System

SpinQuest is a polarized target experiment that utilizes the 120 GeV proton beam from the Main Injector facility at Fermilab. The aim is to measure the Sivers asymmetry for the light sea quarks in the longitudinal momentum fraction range of $0.1-0.5$ in the Drell-Yan process. A non-vanishing Sivers function for sea quarks is evidence of sea quark orbital angular momentum. SpinQuest intends to use a high-intensity proton beam on polarized targets with aspirations of obtaining more than $4\times 10^{12}$ protons per beam spill (4.4 seconds) and achieve an integrated luminosity of about $2\times 10^{42}$ cm$^{-2}$ with the solid-state transversely polarized ammonia, NH$_3$, and deuterated ammonia, ND$_3$, targets. The polarized target system, including its split-pair 5 T superconducting magnet, is kept at a very low temperature via the $^4$He evaporation refrigerator. The latter operates at 1 K through high-powered evaporation facilitated by a roots stack with a pumping rate of $\sim $17,000 liters per hour. With such a setup, the expected average target polarization of $\sim$ 80\% (32\%) for NH$_3$ (ND$_3$) will be achieved based on the dynamic nuclear polarization technique. In this talk, a brief overview of the polarized target system, along with its current performance during the ongoing beam commissioning period, will be presented.

This work is supported in part by the U.S. DOE award $\#$DE-FG02-07ER41528.

Speaker: Vaniya Ansari (Mississippi State University)

NewPerspectives2024_VaniyaSQ.pdf

30 The microwave system of the SpinQuest polarized target setup

The SpinQuest experiment at Fermilab uses a polarized solid ammonia
target under a 5T magnetic field, immersed in the liquid helium bath of
an evaporation refrigerator, which lowers the lattice temperature of the
material to nearly 1K. This brings the materials to thermal equilibrium
(TE) polarization state. The TE polarization of the material is enhanced
by radiating a d-band microwave, generated from Extended Interaction
Oscillators (EIO), on the target material at a specific frequency, a process
known as dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). The output frequency of
the EIO is determined by the size of its resonant cavity, which is controlled
by a high-resolution stepper motor. The level of polarization drifts after
accumulating an intense proton beam from the 120 GeV main injector
over time, which triggers the frequency control system to adjust the EIO
frequency to maintain the maximum level of polarization of the material
as measured by the NMR system. The status of the microwave system
during the ongoing beam commissioning period will be presented.

Speaker: Vibodha Bandara

New_Perspective_2024_Vibodha_V4.pdf

31 Beam Heat Load Effect on Polarization in the SpinQuest Experiment

The SpinQuest experiment at Fermilab aims to measure the Sivers asymmetry for light sea quarks in the longitudinal momentum fraction range of 0.1 < $x_B$ < 0.5 using polarized observables from the Drell-Yan process. This requires polarized NH$_3$ and ND$_3$ targets. The experiment employs Fermilab's 120 GeV main injector proton beam, delivering approximately 3x$10^{12}$ protons per second over a 4.4-second spill. The SpinQuest target system includes a superconducting split-pair magnet with a 5T magnetic field and 8cm long transversely polarized target cells. During high-intensity spills, the lattice temperature of ammonia can increase due to inter-facial resistance from the heat load of the beam for large solids. The helium-4 evaporation refrigerator, operating at 1 Kelvin with a pumping rate of 17,000 $m^3$/hr, helps maintain low temperatures but can cool inside of the solid state target material. The short spill may allow the material to be configured in a way that increases the packing fraction with more polarized nucleons per target load improving the overall figure of merit of the polarized observable measurement. This could only be done if the target material surface area to volume is optimized with respect to the heat load over the duration of the spill so cooling is still possible and thermal depolarization of the target does not occur over the spill. In my presentation, I will discuss the possibility of geometrically enhancing the packing fraction of the target material using a thermal analysis.

