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Status of LBNF/DUNE near site liquid argon proximity and external cryogenics systems development.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) near site located at Fermilab will host the neutrino beam complex. It includes a high voltage liquid argon time projection chamber located 60-meter underground used as beamline instrumentation. The LAr cryogenic system provided by the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) regulates thermohydraulic conditions of the membrane cryostat hosting the detector with 285 Ton purified LAr. The purification system uses molecular sieve and copper oxide pellets to manage the argon contamination below 100 ppt (parts per trillion) oxygen equivalent. The detector and its cryogenics are capable to move a stroke of 30 meters on/off beam. The cryogenic system modes of operation include the cryostat pressure test, purge in open loop, detector cooldown, cryostat fill, closed loop purification, liquid empty, and purification system activation/regeneration process. The system design status and schedule, and technical details such as operating modes and interfaces are reported in this paper.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Overview of Collaborative Research Between UNICAMP in Brazil and Fermilab in Cryogenics

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) situated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, serves as the host for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), employing cryostats with nearly 70,000 metric tons of high purity liquid argon (LAr). The integrity of LAr quality is pivotal in determining the electron lifetime within DUNE, directly impacting its signal-to-noise ratio. Specifically, Far Detector 1 (FD-1) in cryostat 1 requires an electron lifetime over 3 ms within its 3.5 m drift, corresponding to less than 100 parts-per-trillion (ppt) Oxygen equivalent contamination. Far Detector 2 (FD-2) in cryostat 2 demands over 6 ms electron lifetime within its 6.0 m drift, corresponding to less than 50 ppt Oxygen equivalent contamination. Nitrogen (N2) absorption of LAr scintillation light, known as quenching, necessitates N2 contamination in LAr to remain below 1 ppm to minimize photon loss and enhance energy reconstruction. Studies indicate that at 1 ppm N2, approximately 20% of scintillation light is lost, highlighting the importance of minimizing N2 contamination. Brazil State University of Campinas's (UNICAMP) contribution to LBNF focuses on developing argon purification and regeneration for DUNE FD-1 and FD-2. To that effect, they constructed a test facility to perform studies on LAr purification at a smaller scale, the Purification Liquid Argon Cryostat (PuLArC) with approximately 90 liters of LAr. One of the filtration materials was considered and tested Li-FAU molecular sieve. Value engineering on argon purification media was conducted, leading to the identification of Li-FAU zeolite's ability to effectively capture N2 impurities during LAr circulation. Testing at UNICAMP's PuLArC facility demonstrated that 1 kg of Li-FAU is capable of reducing N2 contamination from 20-50 ppm to 0.1-1.0 ppm within 1-2 hours of circulation. In October 2023, testing at the Iceberg cryostat in Fermilab's Noble Liquid Test Facility (NLTF), with approximately 2,625 liters of LAr, confirmed the efficacy of 3 kg of Li-FAU in reducing N2 contamination from ~ 5 ppm of injected N2 down to less than 1 ppm over 96-hour cycles, showcasing its potential for larger-scale LAr cryostats. Further tests are planned to validate Li-FAU's use as a possible alternative to Molecular Sieve 4A in LBNF-DUNE and related liquid argon experiments. This contribution will describe how the research was performed and present the test setups and results in detail. This advancement not only has the potential to enhance DUNE's precision but also to elevate liquid argon experiments globally, showcasing the power of international scientific collaboration.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Overview of collaborative research between UNICAMP in Brazil and Fermilab in cryogenics

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) situated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, serves as the host for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), employing cryostats with nearly 70,000 metric tons of high purity liquid argon (LAr). The integrity of LAr quality is pivotal in determining the electron lifetime within DUNE, directly impacting its signal-to-noise ratio. Specifically, Far Detector 1 (FD-1) in cryostat 1 requires an electron lifetime over 3 ms within its 3.5 m drift, corresponding to less than 100 parts-per-trillion (ppt) Oxygen equivalent contamination. Far Detector 2 (FD-2) in cryostat 2 demands over 6 ms electron lifetime within its 6.0 m drift, corresponding to less than 50 ppt Oxygen equivalent contamination. Nitrogen (N$_2$) absorption of LAr scintillation light, known as quenching, necessitates N$_2$ contamination in LAr to remain below 1 ppm to minimize photon loss and enhance energy reconstruction. Studies indicate that at 1 ppm N$_2$, approximately 20% of scintillation light is lost, highlighting the importance of minimizing N$_2$ contamination.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Advancements of the nSpec system

