Drift Tube Research Articles

Simulation and reconstruction of particle trajectories in the CEPC drift chamber

The circular electron-positron collider (CEPC) is designed to precisely measure the properties of the Higgs boson, study electroweak interactions at the Z-boson peak, and search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. As a component of the 4th\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$4^{\ ext {th}}$$\\end{document} conceptual CEPC detector, the drift chamber facilitates the measurement of charged particles. This study implemented a Geant4-based simulation and track reconstruction for the drift chamber. For the simulation, detector construction and response were implemented and added to the CEPC simulation chain. The development of track reconstruction involves track finding using the combinatorial Kalman filter method and track fitting using the tool of GenFit. Using the simulated data, the tracking performance was studied. The results showed that both the reconstruction resolution and tracking efficiency satisfied the requirements of the CEPC experiment.

Reliable Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents Using High Kinetic Energy Ion Mobility Spectrometry.

High Kinetic Energy Ion Mobility Spectrometers (HiKE-IMS) ionize and separate ions at reduced pressures of 10-40 mbar and over a wide range of reduced electric field strengths E/N of up to 120 Td. Their reduced operating pressure is distinct from that of conventional drift tube ion mobility spectrometers that operate at ambient pressure for trace compound detection. High E/N can lead to a field-induced fragmentation pattern that provides more specific structural information about the analytes. In addition, operation at high E/N values adds the field dependence of ion mobility as an additional separation dimension to low-field ion mobility, making interfering compounds less likely to cause a false positive alarm. In this work, we study the chemical warfare agents tabun (GA), sarin (GB), soman (GD), cyclosarin (GF) and sulfur mustard (HD) in a HiKE-IMS at variable E/N in both the reaction and the drift region. The results show that varying E/N can lead to specific fragmentation patterns at high E/N values combined with molecular signals at low E/N. Compared to the operation at a single E/N value in the drift region, the variation of E/N in the drift region also provides the analyte-specific field dependence of ion mobility as additional information. The accumulated data establish a unique fingerprint for each analyte that allows for reliable detection of chemical warfare agents even in the presence of interfering compounds with similar low-field ion mobilities, thus reducing false positives.

On the Arrival Time Distribution of Reacting Systems in Ion Mobility Spectrometry.

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is a widely used gas-phase separation technique, particularly when coupled with mass spectrometry (MS). Modern IMS instruments often apply elevated reduced field strengths for improved ion separation and ion focusing. These alter the collision dynamics and further drive ion reaction processes that can change the analyte's structure. As a result, the measured arrival time distribution (ATD) can change with the applied reduced field strengths. In this work, we systematically study how the ion collision dynamics and the ion reaction dynamics, as a function of the reduced field strength, can alter the ATD. To this end, we investigate 2,6-di-tert-butylpyridine, methanol, and ethyl acetate using a home-built drift tube IMS coupled to a home-built MS and extensive first-principles Monte Carlo modeling. We show how elevated reduced field strengths can actually lower resolving power through increased ion diffusion and how the field dependency of the ion mobility can introduce uncertainties to collision cross sections (CCS) calculated from the measured mobilities. On top of the collision dynamics, we show how chemical transformation processes that alter the analyte's CCS, e.g., dynamic clustering or fragmentation, can lead to broadened, shifted, or non-Gaussian ATDs and how sensitive these processes are to the applied field strengths. We highlight how first-principles ion dynamics simulations can help to understand and even harness the mentioned effects.

A Modular Variable Temperature FT-IMS Instrument Optimized for Gas-Phase Ion Chemistry Applications.