Speaker: Muhammad Farooq (University of Virginia, USA)

FERMILAB-SLIDES-24-0168-V.pdf

32 Extracting Sivers Asymmetry in Drell-Yan at E1039 experiment using a likelihood method

The intrinsic spins of the valence and sea quarks inside the nucleon contribute only a fraction of the total spin of the nucleon. The orbital angular momentum of these quarks may also contribute. A non-vanishing Sivers function, which will produce a Transverse Single Spin Asymmetry in Drell-Yan production, is conclusive evidence of non-zero or- bital angular momentum. The E1039 (SpinQuest) experiment at Fermi-lab studies Drell- Yan production of di-muon pairs by scattering a 120 GeV proton beam off polarized $NH_3/ND_3$ fixed targets. In this scenario the Sivers asymmetry appears as a sinusoidal modulation in the azimuthal angular distribution of the virtual photons, observed in the lab frame. However, the measured distributions for any quantity in the detector might not represent the true distributions due to effects induced by the detector such as smear- ing, acceptance, inefficiencies, etc. Correcting for smearing is called the unfolding. Many techniques including Bayesian iterative method, SVD, etc have already been established to address the smearing problem for a binned data set. Temporal variations in the po- larization of the target require an un-binned method to address the smearing. In this talk we will present a framework, which employs the minimization of the negative log likelihood, developed to address smearing in un-binned data.
This work was supported in part by US DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER40847.

Speaker: Harsha Sirilal Kalu Arachchige (New Mexico State University)

NP_24_Harsha.pdf

33 Measurement of transverse single-spin asymmetries for $J/\psi$ production in polarized p + p collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 15GeV$

The transverse single-spin asymmetry (TSSA) is a measure of the imbalance in particle production concerning the plane defined by the transverse spin axis and the direction of momentum of a polarized hadron. TSSAs have gained recognition as a method for examining Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), both within the initial-state hadrons and during the process of hadronization from partons. In $J/\psi$ production, which involves processes with initial-state gluons, TSSAs of $J/\psi$ offer insight into gluon dynamics within the nucleon. The SpinQuest experiment (E1039) at Fermilab employs an unpolarized 120GeV proton beam colliding with a polarized fixed target composed of either $NH_{3}$ or $ND_{3}$. This experiment aims to derive Sivers functions for the light sea-quarks within the range of $0.1 < x_{B} < 0.5$. These measurements are crucial for deducing the gluon Sivers function and provide a unique kinematic coverage, acting as a link between investigating valence quarks and the kinematics studied in future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) experiments. In this talk, I will discuss the present status of SpinQuest and preliminary results obtained from beam commissioning data. This work was supported in part by US DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER40847.

Speaker: Chatura Kuruppu (University Of South Carolina)

2024-07-04_NewPerspectives_Final_Final.pdf

2024-07-04_NewPerspectives_Final_Final.pptx

Career Panel

Conveners: Dr Christopher Thorpe (The University of Manchester), Dr David Anthony (Industry Panelist), Dr Joshua Barrow (UMN, FNAL visitor), Dr Katherine Rybacki (Industry Panelist)

10:30 Coffee Break

Dark Sector Physics

Convener: Gray Putnam

34 The Search for Dark Photons at the Short-Baseline Near Detector

The low-energy excess anomaly seen in the MiniBooNE experiment has prompted the development of a plethora of physics scenarios and models. A noteworthy development in various dark sector models has recently shown promise in potentially offering explanation to the anomaly. This analysis focuses on the investigation of a rare three-body decay of charged mesons, and two-body decay of neutral mesons, via a newly proposed dark-sector gauge boson - the Dark Photon - at the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB), as well as their decay and detection at the Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND).  SBND is a 112 ton liquid argon time projection chamber detector located 110 m from the BNB target. The high intensity of the BNB as well as its proximity to SBND, makes the detector ideal for searching these dark sector models. We study the decay of neutral ($\pi^0$, $\eta$) and charged (K$^\pm$, $\pi^\pm$) mesons by two $\&$ three body decays, respectively, and through various approximations involving proton bremsstrahlung, to produce Dark Photons. We then focus on the detection of these dark photons at SBND through one of their decay channels: an electron-positron pair. Beginning with a basic truth-level event selection, employing various kinematic and timing cuts to understand initial signal efficiencies and purities, as well as estimating initial background rejection efficiencies, we determine how sensitive SBND is to Dark Photons.

