H4/SPS Daily meetings
September 15
Status: We could only run part of the night, until about 4:00 AM. Beam expected at 8:30 PM . CAL calibration with 20 GeV pions completed.
Two configurations suggested by Leon tested as well (with 150 GeV pions).
Program: 10 GeV electrons (limited number of configurations). We will stop tomorrow at 7:00 AM. The area must be cleared by 8:00 AM.
September 14
Status: Program with 20 GeV protons completed (center of tower 2: 0,45,180 deg +1 position at 90 deg 100k events). Different configurations with 200 GeV electrons used for the FIFO full issue. As of today, we are in "democratc mode", so we have lost the capability to run at the highest energies (>250 GeV). To do list related to dismantling and shipping Configurations still to do
Program: 10 GeV electrons. Completion of the scan with 20 GeV pions.
Analysis: Dave Smith looked a little at position measurements in CAL single crystals, here. Benoit had a look at the 20 GeV pion run used for CAL calibrations. There is a very good agreement between the reconstructed energy of the MIP peak and that predicted by the MC, demonstrating that pedestals or light yields/gains have not significantly drifted over time.
September 11
Status: Smooth operation most of the time, except for 3 hours in the morning. Program of different geometrical configurations completed at 20 GeV. New configurations proposed by Philippe at different energies (200,100,50,20 GeV) to study the crack effects + direct contributions from the beam almost done.
Program: Different electronic configurations to investigate the FIFO full issue. Switch to 20 GeV (10 GeV?) protons.
Analysis: Luis presented the first comparison between MC and data for the ACD distributions. The agreement seems reasonable.
September 10
Status: Smooth operation most of the time. Program of different geometrical configurations completed at 50 GeV, well along at 20 GeV. Runs with different trigger engines (internal trigger for physical events: 1 range readout, 0-suppress, external trigger for random events: 4 range readout, non 0-suppress) performed successfully to study the pedestal drift issue.
Program: Completion of 20 GeV program. Dedicated runs near cracks at 200 GeV. Switch to protons+pions tomorrow morning, when the experts are around.
Analysis: Preliminary results of the "pedestal-drift" runs (Benoit). The expected effect is clearly visible, although this is still very qualitative.
September 9
Status: Smooth operation most of the time, but for a long interruption from 4:30 to 9 AM. Program of different geometrical configurations completed at 100 GeV. Specific configurations proposed by Leon (45 deg, with particles entering the tracker sideways within the thick-converter layers) were used as well.
Program: Specific studies for the "baseline restoration" (aka "pedestal drift") problem using LATTE's muti-engine capabilities (configuration files provided by Jim Panetta). CAL pedestals, internal trigger runs. Switch to 50 GeV.
Analysis: A look at the deposited-energy distributionsmeasured in the different CAL layers (Benoit): a factor close to 90%, dependent on the layer and the bombarding energy has to be applied to the data to get a good match with the data. It is not clear if this effect is only due to non-linearity in the extrapolation of the cosmic-muon calibration to the highest energy range. Philippe showed the dependence of the measured energy on the distance to the log edge. David P. has studied the beam width, found to be much narrower in the data than in the existing simulation runs. Jan and Niklas showed results on the FHE efficiency at 200 GeV. Since the deposited energy per layer is so high, there are only few events below threshold. The measurement must be repeated at lower energy.
September 8
Status: Smooth operation most of the time. Program of different geometrical configurations completed at 280 GeV. FHE tests completed at 280 GeV (theshold=0.5 GeV-2 GeV) at 2 different positions. Cerenkov counters have been checked (there was connection problems), and are now working, although the efficiency is low.
Program: Specific studies for the "baseline restoration" (aka "pedestal drift") problem (waiting for Ric's help to implement muti-engine capabilities). CAL pedestals, internal trigger runs. Switch to 100 GeV.
