Pierre
Auger Project
Progress
Report
May & June 2004
Summary (photo album)
As of this writing (10 August 2004) we have passed two major milestones. The first is the commissioning of the 12 telescopes in Los Leones and Coihueco. The second milestone is passing the 400 mark in operational surface detector stations.
The third (of four) fluorescence detector buildings at Los Morados on the eastern edge of the array is within a few weeks of completion. In spite of its remote location and the fact that much of the construction took place during the winter months, the Los Morados is being completed very nearly on schedule. In addition the building seems to be well constructed. The installation of the telescopes will begin in September with completion expected in March or April of 2005.
The first pass of absolute (drum) calibration of all telescopes at Los Leones has been completed.
Weather and delayed arrival of some crucial parts have slowed assembly and deployment. Approximately 20 tanks are arriving each week from our three vendors. The deployment strategy is to grow the array toward the Coihueco fluorescence building in an effort to accumulate hybrid events more rapidly. This part of the site is relatively dry so that continuing access should be possible.
Cash flow for the procurement of components for the surface detector stations continues to be a problem. All components for a total of only about 900 stations are assured.
WBS 1.1
Fluorescence Detector
(Jonny Kleinfeller –
Current status of
Los Leones,
Coihueco and Los Morados.
There is one major change at Los Leones and Coihueco since the last
report,
there are now 2 telescopes in each building equipped with corrector
ring
lenses, telescope #03, #04, #21, and #22. An additional set of lenses
has been
promised for September 2004, scheduled to be installed at telescope
#02.
The August shift has started on time, with 12 telescopes in operation.
A new
version of the DAQ software has been downloaded. Some of the bugs
present in
the previous version have been fixed, unfortunately new bugs have been
implemented, we are working hard to eliminate those as quickly as
possible, the
new version is nevertheless an improvement.
The building of Los Morados has not yet been handed over to us. I have
moved
the workshop container of Los Leones and a storage container from
Galpon
Rodriguez to Los Morados (attached pictures), but I'll put any further
transfer
of equipment on hold, until the building has been handed over, and the
contractor has left the site.
Start of installation has been postponed until 01. September 2004.
WBS 1.2 Fluorescence
Detector Electronics (Daniel Camin –
Milano)
1) Status of
the PMT+HE debugging system
The aim of
this work is the development and construction of a debugging system to
use when
a camera pixel shows an anomalous behaviour. The system exercises the
faulty
unit keeping the PMT+HE assembly in its place. The extraction of the
PMT from
the camera is a delicate and risky operation that should be avoided.
The construction of the PMT+HE debugging system
is in progress. The development of the SW, implemented by LabView
programming
environment, is well advanced. A prototype based on a desktop computer
and a
PCI DAQ card has been installed at our lab in Milano. The system is
able to
measure the DC parameters of the Head Electronics, and to compare these
data
with the measurements after burn-in performed during the production.
The data
taken at the burn-in and testing stages has been stored in a data base.
At the
end of the DC test, the system injects a current signal in the HE,
simulating a
fluorescence event. Finally the output signal is analyzed and compared
with the
acceptance boundaries.
Future developments consist on:
- Design of fully portable system (Laptop PC+PCMCIA DAQ card)
- Full battery operations (the Laptop should be used as “power
supply” of the unit under test)
- Design of the adapter cable to connect the system on the PMT+HE assembly
2) HE
production: The production of HE’s by Intratec/Elbau
has been completed. Nevertheless
there is a surplus of components
that would allow the fabrication of extra spare units.
Negotiations with the manufacturer are in
progress. The extra units would amount an estimated ~ 2% of the whole production that adds up to the ~
10 % already purchased.
At present
all 12 telescopes of LL and CO are now up and running.
WBS 1.2 Fluorescence Detector Atmospheric
Attenuation
& Calibration (Mike Roberts –
The LIDAR at Los Leones is now being run
routinely. The
hardware for the Coihueco LIDAR is all in place but there is still some
final
wiring and software work to be done (1-2 weeks worth of work).
