No Arabic abstract
The Mu2e experiment will search for a neutrino-less muon-to-electron conversion process with almost four orders of magnitude of sensitivity improvement relative to the current best limit. One important background is caused by cosmic ray muons, and particles produced by their decay or interactions, mimicking the conversion electron signature. In order to reach the design sensitivity, Mu2e needs to obtain a cosmic ray veto (CRV) efficiency of 99.99%. The CRV system consists of four layers of plastic scintillating counters read out by silicon photo-multipliers (SiPM) through wavelength shifting fibers. The CRV counters must produce sufficient photo statistics in order to achieve the required veto efficiency. We study the light properties of several wavelength shifting fiber sizes in order to optimize the total light yield for the CRV system. The measurements are performed using a scanner designed to ensure fiber quality for the CRV.
The motivation for a cosmic muon veto (CMV) detector is to explore the possibility of locating the proposed large Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India based Neutrino Observatory (INO) at a shallow depth. An initial effort in that direction, through the assembly and testing of a $sim$ 1 m $times$ 1 m $times$ 0.3 m plastic scintillator based detector, is described. The plan for making a CMV detector for a smaller prototype mini-ICAL is also outlined.
Based on test-beam measurements, we study the response of a liquid-scintillator detector equipped with wavelength-shifting optical modules, that are proposed e.g. for the IceCube experiment and the SHiP experiment, and adiabatic light guides that are viewed either by a photomultiplier tube or by an array of silicon photomultipliers. We report on the efficiency, the time resolution and the detector response to different particle types and point out potential ways to improve the detector performance.
The light yield and the time resolution of different types of 3 m long scintillating bars instrumented with wavelength shifting fibres and read out by different models of silicon photomultipliers have been measured at a test beam at the T9 area at the CERN Proton Synchrotron. The results obtained with different configurations are presented. A time resolution better than 800 ps, constant along the bar length within 20%, and a light yield of ~ 140 (70) photoelectrons are obtained for bars 3 m long, 4.5 (5) cm wide and 2 (0.7) cm thick. These results nicely match the requirements for the Muon Detector of the SHiP experiment.
Low background experiments need a suppression of cosmogenically induced events. The GERDA experiment located at LNGS is searching for the neutrinless double beta decay of $^{76}$Ge. It is equipped with an active muon veto the main part of which is a water Cherenkov veto with 66 PMTs in the watertank surrounding the GERDA cryostat. With this system 806 live days have been recorded, 491 days were combined muon-germanium data. A muon detection efficiency of $varepsilon_{mu d}=(99.935pm0.015)$ % was found in a Monte Carlo simulation for the muons depositing energy in the germanium detectors. By examining coincident muon-germanium events a rejection efficiency of $varepsilon_{mu r}=(99.2_{-0.4}^{+0.3})$ % was found. Without veto condition the muons by themselves would cause a background index of $textrm{BI}_{mu}=(3.16 pm 0.85)times10^{-3}$ cts/(keV$cdot$kg$cdot$yr) at $Q_{betabeta}$.
The scintillation detection systems of liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) require wavelength shifters to detect the 128 nm scintillation light produced in liquid argon. Tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) is a fluorescent material that can shift this light to a wavelength of 425 nm, lending itself well to use in these detectors. We can coat the glass of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) with TPB or place TPB-coated plates in front of the PMTs. In this paper, we investigate the degradation of a chemical TPB coating in a laboratory or factory environment to assess the viability of long-term TPB film storage prior to its initial installation in an LArTPC. We present evidence for severe degradation due to common fluorescent lights and ambient sunlight in laboratories, with potential losses at the 40% level in the first day and eventual losses at the 80% level after a month of exposure. We determine the degradation is due to wavelengths in the UV spectrum, and we demonstrate mitigating methods for retrofitting lab and factory environments.