ALICE is one of four major experiments of particle accelerator LHC installed in the European laboratory CERN. The management committee of the LHC accelerator has just approved a program update for this experiment. Among the upgrades planned for the coming years of the ALICE experiment is to improve the resolution and tracking efficiency maintaining the excellent particles identification ability, and to increase the read-out event rate to 100 KHz. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to update the Time Projection Chamber detector (TPC) and Muon tracking (MCH) detector modifying the read-out electronics, which is not suitable for this migration. To overcome this limitation the design, fabrication and experimental test of new ASIC named SAMPA has been proposed . This ASIC will support both positive and negative polarities, with 32 channels per chip and continuous data readout with smaller power consumption than the previous versions. This work aims to design, fabrication and experimental test of a readout front-end in 130nm CMOS technology with configurable polarity (positive/negative), peaking time and sensitivity. The new SAMPA ASIC can be used in both chambers (TPC and MCH). The proposed front-end is composed of a Charge Sensitive Amplifier (CSA) and a Semi-Gaussian shaper. In order to obtain an ASIC integrating 32 channels per chip, the design of the proposed front-end requires small area and low power consumption, but at the same time requires low noise. In this sense, a new Noise and PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio) improvement technique for the CSA design without power and area impact is proposed in this work. The analysis and equations of the proposed circuit are presented which were verified by electrical simulations and experimental test of a produced chip with 5 channels of the designed front-end. The measured equivalent noise charge was <550e for 30mV/fC of sensitivity at a input capacitance of 18.5pF. The total core area of the front-end was 2300?m × 150?m, and the measured total power consumption was 9.1mW per channel. / ALICE é um dos quatro grandes experimentos do acelerador de partículas LHC (Large Hadron Collider) instalado no laboratório europeu CERN. Um programa de atualizações desse experimento acaba de ser aprovado pelo comitê gestor do acelerador LHC. Dentro das atualizações planejadas para os próximos anos do experimento ALICE, está melhorar a resolução e eficiência de rastreamento de partículas produzidas em colisões entre íons pesados, mantendo a excelente capacidade de identificação de partículas para uma taxa de leitura de eventos significativamente maior da atual. Para se alcançar esse objetivo, entre outras ações, é preciso atualizar os detectores Time Projection Chamber (TPC), modificando a eletrônica de leitura de eventos, a qual não é adequada para esta migração. Para superar esta limitação tem sido proposto o projeto, simulação, fabricação, teste experimental e validação de um ASIC protótipo de aquisição de sinais e de processamento digital chamado SAMPA, que possa ser usado na eletrônica de detecção dos sinais no cátodo do TPC, que suporte polaridades negativas de tensão de entrada e leitura continua de dados, com 32 canais por chip, com menor consumo de potência comparado com a versão anterior do chip. Este trabalho tem como objetivo o projeto, fabricação, e teste experimental de um readout front-end em tecnologia CMOS 130nm, com polaridade configurable (positiva/ negativa), peaking time e sensibilidade, de forma que o novo SAMPA ASIC possa ser usada em ambos detectores. Para obter um ASIC integrando 32 canais por chip, o projeto do front-end proposto precisa ter baixa área e baixo consumo de potência, mas ao mesmo tempo requer baixo ruido. Neste sentido, uma nova técnica para melhorar a especificação de ruido e o PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio) sem impacto no consumo de área e potência é proposta neste trabalho. A análise e as equações do circuito proposto são apresentadas as quais foram validadas por simulação e teste experimental de um circuito integrado com 5 canais do front-end projetado. O Equivalent Noise Charge medido foi <550e para uma capacitance do detector de 18.5pF. A área total do front-end foi de 2300?m × 150?m, e o consumo total de potencia medido foi de 9.1mW por canal.

