Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2013.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Balakrishnan, Purnima Parvathy
Other Authors: Peter Fisher.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83813
_version_ 1811069126724026368
author Balakrishnan, Purnima Parvathy
author2 Peter Fisher.
author_facet Peter Fisher.
Balakrishnan, Purnima Parvathy
author_sort Balakrishnan, Purnima Parvathy
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2013.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T08:06:07Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/83813
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T08:06:07Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/838132019-04-09T16:37:59Z Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment Balakrishnan, Purnima Parvathy Peter Fisher. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. Physics. Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2013. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (page 49). The DarkLight experiment is searching for a dark force carrier, the A' boson, and hopes to measure its mass with a resolution of approximately 1 MeV/c 2 . This mass calculation requires precise reconstruction to turn data, in the form of hits within the detector, into a particle track with known initial momentum. This thesis investigates the appropriateness of the Billoir optimal fit to reconstruct helical, low-energy lepton tracks while accounting for multiple scattering, using two separate track parameterizations. The first method approximates the track as a piecewise concatenation of parabolas in three-dimensions, and (wrongly) assumes that the y and z components of the track are independent. When tested using simulated data, this returns a track which geometrically fits the data. However, the momentum extracted from this geometrical representation is an order of magnitude higher than the true momentum of the track. The second method approximates the track as a piecewise concatenation of helical segments. This returns a track which geometrically fits the data even better than the parabolic parameterization, but which returns a momentum which depends on the seeds to the algorithm. Some further work must be done to modify this fitting method so that it will reliably reconstruct tracks. by Purnima Parvathy Balakrishnan. S.B. 2014-01-09T19:57:50Z 2014-01-09T19:57:50Z 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83813 865478286 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 49 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Physics.
Balakrishnan, Purnima Parvathy
Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
title Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
title_full Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
title_fullStr Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
title_full_unstemmed Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
title_short Studies of optimal track-fitting techniques for the DarkLight experiment
title_sort studies of optimal track fitting techniques for the darklight experiment
topic Physics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83813
work_keys_str_mv AT balakrishnanpurnimaparvathy studiesofoptimaltrackfittingtechniquesforthedarklightexperiment