The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX), is a balloon borne experiment that is on measuring the flux of different cosmic ray isotopes. Objective of HELIX is primarily to measure the ratio of Be_10 and Be_9 fluxes to study the propagation of cosmic rays. HELIX had around 6 days of flight in 2024 from Kiruna, Sweden, collecting 200M instances of cosmic ray events. Raw data collected...
Astroparticle Physics is an exciting science at the forefront of answering fundamental questions about the Universe. The public can be intimidated by this field, as it is not a topic traditionally included in one’s typical education. Nevertheless, the field needs continued exposure to gain interest from up-and-coming scientists. This summer, I addressed this gap between physicists and the...
This summer, I designed a cooling loop for the nEXO photomultiplier tube (PMT) testing setup and enhanced Python scripts for analyzing PMT rate data. For the cooling loop, I conducted various calculations to select the optimal design, compiled a detailed bill of materials, and ensured all necessary components were ordered. Additionally, I stress-tested the Python scripts, improving performance...
As dark matter detection efforts expand into lower energies, events exceeding the frequency and characteristics of predicted background noise have been detected. So named Low Energy Excess, understanding the source and features of these events is important to improve data analysis and design in low-threshold cryogenic experiments, and is a key objective of the current HVeV detector run at...
Mitigating the impact of ionizing radiation is critical for realizing fault-tolerant superconducting quantum computers and quantum sensors for low-mass particle search. I present a new experiment at SNOLAB's CUTE facility that will primarily study the impact of ionizing radiation on superconducting qubits coherence, in addition to other initiatives to mitigate decoherence sources.
Radon is a significant problem for various analysis at SNO+. Fundamentals of radon and its importance to sno+ will be discussed, as will radon assays and radon mitigation R&D.
DEAP-3600 is searching for WIMP dark matter with a 3.3 ton single phase liquid argon (LAr) target, 2070 m underground at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Canada. A newly upgraded neck install has been performed this summer, concluding the last stretch of detector upgrades to mitigate previously identified background radiation. Details of the upgrades will be presented in this talk.
The talk will also cover...
SiPMs are single photon detectors that will be used to detect the fluorescence of magnetically trapped hydrogen in the HAICU experiment at TRIUMF. HAICU's goals include the development of laser cooling and atomic interferometry with the lightest atom. Room temperature characterization is useful for determining the key properties of a new SiPM device. These properties include but are not...
This summer, I've been working on modifying Holodeck, a public python "Massive Black-Hole Binary Population Synthesis for Gravitational Wave Calculations", in order explore a new formation channel of supermassive black holes. Classically, supermassive black holes form from the multiple galaxy mergers and the merger of the black holes in their center. This "exotic" formation channel starts with...
The proposed future experiment nEXO aims to find neutrino-less double beta decay in liquid xenon. A critical component of nEXO is the silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) used to detect the light emitted by the decay. To understand how the SiPMS will behave in nEXO, a characterization of them at liquid xenon temperature, -100 C, is necessary. Fortunately, characterization at -40 C is predictive of...
The Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and uv Research(CASTOR) has been undergoing detector testing for the new CIS-303 detectors. Understanding the detector effects and optimizing CASTOR’s capabilities is a critical element needed to prepare the mission for launch by the end of this decade. To this end, A simulation pipeline was developed to generate in-flight simulation and...
SuperCDMS (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) is a dark matter direct detection experiment at SNOLAB; while the construction is underway, the Simulations group aims to build a model that reconstructs the energy deposition in an event based on the output of the detector electronics. An unknown delay time exists between the energy deposition and the peak of the measured pulse, which I aimed to model....
The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC), a dark matter direct-detection experiment, aims to detect bubbles produced in a superheated liquid target. To achieve this, the chamber is monitored by cameras and illuminated by flashing LEDs. Outside the target volume, silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) capture scintillation light which can be used to identify non-dark matter interactions. The SiPMs,...
This analysis focused on the unidentified events in the middle of the SNO+ detector caused by activities from the neck. Because of the nature of geometry and material of the neck, it was postulated that many events reconstructed in the middle of detector are a product of the complexities of the neck. This analysis attempted to account for those events in several ways. First, calculations were...
The nEXO experiment aims to detect neutrinoless double beta decay $(0\nu\beta\beta )$ in 5 tonnes of liquid xenon (LXe) inside a time projection chamber, isotopically enriched to 90% in the double-beta decaying isotope $^{136}\mathbf{Xe}$ . One beneficial feature of LXe is the potential identification of the $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay daughter ($^{136}\mathbf{Ba}$) providing the ultimate...