ALICE is one of four major experiments of particle accelerator LHC installed in the European laboratory CERN. The management committee of the LHC accelerator has just approved a program update for this experiment. Among the upgrades planned for the coming years of the ALICE experiment is to improve the resolution and tracking efficiency maintaining the excellent particles identification ability, and to increase the read-out event rate to 100 KHz. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to update the Time Projection Chamber detector (TPC) and Muon tracking (MCH) detector modifying the read-out electronics, which is not suitable for this migration. To overcome this limitation the design, fabrication and experimental test of new ASIC named SAMPA has been proposed . This ASIC will support both positive and negative polarities, with 32 channels per chip and continuous data readout with smaller power consumption than the previous versions. This work aims to design, fabrication and experimental test of a readout front-end in 130nm CMOS technology with configurable polarity (positive/negative), peaking time and sensitivity. The new SAMPA ASIC can be used in both chambers (TPC and MCH). The proposed front-end is composed of a Charge Sensitive Amplifier (CSA) and a Semi-Gaussian shaper. In order to obtain an ASIC integrating 32 channels per chip, the design of the proposed front-end requires small area and low power consumption, but at the same time requires low noise. In this sense, a new Noise and PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio) improvement technique for the CSA design without power and area impact is proposed in this work. The analysis and equations of the proposed circuit are presented which were verified by electrical simulations and experimental test of a produced chip with 5 channels of the designed front-end. The measured equivalent noise charge was <550e for 30mV/fC of sensitivity at a input capacitance of 18.5pF. The total core area of the front-end was 2300?m × 150?m, and the measured total power consumption was 9.1mW per channel. / ALICE é um dos quatro grandes experimentos do acelerador de partículas LHC (Large Hadron Collider) instalado no laboratório europeu CERN. Um programa de atualizações desse experimento acaba de ser aprovado pelo comitê gestor do acelerador LHC. Dentro das atualizações planejadas para os próximos anos do experimento ALICE, está melhorar a resolução e eficiência de rastreamento de partículas produzidas em colisões entre íons pesados, mantendo a excelente capacidade de identificação de partículas para uma taxa de leitura de eventos significativamente maior da atual. Para se alcançar esse objetivo, entre outras ações, é preciso atualizar os detectores Time Projection Chamber (TPC), modificando a eletrônica de leitura de eventos, a qual não é adequada para esta migração. Para superar esta limitação tem sido proposto o projeto, simulação, fabricação, teste experimental e validação de um ASIC protótipo de aquisição de sinais e de processamento digital chamado SAMPA, que possa ser usado na eletrônica de detecção dos sinais no cátodo do TPC, que suporte polaridades negativas de tensão de entrada e leitura continua de dados, com 32 canais por chip, com menor consumo de potência comparado com a versão anterior do chip. Este trabalho tem como objetivo o projeto, fabricação, e teste experimental de um readout front-end em tecnologia CMOS 130nm, com polaridade configurable (positiva/ negativa), peaking time e sensibilidade, de forma que o novo SAMPA ASIC possa ser usada em ambos detectores. Para obter um ASIC integrando 32 canais por chip, o projeto do front-end proposto precisa ter baixa área e baixo consumo de potência, mas ao mesmo tempo requer baixo ruido. Neste sentido, uma nova técnica para melhorar a especificação de ruido e o PSRR (Power Supply Rejection Ratio) sem impacto no consumo de área e potência é proposta neste trabalho. A análise e as equações do circuito proposto são apresentadas as quais foram validadas por simulação e teste experimental de um circuito integrado com 5 canais do front-end projetado. O Equivalent Noise Charge medido foi <550e para uma capacitance do detector de 18.5pF. A área total do front-end foi de 2300?m × 150?m, e o consumo total de potencia medido foi de 9.1mW por canal.

As one of the major mid-rapidity tracking devices of the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC), the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) plays an important role in measuring trajectory and energy of high energy charged particles in polarized proton-proton collision experiments. TPC's in-jet tracking efficiency represents the largest systematic uncertainty on jet energy scale at high transverse momentum, whose measurement contributes to the understanding of the spin structure of protons. The objective of this analysis is to get a better estimation of this systematic uncertainty, through methods of pure Monte-Carlo simulation and real- data embedding, in which simulated tracks are embedded into real-data events. Be- sides, simulated tracks are also embedded into Monte-Carlo events, to make a strict comparison for the uncertainty estimation. The result indicates that the unexplained part of the systematic uncertainty is reduced to 3.3%, from a previous quoted value of 5%. This analysis also suggests that future analysis, such as embedding jets into zero-bias real data and analysis with much higher event statistics, will benefit the understanding of the systematic uncertainty of the in-jet TPC tracking efficiency.

