•An improved protocol for preparing TEM samples of CNCs is proposed.•No radioactive stain or altering TEM grid surface properties involved.•A dunking rinse method controls over-application of ...stain.•Troubleshooting table to resolve common issues when imaging CNCs.
Characterization of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is often complex and tedious. With their increased use for biological materials, polymer reinforcing agents, and other applications, better characterization methods of CNCs are needed to ensure product quality. However, because of their small size, hydrogen bonding, and low electron density, individual CNCs are difficult to image with high resolution and magnification using electron microscopy. Methods to help counter these challenges include staining for increased contrast and techniques to increase dispersion. This work tested several stains, dispersing agents, and sample supports to find a consistent method of individualizing CNCs and providing good contrast for imaging in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The most consistent method found uses a low concentration of CNCs, bovine serum albumin as a dispersing agent, and Nanovan® as the contrasting stain on a silicon monoxide-coated Formvar TEM grid.
The development and operation of liquid-argon time-projection chambers for neutrino physics has created a need for new approaches to pattern recognition in order to fully exploit the imaging ...capabilities offered by this technology. Whereas the human brain can excel at identifying features in the recorded events, it is a significant challenge to develop an automated, algorithmic solution. The Pandora Software Development Kit provides functionality to aid the design and implementation of pattern-recognition algorithms. It promotes the use of a multi-algorithm approach to pattern recognition, in which individual algorithms each address a specific task in a particular topology. Many tens of algorithms then carefully build up a picture of the event and, together, provide a robust automated pattern-recognition solution. This paper describes details of the chain of over one hundred Pandora algorithms and tools used to reconstruct cosmic-ray muon and neutrino events in the MicroBooNE detector. Metrics that assess the current pattern-recognition performance are presented for simulated MicroBooNE events, using a selection of final-state event topologies.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Design, calibration, and performance of the MINERvA detector Aliaga, L.; Bagby, L.; Baldin, B. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
04/2014, Letnik:
743
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The MINERvA66Main INjector ExpeRiment ν-A. experiment is designed to perform precision studies of neutrino-nucleus scattering using νμ and ν¯μ neutrinos incident at 1–20GeV in the NuMI beam at ...Fermilab. This article presents a detailed description of the MINERvA detector and describes the ex situ and in situ techniques employed to characterize the detector and monitor its performance. The detector is composed of a finely segmented scintillator-based inner tracking region surrounded by electromagnetic and hadronic sampling calorimetry. The upstream portion of the detector includes planes of graphite, iron and lead interleaved between tracking planes to facilitate the study of nuclear effects in neutrino interactions. Observations concerning the detector response over sustained periods of running are reported. The detector design and methods of operation have relevance to future neutrino experiments in which segmented scintillator tracking is utilized.
ICARUS T600 is the far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab (U.S.A.), which foresees three Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers along the Booster Neutrino Beam line to search ...for LSND-like sterile neutrino signal. The T600 detector underwent a significant overhauling process at CERN, introducing new technological developments while maintaining the already achieved performances. The realization of a new liquid argon scintillation light detection system is a primary task of the detector overhaul. As the detector will be subject to a huge flux of cosmic rays, the light detection system should allow the 3D reconstruction of events contributing to the identification of neutrino interactions in the beam spill gate. The design and implementation of the new scintillation light detection system of ICARUS T600 is described.
The low-noise operation of readout electronics in a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) is critical to properly extract the distribution of ionization charge deposited on the wire planes of ...the TPC, especially for the induction planes. This paper describes the characteristics and mitigation of the observed noise in the MicroBooNE detector. The MicroBooNE's single-phase LArTPC comprises two induction planes and one collection sense wire plane with a total of 8256 wires. Current induced on each TPC wire is amplified and shaped by custom low-power, low-noise ASICs immersed in the liquid argon. The digitization of the signal waveform occurs outside the cryostat. Using data from the first year of MicroBooNE operations, several excess noise sources in the TPC were identified and mitigated. The residual equivalent noise charge (ENC) after noise filtering varies with wire length and is found to be below 400 electrons for the longest wires (4.7m). The response is consistent with the cold electronics design expectations and is found to be stable with time and uniform over the functioning channels. This noise level is significantly lower than previous experiments utilizing warm front-end electronics.
