Hawaii QuarkNet Annual Report 2023
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Hawaii QuarkNet Annual Report 2022-2023
There are five cosmic ray detectors currently in Hawaii but not all take data regularly. About ten high school physics teachers actively participated before the pandemic. Only one event (CMS Masterclass on 10 March 2023) has been held since fall 2022.
A QuarkNet CMS Masterclass was held at Punahou school on March 10, 2023. 21 students participated, all from Punahou. Unfortunately, as a result of scheduling conflicts, it
was necessary to schedule the Masterclass during a regular school day. As a result,
participation from other schools was less than usual, and the amount of time spent on the
event was shorter than ususal.
The day began with a few hands-on activities in which students could exercise their curiosity about physics. The first activity, "Rolling with Rutherford" allowed students to roll balls at an unseen target and consider what they could learn about the target from what happened to the balls. A second "Quark Puzzle" activity allowed students to learn how quarks can combine to form hadrons.
After these activities, students listened to short presentations from faculty at the UH Physics and Astronomy department (Profs. Jason Kumar, David Rubin and Jeremy Sakstein) presenting an introduction to the type of research they work on.
Students then began analyzing curated CMS multi-lepton data. During the data analysis, a break was taken for lunch, in which the students had a chance to chat with the physicists to discuss anything on their mind, including what life in academia is like.
Afterwards, the students teleconferences with physicists at Fermilab and with another group of Masterclass high school students in Mexico (meeting at Ibero University) to discuss their results. Another Masterclass is planned for March 2024.
Patrick Yim attended the Coding Camp at Fermilab in July 2023.
Notes on Hawaii CRDs in 2023
All CRDs have similar stacked geometry with about 1 m top-bottom
separation.
BYU-Hawaii : Michael Weber
(6993 + Hyperterminal) : 149 files with 4 channels in 2023,
data lost June-Sept. 2023 due to power outage
new site & new GPS for detector in Oct 2022
new geometry -- .9 m top-bottom compared to 1.1 m before
testing in Oct 2022, 4-channel data starting 1 Nov
typical flux 445/m^2/min -- byuh6993dec2022
flux unstable due to plateau tests in Feb
channel 4 occasionally unstable March->May -- byuh6993janmay2023
Kamehameha : Benjamin Mountz
(6948 + EQUIP) : 39 files mostly channels 2, 3, & 4 in 2019
none since Sept 2019
unstable channels
Peter Grach died in Dec. 2021
Benjamin Mountz took over detector since Fall 2022
unable to use EQUIP to take data
Maui : Keith Imada
(6231 + ?) : 84 files in 2021, none since April 2021
channels 1 & 4 only, channel 4 often unstable
student Cyrus Salahub restored two channels in 2020-1
new group of students in 2022
John Andrei Balanay, Raiden Ravida, Ano Motulalo
Balanay sent photos of DAQ on 3 Feb. 2022
blue lights on DAQ not blinking
sent notes to Maui students on 4 Feb. 2022
Balanay reports on 4 May 2022 that DAQ is not working
Punahou : Hanno Adams
(6432 + Hyperterminal) : 300 files in 2022, 154 in 2023
typical flux 305/m^2/min since 28 Feb. -- punahou6432febmar2022
typical flux 305->287/m^2/min Mar->Jul -- punahou6432marjul2022
typical flux 290->280/m^2/min Aug->Oct -- punahou6432augoct2022
typical flux 280->275/m^2/min Oct->Jan -- punahou6432oct2022jan2023
ch 1 flux 290->260/m^2/min Jun->May -- punahou6432ch12022to2023
ch 4 flux 290->260/m^2/min Jun->May -- punahou6432ch42022to2023
sudden drop in flux to 200/m^2/min and chan 3 singles rate in Feb 2022
data taking with channels 1,2, & 4 since 28 Feb 2022
typical flux 275/m^2/min since 26 Dec. -- punahou6432dec15to31
UH Windward : Jacob Hudson
(6100 + Hyperterminal) : 124 files in 2022, 121 in 2023
typical flux 395/m^2/min in 28 May to 21 Aug 2021 -- wcc6100mayaug2021
typical flux 385/m^2/min in 20 Sep to 11 Dec 2022 -- wcc6100sepdec2022
upload problem in March 2022 for data from 5 Dec 2021 to 11 March 2022
data lost for June-Sept. 2023 due to power outage for renovation
files since 2015
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023*
BYU-Hawaii 185 55 132 294 68 275 87 149
Kamehameha 73 222 230 39
Maui 30 23 132 74 76 78 84
Punahou 113 237 262 283 208 192 246 300 154
Windward 178 205 270 235 167 358 236 124 121
*2023 files as of 16 Sept.