Thesis

RPC-bot - a robotic hodoscope for the characterisation of CR stations

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2015

• Academic Year:

  2015 / 2016

• Domains:

  Experimental Particle Physics | Astroparticle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Pedro Assis

• Co-Supervisor:

  Ruben Conceição

• Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico

• Host Institution:

  Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Abstract:

  Cosmic Ray detectors are usually composed of and array of particle detectors (stations) to probe the particle shower front and infer the primary characteristics such as its energy, its directions and its nature. The complete characterisation and understanding of the response of the particle detector to the incoming flux of particles is paramount to understand the shower physics and reduce the uncertainties of the measurement being performed. Furthermore, the complete and detailed understanding of the present detectors leads directly to the necessary improvements necessary to be introduced. LIP has developed a hodoscope based in the RPC (Resistive Plate Chambers) that is currently installed in a test tank in the Pierre Auger Experiment in Argentina. The hodoscope, composed by two segmented detectors (one above and one beneath the tank) is able to identify muon tracks with a precision of few degrees, allowing to study the response of the tank to diferent conditions. The work plan of this thesis focus on the development of a robotic hodoscope that is able to travel between different tanks of the Auger Surface detectors in the Argentine Pampa to study their response in-field without disturbing the tank. The candidate will need to study several possibilities for the design. The design should be based on some robotic platform(s) with some segmented-RPCs installed in such way that it is possible to define tracks for the traversing particles. It will be however necessary to study the efficiency and, more important, the purity of the system for selecting isolated muons defining a "test beam" for the tank. The system will also need to be interfaced to the Auger Tanks and synchronised so that the collected data can be cross-analysed offline. The project will be developed in the framework of the Portuguese participation in the Pierre Auger Observatory and also in the framework of the partnership of LIP with CBPF(Brazil) where it is expected to perform the final assembly and tests before shipping to Argentina.