We are also waiting for Matthias to finish the Coihueco LIDAR trigger
board
(the LIDAR is fired from the FD to help with coordination).
The CLF steering mechanism has been in place for a while. The cover
that will
allow the steering mechanism to be used routinely will be shipped to
Malargue
next week and installed in August.
The CLF vertical laser system is running well, although we need new batteries. The data is being
analyzed and will soon be available in the atmospheric database for use in event reconstruction.
WBS 1.2 FD digital electronics and readout
systems (Matthias Kleifges – FZK
–HPE)
Installation
work in Malargüe (report K.
Daumiller and A. Menshikov)
·
The
installation of electronics was completed for all telescopes in Los
Leones and
Coihueco. This includes the FE electronics and MirrorPC, but especially
the new
shutters, new fail-safe curtains and the associated electronics. All is
working
well.
·
2
faster slow control PCs (FieldPCs) have been configured for operation.
One
replaces the system in LL, which was running at 100 % CPU load and
caused
occasional crashing of the SCS system. The second one is used as spare.
Image-backups of the running systems are stored on the former FZKPC2.
The new
FieldPC now achieve a 20-30% CPU load when controlling all 6 bays.
·
The
slow control development system (4Control) was moved from Los Leones
into CDAS.
This PC is now used by the shifters to operate the SCS via the Internet
Explorer, which is faster and more convenient compared with the former
VNC
interface.
·
The
new SCS software was installed, which eases the operation by the
shifter very
much. The main improvement is an "automatic mode" with the states
Sleep<->Standby<->Calibration<->Run.
This mode will be used during regular shifts and also for communication
with
the DAQ in future. The more flexible "manual mode" is (still) needed
for
non-standard operation like drum calibration, tests during
installation, etc…
·
The
shifters are now able to overview the status of a whole building on one
screen,
making it easier to recognize malfunctions.
·
The
calibration procedure with the LED was extended. For the first time the
possibility to adjust the electronic gain was exploited. Since all Los
Leones
telescopes are now also absolutely calibrated with the drum (by J.
Brack), the
electronic gains are set in the initialization procedure to achieve
uniform response
across all pixels.
Quality
assurance:
·
With
the help of Patrick the Bugzilla bug tracking system was implemented
for FDE.
It covers the subtasks FE-electronic, computer & LAN, GPS clock and
trigger, calibration, software, slow control system, camera and HV
system and
electrical installation. I encourage everybody to use the system for
improved
feedback to the experts.
Software
improvements (mainly by H.J. Mathes,
O. Martineau and A. Kopmann):
·
The
communication with the LCU and UNM calibration systems was refined and
works
now more reliable. Further improvements are necessary and foreseen, but
can
only be tested on site in Malargüe. H.-J. Mathes spend a lot of his
time in
Malargüe to improve the robustness of the eye run control (the so
called Eye
Status Manager). However, this caused some inconsistencies in the
interface to
the Eye Run Control (GUI) which were fixed recently and will become
active with
the next DAQ update in July.
·
A
bug (known since March) causing spurious disconnects of telescope from
the data
stream was found and fixed. Unfortunately, an ad hoc temporary
workaround
caused many DAQ crashes and corrupted data files. Intensive tests
revealed
traces of at least two more bugs, which cause hang-ups of the Mirror
DAQ or
even Linux system crashes. Work is ongoing to find and fix them.
Bugzilla was
used for error reports and documentation.
·
Finally,
H.-J. Mathes investigated and tested the coupling between the Slow
Control and
the DAQ. This coupling is based on proprietary OPC and DCOM tools for
Linux and
was found to be working in simple setups. However, on site big
incompatibilities between the techniques, compiler and packages used
for FD DAQ
and the required third party software were found. At present other
possibilities
are investigated by the
·
On
user request the initialisation sequence for FEshell and the start-up
procedure
for the GPSserver have been changed.
Production
and tests in
We have
continued our production and test with the electronic parts for FDE and
SDE. In
total we have reached following output figures (as June 14th):
·
FLT: 80% of the
modules are produced; about 350 are
tested and 243 are in Malargüe.
