Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Software Development for the CLAS12 Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector

Student: Aiden Boyer

School: Duquesne University

Mentored By: Dr. Valery Kubarovsky

Hall B of Jefferson Lab utilizes a Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS12) to study electro-induced nuclear and hadronic reactions. This spectrometer is itself composed of several detectors that identify collision products at certain angles, energy, and momenta. One of these detectors is the Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector (RICH), which allows to separate pions, kaons and protons in the 3-8 GeV/C momentum range at entrance angles less than 25 degrees. The RICH, alongside other detectors in CLAS12, has its own collection of monitoring software to control the detector performance that did not accurately display information from the RICH detector. My project had a goal to improve the existing RICH monitoring software to correct this issue. Program analysis techniques were employed to discover some issues, which involved navigating line-by-line through the RICH monitor code and cross referencing the intended actions of the program with the physical construction of the RICH detector. It was discovered that the RICH monitor was incorrectly mapping detector events in the software in a way that did not accurately reflect the physical construction of the RICH detector. As such, previous data analysis using the offline CLAS12 monitoring package did not accurately represent the information provided by the RICH detector. With events being registered in incorrect places, the overall picture of the physics at play is obscured. The corrections made to the monitor mapping now allows for a more accurate readout of event data and can help streamline the process of adding new RICH detectors to the CLAS12 software in the future.

[Watch the presentation on YouTube]