arXiv subjects

Matthew Needham

Publications and source records attributed to Matthew Needham.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Improving systematic uncertainties on precision two-body mass measurements

To make precision particle mass measurements in charged spectrometers detailed understanding of the influence of detector effects is critical. In this paper the influence of detector-related uncertainties on the determination of the parent particle mass in two-body decays is investigated. It is shown how the dependence of observed mass shifts on the sum and difference of the daughter particle momenta can be used to determine the physical causes of a bias more rigorously than the \textit{ad hoc} rules that are often adopted. The approach is illustrated using the case of measuring the $\Lambda$ hyperon mass. This observable is of interest because our current knowledge relies on information from a single experiment that has not been updated to account for changes in the value of the $\textrm{K}_{\textrm{s}}^0$ mass used for calibration. With the approach developed in the paper it shown that the LHCb experiment has the capability to make a measurement of the $\Lambda$ mass with systematic uncertainties from the tracking system controlled to $0.7\,$keV/$c^2$. This allows a total precision of $2.2\,$keV/$c^2$ to be achieved, dominated by the knowledge of the $\textrm{K}_{\textrm{s}}^0$ mass used for calibration. This would improve the current knowledge of the $\Lambda$ hyperon mass by a factor of three.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2025

Proposal of the KOTO II experiment

The KOTO II experiment is proposed to measure the branching ratio of the decay $K_L\to\pi^0\nu\bar{\nu}$ at J-PARC. With a beamline to extract long-lived neutral kaons at 5 degrees from a production target, the single event sensitivity of the decay is $8.5\times 10^{-13}$, which is much smaller than the Standard Model prediction $3\times 10^{-11}$. This allows searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model and the first discovery of the decay with a significance exceeding $5\sigma$. As the only experiment proposed in the world dedicated to rare kaon decays, KOTO II will be indispensable in the quest for a complete understanding of flavor dynamics in the quark sector. Moreover, by combining efforts from the kaon community worldwide, we plan to develop the KOTO II detector further and expand the physics reach of the experiment to include measurements of the branching ratio of the $K_L\to\pi^0\ell^+\ell^-$ decays, studies of other $K_L$ decays, and searches for dark photons, axions, and axion-like particles. KOTO II will therefore obtain a comprehensive understanding of $K_L$ decays, providing further constraints on new physics scenarios with existing $K^+$ results.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2023

Parameterised Geant4 simulation for total body PET research

Total-body positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has the potential to transform medical care of a number of diseases and augment our knowledge of systems biology. Various detector designs and geometries are currently under development for total-body PET imaging of humans. This variety, in particular the variation in axial field-of-view (aFOV), motivates a need to compare the performance of these devices in a consistent simulated environment. We present an open-source Geant4 simulation package that allows variation of relevant parameters such as the detector aFOV and the tracer radioisotope from the command line. Two simplified detector geometries based on the Siemens Biograph Vision Quadra and United Imaging uEXPLORER models are supported with variable granularity. The intrinsic radioactivity of the detector crystals is fully simulated. The simulation can be viewed with the built-in GUI, and the results are saved in a plain text format for easy analysis. Example Python analysis code is provided with the simulation, demonstrating calculation of the noise equivalent count rate (NECR) figure of merit using an approximation to the NEMA NU 2-2012 standard method. A good agreement between the simulated count rate performance and experimental data is observed for both geometries. The differences in results are attributed to simplifications in the simulation code, namely not accounting for the light-collection efficiency or readout dead-time. We demonstrate the importance of assessing the scanner performance using appropriate phantom length which significantly affects the obtained results. A dependence between the detector aFOV and the length of the source, with peak NECR plateauing as the detector extends beyond the region of interest is also presented.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2023

Characterisation of the Temperature-dependent Dark Rate of Hamamatsu R7081-100 10" Photomultiplier Tubes

Dark noise is a dominant background in photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), which are commonly used in liquid-filled particle detectors for single-photon detection to see the results of particle interactions. A major contribution to dark noise is thermionic emission from the photocathode. The dark noise of Hamamatsu R7081-100 PMTs is characterised in a temperature and purity controlled water tank, with the thermionic emission contribution isolated. The results suggest that the intrinsic dark rate of PMTs does not depend on the medium, but does follow Richardson's law of thermionic emission. There are external contributions to the overall observed PMT count rate identified, but the intrinsic PMT dark rate in water matches that measured in air.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Measurement of Beam-Correlated Background Neutrons from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam in ANNIE Phase-I

The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE) aims to make a unique measurement of neutron yield from neutrino-nucleus interactions and to perform R&D for the next generation of water-based neutrino detectors. In this paper, we characterize beam-induced neutron backgrounds in the experimental hall at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. It is shown that the background levels are sufficiently low to allow the next stage of the experiment to proceed. These measurements are relevant to other Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) experiments located adjacent to ANNIE Hall, where dirt neutrons and sky-shine could present similar backgrounds.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2017

Machine Learning-based Energy Reconstruction for Water-Cherenkov detectors

Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) is a proposed next generation underground water Cherenkov (WCh) experiment. The far detector will measure the oscillated neutrino flux from the long-baseline neutrino experiment using 0.6 GeV neutrinos produced by a 1.3 MW proton beam at J-PARC. It has a broad program of physics and astrophysics mainly focusing on the precise measurement of the lepton neutrino mixing matrix and the CP asymmetry. The unoscillated neutrino flux will be measured by an intermediate WCh detector. One of the proposed designs is the Tokai Intermediate Tank for the Unoscillated Spectrum (TITUS). WCh detectors are instrumented with photomultipliers to detect the Cherenkov light emitted from charged particles which are produced by neutrino interactions. The detection of light is used to measure the energy, position and direction of the charged particles. We propose machine learning-based methods to reconstruct the energy of charged particles in WCh detectors and present our results for the TITUS configuration.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Characterisation and testing of a prototype $6 \times 6$ cm$^2$ Argonne MCP-PMT

The Argonne micro-channel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) is an offshoot of the Large Area Pico-second Photo Detector (LAPPD) project, wherein \mbox{6 $\times$ 6 cm$^2$} sized detectors are made at Argonne National Laboratory. Measurements of the properties of these detectors, including gain, time and spatial resolution, dark count rates, cross-talk and sensitivity to magnetic fields are reported. In addition, possible applications of these devices in future neutrino and collider physics experiments are discussed.

physics.ins-det↗