For this study, a new characterization of the detector response for the EJ301 liquid scintillator based nSpec system has been conducted at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The new characterization was accomplished in two orders of magnitude less time and with better statistics than the previous characterization. The new and old characterization methods were compared by conducting both types of characterization on two detectors (one EJ301 and one EJ301D). The two methods show consistent results and compare well to results previously published in the literature; however, the results from the characterization of the original nSpec detector show discrepancies that have been identified as being caused by oxygen being absorbed into the detector due to a leak. The new characterized detector response shows improved spectrum unfolding performance than the previous characterization. The cross talk of the detector system was also characterized as a function of incident neutron energy and found to have a negligible impact on spectrum unfolding results. Alternative materials (EJ301D and stilbene) were also characterized in a first step towards an upgraded system. The different materials show little difference in unfolding performance, but the comparison is ongoing. A SiPM based stilbene detector was used to evaluate the use of SiPMs in a future system upgrade. The SiPM provides adequate performance, but the custom SiPM readout results in a much longer pulse width than PMT based systems. The measured light output of the SiPM based stilbene compares well with the results in literature. Future work will look at additional materials (deuterated stilbene and organic glass) and optimizing the SiPM readout to decrease the pulse width.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Nucleon Mass and Charges with Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics

Neutrino oscillation experiments are designed to measure neutrino masses and mixing parameters by scattering them off nuclei such as carbon, oxygen, and argon in detectors. Predictions of neutrino-nuclei cross sections from the Standard Model are needed to extract these parameters, but their theoretical uncertainties remain large due to the complexity of nuclear and hadronic physics. This situation needs to be improved in order to satisfy the precision needs of future experiments.In this dissertation, we focus on working towards a first-principles calculation of the nucleon axial form factor with lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Nucleon axial form factor, which parametrizes the weak responses of a proton or neutron, is difficult to measure experimentally, and it is a dominant uncertainty in neutrino-nuclei cross-section calculations for incoming neutrino energies at around 1 GeV. So a theoretical calculation with lattice QCD provides a non-ambiguous determination of the form factor that could help reducing the uncertainty.The notorious signal-to-noise problem renders calculations of nucleon observables computationally intensive in lattice QCD. In this work, we investigate the use of staggered fermions in nucleon calculations. Staggered fermions are the most computationally efficient fermion discretization in lattice field theory, but certain theoretical issues have so far prevented their applications to nucleon physics. As a stepping stone towards a full calculation of the nucleon axial form factor, this dissertation provides a comprehensive theoretical framework on how to calculate the nucleon mass, vector charge, and axial charge with staggered fermions, together with numerical results demonstrating the methodology. This framework can be generalized to the form factor calculation that will appear in the near future.

Lin, Yin↗

Ensuring High-Purity Liquid Argon for the LBNF FDC: Collaborative Cryogenics Research Between UNICAMP and Fermilab

Ensuring High-Purity Liquid Argon for the LBNF FDC: Collaborative Cryogenics Research Between UNICAMP and Fermilab R. Doubnik1, M. Adamowski1, F. de M. Blaszczyk1, A. Hahn1, D. Montanari1, R. Mrowca1, Z. West1, C. Adriano2, T. P.M. Alegre2, D. Correia2, A. A. B. Machado2, E. Segreto2, R. G. Gonçalves3, E. M. Assaf6, J. M. Assaf3, D. Cardoso3, M. B. Fontes4, H. Da Motta4, D. Noriler5, P. J. G. Pagliuso2. 1 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 500, Batavia IL 60510, United States. 2 “Gleb Wataghin” Institute of Physics, UNICAMP, Campinas-SP, 13083-859, Brazil. 3 CPqMAE - Research Center on Advanced Materials and Energy, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, 13565-905, Brazil. 4 The Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF), Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 22290-180, Brazil. 5 School of Chemical Engineering, UNICAMP, Campinas-SP, 13083-859, Brazil. 6 São Carlos Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, São Carlos-SP, 13566-590, Brazil. Email: rdoubnik@fnal.gov Abstract. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, hosts the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). This experiment employs cryostats containing nearly 70,000 metric tons of high-purity liquid argon (LAr). Ensuring LAr purity is critical for achieving the required electron lifetime, which directly impacts the experiment’s signal-to-noise ratio. The Horizontal Drift (HD) detector demands an electron lifetime exceeding 3 ms within its 3.5 m drift, equivalent to less than 100 parts-per-trillion (ppt) Oxygen contamination, while the Vertical Drift (VD) detector requires over 6 ms electron lifetime within its 6.0 m drift, corresponding to less than 50 ppt Oxygen contamination. To mitigate Nitrogen (N2) quenching of scintillation light, N2 contamination must remain below 1 ppm, as higher levels can result in up to a 20 % loss of light. The Brazil State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) significantly contributes to LBNF FDC through the development of argon purification and regeneration systems for HD and VD cryostats. UNICAMP designed and constructed the Purification Liquid Argon Cryostat (PuLArC), a small-scale test facility holding approximately 90 liters of LAr. Tests using PuLArC demonstrated that 1.2 kg of Li-FAU zeolite could reduce N₂ contamination from 20-50 ppm to 0.1-1.0 ppm within 1-2 hours. Tests at Fermilab’s Iceberg cryostat (2,596 liters) confirmed scalability, with 3 kg of Li-FAU reducing N₂ contamination from ~5 ppm to <1 ppm over 96 hours cycles without active circulation. This presentation will detail the research methods, test setups, and results, showcasing the potential of Li-FAU as an alternative to Molecular Sieve 4A for large-scale LAr systems. This advancement enhances DUNE's precision and demonstrates the impact of international collaboration on cryogenic research.