September 7
Status: The beam is now much more stable. Calorimeter calibration completed, ACD calibration completed, scanning of 200 GeV configurations almost completed. Some runs were repeated after it was found that 4 scintillators used for the beam tuning were still in and be moved out. The pressure in the 2 Cerenkovs (1.2 bars
so far) was set to 0. The dependence of the calorimeter measured energy as a function of rate has been investigated ("baseline restoration" problem). The effect is clearly visible. We decide to limit the rate to 400 Hz for the rest of the run. The time of the daily meeting will be moved to 5 PM to enable people on the previous night shift to attend.
Program: switch to 280 GeV and repeat the same configurations. Specific BT configuration files will be prepared by Luca and Carmelo to study the FHE efficiency using the SPS timing settings. As proposed by Anders, the TEM diagnostics will be on by default (BT 6 which is now the baseline).
Analysis: the first quick comparison with the MC simulations at 100 GeV shows a reasonable agreement for the tracker hit multiplicity (the multiplicity is larger for the data) and the energy deposited per layer in the calorimeter. No comparison is available for the ACD yet. More simulations are needed.
September 6
Status: First day of beam. We were supposed to have the beam at midnight, we got it at 3PM. The timing was looked at, the calorimeter signal is now coming earlier with respect to the tracker as compared to PS. BT 5 configutation with cal/tkr in the middle of the trigger window at SPS is now the baseline.The calibration of the calorimeter (cross pattern) at 100 GeV was started then interrupted to let the experts optimize the beam tuning at the highest energies. Many interruptions due to machine problems. Benoit attended the weekly users' meeting (moved from Thursadt to Wednesday as tomorrow is a holiday in Switzerland): there will be machine development (no beam) from next Tuesday 8 AM to Wednesday 4 PM. A threat on our running with the "0 mrd" configuration (allowing us to get the highest rate at high energy) was mentioned during the meeting, as the H2 users (sharing the same target) would like a less detrimental configuration for them. Finally, a way around was found and we wil keep this configuration at least until Monday.
Program: completion of the 100 GeV calibration runs, ACD calibration with protrons+pions, switch to 200 GeV, scanning of different (X,Y, theta) configurations
T9/PS run Daily Briefings - 3PM
Daily briefing minutes
August 21 - 13-3-005
Communications |
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Online&DAQ Report |
-Interruption today between 8:30 and 17:00 because of an intervention on a magnet in the PS hall. The program on positrons and electrons at 1 GeV is essentially complete (~ 900 K for both). Alessandro has moved the second arm of the tagger at larger angle in order to get lower energy gamma-rays. . |
OfflineReport |
The pipeline at SLAC is back up and there is no backlog left. Mizuno shows some simulation results concerning positron annihilation. With the current "annihilator", the probability for annihilation at 1 GeV is 1e-3. The probability for having two gamma rays with energy greater than 30 MeV is about half as low, 0.5e-4. Half of these events are actually contaminated by a bremstrahlung gamma-ray. The angle between the gamma-ray directions can help distinguish between contaminated/ pure annihilation events, the latter being associated with greater angles. |
Program |
We will resume data taking with the tagger at .5 GeV when the beam is back, using different configurations, until tomorrow morning. We will then proceed with "special configuration" runs, namely using different FHE thresholds with 5 GeV electrons. |
Notes |
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August 20 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
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Online&DAQ Report |
-Interruption today between 10:30 and 12:00 because of an local power outage (Benoit accidentally pushed the emergency bottom in on of the barracks while trying to pull an ethernet cable). We couldn't switch the power back on by ourselves, after proper authorization of the control room. The expert on call had to drive over. Everything went back up without too much problem. Otherwise smooth operation. |
OfflineReport |
The pipeline at SLAC has been stuck for more than 12 hours because u23 is full. We are eagerly waiting for California to wake up. |
Program |
We took advantage of the interruption to prepare for the positron run. The annihilator is now a piece of 27-mm thick plexiglas. The two finger detectors are now side by side. We will start running positrons around 4 PM tonight and keep running overnight. |
