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1. Computing for the DUNE Long-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment

   https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202024511002  

   Schellman, Heidi ( January 2020 , EPJ Web of Conferences)

   Doglioni, C. ; Kim, D. ; Stewart, G.A. ; Silvestris, L. ; Jackson, P. ; Kamleh, W. (Ed.)

   This paper is based on a talk given at Computing in High Energy Physics in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia in November 2019. It is partially intended to explain the context of DUNE Computing for computing specialists. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) collaboration consists of over 180 institutions from 33 countries. The experiment is in preparation now, with commissioning of the first 10kT fiducial volume Liquid Argon TPC expected over the period 2025-2028 and a long data taking run with 4 modules expected from 2029 and beyond. An active prototyping program is already in place with a short test-beam run with a 700T, 15,360 channel prototype of single-phase readout at the Neutrino Platform at CERN in late 2018 and tests of a similar sized dual-phase detector scheduled for mid-2019. The 2018 test-beam run was a valuable live test of our computing model. The detector produced raw data at rates of up to 2GB/s. These data were stored at full rate on tape at CERN and Fermilab and replicated at sites in the UK and Czech Republic. In total 1.2 PB of raw data from beam and cosmic triggers were produced and reconstructed during the six week testbeam run. Baseline predictions for the full DUNE detector data, starting in the late 2020’s are 30-60 PB of raw data per year. In contrast to traditional HEP computational problems, DUNE’s Liquid Argon TPC data consist of simple but very large (many GB) 2D data objects which share many characteristics with astrophysical images. This presents opportunities to use advances in machine learning and pattern recognition as a frontier user of High Performance Computing facilities capable of massively parallel processing. 

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2. Comparative evaluation of analogue front-end designs for the CMS Inner Tracker at the High Luminosity LHC

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/16/12/P12014  

   Adam, W. ; Bergauer, T. ; Blöch, D. ; Dragicevic, M. ; Frühwirth, R. ; Hinger, V. ; Steininger, H. ; Beaumont, W. ; Di Croce, D. ; Janssen, X. ; et al ( December 2021 , Journal of Instrumentation)

   Abstract The CMS Inner Tracker, made of silicon pixel modules, will be entirely replaced prior to the start of the High Luminosity LHC period. One of the crucial components of the new Inner Tracker system is the readout chip, being developed by the RD53 Collaboration, and in particular its analogue front-end, which receives the signal from the sensor and digitizes it. Three different analogue front-ends (Synchronous, Linear, and Differential) were designed and implemented in the RD53A demonstrator chip. A dedicated evaluation program was carried out to select the most suitable design to build a radiation tolerant pixel detector able to sustain high particle rates with high efficiency and a small fraction of spurious pixel hits. The test results showed that all three analogue front-ends presented strong points, but also limitations. The Differential front-end demonstrated very low noise, but the threshold tuning became problematic after irradiation. Moreover, a saturation in the preamplifier feedback loop affected the return of the signal to baseline and thus increased the dead time. The Synchronous front-end showed very good timing performance, but also higher noise. For the Linear front-end all of the parameters were within specification, although this design had the largest time walk. This limitation was addressed and mitigated in an improved design. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the three front-ends in the context of the CMS Inner Tracker operation requirements led to the selection of the improved design Linear front-end for integration in the final CMS readout chip. 

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3. Characterizing the dark count rate of a large-format MKID array

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.485003  

   Swimmer, Noah ; Clay, W. Hawkins ; Zobrist, Nicholas ; Mazin, Benjamin A. ( March 2023 , Optics Express)

   We present an empirical measurement of the dark count rate seen in a large-format MKID array identical to those currently in use at observatories such as Subaru on Maunakea. This work provides compelling evidence for their utility in future experiments that require low-count rate, quiet environments such as dark matter direct detection. Across the bandpass from 0.946-1.534 eV (1310-808 nm) an average count rate of (1.847 ± 0.003) × 10⁻³photons/pixel/s is measured. Breaking this bandpass into 5 equal-energy bins based on the resolving power of the detectors we find the average dark count rate seen in an MKID is (6.26 ± 0.04) × 10⁻⁴photons/pixel/s from 0.946-1.063 eV and (2.73 ± 0.02) × 10⁻⁴photons/pixel/s at 1.416-1.534eV. Using lower-noise readout electronics to read out a single MKID pixel we demonstrate that the events measured while the detector is not illuminated largely appear to be a combination of real photons, possible fluorescence caused by cosmic rays, and phonon events in the array substrate. We also find that using lower-noise readout electronics on a single MKID pixel we measure a dark count rate of (9.3 ± 0.9) × 10⁻⁴photons/pixel/s over the same bandpass (0.946-1.534 eV) With the single-pixel readout we also characterize the events when the detectors are not illuminated and show that these responses in the MKID are distinct from photons from known light sources such as a laser, likely coming from cosmic ray excitations.

    

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4. Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/18/04/P04034  

   Abed Abud, A. ; Abi, B. ; Acciarri, R. ; Acero, M.A. ; Adames, M.R. ; Adamov, G. ; Adamowski, M. ; Adams, D. ; Adinolfi, M. ; Adriano, C. ; et al ( April 2023 , Journal of Instrumentation)

   Abstract The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 10^3 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype. 

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5. Recent Progress in the Development of a-Se/CMOS Sensors for X-ray Detection

   https://doi.org/10.3390/qubs5040029  

   Hellier, Kaitlin ; Benard, Emmie ; Scott, Christopher C. ; Karim, Karim S. ; Abbaszadeh, Shiva ( December 2021 , Quantum Beam Science)

   Amorphous selenium (a-Se) is a glass-former capable of deposition at high rates by thermal evaporation over a large area. It was chosen as a direct conversion material due to its appealing properties for imaging in both low and high X-ray energy ranges (<30 keV and <30 keV, respectively). It has a bandgap of 2.2 eV and can achieve high photodetection efficiency at short wavelengths less than 400 nm which makes it appealing for indirect conversion detectors. The integration of a-Se with readout integrated circuits started with thin-film transistors for digital flat panel X-ray detectors. With increasing applications in life science, biomedical imaging, X-ray imaging, high energy physics, and industrial imaging that require high spatial resolution, the integration of a-Se and CMOS is one direct way to improve the high-contrast visualization and high-frequency response. Over the past decade, significant improvements in a-Se/CMOS technologies have been achieved with improvements to modulation transfer function and detective quantum efficiency. We summarize recent advances in integrating and photon-counting detectors based on a-Se coupled with CMOS readout and discuss some of the shortcomings in the detector structure, such as low charge conversion efficiency at low electric field and high dark current at high electric field. Different pixel architectures and their performance will be highlighted. 

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