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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Studies of the trigger performance of the ICARUS T600 detector at Fermilab

In recent years, experimental neutrino anomalies were reported: if confirmed, they could hint at the existence of additional sterile neutrino states participating in the mixing phenomenon. The future Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) project at Fermilab will pursue sterile neutrino searches, by exploiting three Liquid Argon (LAr) Time Projection Chamber (TPC) detectors located on-axis along the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB). Aside from SBND and MicroBooNE, ICARUS will be the far detector and will also be interested by the NuMI beam (off-axis). The trigger system is a key component of the detector: it is based on the coincidence of prompt signals from scintillation light in the LAr-TPC (recorded by a system of PhotoMultiplier Tubes, PMTs) with the proton spill extraction of the beam. The present system exploits a majority-based logic and may be complemented by a trigger system based on adder boards, that add the analog signals of the PMTs in groups of 15. Triggering on the sum may help in identifying events closer to the TPC walls, in which there is plenty of light collected by few PMTs and for which the majority condition may not be satisfied. Many tests were carried out to characterize the adder boards, both on the hardware and software sides.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Performance of the ICARUS Trigger System at the Booster and NuMI Neutrino Beams †

The ICARUS-T600 liquid argon time projection chamber detector takes data at a shallow depth as the far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab, searching for sterile neutrinos with the Booster and Main Injector neutrino beams. The ICARUS trigger system exploits the temporal coincidence of the beams with scintillation light signals detected by 360 photo-multiplier tubes in limited TPC regions. The trigger efficiency measurement leverages cosmic rays collected without any scintillation light requirement, with timing from an external cosmic ray tagger system. The efficiency measured with stopping muons roughly saturates at ∼300 MeV, covering most of the expected energy range of charged-current neutrino interactions. For the latest ICARUS physics runs, special “adder” boards performing the analog sum of light signals were introduced as a complementary trigger to possibly recover low-energy neutrino interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessing Edge Localized Mode (ELM) Mitigation by Pellet Triggering in Smallest-Possible Affordable Robust Compact (SPARC) Low-Collisionality Discharges

Simulations of pellet edge-localized mode (ELM) triggering with the M3D-C1 code confirmed experimentally observed pellet mass thresholds in low-collisionality DIII-D discharges and predicted extremely large thresholds in ITER [A. Wingen et al, Nucl. Fusion 64, 066015(2024)]. The linear (static) and nonlinear (dynamic) workflows developed in this previous work are now applied to the SPARC tokamak. Multiple synthetic equilibria for the high-performance H-mode scenario are tested for MHD stability without pellets using the linear workflow and ELITE simulations; a stable one is identified. Pellets of various mass are injected along an inboard, near-midplane trajectory in the M3D-C1 simulation. No pellet mass threshold for ELM triggering can be found for realistic pellet masses, concluding that fueling from this injection location would not trigger ELMs. A poloidal scan of possible injection locations shows very high thresholds on the high-field side and reasonable thresholds on the low-field-side (LFS). Based on results of this work the location for a LFS injection was finalized in the SPARC design. For this LFS injection the pellet mass threshold is determined using the linear workflow, aligning well with the poloidal scan.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Study and improvement of the trigger system in ICARUS

In recent years, intriguing experimental neutrino anomalies have emerged. If confirmed, they could hint at the presence of additional sterile neutrino states playing in neutrino mixing. The Short-Baseline Neutrino project at Fermilab aims to delve into these anomalies, utilizing three Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detectors along the Booster Neutrino Beam. The SBND detector serves as nearby instruments, while MicroBooNE and ICARUS function as far detectors and also explore the NuMI beam off-axis. A relevant aspect in the functioning of all SBN detectors is the trigger system, that determines which interactions are recorded. In particular, in ICARUS, it relies on the synchronization of prompt signals from scintillation light within the LAr-TPC, detected by a system of Photo-Multiplier Tubes, with the proton beam’s spill extraction. The existing majority-based logic of the trigger system could potentially be enhanced through adder boards that sum analog signals from PMTs in groups of 15. This sum-based triggering might aid in identifying events near TPC walls, where light is abundant but captured by only a few PMTs, potentially bypassing the majority condition. Comprehensive tests have been performed to characterize these adder boards.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessing Edge Localized Mode (ELM) Mitigation by Pellet Triggering in Smallest-Possible Affordable Robust Compact (SPARC) Low-Collisionality Discharges

