arXiv subjects

A. Little

Publications and source records attributed to A. Little.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Development of Deep Neural Network First-Level Hardware Track Trigger for the Belle II Experiment

The Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB accelerator is designed to explore physics beyond the Standard Model with unprecedented luminosity. As the beam intensity increased, the experiment faced significant challenges due to higher beam-induced background, leading to a high trigger rate and placing limitations on further luminosity increases. To address this problem, we developed trigger logic for tracking using deep neural network (DNN) technology on an FPGA for the Belle II hardware trigger system, employing high-level synthesis techniques. By leveraging drift time and hit pattern information from the Central Drift Chamber and incorporating a simplified self-attention architecture, the DNN track trigger significantly improves track reconstruction performance at the hardware level. Compared to the existing neural track trigger, our implementation reduces the total track trigger rate by 37% while improving average efficiency for the signal tracks from 96% to 98% for charged tracks with transverse momentum > 0.3 GeV. This upgrade ensures the long-term viability of the Belle II data acquisition system as luminosity continues to increase.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

Design of the Global Reconstruction Logic in the Belle II Level-1 Trigger system

The Belle~II experiment is designed to search for physics beyond the Standard Model by investigating rare decays at the SuperKEKB $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider. Owing to the significant beam background at high luminosity, the data acquisition system employs a hardware-based Level-1~Trigger to reduce the readout data throughput by selecting collision events of interest in real time. The Belle~II Level-1~Trigger system utilizes FPGAs to reconstruct various detector observables from the raw data for trigger decision-making. The Global Reconstruction Logic receives these processed observables from four sub-trigger systems and provides a global summary for the final trigger decision. Its logic encompasses charged particle tracking, matching between sub-triggers, and the identification of special event topologies associated with low-multiplicity decays. This article discusses the hardware devices, FPGA firmware, integration with peripheral systems, and the design and performance of the trigger algorithms implemented within the Global Reconstruction Logic.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2021

Limit on the Electric Charge of Antihydrogen

The ALPHA collaboration has successfully demonstrated the production and the confinement of cold antihydrogen, $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$. An analysis of trapping data allowed a stringent limit to be placed on the electric charge of the simplest antiatom. Charge neutrality of matter is known to a very high precision, hence a neutrality limit of $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$ provides a test of CPT invariance. The experimental technique is based on the measurement of the deflection of putatively charged $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$ in an electric field. The tendency for trapped $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$ atoms to be displaced by electrostatic fields is measured and compared to the results of a detailed simulation of $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$ dynamics in the trap. An extensive survey of the systematic errors is performed, with particular attention to those due to the silicon vertex detector, which is the device used to determine the $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$ annihilation position. The limit obtained on the charge of the $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$ atom is \mbox{$ Q = (-1.3\pm1.8\pm0.4)\times10^{-8}$}, representing the first precision measurement with $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

Antiferromagnetic resonance and terahertz continuum in $\alpha-$RuCl$_3$

We report measurements of optical absorption in the zig-zag antiferromagnet $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ as a function of temperature, $T$, magnetic field, $B$, and photon energy, $\hbar\omega$ in the range $\sim$ 0.3 to 8.3 meV, using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. Polarized measurements show that 3-fold rotational symmetry is broken in the honeycomb plane from 2 K to 300 K. We find a sharp absorption peak at 2.56 meV upon cooling below the N\'eel temperature of 7 K at $B=0$ that we identify as magnetic-dipole excitation of a zero-wavevector magnon, or antiferromagnetic resonance (AFMR). With application of $B$, the AFMR broadens and shifts to lower frequency as long-range magnetic order is lost in a manner consistent with transitioning to a spin-disordered phase. From direct, internally calibrated measurement of the AFMR spectral weight, we place an upper bound on the contribution to the $dc$ susceptibility from a magnetic excitation continuum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Giant anisotropic nonlinear optical response in transition metal monopnictide Weyl semimetals

Although Weyl fermions have proven elusive in high-energy physics, their existence as emergent quasiparticles has been predicted in certain crystalline solids in which either inversion or time-reversal symmetry is broken\cite{WanPRB2011,BurkovPRL2011, WengPRX2015,HuangNatComm2015}. Recently they have been observed in transition metal monopnictides (TMMPs) such as TaAs, a class of noncentrosymmetric materials that heretofore received only limited attention \cite{XuScience2015, LvPRX2015, YangNatPhys2015}. The question that arises now is whether these materials will exhibit novel, enhanced, or technologically applicable electronic properties. The TMMPs are polar metals, a rare subset of inversion-breaking crystals that would allow spontaneous polarization, were it not screened by conduction electrons \cite{anderson1965symmetry,shi2013ferroelectric,kim2016polar}. Despite the absence of spontaneous polarization, polar metals can exhibit other signatures of inversion-symmetry breaking, most notably second-order nonlinear optical polarizability, $\chi^{(2)}$, leading to phenomena such as optical rectification and second-harmonic generation (SHG). Here we report measurements of SHG that reveal a giant, anisotropic $\chi^{(2)}$ in the TMMPs TaAs, TaP, and NbAs. With the fundamental and second harmonic fields oriented parallel to the polar axis, the value of $\chi^{(2)}$ is larger by almost one order of magnitude than its value in the archetypal electro-optic materials GaAs \cite{bergfeld2003second} and ZnTe \cite{wagner1998dispersion}, and in fact larger than reported in any crystal to date.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Using stochastic acceleration to place experimental limits on the charge of antihydrogen

Assuming hydrogen is charge neutral, CPT invariance demands that antihydrogen also be charge neutral. Quantum anomaly cancellation also demands that antihydrogen be charge neutral. Standard techniques based on measurements of macroscopic quantities of atoms cannot be used to measure the charge of antihydrogen. In this paper, we describe how the application of randomly oscillating electric fields to a sample of trapped antihydrogen atoms, a form of stochastic acceleration, can be used to place experimental limits on this charge.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2014

In situ electromagnetic field diagnostics with an electron plasma in a Penning-Malmberg trap

We demonstrate a novel detection method for the cyclotron resonance frequency of an electron plasma in a Penning-Malmberg trap. With this technique, the electron plasma is used as an in situ diagnostic tool for measurement of the static magnetic field and the microwave electric field in the trap. The cyclotron motion of the electron plasma is excited by microwave radiation and the temperature change of the plasma is measured non-destructively by monitoring the plasma's quadrupole mode frequency. The spatially-resolved microwave electric field strength can be inferred from the plasma temperature change and the magnetic field is found through the cyclotron resonance frequency. These measurements were used extensively in the recently reported demonstration of resonant quantum interactions with antihydrogen.

physics.plasm-ph↗