Speaker: Rohan Rajagopalan (Syracuse University)

New Perspectives.pdf

35 Scintillating Bubble Chambers for Direct Dark Matter Detection, and an Update on SBC-LAr10

The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) Collaboration aims to use the liquid-noble bubble chamber technology as a low-threshold detector for dark matter particles of 1-10 GeV/c². The detector combines the remarkable electron recoil (ER) discrimination of the bubble chamber with the event-by-event energy resolution provided by liquid argon (LAr) scintillation, with the crucial added benefit that ER discrimination in liquid-noble bubble chambers extends to much lower thresholds than in past freon-filled bubble chambers, with the potential for quasi-background-free operation at thresholds of 100 eV in nuclear recoil (NR) energy. SBC has developed two functionally identical 10 kg detectors: SBC-LAr10 at Fermilab will calibrate low-threshold performance, while the radio-pure SBC-SNOLAB chamber will execute SBC’s first deep-underground dark matter search. SBC-LAr10 at Fermilab was recently installed in the MINOS tunnel 100 meters underground, and the first bubbles are expected this fall. I will present the current status of SBC-LAr10 and describe the suite of gamma and neutron calibrations we will execute. The calibrations will confirm the physics reach of this new technology, motivating not just the SBC-SNOLAB chamber now being assembled but also future searches into the solar neutrino fog at 1 GeV/c².

Speaker: Zhiheng Sheng (Northwestern University)

SHENG_Scintillating_Bubble_Chamber_New_Perspectives_2024.pdf

36 DES in 10 Minutes

Between 2013 and 2019, the Dark Energy Survey collaboration spent 758 nights on the Blanco Telescope to conduct a comprehensive survey of galaxies, collecting data from more than 300 million galaxies billions of light years away. The survey imaged approximately 4,300 square degrees of the southern sky using five optical filters to carefully characterize individual galaxies. Correlations between the positions and shapes of these galaxies were measured and used to statistically infer the composition and evolution of the late-time universe. In combination with measurements of supernovae observations and external data sets, such as those from cosmic microwave background experiments, we now have stringent cosmological constraints that allow us to place our standard cosmological model under rigorous testing. In this talk, I will describe the various statistical measurements carried out by DES and how they have helped us gain a better understanding of the universe we live in.

Speaker: Yuuki Omori (U.Chicago)

DES in 10 minutes

37 OSCURA in 10 Minutes

The Oscura experiment seeks to achieve unprecedented sensitivity in the search for low-mass dark matter particles using a ~10 kg detector array of silicon, ultra-low noise Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) with a detection threshold of two electrons and a total exposure of 30 kg-year. Oscura will probe sub-Gev dark matter particles that interact with electrons, targeting dark matter-electron scattering for masses down to ~500 keV and dark matter absorption by electrons for masses down to ~1 eV.

Speaker: Edgar Marrufo Villalpando (The University of Chicago)

oscura_in_10mins_edgar_marrufo.pdf

oscura_in_10mins_edgar_marrufo.pptx

38 Astronomical Spectroscopy with Skipper CCDs: First Results from a Skipper CCD Focal Plane Prototype at SIFS

Ultra-low readout noise detectors will enable increased sensitivity to high-density and high-redshift spectroscopic surveys to place tighter constraints on dark energy and dark matter (e.g., a Stage-5 Spectroscopic Survey). We present the first on-sky results from an ultra-low-readout-noise Skipper charge-coupled device (CCD) focal plane prototype for the SOAR Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS). We present charge-quantized, photon-counting observations from a quasar at redshift z ~ 3.5 (HB89 1159+123) and show the detector sensitivity increase for faint spectral features. We demonstrate signal-to-noise performance improvements for SIFS observations in the low-background, readout-noise-dominated regime.

Speaker: Edgar Marrufo Villalpando (The University of Chicago)

new_perspectives_2024_SIFS_Skippers_edgar_marrufo.pdf

new_perspectives_2024_SIFS_Skippers_edgar_marrufo.pptx

39 The Proton EDM

A storage ring proton electric dipole moment (EDM) experiment (pEDM) would be the first direct search for a proton EDM and would improve on the current (indirect) limit by 5 orders of magnitude. It would surpass the current sensitivity (set by neutron EDM experiments) to QCD CP-violation by 3 orders of magnitude, making it potentially the most promising effort to solve the strong CP problem, and one of the most important probes for the existence of axions, CP-violation and the source of the universe’s matter-antimatter asymmetry. These, coupled with a new Physics reach of O(10^3) TeV and a construction cost of (£100M), makes it one of the low-cost/high-return proposals in particle physics today. The experiment will build upon the highly successful techniques of the Muon g-2 Experiment at Fermilab and, in this talk, I will motivate and describe the pEDM experiment, and detail its path to success by building upon previous recent achievements.