The latest iteration of modular, open-source rolled ion mobility spectrometers was characterized and tailored for heated ion chemistry experiments. Because the nature of ion-neutral interactions is innately linked to the temperature of the drift cell, heated IMS experiments explicitly probe the fundamental characteristics of these collisions. While classic mobility experiments examine ions through inert buffer gases, doping the drift cell with reactive vapor enables desolvated chemical reactions to be studied. By using materials with minimal outgassing and ensuring the isolation of the drift tube from the surrounding ambient conditions, an open-source drift cell outfitted with heating components enables investigations of chemical reactions as a function of temperature. We show here that elevated temperatures facilitate an increase in deuterium incorporation and allow for hydrogen/deuterium exchanges otherwise unattainable under ambient conditions. While the initial fast exchanges get faster as temperature is increased, the slow rate which rises from the kinetic nonlinearity though to be attributed to ion-neutral clustering, remains constant with no change in mobility shifts. Additionally, we show the analytical merit of multiplexing mobility data by comparing the performance of traditional signal-averaging and FT-IMS modes.

Field stability of an Alvarez-type drift tube linear accelerator with small drift tubes

This study presents theoretical, simulation and experimental investigations of the field stability of a 7 MeV Alvarez-type drift tube linear accelerator (DTL) with small drift tubes (DTs). Although technical advances in permanent magnet quadrupoles make smaller DTs possible, resulting in higher shunt impedance, it is widely recognized that the DT-to-wall spacing must lie between ∼0.90 and ∼1.03 times a quarter wavelength (λ/4) to achieve field stability through post couplers (PCs). To enhance the shunt impedance of a DTL cavity, we decrease the outer diameter of the DTs and increase the inner diameter of the cavity, resulting in a DT-to-wall spacing of 1.16 times λ/4. A low-power experiment confirms that when the global tilt sensitivity slope is zero, the PC-to-DT distance is larger and there exists a stronger coupling between the PCs, resulting in a disturbed distribution of PC modes, where the frequencies of lower-order modes are overwhelmed by higher-order modes. The observed result is consistent with the analysis result given by the equivalent circuit theory and three-dimensional simulation. After field tuning by the trial-and-error method, the relative error of the axial electric field is within ±1.9% and the tilt sensitivity is within ±70%/MHz.

An Experimental Investigation On The Effect Of Laser Energy Deposition In An Over-Expanded Jet

The shock train structure of a supersonic over-expanded jet is the product of the interaction between the jet flow at the nozzle exit and the ambient environment. Although the effect of flow disturbances on the performance of the supersonic inlets has been studied in detail, a limited understanding of the shock train dynamics subject to flow disturbances is available for over-expanded jets. This experimental investigation focuses on understanding the influence of perturbations due to short-duration energy deposition on the shock train structure and its dynamics in an axisymmetric over-expanded Mach 2.52 jet. The flow is perturbed by laser-induced breakdown, creating a shock wave and a high-temperature plasma zone in the shock train. A high-speed self-aligning focusing schlieren system is used to visualize the flow structure variations by measuring the shock angles and Mach disk height and width to characterize the shock train dynamics and the flow structure recovery process. The response of jet flow to the perturbation at the nozzle exit and the pre-reflection point is found to be similar, however, the response of the supersonic jet to the post-reflection energy deposition is significantly different. The damping ratio for the pre-reflection point and nozzle exit cases found are nearly constant for all scenarios whereas it is linearly dependent on the jet chamber pressure for the post-reflection cases. The frequency of the oscillations is found to be the same for all cases and irrespective of the chamber pressure, laser energy, and deposition location, approximately 10 kHz. The transition from Mach to regular reflection and vice versa are observed at a chamber pressure of Pc = 689 kPa. Any perturbation to the shock structure of a supersonic over-expanding jet at close to the steady-state bifurcation condition between Mach and regular reflection will exhibit Mach-to-regular transition or vice versa.