·
LED driver: 2912
drivers are produced and
tested; about 1500 are in Malargüe for soldering the cables and
potting. The
remaining are shipped with the next cargo end July.
·
LED controller: 1799
controllers are produced;
about 1000 are in Malargüe. The remaining need to be tested and coated
by an
external company. Shipment in October 04.
WBS 2.1
SD (Ingo Allekote – Instituto Balseiro)
During this period, tanks from Alpina, Rotoplas and Formingplast were received in Malargue.
25.500 kg of Icorene
resin purchased by
150 liners were produced at the facility in UTN in
with insulating foam. A new "galpon" for liner storage was rented in Malargue.
A total of 49 surface detectors were deployed in the field and 31 were filled with water during May - June 2004. This number is considerably lower than the expected deployment rate, mainly
because of bad weather and bad condition of the main access roads (both the La Junta road and Route 184), which did not permit access to the field during more than two full weeks. The frontloader was used to assist in the road repair activities.
However, 50 additional tanks could be assembled and are stored at the AB yard, awaiting deployment.
For the first time,
tanks have been deployed North of the
The water plant operated without difficulties.
The third water transport tank ("Tk-12-Gamma") has been mounted on the second CNEA truck, instead of using the trailer, as the CNEA truck will be available for the project at least
until the beginning of next year. The truck and
tank entered
in operation in May. However, due to some failure of the truck engine,
it had
to be sent to
One of the SD technicians suffered a knee injury in an accident during a truck maneuvering. He is recovering and is already participating in office work. Four more technicians were hired, two
of which left after one month. The other two, Alberto Molina and Leandro Gomez are actively participating in the SD assembly and deployment activities.
The contract for land access and permission of SD deployment has been signed with Valles Mendocinos, who are the owners of the Coihueco area.
The coordinates of the next 200 positions to be surveyed were given to the surveyor, who is expected to start work in July.
The Mdb database has been replaced by the PMS database, which is now used to store detectors and components information as well as for handling the inventory.
WBS 2.2. Surface Detector Electronics (Tiina
Suomijarvi – IPN Orsay)
The number of running tanks is increasing steadily, being currently about 350! The commissioning studies show stable behavior of the electronics. The rate calibration method matches PMTs to about 6%, a more accurate matching can be performed off-line by using muon data. The average number of photoelectrons per PMT is 95 and a nice correlation is observed between the PMT gain and the number of photoelectrons (fig. 1).
Figure1. Number of photoelectrons per PMT and correlation with the PMT gain (D. Barnhill et al.).
The production version of the Front End board FE3.3C clearly improved the noise characteristics and is also less sensitive to temperature variations than the early version FE3.1C. Figure 2 shows the pedestal distributions for different time periods. The noticeable improvement as a function of time is due to increasing number of the FE3.3C boards in the array (about 100 FE3.1C boards were deployed in the preproduction phase). The table in figure 3 shows the number of PMT anode and dynode channel pedestal RMS exceeding 2 FADC channel benchmark.
Figure 2. Pedestal RMS values for anode for different time periods (D. Barnhill et al.).
Figure 3. Number of PMT anode and dynode channels over 2 FADC channel pedestal RMS benchmark (D. barnhill et al.).
The dynode/anode ratio is now calculated with a new algorithm in the Local Station. This gives a mean value of 32.8 (fig. 4).
Figure 4. The dynode/anode ratio distribution for 1017 PMTs (D. Barnhill et al.).
The mean value of the VEM area over peak is 3.5 (fig. 5) and its temperature dependence has greatly improved with the FE3.3C Front-End board (fig. 6).
Figure 5. The VEM area/peak distribution for 1017 PMTs (D. Barnhill et al.).
Figure 6. The VEM area/peak as a function of temperature for the FE3.1C (top) and FE3.3C (bottom) (E. Armengaud et al.).
The 100 ns jumps in the time tagging PLDs have now been corrected by software (since April 1st). About 100 UBs were equipped with the PLDs, the main production being with ASICs. Figure 7 shows the time difference measured for Dia-Noche detector stations.