Speaker: Dr Alexander Keshavarzi (University of Manchester)

AKeshavarzi_NewPerspectives_09-07-24_removed.pdf

12:15 No-Host Lunch

Cosmology

Convener: Gray Putnam

40 CMB in 10 Minutes

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is one of our most powerful tools for studying fundamental physics. By observing the CMB, we can learn about the energy scale of inflation, probe the possibilities of particles beyond the Standard Model, and understand more about dark matter and dark energy. This talk will provide an overview of the exciting work being done by the CMB group at Fermilab to further our understanding of physics through CMB experiments.

Speaker: Lauren Saunders

CMB in 10 Minutes

41 Population-level Dark Energy Constraints from Strong Gravitational Lensing using Simulation-Based Inference

In this work, we present a scalable approach for inferring the dark energy equation-of-state parameter ($w$) from a population of strong gravitational lens images using Simulation-Based Inference (SBI). Strong gravitational lensing offers crucial insights into cosmology, but traditional Monte Carlo methods for cosmological inference are computationally prohibitive and inadequate for processing the thousands of lenses anticipated from future cosmic surveys. New tools for inference, such as SBI using Neural Ratio Estimation (NRE), address this challenge effectively. By training a machine learning model on simulated data of strong lenses, we can learn the likelihood-to-evidence ratio for robust inference. Our scalable approach enables more constrained population-level inference of $w$ compared to individual lens analysis, constraining $w$ to within 1$\sigma$. Our model can be used to provide cosmological constraints from forthcoming strong lens surveys, such as the 4MOST Strong Lensing Spectroscopic Legacy Survey (4SLSLS), which is expected to observe 10,000 strong lenses.

Speaker: Sreevani Jarugula (Fermilab)

NewPerspectives_SreevaniJarugula.pdf

42 Cosmic Millicharge Background and Reheating Probes

We demonstrate that the searches for dark sector particles can provide probes of reheating scenarios, focusing on the cosmic millicharge background produced in the early universe. We discuss two types of millicharge particles (mCPs): either with, or without, an accompanying dark photon. These two types of mCPs have distinct theoretical motivations and cosmological signatures. We discuss constraints from the overproduction and mCP-baryon interactions of the mCP without an accompanying dark photon, with different reheating temperatures. We also consider the $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ constraints on the mCPs from kinetic mixing, varying the reheating temperature. The regions of interest in which the accelerator and other experiments can probe the reheating scenarios are identified in this paper for both scenarios. These probes can potentially allow us to set an upper bound on the reheating temperature down to $\sim 10$ MeV, much lower than the previously considered upper bound from inflationary cosmology at around $\sim 10^{16}$ GeV. In addition, we derive a new ``distinguishability condition'', in which the two mCP scenarios may be differentiated by combining cosmological and theoretical considerations.
Finally, we discuss the implications of dedicated mCP searches and future CMB-S4 observations.

Speaker: Yu-Dai Tsai (University of California, Irvine)

NP2024.pdf

43 Studying Galaxy Mergers Using Domain Adaptation

The ability to capture important features in imaging data through deep learning is of paramount importance in astronomy. Deep learning allows for the reduction of manual labor necessary in combing through thousands of astronomical images, however, small differences between astronomical datasets make the performance of deep learning models trained on one data set substantially different than on other datasets. The goal of this project is to use a technique called Domain Adaptation to train a deep learning model to learn the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies in two separate datasets. Domain adaptation is a deep learning technique which involves training a model on a set of labeled source objects (in this case: simulated galaxy images from the Illustris TNG simulation with the values of SFR and stellar mass provided for each galaxy), as well as an unlabeled target dataset (real galaxy images of higher redshift from the CANDELS dataset) . Domain adaptation will allow the model to find features present in both datasets and potentially allow us to learn about high redshift galaxies and periods of enhanced star formation rates.

