The application of pulse shape analysis (PSA) and γ-ray tracking techniques has attracted a great deal of interest in the recent years in fields ranging from nuclear structure studies to medical imaging. These new data analysis methods add position sensitivity as well as directional information for the detected γ-rays to the excellent energy resolution of germanium detectors. This thesis focuses on the application of PSA on planar segmented germanium detectors, divided into three separate studies. The pulse shape analysis technique known as the matrix method was chosen due to its ability to treat events with arbitrary number and combinations of interactions within a single detector. It has been applied in two experiments with the 25-fold segmented planar pixel detector -- imaging and polarization measurements -- as well as in a simulation of upcoming detectors for DESPEC at NuSTAR/FAIR. In the first experiment, a point source of 137Cs was imaged. Events where the 662 keV γ-rays scattered once and were then absorbed in a different segment were treated by the PSA algorithm in order to find the locations of these interactions. The Compton scattering formula was then used to determine the direction to the source. The experiment has provided a robust test of the performance of the PSA algorithm on multiple interaction events, in particular those with interactions in adjacent segments, as well as allowed to estimate the realistically attainable position resolution. In the second experiment, the response of the detector to polarized photons of 288 keV was studied. The polarization of photons can be measured through the observation of the angular distribution of Compton-scattered photons, Hence the ability to resolve the interaction locations had once again proven useful. The third study is focused on the performance of the proposed planar germanium detectors for the DESPEC array. As these detectors have not yet been manufactured at the time of this writing, a set of data simulated in GEANT4 was used. The detector response was calculated for two of the possible segmentation patterns -- that with a single pixelated contact and one where both contacts are segmented into mutually orthogonal strips. In both cases, PSA was applied in order to reconstruct the interaction locations from this response. It was found that the double-sided strip detector can achieve an over-all better position resolution with a given number of readout channels. However, this comes at the expense of a small number of complex events where the reconstruction fails. These results have also been compared to the performance of the 25-fold pixelated detector. / QC 20101110

Double beta decay is a powerful tool to investigate the properties of the neutrino and of the weak interaction. Studying characteristics of this decay is very challenging because of its long half-life and interfering natural backgrounds. One experiment aiming to investigate double beta decay is the COBRA experiment located at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory. COBRA uses room temperature CdZnTe semiconductor detectors that intrinsically contain multiple double beta decay candidates. The previous COBRA Demonstrator had a relatively high background level and thus is not competitive for double beta decay searches. With the objective of reducing the background as well as increasing the signal sensitivity, the experiment was upgraded using large CdZnTe detectors with a novel electrode design. This work focuses on the study of the new detectors. A pulse shape simulation based on COMSOL and Monte Carlo is developed with the goal of characterizing the new detectors. This simulation framework is also part of a newly developed pulse shape discrimination to suppress background. Applying those analysis cuts the background index improves by a factor of 23 compared to the previous setup. Furthermore, the 2νββ-decay of 116Cd is investigated using data with an exposure of 0.18 kg·yr. The potential for measuring the excited state transition of this decay is also explored. Apart from the double beta decay investigations, a study of the charge non-conserving decay of 113Cd will be presented. The new half-life limit helps to constrain the theoretical presumptions for this exotic decay process.

In this work, Neutron Depth Profiling (NDP) analysis capability has been added to the Oregon State University TRIGA�� Reactor Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis Facility (PGNAA). This system has been implemented with an advanced digital spectroscopy system and is capable of rise time pulse shape analysis as well as coincidence measurements from multiple detectors. The digital spectroscopy system utilizes a high-speed multichannel digitizer with speeds up to 200 Megasamples/second (MS/s) with advanced hardware trigger and time stamping capabilities. These additions allow the facility to conduct simultaneous NDP and PGNAA combined measurements, which also enables cross calibration. The digital pulse processing is implemented with software programmed rise time pulse shape analysis capabilities for the analysis of the detector responses on a pulse-by-pulse basis to distinguish between different interactions in the detector. The advanced trigger capabilities of the digitizer were configured to accurately measure and correct for dead time effects from pulse pile up and preamplifier decay time. / Graduation date: 2013