We discuss a technique for measuring a charged particle's momentum by means of multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS) in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC). This method does not ...require the full particle ionization track to be contained inside of the detector volume as other track momentum reconstruction methods do (range-based momentum reconstruction and calorimetric momentum reconstruction). We motivate use of this technique, describe a tuning of the underlying phenomenological formula, quantify its performance on fully contained beam-neutrino-induced muon tracks both in simulation and in data, and quantify its performance on exiting muon tracks in simulation. Using simulation, we have shown that the standard Highland formula should be re-tuned specifically for scattering in liquid argon, which significantly improves the bias and resolution of the momentum measurement. With the tuned formula, we find agreement between data and simulation for contained tracks, with a small bias in the momentum reconstruction and with resolutions that vary as a function of track length, improving from about 10% for the shortest (one meter long) tracks to 5% for longer (several meter) tracks. For simulated exiting muons with at least one meter of track contained, we find a similarly small bias, and a resolution which is less than 15% for muons with momentum below 2 GeV/c. Above 2 GeV/c, results are given as a first estimate of the MCS momentum measurement capabilities of MicroBooNE for high momentum exiting tracks.
ICARUS T600 will be operated as far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab (U.S.A.), which foresees three liquid argon time projection chambers along the Booster Neutrino Beam ...line to search for a LSND-like sterile neutrino signal. The detector employs 360 photomultiplier tubes, Hamamatsu model R5912-MOD, suitable for cryogenic applications. A total of 400 PMTs were procured from Hamamatsu and tested at room temperature to evaluate the performance of the devices and their compliance to detect the liquid argon scintillation light in the T600 detector. Furthermore 60 units were also characterized at cryogenic temperature, in liquid argon bath, to evaluate any parameter variation which could affect the scintillation light detection. All the tested PMTs were found to comply with the requirements of ICARUS T600 and a subset of 360 specimens was selected for the final installation in the detector.
The ICARUS T600 liquid argon (LAr) time projection chamber (TPC) underwent a major overhaul at CERN in 2016–2017 to prepare for the operation at FNAL in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program. ...This included a major upgrade of the photo-multiplier system and of the TPC wire read-out electronics. The full TPC wire read-out electronics together with the new wire biasing and interconnection scheme are described. The design of a new signal feed-through flange is also a fundamental piece of this overhaul whose major feature is the integration of all electronics components onto the signal flange. Initial functionality tests of the full TPC electronics chain installed in the T600 detector at FNAL are also described.
The MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) has been taking data at Fermilab since 2015 collecting, in addition to neutrino beam, cosmic-ray muons. Results are presented on the ...reconstruction of Michel electrons produced by the decay at rest of cosmic-ray muons. Michel electrons are abundantly produced in the TPC, and given their well known energy spectrum can be used to study MicroBooNE's detector response to low-energy electrons (electrons with energies up to ~ 50 MeV). We describe the fully-automated algorithm developed to reconstruct Michel electrons, with which a sample of ~ 14,000 Michel electron candidates is obtained. Most of this article is dedicated to studying the impact of radiative photons produced by Michel electrons on the accuracy and resolution of their energy measurement. In this energy range, ionization and bremsstrahlung photon production contribute similarly to electron energy loss in argon, leading to a complex electron topology in the TPC. By profiling the performance of the reconstruction algorithm on simulation we show that the ability to identify and include energy deposited by radiative photons leads to a significant improvement in the energy measurement of low-energy electrons. The fractional energy resolution we measure improves from over 30% to ~ 20% when we attempt to include radiative photons in the reconstruction. These studies are relevant to a large number of analyses which aim to study neutrinos by measuring electrons produced by νe interactions over a broad energy range.
The MicroBooNE detector is a liquid argon time projection chamber at Fermilab designed to study short-baseline neutrino oscillations and neutrino-argon interaction cross-section. Due to its location ...near the surface, a good understanding of cosmic muons as a source of backgrounds is of fundamental importance for the experiment. We present a method of using an external 0.5 m (L) × 0.5 m (W) muon counter stack, installed above the main detector, to determine the cosmic-ray reconstruction efficiency in MicroBooNE. Data are acquired with this external muon counter stack placed in three different positions, corresponding to cosmic rays intersecting different parts of the detector. The data reconstruction efficiency of tracks in the detector is found to be εdata=(97.1±0.1(stat)±1.4(sys))%, in good agreement with the Monte Carlo reconstruction efficiency εMC=(97.4±0.1)%. This analysis represents a small-scale demonstration of the method that can be used with future data coming from a recently installed cosmic-ray tagger system, which will be able to tag ≈80% of the cosmic rays passing through the MicroBooNE detector.
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