Speaker: Rohan Venkat

New Perspectives Presentation.pptx

SeaQuest

Convener: Polina Abratenko

44 QCD and Nuclear effects on Drell-Yan Angular Coefficients in pp and p-Fe at 120 GeV proton beam energy

The angular distributions of charged lepton pairs produced in hadron-hadron collisions via the Drell-Yan process provide unique insight into the production dynamics through spin correlation effects between the initial-state partons and the final-state leptons mediated by a spin-1 intermediate state, predominantly the γ-boson. We shall present the effect of perturbative QCD on angular coefficients λ, μ and ν in Drell-Yan production for pp and p-Fe at 120 GeV proton beam energy, as explored by the SeaQuest experiment. We will use the DYNNLO and DYTurbo packages for a perturbative QCD calculation of the Drell-Yan process. Moreover, we shall consider the nucleon dynamics bound inside the nucleus using phenomenological nuclear parton distribution functions available at NNLO level as well as field theoretical approach to include Fermi motion, binding energy effects, and nucleon correlations. Besides these effects we will also incorporate beam parton energy loss in the nuclear target.This work was supported in part by US DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER40847.

Speaker: huma haider (student)

HumaNP.pdf

45 Extraction of Drell-Yan Angular Parameters in $pp$ Collisions with a 120 GeV Beam Energy Using a Deep-Learning Unfolding Algorithm

Dilepton production in pp collisions through the Drell-Yan process provides a crucial tool for studying the internal quark-gluon structure of the nucleon. By precisely measuring the $\cos2\phi$ asymmetry, where $\phi$ represents the azimuthal angle of the $l^{+}l^{-}$ pair in the Collins-Soper frame, we can gain valuable insights into the proton’s structure and the transverse momentum ($q_{T}$) dependence of the $\cos2\phi$ asymmetry. SeaQuest, a fixed-target Drell-Yan experiment at Fermilab, involved an unpolarized proton beam colliding with unpolarized LH$_{2}$ and LD$_{2}$ targets. Measurements obtained from experiments typically require corrections for detector inefficiencies, smearing, and acceptance. Traditionally, these corrections involve “unfolding” the detector-level measurements through matrix operations. However, in higher-dimensional phase space, these conventional methods fail to scale effectively. To overcome these limitations, we employ an unbinned unfolding method that utilizes deep neural networks for unfolding higher-dimensional phase space. In this presentation, we will explain the design of the neural network architecture, our training strategies, and outline our plans to achieve conclusive results. This work was supported in part by US DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER40847.

Speaker: Dinupa Nawarathne (New Mexico State University)

NP2024Slides.pdf

14:45 Coffee Break

Computational III

Convener: Daisy Kalra (Columbia University)

46 Spacely

Spacely is a Python-based test automation framework developed at Fermilab, designed to accelerate the functional testing and characterization of ASICs. Spacely interfaces to both industry-standard NI PXI modular test hardware and open-source Caribou hardware, and it introduces an abstraction layer for controlling multiple peripheral instruments, which include oscilloscopes, function generators, and arbitrary waveform generators. It also comes equipped with its own set of standard bitfiles for specific NI PXI FPGAs, enabling the generation of high-speed arbitrary digital waveforms directly from Python, eliminating the need for customized FPGA firmware.
Spacely provides a suite of software utilities which simplify the test flow, such as directly converting waveform dumps from RTL simulations of an ASIC into a format which can be used to test the physical hardware. Spacely’s software architecture is inherently modular, such that support for new ASICs and test configurations can be added by writing a few short configuration files. For instance, SPROCKET/XROCKET series pixel detector ASICs have had their functionality verified and characterized using it at Fermilab, which greatly decreased the time spent on running tests and allowed some chips to be brought up in less than one day.

Speaker: Yash Saxena (Fermilab)

Spacely Project.pptx

47 Enhancing ASIC Verification for HEP with Cocotb and PyUVM

Over the past decade, functional verification of IP or ASIC/SoCs has been dominated by the SystemVerilog-based Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), which, while offering benefits like reusability and modularity, often adds significant overhead in terms of project costs and deadlines. This is particularly challenging for High Energy Physics (HEP) projects, which require time-constrained and complex verification. Recent efforts aim to reduce this overhead by using structured testbenches, and one promising methodology is the open-source Python coroutine-based co-simulation testbench environment (Cocotb). Cocotb focuses on signal-level stimulus in an event-driven simulator and utilizes Python, which is widely known among physicists, making testbench development more accessible and faster compared to UVM's transaction-level stimulus and SystemVerilog usage. At FermiLab, we applied Cocotb to verify a CMS IP fast command controller and found it significantly reduced verification timelines. Additionally, we implemented PyUVM, a Python-based universal verification methodology offering a systematic approach similar to UVM but with the simplicity of Python. Our study highlights Cocotb and PyUVM as promising alternatives for efficient and effective IP verification in HEP projects.