Introduction. Road traffic injuries are the eighth leading cause of death globally and the leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29. Of individuals killed or injured in road traffic injuries, a large group comprises occupants sustaining a thorax injury in frontal crashes. The elderly are particularly at risk, as they are more fragile. The evaluation of the frontal crash performance of new vehicles is normally based on barrier crash tests. Such tests are only representative of a small portion of real-life crashes, but it is not feasible to test vehicles in all real-life conditions. However, the rapid development of computers opens up possibilities for simulating whole populations of real-life crashes using so-called stochastic simulations. This opportunity leads to the aim of this thesis, which is to develop and validate a simplified, parameterized, stochastic vehicle simulation model for the evaluation of passive restraint systems in real-life frontal crashes with regard to rib fracture injuries. Methods. The work was divided into five phases. In phase one, the geometry and properties of a finite element (FE) generic vehicle buck model were developed based on data from 14 vehicles. In the second phase, a human FE model was validated for oblique frontal crashes. This human FE model was then used to represent the vehicle occupant. In the third phase, vehicle buck boundary conditions were derived based on real-life crash data from the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) and crash test data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In phase four, a validation reference was developed by creating risk curves for rib fracture in NASS real-life crashes. Next, these risk curves were compared to the risk of rib fractures computed using the generic vehicle buck model. In the final phase, injury mechanisms in nearside oblique frontal crashes were evaluated. Results. In addition to an averaged geometry, parametric distributions for 27 vehicle and boundary condition parameters were developed as guiding properties for the stochastic model. Particular aspects of the boundary conditions such as pulse shape, pulse angle and pulse severity were analyzed in detail. The human FE model validation showed that the kinematics and rib fracture pattern in frontal oblique crashes were acceptable for this study. The validation of the complete FE generic vehicle buck model showed that the model overestimates the risk of rib fractures. However, if the reported under-prediction of rib fractures (50-70%) in the NASS data is accounted for using statistical simulations, the generic vehicle buck model accurately predicts injury risk for senior (70-year-old) occupants. The chest injury mechanisms in nearside oblique frontal crashes were found to be a combination of (I) belt and airbag loading and (II) the chest impacting the side structure. The debut of the second mechanism was found for pulse angles of about 30 degrees. Conclusion. A parameterized FE generic passenger vehicle buck model has been created and validated on a population of real life crashes in terms of rib fracture risk. With the current validation status, this model provides the possibility of developing and evaluating new passive safety systems for fragile senior occupants. Further, an injury mechanism responsible for the increased number of outboard rib fractures seen in small overlap and near-side oblique frontal impacts has been proposed and analyzed. / Vinnova Project: Real Life Safety Innovations

No description available.

Ultra wide band (UWB) is an extremely promising wireless technology for researchers and industrials. One of the most interesting is its high data rate and fading robustness due to selective frequency fading. However, beside such advantages, UWB system performance is highly affected by existing narrowband interference (NBI), undesired UWB signals and tone/multi-tone noises. For this reason, research about NBI cancellation is still a challenge to improve the system performance vs. receiver complexity, power consumption, linearity, etc. In this work, the two major receiver sections, i.e., analog (radiofrequency or RF) and digital (digital signal processing or DSP), were considered and new techniques proposed to reduce circuit complexity and power consumption, while improving signal parameters. In the RF section, different multiband UWB low-noise amplifier key design parameters were investigated like circuit configuration, input matching and desired/undesired frequency band filtering, highlighting the most suitable filtering package for efficient UWB NBI cancellation. In the DSP section, due to pulse transmitter signals, different issues like modulation type and level, pulse variety, shape and color noise/tone noise assumptions, were addressed for efficient NBI cancelation. A comparison was performed in terms of bit-error rate, signal-to-interference ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, and channel capacity to highlight the most suitable parameters for efficient DSP design. The optimum number of filters that allows the filter bandwidth to be reduced by following the required low sampling rate and thus improving the system bit error rate was also investigated.

This dissertation investigates CsI(Tl) pulse shape discrimination (PSD) as a novel experimental technique to improve challenging areas of particle identification at high energy $e^+ e^-$ colliders using CsI(Tl) calorimeters. In this work CsI(Tl) PSD is implemented and studied at the Belle II experiment operating at the SuperKEKB $e^+ e^-$ collider, representing the first application of CsI(Tl) PSD at a $B$ factory experiment. Results are presented from Belle II as well as a testbeam completed at the TRIUMF proton and neutron irradiation facility. From the analysis of the testbeam data, energy deposits from highly ionizing particles are shown to produce a CsI(Tl) scintillation component with decay time of $630\pm10$ ns, referred to as the hadron scintillation component, and not present in energy deposits from electromagnetic showers or minimum ionizing particles. By measuring the fraction of hadron scintillation emission relative to the total scintillation emission, a new method for CsI(Tl) pulse shape characterization is developed and implemented at the Belle II experiment's electromagnetic calorimeter, constructed from 8736 CsI(Tl) crystals. A theoretical model is formulated to allow for simulations of the particle dependent CsI(Tl) scintillation response. This model is incorporated into GEANT4 simulations of the testbeam apparatus and the Belle II detector, allowing for accurate simulations of the observed particle dependent scintillation response of CsI(Tl). With $e^\pm$, $\mu^\pm$, $\pi^\pm$, $K^\pm$ and $p/\bar{p}$ control samples selected from Belle II collision data the performance of this new simulation technique is evaluated. In addition the performance of hadronic interaction modelling by GEANT4 particle interactions in matter simulation libraries is studied and using PSD potential sources of data vs. simulation disagreement are identified. A PSD-based multivariate classifier trained for $K_L^0$ vs. photon identification is also presented. With $K_L^0$ and photon control samples selected from Belle II collision data, pulse shape discrimination is shown to allow for high efficiency $K_L^0$ identification with low photon backgrounds as well as improved $\pi^0$ identification compared to shower-shape based methods. / Graduate