Simulations of pellet edge-localized mode (ELM) triggering with the M3D-C1 code confirmed experimentally observed pellet mass thresholds in low-collisionality DIII-D discharges and predicted extremely large thresholds in ITER. The linear (static) and nonlinear (dynamic) workflows developed in this previous work are now applied to the SPARC tokamak. Multiple synthetic equilibria for the high-performance H-mode scenario are tested for MHD stability without pellets using the linear workflow and ELITE simulations; a stable one is identified. Pellets of various mass are injected along an inboard, near-midplane trajectory in the M3D-C1 simulation. No pellet mass threshold for ELM triggering can be found for realistic pellet masses, concluding that fueling from this injection location would not trigger ELMs. A poloidal scan of possible injection locations shows very high thresholds on the high-field side and reasonable thresholds on the low-field-side (LFS). Based on results of this work the location for a LFS injection was finalized in the SPARC design. For this LFS injection the pellet mass threshold is determined using the linear workflow, aligning well with the poloidal scan.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Towards Anomaly Detection at the CMS High-Level Trigger System

Traditional trigger strategies in CMS typically rely on model-dependent selections or rigid kinematic cuts, risking the omission of unexpected exotic signatures. To address this, we propose a novel anomaly detection (AD) algorithm for the High-Level Trigger (HLT), designed to serve as a complementary second layer of filtering to the Level-1 AXOL1TL AD algorithm. We employ a transformer-based foundation model trained on a diverse ensemble of Standard Model processes. By combining a joint contrastive and classification objective, and using particle kinematics as inputs, the model learns to map events to a physics-informed latent space where anomalous events are isolated from dominant backgrounds. Preliminary results show that this strategy enhances the signal-to-background ratio across a range of rare SM and BSM scenarios. Furthermore, this work constitutes foundational R&D for the potential implementation of an analogous AD algorithm in the Level-1 trigger system for Phase-2.

Cruz, Roy [U. Wisconsin, Madison (main)] (ORCID:00↗
DOE OSTI2025

Study of the Design and Characteristics of a Modified Pulsed Plasma Thruster with Graphite and Tungsten Trigger Electrodes

The paper presents experimental results for a modified pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) with solid propellant, using a coaxial anode–cathode design. Graphite from pencil leads served as propellant, and a tungsten trigger electrode was tested to reduce carbonization effects. Experiments were performed in a vacuum chamber at 0.001 Pa, employing diagnostics such as discharge current/voltage recording, power measurement, ballistic pendulum, time-of-flight (TOF) method, and a Faraday cup. Current and voltage waveforms matched an oscillatory RLC circuit with variable plasma channel resistance. Key discharge parameters were measured, including current pulse duration/amplitude and plasma channel formation/decay dynamics. Impulse bit values, obtained with a ballistic pendulum, reached up to 8.5 μN·s. Increasing trigger capacitor capacitance reduced thrust due to unstable “pre-plasma” formation and partial pre-discharge energy loss. Using TOF and Faraday cup diagnostics, plasma front velocity, ion current amplitude, current density, and ion concentration were determined. Tungsten electrodes produced lower charged particle concentrations than graphite but offered better adhesion resistance, minimal carbonization, and stable long-term performance. The findings support optimizing trigger electrode materials and PPT operating modes to extend lifetime and stabilize thrust output.