Speaker: Manish Rangarajan Shankar

FC_Presentation.pdf

48 Computational Exploration of High Entropy Alloys as Promising Materials for Future Beam Windows

With the ever-increasing demand for high beam power, the currently used beam-intercepting devices (BIDs) such as targets, and beam windows may not be able to handle the high power required for future accelerator complexes or the lifetime may be reduced drastically. As beam power increases, the damage incurred by BIDs, including thermal shock, fatigue, and irradiation damage, also rises. Therefore, it is imperative to design materials that can withstand high beam power for longer lifetimes. High entropy alloys (HEAs) have emerged as potential alternative materials for designing next-generation BIDs. In this study, we primarily focus on materials for developing beam windows for next-generation accelerator complexes. We propose an integrated approach that combines various computational techniques to study and design new materials. Specifically, we use CALPHAD, density functional theory (DFT), and molecular dynamics (MD) to comprehensively investigate the defect properties of suitable HEAs, offering potential alternatives for future beam windows. We begin by scanning the extensive phase space provided by Cr-Mn-V-Ti-Al-Co HEAs, selecting 8 compositions after evaluating approximately 120,000 unique compositions using CALPHAD. We, then employ DFT-informed machine learning techniques to develop force-field parameters. Finally, MD simulations using these developed force-field parameters will be used to study the effects of radiation damage on the defect and mechanical properties of the selected alloys. This research explains the use of the CALPHAD approach and shows how critical modeling (DFT and MD) is in developing novel material such as HEAs. It also highlights the promising role of machine learning in this field. The results from this study will greatly improve the novel materials development to be used in next-generation accelerator components, leading to higher beam power and longer operational times of BIDs.

Speaker: Gaurav Arora (Postdoc Research Associate)

usermeeting.pptx

49 Monitoring HTCondor in HEPCloud's Decision Engine using Prometheus and Grafana

HEPCloud Decision Engine is a framework used by science collaborations for efficient and cost-effective provisioning of computing resources. This is done by selecting the resources with heuristics and starting Glideins and HTCondor startds to run the jobs.

Decision Engine uses Prometheus metrics to track various aspects of how a job is running and the overall health of Decision Engine. We created metrics to track the performance of de-client commands as well as monitoring the current number and status of jobs, glideins, and the amount of cores and memory being used. The metrics were then added to dashboards using Grafana.

Speaker: Ilya Baburashvili

HTC2 Presentation v2.pptx

16:00 Break

Closing Session

50 Proposal for a proton-bunch compression experiment at IOTA in the strong space-charge regime

The longitudinal compression of intense proton bunches with strong space-charge force is an essential component of a proton-based muon source for a muon collider. This paper discusses a proton-bunch compression experiment at the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) storage ring at Fermilab to explore optimal radio frequency (RF) cavity and lattice configurations. IOTA is a compact fixed-energy storage ring that can circulate a 2.5-MeV proton beam with varying beam parameters and lattice configurations. The study will aim to demonstrate a bunch-compression factor of at least 2 in the IOTA ring while examining the impact of intense space-charge effects on the compression process.

Speaker: Ben Simons (Fermilab and Northern Illinois University)

NewPerspectives2024_BSimons.pptx

51 Some tools for a blind physicst

Being blind, as with any disability, brings with it a whole host of challenges. There are not that many people who are visually impaired working in high energy physics. This talk attempts to look at the intersection of those two worlds. It will explore some of the struggles of doing work in this field while being blind -- looking at both the physical challenges as well as the structural and institutional.
It will go through the differences in perspective that something like that can bring. As well as taking a gander through some of the tools, technologies and techniques that exist to mitigate those issues; many of which come from the most unexpected sources.
It is a humble attempt to raise awareness of these issues in order to make the pursuit of scientific research more accessible to more people who may wish to engage in it.