In-situ monitoring of the CSC gas gain at CMS

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) are multiwire proportional chambers with cathode strip readout, and they constitute the primary muon tracking device in the endcaps of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The CSCs have accumulated a significant radiation dose since the beginning of LHC operations, and it is important to monitor any possible signs of aging and confirm that the detector can sustain the full integrated luminosity expected at the HL-LHC ( 3000 fb−1). Aging effects are assessed by performing in-situ measurements of the gas gain in CSCs as a function of the integrated luminosity. CSC gas gain is studied using muon-induced charge on cathodes using data collected during 2022, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 39.4 fb−1. The impact of atmospheric pressure and changes in detector settings (HV, gas mixture, etc.) are also taken into account. Based on these CSC gas gain measurements, chamber aging will not be a problem for Run 3. To ensure a definitive assessment for the HL-LHC, an improved control over systematic effects is needed.

Aging phenomenon in BESIII drift chamber

As the main tracking detector of Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII), the multilayer drift chamber (MDC) is used to accurately measure the position and the momentum of the charged particles produced in e+e− collisions at Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII), and meanwhile to test dE/dx information for particle identification. The MDC has been taking data since 2009. During about 15 years of operation, the MDC has worked stably with good performance, but it is suffering from aging issues due to beam related background. The gains of the cells in the first ten layers show a significant decrease, reaching a maximum decrease of about 50% for the first layer, and correspondingly, the spatial resolution and the hit efficiency also show a degradation. In addition, the inner chamber of the MDC encountered Malter effect in January 2012. About 2000 ppm water vapor was added to the gas mixture to solve this cathode aging problem. No Malter discharge has been observed since then. These aging monitoring and study provide important references for stable operation of the MDC and the upgrade of the inner chamber.

Performance of gas electron tracking detectors for beta decay studies

At the low-energy frontier, among the experiments testing the Standard Model and searching for new physics, are precision spectrum shape and correlation coefficient measurements in nuclear and neutron beta decay. For identification and 3D-tracking of low-energy electrons, a special type of gas-based detector was designed that minimizes scattering and energy loss. First, the newly developed gas tracker was successfully used to study tiny effects in the beta spectrum shape for allowed Gamow-Teller transitions. The miniBETA spectrometer consists of a hexagonally structured multi-wire drift chamber (MWDC) filled with a mixture of helium and isobutane gas and a plastic scintillator serving as a trigger source and energy detector. The drift time information is used to establish the electron tracks in the plane perpendicular to the wires, while the charge division technique provides spatial information along the wires. Second, inspired by the performance of this spectrometer we are building a Mott polarimeter to be used in the BRAND experiment to study the neutron decay correlation coefficients.

CIUSuite 3: Next-Generation CCS Calibration and Automated Data Analysis Tools for Gas-Phase Protein Unfolding Data.

Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) has become a technology deployed across a wide range of structural biology applications despite the challenges in characterizing closely related protein structures. Collision-induced unfolding (CIU) has emerged as a valuable technique for distinguishing closely related, iso-cross-sectional protein and protein complex ions through their distinct unfolding pathways in the gas phase. With the speed and sensitivity of CIU analyses, there has been a rapid growth of CIU-based assays, especially regarding biomolecular targets that remain challenging to assess and characterize with other structural biology tools. With information-rich CIU data, many software tools have been developed to automate laborious data analysis. However, with the recent development of new IM-MS technologies, such as cyclic IM-MS, CIU continues to evolve, necessitating improved data analysis tools to keep pace with new technologies and facilitating the automation of various data processing tasks. Here, we present CIUSuite 3, a software package that contains updated algorithms that support various IM-MS platforms and supports the automation of various data analysis tasks such as peak detection, multidimensional classification, and collision cross section (CCS) calibration. CIUSuite 3 uses local maxima searches along with peak width and prominence filters to detect peaks to automate CIU data extraction. To support both the primary CIU (CIU1) and secondary CIU (CIU2) experiments enabled by cyclic IM-MS, two-dimensional data preprocessing is deployed, which allows multidimensional classification. Our data suggest that additional dimensions in classification improve the overall accuracy of class assignments. CIUSuite 3 also supports CCS calibration for both traveling wave and drift tube IM-MS, and we demonstrate the accuracy of a new single-field CCS calibration method designed for drift tube IM-MS leveraging calibrant CIU data. Overall, CIUSuite 3 is positioned to support current and next-generation IM-MS and CIU assay development deployed in an automated format.

