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Statistical Muon Tracking: A Study of Cosmic Backgrounds in the PROSPECT Experiment

dc.contributor.authorWoolverton, Austin
dc.date.accessioned2021-09-30T20:14:37Z
dc.date.available2021-09-30T20:14:37Z
dc.date.issued2021-09-30
dc.date.submitted2021-09-28
dc.description.abstractThe Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment (PROSPECT) has successfully demonstrated novel particle identification strategies with minimal protection from cosmic events. Located at the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, PROSPECT was developed to investigate the fundamental physics of reactor neutrinos produced through the fission of Uranuim-235. Since it is located on Earth's surface, the detector experiences an enormous flux of cosmic backgrounds. These events are removed in the primary spectrum analysis by vetoing events after a muon. Additionally, the spectrum of background events is subtracted from the primary energy distribution. Many cosmic events may accidentally pass these subtractions. The work presented in this thesis attempts to characterize the cosmic background events observed in PROSPECT while exploring new muon trajectory reconstruction techniques. Due to the segmented design and location, the muon track reconstruction differs from more common likelihood methods used in Cherenkov detectors. Instead, a 4-dimensional principal component analysis strategy is implemented. This method has been extensively tested against Monte Carlo simulations and is used to predict the average track length of through-going muons. In addition, due to the limitations of the PROSPECT detector, more complex tracking routines are suggested. In addition, the PROSPECT experiment experiences low-energy cosmic events that are typically immeasurable by underground experiments. By exploiting its efficient pulse shaped discrimination strategy, correlations between muons and their secondary events are investigated. This thesis presents a new measurement of the neutron yield taken at ground level. Due to inconsistencies in modeling strategies, as well as its dependence on the total muon flux, the average amount of neutrons produced by cosmic events is widely debated within the low background physics community. An efficient measurement of the neutron yield at Earth's surface may, however, provide supplementary insight to the discussion.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/17602
dc.language.isoenen
dc.pendingfalse
dc.publisherUniversity of Waterlooen
dc.subjectPROSPECTen
dc.subjectmuonen
dc.subjectPCAen
dc.subjectkalman filteren
dc.subject.lcshMuonsen
dc.subject.lcshKalman filteringen
dc.subject.lcshPrincipal components analysisen
dc.subject.otherPrecision reactor oscillation and spectrum experimenten
dc.titleStatistical Muon Tracking: A Study of Cosmic Backgrounds in the PROSPECT Experimenten
dc.typeMaster Thesisen
uws-etd.degreeMaster of Scienceen
uws-etd.degree.departmentPhysics and Astronomyen
uws-etd.degree.disciplinePhysics (Quantum Information)en
uws-etd.degree.grantorUniversity of Waterlooen
uws-etd.embargo.terms0en
uws.contributor.advisorPushin, Dmitry
uws.contributor.affiliation1Faculty of Scienceen
uws.peerReviewStatusUnrevieweden
uws.published.cityWaterlooen
uws.published.countryCanadaen
uws.published.provinceOntarioen
uws.scholarLevelGraduateen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten

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