Speaker: Orgho Neogi

users meeting 2024 some tools for a blind physicist.pdf

52 Smart Pixel Sensors for the HL-LHC

Large-scale particle physics experiments produce tens of terabytes of data every second. Innovative methods to manage the data rate at the HL-LHC, which expects to operate at 10x the luminosity of what the LHC was initially designed for, are needed. AI-on the chip provides a way to intelligently filter out low momentum clusters in the pixel detector. This will open up an opportunity to use the pixel detector for the first time in the CMS Level-1 trigger, and lead to increased sensitivity to new physics measurements and searches. We have taped out our first chip, which incorporates a $p_T$ filtering algorithm on an ASIC chip. Our initial $p_T$ filtering algorithm considers clusters that are tracked by CMS. We will report on ongoing studies seeking to enhance the performance of our filter by utilizing unsupervised learning on untracked clusters, thus increasing background rejection.

Speaker: Jieun Yoo (UIC)

NewPersp-SmartPix_2024.pdf

53 A New Track Trigger for Characterizing the Antiproton-Induced Background in the Mu2e Experiment

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will enable the search for the neutrinoless muon to electron conversion in the field of an Al nucleus, a charged lepton flavor violating process. If observed, there would be a clear indication of physics beyond the Standard Model. Mu2e aims to reach a single event sensitivity of $3 \times 10^{-17}$, improving from the previous limit by 4 orders of magnitude. This improvement relies on the development of trigger selection systems, designed to discard data from background-induced events by placing kinematic, topological cuts on a particle’s reconstructed track. One of the largest sources of background Mu2e faces is proton-antiproton annihilation. These annihilations produce a 2 GeV shower of particles, among which there could be an electron that mimics the conversion electron signal, with an expected number of 0.010 ± 0.010. The large uncertainty on this number is dominated by the systematic uncertainty associated with the theoretical production model.
To better characterize this background, we have developed an antiproton trigger selection by taking advantage of the track multiplicity and topology of these events. We discuss the steps taken in this development and the first performance study of this trigger, evaluating the signal efficiency and background rate. This trigger is essential to enable a data-driven analysis targeting the reduction of the systematic uncertainty of the antiproton-induced background in the Mu2e experiment.

Speaker: Ethan Martinez

Martinez_New_Perspectives_2024.pdf

Martinez_New_Perspectives_2024.pptx

54 Constraining Systematic Uncertainties for Future Sterile Neutrino Analysis at NOvA Experiment

With detectors at both Fermilab and Ash River, Minnesota, in the United States, NOvA
was built to investigate the intricate properties of neutrinos, with a principal emphasis on active
three-flavour neutrino mixing phenomena. Comprising two functionally identical detectors, with
the Near Detector located 1 km at Fermilab and the Far Detector located 810 km away and 14
mrad off the beam axis in Northern Minnesota, NOvA capitalizes on the expansive distance to
scrutinize neutrino behaviour.
NOvA not only probes active neutrino mixing but also explores exotic oscillations, including
sterile neutrinos. Uncertainties on the neutrino flux, cross-section, and detector systematics
significantly contribute, complicating the disentanglement of genuine physics events from
background noise. This talk presents the impact of systematic reduction via near detector neutral
current samples and its implications on oscillation parameters, leveraging results primarily
from Monte Carlo simulations. We aim to enhance the active-sterile neutrino oscillation by
constraining the systematics.

Speaker: SHIVAM Chaudhary (IIT Guwahati)

NewPerspective_v3.pdf

55 LArIAT in 10 Minutes

The LArIAT (Liquid Argon In a Testbeam) experiment utilizes a LArTPC (Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber) exposed to a tertiary beam of charged particles at Fermilab’s Test Beam Facility. LArIAT has collected large samples of pions, muons, electrons, protons, and kaons in the momentum range of ~ 300-1400 MeV/c. The scientific purpose of the LArIAT experiment is to investigate the interaction of neutrino products in argon to improve LArTPC detectors. This technology is the leading method of neutrino detection and is used in experiments such as DUNE, MicroBooNE, SBND, and ICARUS. The work presented here will provide an overview of the experiment as well as highlight several recent results.

Speaker: Liani Silva

LArIAT in 10 Minutes_v2.pdf

LArIAT in 10 Minutes_v2.pptx

Festa Italiana