This study investigates the effectiveness of radon monitors sold publically in collaboration with Health Canada by testing the monitors underground in SNOLAB. Thirteen different types of monitors, including the EcoQube, RadonEye, and the Airthings radon monitor, were tested for accuracy and reliability in an underground environment. Results indicate significant discrepancies in the performance...
HELIX (High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment) is a balloon experiment designed to measure abundance of cosmic ray isotopes from hydrogen to neon, with a particular interest in abundances of beryllium isotopes. HELIX aim to provide essential data to study the cosmic ray propagation in our galaxy. The Drift Chamber Tracker (DCT) in HELIX is a multi-wire gas drift chamber designed to measure the...
A key challenge faced by bubble chamber experiments searching for dark matter, is that many other types of particles can also nucleate bubbles. PICO-500 will employ a photomultiplier tube based muon veto system to distinguish between bubbles from muons and DM. An array of LED drivers will use blue LEDs to calibrate and monitor the PMTs to ensure proper operation and accurate vetoing of muon...
CASST Abstract Submission
Matt Poser, July 30th 2024, Queen’s University
CASST Competition, August 19th-20th, Laurentian University, SNOLAB, McDonald Institute
The DEAP 3600 experiment is a particle detection experiment using liquid argon scintillation and pulse shape discrimination in an effort to detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles. The experiment...
The nEXO experiment is investigating the fundamental nature of the neutrino by searching for neutrinoless double beta decay in xenon-136. Its inner detector will measure light in liquid xenon using silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) arranged on staves, rectangular support structures that line the sides of the detector. Testing of these staves must occur prior to their implementation in nEXO, and...
DEAP-3600 is a single-phase direct detection dark matter experiment using a 3600kg liquid Argon (LAr) target to search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)--a proposed dark matter candidate. The detector has 255 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) that can detect photons created by events on the outside of the spherical volume of the detector.
6800ft underground, work is being...
In the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, germanium detectors are a valuable tool. It is of interest to unterstand the position and energy of interactions inside the detectors. An accurate reconstruction of interaction position inside a detector is important for event characterization and background rejection. Novel approaches, such as machine learning, can complement or further...
The need for the promotion of equity in STEM is an uphill battle, one that is recognized by many academic institutions. As need for research-based, equity-promoting initiatives continues, students commonly experience what is described as the Imposter Phenomenon. It can be defined as a cyclical, distressing feeling in which an individual considers themselves less worthy of their achievements,...
Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a hypothetical second-order weak process that involves the decay of a pair of neutrons into two protons and two electrons. Observation of this decay will point to a Majorana nature of the neutrino, lepton number violation, the absolute mass scale of the neutrino and possibly further new physics. Crucially, constraining neutrino masses from current and...
We investigate the experimental techniques necessary to optimize the measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) and free lifetime in the ultracold neutron (UCN) experiment at TRIUMF. The nEDM is measured using Ramsey’s method of oscillating fields within a magnetically shielded room, and the lifetime is obtained by counting neutrons and their decay protons within a...
In modern cosmology, as we get more advanced in understanding GR there are a plethora of challenges face us related to its limitations. Furthermore, in some eras of the universe we eventually end up with real data values that do not match the ones we get from our theories and models.
It is worth mentioning that we can derive Einstein-Hilbert equations using different types of variations...
One of the likely candidates of dark matter particles are WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). In the efforts of detecting these WIMPs, the DEAP3600 detector has been designed for use in extremely low levels of radioactivity using a large target of liquid argon. Over this summer, hardware improvements and upgrades to the DEAP3600 argon system have been made in preparation for the...
The nEXO experiment seeks to investigate the Majorana nature of the neutrino via observation of neutrinoless double beta decay. The existence of this hypothesized process would confirm the neutrino to be its own antiparticle, giving way to physics beyond the Standard Model. To be able to observe the signal from this process, it is crucial to shield the 5000 kilograms of target xenon-136...
nEXO is a proposed experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in liquid xenon, utilizing ~50 000 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) in its photodetector system. These SiPMs are 1 by 1 cm2 squared devices capable of detecting single photons. The nEXO mass testing project is developing automated systems and methods that will be able to test large arrays of more than 100 SiPMs...
Neutrinos from all kinds of sources can be the cause of a noise signal in dark matter detectors, however, they can also be the medium to detect important astronomical events like Supernovae (SN) or to probe the solar activity. Most of the information that can be detected on earth about the occurrence of a SN or about the nuclear reactions happening inside the sun is in the form of neutrinos,...