Notes |
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August 19 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
- large increase in the beam rate for standard setting last night when running photons, had to reduce rate by closing slits to 51 to get usual rate on S0 (20K/cycle) and reduce pile-up; please monitor this number when taking photons and act on slits if needed |
Online&DAQ Report |
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OfflineReport |
- Benoit on CAL pedestal drift: analysed rate effect in CAL crystal on pedestal for p runs; there is a clear effect that shows a broadening of the landau peak in CalEneSum at high rate; cutting on GemDeltaEvtTime and selecting particles at the beginning of the spill the Landau appear normal. The same is confirmed when analyzing few runs taken with lower p rate. Positron and electron runs seem unaffected. Michael looking at tkr data to seek for any rate effect; the idea is to monitor the efficiency of a FE vs GemDeltaEvtTIme, as no runs with different rates are available for p through the tkr. |
Program |
- running smoothly with photons, program to be followed until tomorrow at 4PM maximum; perform full-brem at shallow angle tonight, and if time is short do not perform some of the runs at 500mev primary beam as we plan to reconfigure the tagger for the very low energy on monday and tuesday anyway |
Notes |
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August 18 - 13-3-005
Communications |
- smooth data taking until this morning around 10; T10 requested hadron target w/o prior agreement with us and reduced our e rate by a factor 2. we agreed that they can have the hadron target between 1PM and 5PM today. We will use that time to setup the finger counters for e+ runs, to speed up setup for e+. |
Online&DAQ Report |
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OfflineReport |
- Philippe on pileup measurements - comparison of new runs w and w/o pile-up inspector show difference wrt to first e scan runs; overall rate is the main difference (effect of pile-up inspector is not very strong); residual pile-up directly measured with a random trigger is at the level of 2%, and is correlated with the beam direction |
Program |
- e scan completed last night |
Notes |
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August 17 - 13-3-005
Communications |
- news from PS/SPS users meeting: the MICE experiment will not run after us, so we have a chance for an extension; the coordinators feel this is not necessary and hard to support; the maximum we can afford is to extend 1 day if really needed; on the other hand we need to organize for the transportation of our equipment to SPS, currently scheduled for wednesday 23; Luca to contact Ilias and discuss possibility of move on thursday if we are late with the program after the weekend |
Online&DAQ Report |
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OfflineReport |
- full-brem data on twr3 show standard distribution of vertices (no dead areas) |
Program |
- p program completed |
Notes |
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August 16 - 13-3-005
Communications |
- 1 PMT on the twr3 side top tile seems to be badly connected (very low PH) after the top tile was repositioned in its original location after albedo runs - might try fidgeting with the light guide to reestablish connection |
Online&DAQ Report |
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OfflineReport |
- Tagger calibration and beam dispersion |
Program |
- p program completed: |
Notes |
- due to a stop from PS, tomorrow morning shift will start at 9AM |
August 15 - 13-3-005
Communications |
- 1st positron annihilation program completed overnight; shooted 1M e+ and 1M e- through MMS placed in front of ACD tiles; CU oriented at small angle to increase path length in tracker and benefit from good tracking to point tracks to MMS target. Analysis will rely on ACD efficiency to reject e+. Target placement done using a pb brick to shadow the beam and then replacing the brick with the MMS target |
Online&DAQ Report |
working well at very high rate with p since this morning, 4KHz peak rate. Some errors appear but are known and under control (mainly FIFO full and parsing errors) |
OfflineReport |
postponed to VRVS later; will have contributions on PSF (Claudia), E recon (Philippe), ACD cuts and positron runs (Philippe,Eric) |
Program |
see above |
Notes |
new shift list until the end available on confluence; reduced to 2 people/shift to better support analysis now that running is stable |
August 14 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
-Photon runs: completed position 1(0degree),2(30degree),3(50degree) both full brem and tagged with primary beam at 0.5,1,2.5GeV. currently taking events for position 2 in tagged mode with 1.75 gev primary beam to fully populate spectrum. |