Novel method for in-situ drift velocity measurement in large volume TPCs: the Geometry Reference Chamber of the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN

This paper presents a novel method for low maintenance, low ambiguity in-situ drift velocity monitoring in large volume Time Projection Chambers (TPCs). The method was developed and deployed for the 40 m3 TPC tracker system of the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN, which has a one meter of drift length. The method relies on a low-cost multi-wire proportional chamber placed next to the TPC to be monitored, downstream with respect to the particle flux. Reconstructed tracks in the TPC are matched to hits in the monitoring chamber, called the Geometry Reference Chamber (GRC). Relative differences in positions of hits in the GRC are used to estimate the drift velocity, removing the need for an accurate alignment of the TPC to the GRC. An important design requirement on the GRC was minimal added complexity to the existing system, in particular, compatibility with Front-End Electronics cards already used to read out the TPCs. Moreover, the GRC system was designed to operate both in large and small particle fluxes. The system is capable of monitoring the evolution of the drift velocity inside the TPC down to a one permil precision, with a few minutes of data collection.

High-resolution ion mobility based on traveling wave structures for lossless ion manipulation resolves hidden lipid features

High-resolution ion mobility (resolving power > 200) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful analytical tool for resolving isobars and isomers in complex samples. High-resolution ion mobility is capable of discerning additional structurally distinct features, which are not observed with conventional resolving power ion mobility (IM, resolving power ~ 50) techniques such as traveling wave IM and drift tube ion mobility (DTIM). DTIM in particular is considered to be the “gold standard” IM technique since collision cross section (CCS) values are directly obtained through a first-principles relationship, whereas traveling wave IM techniques require an additional calibration strategy to determine accurate CCS values. In this study, we aim to evaluate the separation capabilities of a traveling wave ion mobility structures for lossless ion manipulation platform integrated with mass spectrometry analysis (SLIM IM-MS) for both lipid isomer standards and complex lipid samples. A cross-platform investigation of seven subclass-specific lipid extracts examined by both DTIM-MS and SLIM IM-MS showed additional features were observed for all lipid extracts when examined under high resolving power IM conditions, with the number of CCS-aligned features that resolve into additional peaks from DTIM-MS to SLIM IM-MS analysis varying between 5 and 50%, depending on the specific lipid sub-class investigated. Lipid CCS values are obtained from SLIM IM (TW(SLIM)CCS) through a two-step calibration procedure to align these measurements to within 2% average bias to reference values obtained via DTIM (DTCCS). A total of 225 lipid features from seven lipid extracts are subsequently identified in the high resolving power IM analysis by a combination of accurate mass-to-charge, CCS, retention time, and linear mobility-mass correlations to curate a high-resolution IM lipid structural atlas. These results emphasize the high isomeric complexity present in lipidomic samples and underscore the need for multiple analytical stages of separation operated at high resolution.Graphical abstract

Longevity studies for the CMS Drift Tubes towards HL-LHC

The High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) program will pose a great challenge for the CMS Muon System. Existing subdetectors, which consist of Drift Tubes (DT), Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) and Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC), will have to operate at 5 times larger instantaneous luminosity than the designed for, and, consequently, will have to sustain about 10 times the original LHC integrated luminosity. Longevity of DT system will be crucial to ensure a good performance in the CMS barrel region. Assessing DT performance is part of the upgrade program. In this talk will be reported the outcome of the accelerated irradiation studies, carried on at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) and recently concluded. These studies allowed to estimate performance of DT up to 3 times HL-LHC, and to plan a strategy to keep the longevity effects under control.