Ultra wide band (UWB) is an extremely promising wireless technology for researchers and industrials. One of the most interesting is its high data rate and fading robustness due to selective frequency fading. However, beside such advantages, UWB system performance is highly affected by existing narrowband interference (NBI), undesired UWB signals and tone/multi-tone noises. For this reason, research about NBI cancellation is still a challenge to improve the system performance vs. receiver complexity, power consumption, linearity, etc. In this work, the two major receiver sections, i.e., analog (radiofrequency or RF) and digital (digital signal processing or DSP), were considered and new techniques proposed to reduce circuit complexity and power consumption, while improving signal parameters. In the RF section, different multiband UWB low-noise amplifier key design parameters were investigated like circuit configuration, input matching and desired/undesired frequency band filtering, highlighting the most suitable filtering package for efficient UWB NBI cancellation. In the DSP section, due to pulse transmitter signals, different issues like modulation type and level, pulse variety, shape and color noise/tone noise assumptions, were addressed for efficient NBI cancelation. A comparison was performed in terms of bit-error rate, signal-to-interference ratio, signal-to-noise ratio, and channel capacity to highlight the most suitable parameters for efficient DSP design. The optimum number of filters that allows the filter bandwidth to be reduced by following the required low sampling rate and thus improving the system bit error rate was also investigated.

This thesis describes the development of electronic modules for fusion neutron spectroscopy as well as several implementations of artificial neural networks (NN) for neutron diagnostics for the Joint European Torus (JET) experimental reactor in England. The electronics projects include the development of two fast light pulser modules based on Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for the calibration and stability monitoring of two neutron spectrometers (MPRu and TOFOR) at JET. The particular electronic implementation of the pulsers allowed for operation of the LEDs in the nanosecond time scale, which is typically not well accessible with simpler circuits. Another electronic project consisted of the the development and implementation at JET of 32 high frequency analog signal amplifiers for MPRu. The circuit board layout adopted and the choice of components permitted to achieve bandwidth above 0.5 GHz and low distortion for a wide range of input signals. The successful and continued use of all electronic modules since 2005 until the present day is an indication of their good performance and reliability. The NN applications include pulse shape discrimination (PSD), deconvolution of experimental data and tomographic reconstruction of neutron emissivity profiles for JET. The first study showed that NN can perform neutron/gamma PSD in liquid scintillators significantly better than other conventional techniques, especially for low deposited energy in the detector. The second study demonstrated that NN can be used for statistically efficient deconvolution of neutron energy spectra, with and without parametric neutron spectroscopic models, especially in the region of low counts in the data. The work on tomography provided a simple but effective parametric model for describing neutron emissivity at JET. This was then successfully implemented with NN for fast and automatic tomographic reconstruction of the JET camera data. The fast execution time of NN, i.e. usually in the microsecond time scale, makes the NN applications presented here suitable for real-time data analysis and typically orders of magnitudes faster than other commonly used codes. The results and numerical methods described in this thesis can be applied to other diagnostic instruments and are of relevance for future fusion reactors such as ITER, currently under construction in Cadarache, France.

Neutron-rich rare-earth nuclei are among the most collective nuclei that can be found in nature. In particular, the doubly mid-shell nucleus 170Dy is expected to be the nucleus where the collective structure is maximized. This has implications for the astrophysical r-process, since it has been suggested that the collectivity maximum plays an important role in the abundances of the rare-earth elements that are created in supernova explosions. In this work, the collective structure of the five nuclei 168,170Dy and 167,168,169Ho are studied and different theoretical models are used to interpret the evolution of collectivity around the mid-shell. In order to produce and study even more neutron-rich nuclei in this mass region, new radioactive ion beam facilities will be a valuable tool. These facilities, however, require advanced instruments to study the weak signals of exotic nuclei in a high background environment. Two of these instruments are the γ-ray tracking spectrometer AGATA and the neutron detector array NEDA. For AGATA to work satisfactorily, the interaction position of the gamma rays must be determined with an accuracy of at least five millimetres. The position resolution is measured in this work using a model independent method based on the Doppler correction capabilities of the detector at two different distances between the detector and the source. For NEDA, one of the critical parameters is its ability to discriminate between neutrons and γ rays. By using digital electronics it is possible to employ advanced and efficient algorithms for pulse-shape discrimination. In this work, digital versions of the common analogue methods are shownto give as good, or better, results compared to the ones obtained using analogue electronics. Another method which effectively distinguishes between neutrons and γ rays is based on artificial neural networks. This method is also investigated in this work and is shown to yield even better results.