Online&DAQ Report |
all stable |
OfflineReport |
-philippe (CAL): completed analysis of yesterday on energy resolution, results are confirmed on all the tagged photon runs; at 0 and 30 degress the parametric method has a significant bias, and the resolution is worse than MC. The likelihood method show smaller bias, therefore a systematic error from the tagger can be excluded. Require confirmation of the beam energy spread and tagger resoultion by tagger people |
Program |
- discussion on positron setup; discussed implications of layer thickness (trade-off between annihilation probability and brem contamination), running with ancillary CAL in the DAQ to tag energy of positrons radiating bremstrahlung photons before hitting the target, setup (dump, veto scintillator, target). Agreed that we would make a simple test tonight, keep setup simple, run w/o ancillary and collect quickly 1M positron and 1M electrons shooting through the ACD tiles at approx 45 degree. We will then check for difference offline and look for 2 gamma events as positron annihilation signature. |
Notes |
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August 13 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
beam conditions very stable over the weekend, with 4th spill available; data taken with good efficiency |
Online&DAQ Report |
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OfflineReport |
- philippe: taggged photon spectrum has a whole around 650 MeV, would be nice to fill it with 1.5 or 1.75 gev primary beam tagged photons; compared different energy recon algo for available data (not bruel methos as starts at 1gev): bill's method show a bias ranging from few to 10%; Pol method has a smaller bias but has a hard-coded limitation to 50 degress, therefore when this was realized some data were taken at 49 degrees (quicker than recompiling the code) so we have limited statistics (in the long run we just have to recompile the code and allow angle over 50). |
Program |
proceed with photons at least until tomorrow afternoon, then consider proton runs for the swing and owl shift; make sure the positron setup is defined before tomorrow and be ready to prepare it on tuesday to run tuesday night |
Notes |
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August 12 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
- running smoothly since yesterday, 2 CU positions completed at 2.5Gev, both tagged and full bream photons, 2 position completed at 1GeV tagged, currently running tagged photons at 0.5GeV with CU at 0 angle; 3rd position tagged photon by tonight, 3rd position full-brem at 2.5GeV for the owl shift. Running with 4 spills per supercycle since 1.3PM |
Online&DAQ Report |
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OfflineReport |
- Philippe presented plots from test sync runs with e which show how events with no energy in the cal point to the dump as measured by the 1st arm of the tagger |
Program |
- agreed program here |
Notes |
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August 11 - 32-S-C22
Communications |
- Running since this morning 9AM with 2 spills, 3 spills available since 2.30PM. Currently taking tagged photons from 1GeV e beam |
Online&DAQ Report |
DAQ synchronization lost once, tagged photon run stopped and restarted with no event loss |
OfflineReport |
- Philippe reported on analysis of tagger calibration runs, tagger energy resolution same as what measured and presented by Nicola yesterday; one of the analyzed runs appear as 1.12GeV e in the rcReport, while the actual energy was 1.125, Luca B believe there is an issue with trunctation which the database people should address at SLAC (Eduardo to check) |
Program |
- agreed program here |
Notes |
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August 10 - 13-3-005
Communications |
News from PS/PS Users Meeting: |
Online&DAQ Report |
Ric confirms that agreed modifications on spill structure for next week will not hamper DAQ sync and data merge online |
OfflineReport |
- Nicola reported on ancillary recon performance and tagger studies; taggeed electrons momentum resolution is 3.5% (beam+MS+tagger), better than expected. Current AD recon only available locally, working to make it available to everybody here w/o waiting pipeline to update; also speeding up release process and pipeline re-processing of tagged photon runs |
Program |
- agreed program (still) here |
Notes |
please provide Luca with updated presence of people at CERN to allow completion of shift list |
August 9 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
No beam since this morning at 9. CUrrent estimation is NO beam before tomorrow afternoon, shifts are suspended, we will restart tomorrow at 12 and update. |