Simple Design Criterion for High-Intensity Hadron Linacs

Abstract A simple procedure is established to optimize fundamental design parameters of a high-intensity hadron linac where interparticle Coulomb interaction plays a crucial role. Based on the recently proposed semi-empirical resonance condition, a stability map is constructed which reveals potentially dangerous operating regions in tune space. The map is shown to be consistent with numerical data obtained from more complicated approaches. The effectiveness of the new design scheme is demonstrated through systematic particle-in-cell simulations assuming the most typical structure of an Alvarez-type drift tube linac. The present results suggest that the so-called equipartitioning condition, which has often been taken very seriously in high-intensity linac designs, does not need to be met to guarantee the best machine performance. The basic design concept described here can be applied not only to linacs but also to circular machines.

Injection and capture of antiprotons in a Penning–Malmberg trap using a drift tube accelerator and degrader foil

The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN provides antiproton bunches with a kinetic energy of 5.3 MeV. The Extra-Low ENergy Antiproton ring at CERN, commissioned at the AD in 2018, now supplies a bunch of electron-cooled antiprotons at a fixed energy of 100 keV. The MUSASHI antiproton trap was upgraded by replacing the radio-frequency quadrupole decelerator with a pulsed drift tube to re-accelerate antiprotons and optimize the injection energy into the degrader foils. By increasing the beam energy to 119 keV, a cooled antiproton accumulation efficiency of (26±6)% was achieved.

Evaluation of a Reference-Free Collision Cross Section Calibration Strategy for Proteomics Using SLIM-Based High-Resolution Ion Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometry.

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is a gas-phase analytical technique that separates ions with different sizes and shapes and is compatible with mass spectrometry (MS) to provide an additional separation dimension. The rapid nature of the IMS separation combined with the high sensitivity of MS-based detection and the ability to derive structural information on analytes in the form of the property collision cross section (CCS) makes IMS particularly well-suited for characterizing complex samples in -omics applications. In such applications, the quality of CCS from IMS measurements is critical to confident annotation of the detected components in the complex -omics samples. However, most IMS instrumentation in mainstream use requires calibration to calculate CCS from measured arrival times, with the most notable exception being drift tube IMS measurements using multifield methods. The strategy for calibrating CCS values, particularly selection of appropriate calibrants, has important implications for CCS accuracy, reproducibility, and transferability between laboratories. The conventional approach to CCS calibration involves explicitly defining calibrants ahead of data acquisition and crucially relies upon availability of reference CCS values. In this work, we present a novel reference-free approach to CCS calibration which leverages trends among putatively identified features and computational CCS prediction to conduct calibrations post-data acquisition and without relying on explicitly defined calibrants. We demonstrated the utility of this reference-free CCS calibration strategy for proteomics application using high-resolution structures for lossless ion manipulations (SLIM)-based IMS-MS. We first validated the accuracy of CCS values using a set of synthetic peptides and then demonstrated using a complex peptide sample from cell lysate.

Setting the Separation Factor α for Ketone Monomers and Dimers by the Use of Different Drift Gases.

This study investigates the influence of different drift gases on ion mobility in ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) using ketones as model substances within a custom-built drift tube spectrometer. Different binary mixtures of nitrogen, helium, and argon were used as drift gases to investigate the influence of mobility on the monomers and dimers of the different ketones. Experimental results reveal shifts in ion drift times and separation factors (α) with varying gas compositions, in accordance with Blanc's Law. Furthermore, the study underscores the device-independent nature of α and the device-dependent resolution, emphasizing the importance of comparative analyses. Employing 2-hexanone and 2-decanone in the same sample but with different drift gases is used to show the impact of different drift gases. By changing the drift gas composition, total alignment of drift times and therefore no possible resolution or baseline resolution could be achieved. Through different experiments and analyses, this research provides insights into the interactions between gas composition and ion mobility, offering implications for diverse analytical applications from environmental monitoring to chemical detection.

Ion Mobility Separations Using Cocentric Architecture.

