Instrumentation Commons^™

Validation Of Argon From Underground Sources For Use In The Darkside-50 Detector, Thomas R. Alexander

Masters Theses

Liquid argon is an attractive target for dark matter searches due to its low cost and exemplary event discrimination. However, atmospherically derived argon contains the beta-emitter 39Ar which confounds the growth of dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) style detectors to the ton-scale. The DarkSide Collaboration seeks to bypass this limitation by extracting argon from deep underground, from a location known to contain significantly less 39Ar than atmospherically derived argon. This thesis will summarize the e orts taken to produce the first batch of underground argon, focusing on the first operation of the underground argon in a dual-phase TPC to validate …

Digital Aperture Photometry Utilizing Growth Curves, William Chandler Overcast

Masters Theses

Point source extraction is critical to proper analysis of images containing point sources obtained by focal plane array cameras. Two popular methods of extracting the intensity of a point source are aperture photometry and point spread function fitting. Digital aperture photometry encompasses procedures utilized to extract the intensity of an imaged point source. It has been used by astronomers in various forms for calculating stellar brightness. It is also useful for doing analysis of data associated with other unresolved radiating objects. The various aperture photometry methods include the two-aperture method, aperture correction, and growth curve method.

The growth curve method …