Faraday cup↗
DOE OSTI2025

Primordial Black Hole Triggered Type Ia Supernovae. I. Impact on Explosion Dynamics and Light Curves

Primordial black holes (PBHs) in the asteroid-mass window are compelling dark matter candidates, made plausible by the existence of black holes and by the variety of mechanisms of their production in the early Universe. If a PBH falls into a white dwarf (WD), the strong tidal forces can generate enough heat to trigger a thermonuclear runaway explosion, depending on the WD’s mass and the PBH’s orbital parameters. In this work, we investigate the WD explosion triggered by the passage of a PBH. We perform 2D simulations of the WD undergoing thermonuclear explosion in this scenario, with the predicted ignition site as a parameter assuming the deflagration–detonation transition model. We study the explosion dynamics, and predict the associated light curves and nucleosynthesis. We find that the model sequence predicts light curves which align with the Phillips relation (B max versus ΔM 15 ). Our models hint at a unifying approach in triggering Type Ia supernovae without involving two distinctive evolutionary tracks.

Dark matter↗
DOE OSTI2024

Real-time Anomaly Detection at the L1 Trigger of CMS Experiment

We present the preparation, deployment, and testing of an autoencoder trained for unbiased detection of new physics signatures in the CMS experiment Global Trigger (GT) test crate FPGAs during LHC Run 3. The GT makes the final decision whether to readout or discard the data from each LHC collision, which occur at a rate of 40 MHz, within a 50 ns latency. The Neural Network makes a prediction for each event within these constraints, which can be used to select anomalous events for further analysis. The GT test crate is a copy of the main GT system, receiving the same input data, but whose output is not used to trigger the readout of CMS, providing a platform for thorough testing of new trigger algorithms on live data, but without interrupting data taking. We describe the methodology to achieve ultra low latency anomaly detection, and present the integration of the DNN into the GT test crate, as well as the monitoring, testing, and validation of the algorithm during proton collisions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Force-triggered, Bio-based, Sealants for Prefabricated Building Components: Towards Improved Efficiency, Performance and Sustainability

The prefabricated building construction industry has made extensive progress in expediting the manufacture of prefabricated components at offsite plants. However, this progress has not translated to the assembly of the prefabricated components at the construction site. Case in point, sealing the joints between components to prevent air leaks requires the manual application of tape, caulk, or spray foam at the jobsite, and performance is highly dependent on the skills of the installer. To reduce assembly time and improve assembly quality of prefabricated components, we developed a sealant that can be installed at the plant and triggered at the jobsite. Additionally, we used this opportunity to lower the use of fossil fuel derived feedstocks and introduced bio-based alternatives to decrease the embodied carbon of the new sealant. We evaluated a series of force-triggered, bio-based, high strength, and fast curing sealants, consisting of a one-part heterogeneous system. These sealants are derived from formulations with ≥80% of biogenic carbon, consisting of a cardanol derived diepoxy that is microencapsulated in a polymer shell and embedded in a cardanol derived amine curing agent. The microcapsule shell allows separation of the reactive species in the one part sealant allowing shelf stability to an otherwise fast curing system. When the microcapsules are broken and activated by force, the highly reactive species mix and cure, exhibiting peel strengths up to 143 ppi. The shelf stability of these sealants and the on-demand triggering of the curing reactions enable installation on prefabricated components and storage prior to delivery and assembly at a jobsite, which could result in consistent sealant application with lower installation time than tapes and caulks at the construction site.

Cortes Guzman, Karen [ORNL] (ORCID:000000028793468↗
DOE OSTI2025

Configuration, Performance, and Commissioning of the ATLAS b-jet Triggers for the 2022 and 2023 LHC data-taking periods

In 2022 and 2023, the Large Hadron Collider produced approximately two billion hadronic interactions each second from bunches of protons that collide at a rate of 40 MHz. The ATLAS trigger system is used to reduce this rate to a few kHz for recording. Selections based on hadronic jets, their energy, and event topology reduce the rate to 𝒪(10) kHz while maintaining high efficiencies for important signatures resulting in b-quarks, but to reach the desired recording rate of hundreds of Hz, additional real-time selections based on the identification of jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) are employed to achieve low thresholds on the jet transverse momentum at the High-Level Trigger. The configuration, commissioning, and performance of the real-time ATLAS b-jet identification algorithms for the early LHC Run 3 collision data are presented. These recent developments provide substantial gains in signal efficiency for critical signatures; for the Standard Model production of Higgs boson pairs, a 50% improvement in selection efficiency is observed in final states with four b-quarks or two b-quarks and two hadronically decaying τ-leptons.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