Ion mobility separations, especially using drift tube ion mobility spectrometers, are usually performed in linear channels, which can have a large footprint when extended to achieve higher resolving powers. In this work, we explored the performance of an ion mobility device with a curved architecture, which can have a more compact form. The cocentric ion mobility spectrometer (CoCIMS) manipulates ions between two cocentric surfaces containing a serpentine track. The mobility separation inside the CoCIMS is achieved using traveling waveforms (TWs). We initially evaluated the device using ion trajectory simulations using SIMION, which indicated that when ions traveled circularly inside the CoCIMS they resulted in similar resolving powers and transmitted m/z range as traveling in a straight path. We then performed experimental validation of the CoCIMS in conjunction with a TOF MS. The CoCIMS was made of two flexible printed circuit board materials folded into cocentric cylinders separated by a gap of 2.8 mm. The device was about 50 mm diameter ×152 mm long and provided 1.846 m of serpentine path length. Three sets of mixtures (Agilent tune mixture, tetraalkylammonium salts, and an eight-peptide mixture) and four traveling waveform profiles (square, sine, triangle, and sawtooth) were used. The sawtooth TW profile produced a slightly higher resolving power for the Agilent tuning mixture and tetraalkylammonium ions. The average resolving power for Agilent tune mixture ions ranged from 37 (using sawtooth TW) to 27 (using square TW). The average resolving powers ranged from 45 (sawtooth TW) to 31 (square TW) for tetraalkylammonium ions. The resolving power of the peptide mixture ions was similar among the four TW profiles and ranged from 51 to 56. The average percent error in TWCCS for the peptide mixture ions was about 0.4%. The new device showed promising results, but improvements are needed to further increase the resolving power.

Influence of the shape of a conducting chamber on the stability of rigid ballooning modes in a mirror trap

MHD stabilization of flute and ballooning modes in an axisymmetric mirror trap is studied under the assumption of strong finite Larmor radius effect that suppresses all perturbations with azimuthal numbers m⩾2 and makes the m = 1 mode ‘rigid’. The rigid mode can be effectively suppressed using perfectly conducting lateral wall without any additional means of stabilization or in combination with end MHD anchors. Numerical calculations were carried out for an anisotropic plasma produced in the course of neutral beam injection into the minimum of the magnetic field at the right angle to the trap axis. The stabilizing effect of the conducting shell made of a straightened cylinder is compared with a proportional chamber, which, on an enlarged scale, repeats the shape of the plasma column. It is confirmed that for convincing wall stabilization of the rigid modes, the plasma beta (β, the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic field pressure) must exceed some critical value βcr2 . When conducting lateral wall is combined with conducting end plates imitating MHD end anchors, there are two critical betas and, respectively, two stability zones β<βcr1 and β>βcr2 that can merge, making the entire range 0<β<1 of betas allowable for stable plasma confinement. The dependence of the critical betas on the plasma anisotropy, mirror ratio, width of the vacuum gap between the plasma column and the lateral wall, radial pressure profile and the axial magnetic field profile is examined.

Development of a muon linac for the J-PARC Muon g − 2/EDM experiment

At Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), a muon linac is being developed for future muon g−2/Electric Dipole Moment (EDM) experiments. The muon linac starts with an ultra-slow muon (USM) source that generates muons with an extremely small momentum of 3 keV/c (kinetic energy W=25 meV) by laser ionization of thermal muonium. The generated USMs are accelerated to 5.6 keV by an electrostatic field and injected into a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ). The injected muons are accelerated to 0.34 MeV by the 324-MHz RFQ. Then, the energy of the muon beam is boosted to 4.5 MeV with a 324-MHz interdigital H-type drift tube linac (IH-DTL). Following the IH-DTL, 1296-MHz disk-and-washer (DAW) structures accelerate the muon up to 40 MeV. Finally, the muons are accelerated from 40 MeV to 212 MeV using a 2592-MHz disk-loaded traveling wave structure (DLS). In this paper, details of the linac design and the recent progress toward the realization of the world's first muon linac will be discussed.