Low-latency NuMI Trigger for the CHIPS-5 Neutrino Detector
share
The CHIPS R D project aims to develop affordable water Cherenkov detectors for large-scale underwater installations. In 2019, a 5kt prototype detector CHIPS-5 was deployed in northern Minnesota to study neutrinos generated by the nearby NuMI beam. This contribution presents a dedicated low-latency time distribution system for CHIPS-5 that delivers timing signals from the Fermilab accelerator to the detector with sub-nanosecond precision. Exploiting existing NOvA infrastructure, the time distribution system achieves this only with open-source software and conventional network elements. In a time-of-flight study, the presented system has reliably offered a time budget of 610 ± 330 ms for on-site triggering. This permits advanced analysis in real-time as well as a novel hardware-assisted active triggering mode, which reduces DAQ computing load and network bandwidth outside triggered time windows.
READ FULL TEXT