TTDAQ: A Continuous Flow, Timing and Trigger DAQ System

Final Scientific/Technical Report for DOE Award DE-SC0019581, “TTDAQ: A Continuous Flow, Timing and Trigger DAQ System.” The report summarizes Telluric Labs’ Phase II STTR work developing silicon-photonic building blocks for a software-defined, continuous-flow, trigger-less data acquisition system for next-generation high-energy and nuclear-physics detectors. The project focused on radiation-hard photonic integrated circuits, remote optical illumination, dense wavelength-division multiplexing, and a differential microring-resonator transceiver architecture designed to improve high-speed optical link stability and bandwidth. The report describes project objectives, technical accomplishments, AIM Photonics tape-outs, bench characterization, radiation-hardness testing, deferred integration work, and potential applications beyond physics readout.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Earthquake-triggered submarine canyon flushing transfers young terrestrial and marine organic carbon into the deep sea

Submarine canyons transfer substantial amounts of sediment and organic carbon (OC) into the deep ocean, nourishing deep-sea ecosystems and contributing to the global carbon cycle through OC burial and sequestration. Tracking lateral OC transport through submarine canyon systems is challenged by the deep-ocean setting, difficulties with constraining episodic depositional events, and the need to assess the composition and age of marine and terrestrial organic matter. We apply innovative parallel ramped pyrolysis oxidation accelerator mass spectrometry and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with isotope analyses to track OC age and sources in the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake-triggered, canyon-flushing event that deposited along >1300 km of a submarine canyon-channel system, offshore Aotearoa New Zealand. Specifically, these techniques allow us to determine the ages, sources, and partitioning of OC within the Kaikoura turbidite deposit and test hypotheses of how submarine canyon systems contribute to lateral OC flux and burial. Our results show that, despite considerable canyon floor erosion, substantial amounts of young OC were flushed into the deep sea, with relatively little (~2%) pre-Holocene OC contributions. Even without a direct connection between rivers and submarine canyons, most (~55%) of the OC in the Kaikoura event bed is from terrestrial sources. However, the deposit also contains substantial amounts (~22%) of marine-derived OC and ~23% of the material is of unassignable origin. Particle sorting imparts variability on the age and composition of OC within turbidite deposits and along the turbidity current flow path. Terrestrial-derived OC is preferentially older than marine-derived OC and concentrated in coarser particle sizes found more commonly at the deposit base and in proximal settings. Young, marine-derived OC is concentrated at the surface of the deposits and tends to be enriched in finer particle sizes. Such OC partitioning in turbidites supports the relevance of depositional models for predicting and quantifying distribution of OC in deep-sea deposits. Earthquake-triggered, canyon flushing events and resulting turbidites enhance OC burial efficiency and can sequester OC effectively, contributing an important carbon sink to the sedimentary carbon cycle.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Active tungsten expulsion in ELM-absent H-mode plasmas via on-demand ELM triggering with lithium granule injection

Lithium granules gravitationally injected into the upper X-point region demonstrated on-demand edge-localized modes (ELM) triggering in otherwise ELM-suppressed H-mode plasmas on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. Sub-mm lithium granules dropped into enhanced D-alpha H-mode plasmas achieved a high triggering efficiency, while enabling ELM frequencies from several to hundreds of hertz. Core radiation from heavy impurities, dominated by W, was reduced by up to 60%, and the normalized energy confinement increased by up to 30%. At low injection frequencies, ELMs of substantially reduced size compared to spontaneous type-I ELMs were observed. At high injection frequencies, a transition to a mixed ELM phase occurred, characterized by intermittent larger ELMs and suppression of the quasi-coherent mode, achieving the most significant W reduction and energy confinement improvement. These results highlight a promising pathway for active W control via controlled, small ELMs in long-pulse, high-performance scenarios.