A prototype time projection chamber has been designed and constructed to study the performance that can be expected by the large scale time projection chambers in the ND280m detector of the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) neutrino oscillation experiment. Tests using the prototype will indicate any changes necessary to the fullscale design in order to meet the physics goals of the detectors. Some TPC gas parameters are measured, including the drift velocity, diffusion constant, and electron attachment coefficient. The spatial resolution of the TPC is also measured, and results are presented for two candidate TPC gasses.

Initial results are presented for two analyses using data from the recently completed laser calibration system of the time projection chambers for the Tokai-to- Kamioka long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Data taken with the first two production time projection chambers, while tested at TRIUMF, has been used to investigate the signal arrival time and subsequently the ionization drift speed and the relative gain of the micromegas and electronics systems. It has been found that an analytic Gaussian t produces the best overall results for establishing an arrival time, having both the lowest standard deviation, of 11 ns, and good amplitude dependence while remaining fast. Using the analytic fit technique the drift speeds of ionization has been found to be in agreement with the expected values at the 2% level. The largest of the contributing errors were found to be due to systematics involved in the calculation of the ionization production time and will be reduced in future. Relative gain analysis results have shown that the gain can be calculated based on a simple model relating the mean signal size of data channels to the variance. Further gain results have shown that an offset found in the laser data can be corrected for by sampling signal amplitudes from channels that do not detect ionization or can remain uncorrected if the fitting for the relative gain includes a correction parameter. Preliminary results of the gain's dependence on the gas temperature and pressure have shown a positive nonzero slope. However, systematic errors were found be large relative to the temperature and pressure ranges. This dependence and its use as a correction for such changes will need to be investigated further at the experiment site in Japan.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第22627号 / 理博第4616号 / 新制||理||1663(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)准教授 市川 温子, 教授 中家 剛, 准教授 窪 秀利 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

An overwhelming majority of matter in the Universe is dark matter, a substance unlike anything we know. Detecting dark matter particles requires ruling out observed phenomena caused by known particles. This thesis advances efforts toward the detection of dark matter using one of the most sensitive particle detection technologies: the dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber. Specifically, data from the XENON1T Experiment, located in Italy, and the Purdue small-scale ASTERiX detector are analyzed. A background of Lead-214 beta decay events can be mitigated by tracing the radioactive Radon-222 decay chain in XENON1T. However, a preliminary reduction of background has a high cost to exposure. Research on several topics was conducted with Purdue undergraduates, including a search for dark matter particles up to the Planck Mass, characterizing backgrounds due to muons, and searching for Boron-8 solar neutrino signals. XENON1T single-scatter dark matter limits were extended to a particle mass of 10¹⁸GeV/c². The ASTERiX detector was modified to characterize a significant background to the smallest detectable energy signatures: single- and few-electron ionization signals. Infrared light was determined to be ineffective at reducing this background, and their rates were observed to decrease inversely with time since an energetic interaction according to a power law. The rates of single- and few- electron backgrounds increase linearly with increased applied extraction fields and increased depth of the initial interaction in the detector. These results indicate that these backgrounds originate at the liquid-gas interface of dual-phase detectors. In exploring a single-photon threshold for initial scintillation signals, a previously unconsidered background of large dark count signals in the photosensors became apparent. The high background of small ionization signals and large dark count signals deterred a search for Boron-8 solar neutrino interactions in XENON1T. These studies are vital to mitigating backgrounds and improving the sensitivity of liquid xenon time projection chambers to new physical phenomena.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第24073号 / 理博第4840号 / 新制||理||1692(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 中家 剛, 教授 永江 知文, 准教授 WENDELL Roger / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