Online&DAQ Report |
DAQ sync with AD ran smoothly since this morning at rates up to 1500 part/cycle, corresponsind to a peak rate of 1KHz (max is 2K), with a beam intensity of 60KHz |
OfflineReport |
- Latency for full-brem runs is large due to caltuple merge, Luca to investigate with Francesco if pipeline can be coinfigured to link to merit and SVAC tuples before merging caltuple; the other option is to give up the CAL tuple (to be discussed with CAL people) |
Program |
- agreed program here |
Notes |
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August 8 - 13-3-005
Communications |
Beam back from9. Standard beam with 3 spills from 11. Discovered that magnet settings were wrong and gave beam crossing cerenkov detectors therefore reducing e fraction and trigger efficiency. After loading the magnet settings file from Erik everything was fine and we could restart. |
Online&DAQ Report |
DAQ sync with AD ran smoothly since this morning at rates up to 1500 part/cycle, corresponsind to a peak rate of 1KHz (max is 2K), with a beam intensity of 60KHz |
OfflineReport |
- Local Offline coordination and daily reports: Claudia for TKR, Philippe for CAL, Eric C for ACD, Nicola M for ancillary and beam diagnostics |
Program |
- Finish tagger calibration by tonight |
Notes |
When changes to the beam line are to be made, please use the table provided here and not the table from EBCR |
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July 31 - 32-1-A24
Communications |
UPS identified and ordered (3 UPS with 900W x 7min for DAQ PCs, 1 UPS with 450W x 7 min for 28V PS); should be delivered wednesday |
Online&DAQ Report |
CU DAQ maximum readout rate with full error parsing in the code is 300Hz average, corresponding to 4KHz instantenous rate during the spill (our spill structure is 3 x 0.4s spills every 16 s). Indeed runs were taken with instantenous rates up to 2KHz. This max value will be checked with a random trigger generator (low threshold scintillator) and with the beam as soon as it gets back. |
OfflineReport |
- Francesco: acdrecon and adrecon in new BTRelease; bug fix in the svac ntuple to avoid overwriting first 1000 evts |
Progrm |
- CU DAQ max readout rate test with random generated pulses |
Notes |
Action items |
July 30 10.30AM - T9 barrack
- List of runs (Eduardo)
- Updated shift list (luca)
- UPS for DAQ PCs and CU PS (luca and gloria)
July 29 8PM - T9 barrack
- Restart of activities
1) Ric: CU DAQ PCs restarted ok, need to switch on CU and acquire some test runs to verify DAQ hardware is ok
2) Philippe: verify XY table is working fine, initialize again to establish reference point
3) Fabio: AD DAQ is on again, test runs being taken and look ok
- List of tasks for 7/30 (no beam available)
- Online team + Sandro: provide online plots for tagger alignment and calibration
- Francesco: verify pipeline is fine and test ACD reconstruction on local PCs, test also ANC reconstruction, improvements on MC geometry in progress, measurements of beamline
- Claudia/Monica: verify offline monitor
- Eduardo: provide list of interesting runs taken so far and distribute it to analize
- Luca, Gloria: provide UPS for at least LAT-BTserver, enquiry about UPS for other DAQ machines and CU PS
- Luca, Gloria, Nicola, Eduardo: provide sketch of experimental setup, trigger setup
- Luca: new shift list with 8 hour shift and 3 people per shift (4 if possible)
July 29 - T9 barrack
Communications |
- POWER OUTAGE ON THE WHOLE CERN SITE SINCE 8AM - NO ESTIMATION ON POWER AND BEAM. After contacting the control room we decide to stop shifts until the power is back, and we meet at 8PM at T9 to check again with CR; if no changes happen we will meet again tomorrow at 8AM. |
Online&DAQ Report |
- The external trigger signal delivered to the CU had a wrong TTL polarity, resulting in the CU being triggered on the falling edge of the trigger occuring 800ns later than the rising edge; this was corrected and the external trigger signal was aligned with trigger requests from TKR and CAL. New test of DAQ sync will have to be performed to verify if we can work at higher rate (200 evts/spill was the max stable rate tested so far) |
Offline Report |
Francesco: |
Program |
- Carmelo and Sandro working on the online monitor to align and calibrate the tagger |
Notes |
- people are invited to start looking at data offline and report |
July 28 - room 13-3-005
Communications |
- Magnet failure: MNP17 colling system failure at 1AM stopped data taking for several hours but no damage on hardware. Physics restarted after 2 hours w/o silicon tagger for CAL calibrations. Magnet repaired in the morning |
Online Report |
- DAQ sync studies going on |
Offline Report |
Francesco: |
Program |
- Complete DAQ sync studies |
Notes |
- Fill elogbook |