arXiv subjects

Satyajit Saha

Publications and source records attributed to Satyajit Saha.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Neutron and $\boldsymbolγ$-ray Discrimination by a Pressurized Helium-4 Based Scintillation Detector

Pressurized Helium-4 (PHe) based fast neutron scintillation detector offers an useful alternative to organic liquid-based scintillator due to its relatively low response to the $γ$-rays compared to the latter type of scintillator. In the present work, we have investigated the capabilities of a PHe detector for the detection of fast neutrons in a mixed radiation field where both the neutrons and the $γ$-rays are present. Discrimination between neutrons and $γ$-rays is achieved by using fast-slow charge integration method. We have also conducted systematic studies of the attenuation of fast neutrons and $γ$-rays by high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Additionally, the simulation analyses, conducted using GEANT4, provide detailed insights into the interactions of the radiation quanta with the PHe detector.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2024

Pulse Shape Simulation and Discrimination using Machine-Learning Techniques

An essential metric for the quality of a particle-identification experiment is its statistical power to discriminate between signal and background. Pulse shape discrimination (PSD) is a basic method for this purpose in many nuclear, high-energy and rare-event search experiments where scintillation detectors are used. Conventional techniques exploit the difference between decay-times of the pulses from signal and background events or pulse signals caused by different types of radiation quanta to achieve good discrimination. However, such techniques are efficient only when the total light-emission is sufficient to get a proper pulse profile. This is only possible when adequate amount of energy is deposited from recoil of the electrons or the nuclei of the scintillator materials caused by the incident particle on the detector. But, rare-event search experiments like direct search for dark matter do not always satisfy these conditions. Hence, it becomes imperative to have a method that can deliver a very efficient discrimination in these scenarios. Neural network based machine-learning algorithms have been used for classification problems in many areas of physics especially in high-energy experiments and have given better results compared to conventional techniques. We present the results of our investigations of two network based methods \viz Dense Neural Network and Recurrent Neural Network, for pulse shape discrimination and compare the same with conventional methods.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Inelastic charged current interaction of supernova neutrinos in two-phase liquid xenon dark matter detectors

It has been known that neutrinos from supernova (SN) bursts can give rise to nuclear recoil (NR) signals arising from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS) interaction, a neutral current (NC) process, of the neutrinos with xenon nuclei in future large (multi-ton scale) liquid xenon (LXe) detectors employed for dark matter search, depending on the SN progenitor mass and distance to the SN. In this paper, we show that the same detectors will also be sensitive to inelastic charged current (CC) interactions of the SN electron neutrinos ($ν_e$CC) with the xenon nuclei. Such interactions, while creating an electron in the final state, also leave the post-interaction target nucleus in an excited state, the subsequent deexcitation of which produces, among other particles, gamma rays and neutrons. The electron and deexcitation gamma rays will give ``electron recoil" (ER) type signals, while the deexcitation neutrons produce, through their multiple scattering on the xenon nuclei, further xenon nuclear recoils that will also give NR signals (in addition to those produced through the CE$ν$NS interactions). We discuss the observable scintillation and ionization signals associated with SN neutrino induced CE$ν$NS and $ν_e$CC events in a generic LXe detector and argue that upcoming sufficiently large LXe detectors should be able to detect both these types of events due to neutrinos from reasonably close by SN bursts. We also note that since the total CC induced ER and NR signals receive contributions predominantly from $ν_e$CC interactions while the CE$ν$NS contribution comes from NC interactions of {\emph all the six species of neutrinos}, identification of the $ν_e$CC and CE$ν$NS origin events may offer the possibility of extracting useful information about the distribution of the total SN explosion energy going into different neutrino flavors.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Simulation of Nuclear Recoils due to Supernova Neutrino-induced Neutrons in Liquid Xenon Detectors

Neutrinos from supernova (SN) bursts can give rise to detectable number of nuclear recoil (NR) events through the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS) process in large scale liquid xenon detectors designed for direct dark matter search, depending on the SN progenitor mass and distance. Here we show that in addition to the direct NR events due to CE$ν$NS process, the SN neutrinos can give rise to additional nuclear recoils due to the elastic scattering of neutrons produced through inelastic interaction of the neutrinos with the xenon nuclei. We find that the contribution of the supernova neutrino-induced neutrons ($ν$I$n$) can significantly modify the total xenon NR spectrum at large recoil energies compared to that expected from the CE$ν$NS process alone. Moreover, for recoil energies $\gtrsim20$ keV, dominant contribution is obtained from the ($ν$I$n$) events. We numerically calculate the observable S1 and S2 signals due to both CE$ν$NS and $ν$I$n$ processes for a typical liquid xenon based detector, accounting for the multiple scattering effects of the neutrons in the case of $ν$I$n$, and find that sufficiently large signal events, those with S1$\gtrsim$50 photo-electrons (PE) and S2$\gtrsim$2300 PE, come mainly from the $ν$I$n$ scatterings.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Measurements of gamma ray, cosmic muon and residual neutron background fluxes for rare event search experiments at an underground laboratory

