Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Development of Trigger Monitor Software for the Super Bigbite Spectrometer

Student: Jake Manalo

School: Virginia Commonwealth University

Mentored By: Dr. Arun Tadepalli

Hall A of Jefferson Lab uses the BigBite Preshower and Shower calorimeters as triggers for the upcoming Super Bigbite Spectrometer series of experiments in Hall A. These calorimeters also serve as the starting point for track reconstruction and time determination for events. In the detector system, a charged particle will first enter the Preshower detector, followed by the Shower detector. This will give readings that will be used to trigger the detection of events. The trigger monitor is important for maintaining accurate readings of triggered events during the experiments at Hall A. The trigger monitor takes data from the BigBite Preshower and Shower to indicate an event, and checks to see if the Analog to Digital Converter (FADC) triggered an event. If this is the case, and the detector system is triggered, then the trigger is functioning properly. However, if there was an event in the Preshower and Shower data, but the FADC did not trigger, then there is an issue and the monitor will signal that the trigger is not functioning properly. Development of the trigger monitor software begins with production and analysis of the Preshower and Shower data. Current status of the work is analyzing and producing plots of the Preshower and Shower which will be reported in this paper. Proper analysis of both Shower and Preshower data is vital to developing the trigger monitor. From here, analysis of further data will allow complete development of the trigger monitor software. The trigger monitor software will ensure that events are accurately triggered, so that the data acquisition remains efficient and the detector system does not miss sought after data. These findings will support Hall A in many experiments and ensure the trigger is functioning properly.

[Watch the presentation on YouTube]