One of the most enduring questions in modern physics is the dark matter problem. Measurements of galactic rotation curves taken in the middle of the twentieth century suggest that there are large spherical halos of unseen matter permeating and surrounding most galaxies, stretching far beyond their visible extents. Although some of this mass discrepancy can be attributed to sources like primordial black holes or Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs), these theories can only explain a small percentage of this "missing matter". One approach which could account for the entirety of this missing mass is the theory of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or "WIMPs". As their name suggests, WIMPs interact only through the weak nuclear force and gravity and are quite massive (100 GeV/c2 to 1 TeV/c2). These particles have very small cross sections (≈ 10−39 cm2) with nucleons and therefore interact only very rarely with "normal" baryonic matter. To directly detect a dark matter particle, one needs to overcome this small cross-section barrier. In many experiments, this is achieved by utilizing detectors filled with liquid noble elements, which have excellent particle identification capabilities and are very low-background, allowing potential WIMP signals to be more easily distinguished from detector noise. These experiments also often apply uniform electric fields across their liquid volumes, turning the apparatus into Time Projection Chambers or "TPCs". TPCs can accurately determine the location of an interaction in the liquid volume (often simply called an "event") along the direction of the electric field. In DarkSide-50 ("DS-50" for short), the electric field is aligned antiparallel to the z-axis of the detector, and so the depth of an event can be determined to a considerable degree of accuracy by measuring the time between the first and second scintillation signals ("S1" and "S2"), which are generated at the interaction point itself and in a small gas pocket above the liquid region, respectively. One of the lingering challenges in this experiment, however, is the determination of an event’s position along the other two spatial dimensions, that is, its transverse or "xy" position. Some liquid noble element TPCs have achieved remarkably accurate event position reconstructions, typically using the relative amounts of S2 light collected by Photo-Multiplier Tubes ("PMTs") as the input data to their reconstruction algorithms. This approach has been particularly challenging in DarkSide-50, partly due to unexpected asymmetries in the detector, and partly due to the design of the detector itself. A variety of xy-Reconstruction methods ("xy methods" for short) have come and gone in DS- 50, with only a few of them providing useful results. The xy method described in this dissertation is a two-step Principal Component Analysis / Multi-Dimensional Fit (PCAMDF) reconstruction. In a nutshell, this method develops a functional mapping from the 19-dimensional space of the signal received by the PMTs at the "top" (or the "anode" end) of the DarkSide-50 TPC to each of the transverse coordinates, x and y. PCAMDF is a low-level "machine learning" algorithm, and as such, needs to be "trained" with a sample of representative events; in this case, these are provided by the DarkSide geant4-based Monte Carlo, g4ds. In this work, a thorough description of the PCAMDF xy-Reconstruction method is provided along with an analysis of its performance on MC events and data. The method is applied to several classes of data events, including coincident decays, external gamma rays from calibration sources, and both atmospheric argon "AAr" and underground argon "UAr". Discrepancies between the MC and data are explored, and fiducial volume cuts are calculated. Finally, a novel method is proposed for finding the accuracy of the PCAMDF reconstruction on data by using the asymmetry of the S2 light collected on the anode and cathode PMT arrays as a function of xy. / Physics

En France, les références associées à la fluence neutronique et aux grandeurs dosimétriques dérivées sont détenues par le Laboratoire de Métrologie, de micro-irradiation et de Dosimétrie des Neutrons (LMDN) de l’IRSN. Afin d’améliorer la définition des références en énergie et en fluence des champs neutroniques monoénergétiques de l’installation AMANDE,le LMDN s’est engagé dans le projet de développement d’un détecteur gazeux μTPC (microTime Projection Chamber) appelé LNE-IRSN-MIMAC en collaboration avec le LPSC.Dans une précédente thèse, la mesure de champs neutroniques entre 27 keV et 565 keV a été réalisée. L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’étendre la gamme de mesure au-delà de 1 MeV.Le choix du gaz, le développement d’une méthode d’analyse indépendante de l’utilisateur et la caractérisation du détecteur ont ainsi permis de valider la capacité du détecteur LNE-IRSN-MIMAC à réaliser des mesures dans des champs neutroniques monoénergétiques entre 250 keV et 6,5 MeV avec une précision de 3% en énergie et de 2,5% en fluence. / In France, the references associated to the neutron fluence and the deriva-ted dosimetric quantities are under the responsability of the micro-irradiation and neutronmetrology and dosimetry laboratory (LMDN)of IRSN. In order to improve the definition ofreferences in fluence and energy of the monoenergetic neutron fields, produced at AMANDEfacility, a micro-TPC gaseous detector, called LNE-IRSN-MIMAC, is developping in collabo-ration with LPSC.In a previous work, the detector was qualified for neutron fields in the energy rangebetween 27 keV and 565 keV. The objective of the present work is to extend the range of theμTPC above 1 MeV. The choice of the gas, the development of an analysis method and thedetector characterization allowed to validate the detector capacity to perform measurements inmonoenergetic neutron fields ranging from 250 keV up to 6,5 MeV with a relative uncertaintyof 3% and 2,5% respectively in energy and fluence.