Ambient radiation background contributed by the penetrating cosmic ray particles and the radionuclides present in the rock materials have been measured at an underground laboratory located inside a mine at 555 m depth. The laboratory is being set up to explore rare event search processes, such as direct dark matter search, neutrinoless double beta decay, axion search, supernova neutrino detection, etc., that require specific knowledge of the nature and extent of the radiation environment in order to assess the sensitivity reach and also to plan for its reduction for the targeted experiment. The gamma ray background, which is mostly contributed by the primordial radionuclides and their decay chain products, have been measured inside the laboratory and found to be dominated by rock radioactivity for $E_γ\lesssim 3 \,{\rm MeV}$. Shielding of these residual gamma rays for the experiment was also evaluated. The cosmic muon flux, measured inside the laboratory using large area plastic scintillator telescope, was found to be: $(2.051 \pm 0.142 \pm 0.009) \times 10^{-7}\, {\rm cm}^{-2}.{\rm sec}^{-1}$, which agrees reasonably well with simulation results. The neutron background flux has been measured for the radiogenic neutrons and found to be: $(1.61 \pm 0.03) \times 10^{-4} \, {\rm cm}^{-2}.{\rm sec}^{-1}$ for no threshold cut. Detailed GEANT4 simulation for the radiogenic neutrons and the cosmogenic neutrons have been carried out. Effects of multiple scattering of both the types of neutrons within the surrounding rock and the cavern walls were studied and the results for the radiogenic neutrons are found to be in reasonable agreement with experimental results. Neutron fluxes contributed by those neutrons of cosmogenic origin have been reported as function of the energy threshold.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2018

Pulse delay and group velocity dispersion measurement in V-type electromagnetically induced transparency of hot $^{85}Rb$ atom

Pulse delay with the group velocity dispersion (GVD) characteristics was studied in the V-type electromagnetically induced transparency in the hyperfine levels of $^{85}Rb$ atoms with a closed system configuration. The phase coherency between the pump and the probe laser beams was maintained. We studied the pulse delay and the group velocity dispersion characteristics with the variation of the pump Rabi frequency taking temperature as a parameter. We observed a maximum of $268$ $ns$ pulse delay for $21.24 MHz$ pump Rabi frequency at $55^0C$ temperature of the Rb vapour cell. For a better understanding of the experimental results, we have derived an analytical solution for the delay characteristics considering the thermal averaging. The analytical solution was derived for a three level V-type system. The theoretical plots of the delay and the group velocity dispersion show the same characteristics as we observed in the experiment. This analytical approach can be further generalized for the higher level schemes to calculate different quantities such as susceptibility, group velocity delay or group velocity dispersion characteristics.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2017

Detecting supernova neutrinos with iron and lead detectors

Supernova (SN) neutrinos can excite the nuclei of various detector materials beyond their neutron emission thresholds through charged current (CC) and neutral current (NC) interactions. The emitted neutrons, if detected, can be a signal for the supernova event. Here we present the results of our study of SN neutrino detection through the neutron channel in lead ($^{208} {\rm Pb}$) and iron ($^{56} {\rm Fe}$) detectors for realistic neutrino fluxes and energies given by the recent Basel/Darmstadt simulations for a 18 solar mass progenitor SN at a distance of 10 kpc. We find that, in general, the number of neutrons emitted per kTon of detector material for the neutrino luminosities and average energies of the different neutrino species as given by the Basel/Darmstadt simulations are significantly lower than those estimated in previous studies based on the results of earlier SN simulations. At the same time, we highlight the fact that, although the total number of neutrons produced per kTon in a iron detector is more than an order of magnitude lower than that for lead, the dominance of the flavor blind NC events in the case of iron, as opposed to dominance of $ν_e$ induced CC events in the case of lead, offers a complementarity between the two detector materials so that simultaneous detection of SN neutrinos in a lead and a sufficiently large iron detector suitably instrumented for neutron detection may allow estimating the fraction of the total $μ$ and $τ$ flavored neutrinos in the SN neutrino flux and thereby probing the emission mechanism as well as flavor oscillation scenarios of the SN neutrinos.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Numerical study on the effect of design parameters and spacers on RPC signal and timing properties

Numerical calculations have been performed to understand the reason for the observed non-uniform response of a Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) in a few critical regions such as near edge spacers and corners of the device. In this context, the signal from a RPC due to the passage of muons through different regions has been computed. Also, a simulation of RPC timing properties is presented along with the effect of the applied field, gas mixture and geometrical components.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2013

The nucleation parameter for heavy-ion induced bubble nucleation in superheated emulsion detector

The values of the nucleation parameter, k, for bubble nucleation induced by high energy heavy ions 12C (180 MeV/u), 20Ne (400 MeV/u) and 28Si (350 MeV/u) in superheated emulsion detector are determined by comparing the experimentally obtained normalized count rates with those obtained from simulations done using the GEANT3.21 simulation code. The results show that the nucleation parameter depends on the mass number of the incident heavy ions, and decreases with increasing mass number.

physics.ins-det↗