Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Design and Construction of the Slow Control System for the CLAS12 Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter

Student: Justin Goodwill

School: Duquesne University

Mentored By: Valery Kubarovsky

One of the major goals in the upgrade to the CLAS12 spectrometer in Hall B of Jefferson Lab is to enhance the particle identification capabilities over the whole momentum range by integrating an aerogel Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter (RICH). A RICH functions by detecting a ring of radiated photons that is emitted by particles moving faster than the speed of light in the radiator. In the RICH design for CLAS12, 391 multi-anode photomultipliers (MAPMTs) serve as the photon detectors and require a slow control system to ensure safe operation and achieve complete data acquisition for each of the 25,024 channels. The slow control behind the RICH detector must communicate with the hardware by changing the high voltage going to the MAPMTs along with the low voltage going to the front-end electronics and by monitoring the temperature of the front-end electronics and parameters of the RICH gas system. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) were created for the high voltage, low voltage, temperature, N₂ purge, and cooling systems - all of which mirrored the actual geometrical layout of the RICH detector. With a simulated input/output controller, these GUI screens were tested.