EDA H-mode↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for electroweak-scale dijet resonances using trigger-level analysis with the ATLAS detector in 132 fb −1 of 𝑝⁢𝑝 collisions at $\sqrt{𝑠}$ = 13 TeV

This article reports on a search for dijet resonances using 132 fb −1 of 𝑝⁢𝑝 collision data recorded at $\sqrt{𝑠}$ = 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is performed solely on jets reconstructed within the ATLAS trigger to overcome bandwidth limitations imposed on conventional single-jet triggers, which would otherwise reject data from decays of sub-TeV dijet resonances. Collision events with two jets satisfying transverse momentum thresholds of 𝑝 T ≥ 85 GeV and jet rapidity separation of |𝑦*| <0.6 are analysed for dijet resonances with invariant masses from 375 to 1800 GeV. A data-driven background estimate is used to model the dijet mass distribution from multijet processes. No significant excess above the expected background is observed. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on coupling values for a benchmark leptophobic axial-vector 𝑍′ model and on the production cross section for a new resonance contributing a Gaussian-distributed line-shape to the dijet mass distribution.

hadron colliders↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strategy and performance of the CMS long-lived particle trigger program in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13.6 TeV

In the physics program of the CMS experiment during the CERN LHC Run 3, which started in 2022, the long-lived particle triggers have been improved and extended to expand the scope of the corresponding searches. These dedicated triggers and their performance are described in this paper, using several theoretical benchmark models that extend the standard model of particle physics. The results are based on proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector during 2022$-$2024 at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 123 fb$^{-1}$.

FOS: Physical sciences↗
DOE OSTI2026

Scintillation light calibrations, systematic uncertainties, and triggering efficiency in the MicroBooNE detector

Scintillation light, produced alongside ionisation charge from particle interactions, plays a critical role in liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) detectors. A detailed understanding of its production and detection mechanisms is essential for robust calibration, systematic uncertainty evaluation, and physics analysis. This article describes the MicroBooNE light simulation, light-based triggering schemes, photomultiplier tube gain calibration, light response stability, and light-based systematic uncertainties over the course of five years of data collection. In addition, we present a measurement of scintillation light triggering efficiency, focusing on the lowest-light regime relevant to rare-event searches and low-energy neutrino interactions. Finally, we discuss two notable observations in MicroBooNE's data, both reported here for the first time: an approximately 50% decline in MicroBooNE's light yield over time, concentrated in the first two years of running; and a higher than expected O(200 kHz) rate of single photoelectron noise. The results presented provide an important benchmark of long-term light detection performance in LArTPC neutrino detectors.

Abratenko, P. [Tufts U.]↗
DOE OSTI2026

The high level trigger and express data production at STAR

To meet the demands of the Beam Energy Scan phase-II (BES-II) program, the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) developed a dual real-time framework consisting of a High Level Trigger (HLT) and an Express Data Production system (xProduction). The HLT operates online within the Data Acquisition (DAQ) chain on a dedicated multi-core CPU cluster with the option to offload compute-intensive kernels to Xeon Phi coprocessors. It uses parallelized algorithms, such as the Cellular Automaton (CA) Track Finder, to perform rapid tracking, vertexing, and event filtering. This allows it to select events of interest in real time and provide immediate feedback on detector and beam conditions. In contrast, the xProduction workflow runs concurrently and independently of the DAQ loop. It applies near offline-quality calibration and reconstruction within hours of data collection. The xProduction input is the express data stream, whose content can be enriched by HLT trigger/priority selections under DAQ/HLT resource constraints, and it uses the STAR calibration/conditions framework, incorporating online calibration/QA information when available. This enables early preliminary physics analysis, including the reconstruction of rare signals, such as hyperons and hypernuclei. It also provides collaboration-wide access to analysis-ready datasets. Together, the HLT and xProduction systems form a complementary architecture: the HLT performs online event selection while the xProduction chain delivers high-quality results within a short amount of time. This integrated framework has enabled the prompt reconstruction of the $^5_Λ$ He hypernucleus with high statistical significance and the efficient processing of hundreds of millions of heavy-ion collision events. In conclusion, its demonstrated scalability and robustness establish a model for future high-luminosity experiments requiring both online event filtering and rapid access to analysis-quality data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