Figure 7. Time difference measured for Dia-Noche pair stations. After April 1st (event 7116 in the figure) the 100 ns jumps are corrected by the LS software (C. Roucelle et al.).
The trigger shows great uniformity, the threshold trigger being around 21 Hz and the time-over-threshold about 1 Hz (fig. 8).
Figure 8. The threshold (T2, left) and Time-over-Threshold (ToT, right) trigger rates for 348 tanks (P. Ghia et al.).
The overall performance of the array is excellent. The commissioning studies are nearly completed and the SDE group, in collaboration with the SDE performance task (A. Tripathy), plans to write a “Technical Performance Report” including commissioning studies performed on the array data and on various SDE components.
Concerning the procurement of SDE components, the FE boards and the TPCBs are still not funded after 800 pieces (second half of the array). Up to that number, the SDE group is able to deliver all the components in Malargue before the end of this year. The local SDE teams are doing a great job on site! Mariela’s team has now recruited a new person, Cristian Rumbo, student from UTN Mendoza, to replace Juan Pablo Gurrieri who got a permanent job in a company.
The problems that the PMT team (Frederico et co.) has had with the Silicone (PMT potting material) are now solved. From now on, the Silicone is procured in US. The LED assembly and tests have been moved to the PMT house – SDE Fabrica area. The work load due to LEDs to the local SDE teams still needs to be evaluated. Some help is expected from the MEPhI group in November.
The tests of the Micro Tank Power Control Board are currently being moved from the company to Corbin Covaults group (CWRU). The test facility should be operational in July. Figure 9 shows TPCBs in the thermal chamber.
The SDE group keeps monitoring carefully field failure rates and has appointed two persons for this task: Walter Fulgione (PMTs) and Mike Du Vernois (electronics). They will collaborate with Cathy Newman Holmes who is tracking SD failures.
WBS 5.0 DPA/Offline-
(Stefano Argiro – INFN)
The Offline Framework is moving towards a consolidation phase. The Framework itself will be soon released in a stable version. In the meanwhile, contribution physics modules are constantly growing. The model is proving effective in increasing the exchange of ideas and promoting closer collaboration between the groups.
Some important milestones have been reached:
- The SD simulation-reconstruction chain was closed in the Offline, with several options: G4 or fast tank simulation, simple or detailed electronics simulation.
- The FD simulation-reconstruction chain is close to completion, essentially needing extensive cross checking and some refinements. A sensible reconstruction has already been checked by at least three groups.
- Hybrid and Stereo reconstruction is also available
The step toward hybrid simulation is short, and will be the next major achievement.
The other important fact is that analysis on large set of data using the Offline Framework has been carried out effectively, as we will hear in more detail at the next Collaboration Meeting.
WBS 8.0 Education and
Outreach (Greg Snow –
The Auger Observatory was featured in a half-page
article
entitled “Where Will Cosmic Rays Take Us” that appeared in the
Washington Post
on June 4. This was one of a six-article series on the theme of basic
research
and benefits to society sponsored by URA, Research
Beatriz García and Alejandra Cicero presented “The
Importance of Graphical Design as an Interdisciplinary Tool in the
Diffusion of
Knowledge” at the Third Latin-American Meeting for Design Professors,
Both at UTN Mendoza and in Malargüe, Auger collaborators made presentations about the transit of the planet Venus across the sun that occurred on June 8. The presentations were well attended and appreciated by the audiences.
An English version of the Auger Observatory Visitor virtual web tour will soon appear on the Auger web site to accompany the existing version in Spanish.
Arnulfo Zepeda reported on activities in
Details of the Auger Observatory display at the Open Day of CERN’s 50th Anniversary celebration on Saturday, October 16, 2004, have been worked out with the organizers of the Open Day. The display will be located in CERN’s building 130 and will feature SD and FD detector models, a PC showing event displays and the Auger web site, a beeping Geiger counter, posters, and Auger brochures in several languages. Over 20,000 visitors are expected to tour CERN on the Open Day.