Doubnik, Roza [Fermilab]↗

Constraining the P 30 ( p , γ ) S 31 Reaction Rate in ONe Novae via the Weak, Low-Energy, β -Delayed Proton Decay of Cl 31

The 30 P(p,γ) 31 S reaction plays an important role in understanding the nucleosynthesis of A ≥ 30 nuclides in oxygen-neon novae. The Gaseous Detector with Germanium Tagging was used to measure 31 Cl β-delayed proton decay through the key J π = 3/2 + , 260-keV resonance. The intensity $I$$^{260}_{βp}$ = $8.3$$^{+1.2}_{–0.9}$ × 10 –6 represents the weakest β-delayed, charged-particle emission ever measured below 400 keV, resulting in a proton branching ratio of Γ p /Γ = $2.5$$^{+0.4}_{–0.3}$ × 10 –4 . Here, by combining this measurement with shell-model calculations for Γγ and past work on other resonances, the total 30 P(p,γ) 31 S rate has been determined with reduced uncertainty. The new rate has been used in hydrodynamic simulations to model the composition of nova ejecta, leading to a concrete prediction of 30 Si: 28 Si excesses in presolar nova grains and the calibration of nuclear thermometers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Gas scintillation mitigation in gas Cherenkov detectors for inertial confinement fusion (invited)

Gas Cherenkov detectors provide a time resolved measurement of the fusion burn in inertial confinement fusion experiments. The fusion rate delivers critical benchmark figures, such as burn width and bang time. Recent detector improvements pushed temporal resolution to 10 ps to make burn width measurements on igniting targets possible. First high temporal resolution measurements using CO 2 gas fills had a background signal with a long decay length (tail), which was caused by gas scintillation. This gas scintillation limits the ability of the detector to resolve short burn width and high frequency features in the fusion rate measurements. A thorough investigation of the cause of the tail and mitigation options for gas scintillation is presented here. As a near-term resolution, neon gas is being used to extract fusion burn histories. Paths forward for the next generation of gas Cherenkov detectors are identified including the usage of oxygen as a Cherenkov medium.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Novel deuterium–tritium (DT) neutron activation diagnostics for increased neutron yield operations at Sandia’s Z-facility (invited)

As inertial confinement fusion experiments at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z-facility begin using deuterium–tritium (DT) fuels, the expected DT-neutron yields are expected to increase many orders of magnitude. This brings about the need for diagnostics that have a significantly higher dynamic range of operation and ability to obtain yields where there will be significant radiation holds. Using the current activation diagnostic infrastructure at the Z-facility, a pair of activation diagnostics are being developed. Here, the first is fluorine activation, which will be used in a similar manner to current copper activation diagnostics that are fielded in a rabbit for quick removal from the experiments without opening the vacuum experiment containment. The second is a prompt DT-neutron detector that exploits the activation of oxygen with similar operation characteristics as the current Be-probes fielded at Z. We will discuss the design of this pair of instruments, along with calibration work performed at Sandia’s Ion Beam Laboratory in support of the development and anticipated instrument performance.

Mangan, Michael Antony↗

Identifying the microstructural features associated with void nucleation during elevated–temperature deformation of copper

The microstructural-scale mechanisms that produce cracks in metals during deformation at elevated temperatures are relevant to applications that involve thermal exposure. Prior studies of cavitation during high-temperature deformation, for example, creep, suffered from an inability to directly observe the microstructural evolution that occurs during deformation and leads to void nucleation. Here the current study takes advantage of modern high-speed electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) detectors to observe cavitation in oxygen-free, high-conductivity copper in situ during deformation at 300°C. Most voids formed at the triple junction between a twin boundary and a high-angle grain boundary (HAGB). This finding does not contradict previous studies that suggested that twins are resistant to cracking—it reveals that cracks in HAGBs originate at twin/HAGB triple junctions and that cracks preferentially grow along HAGBs rather than the accompanying twins. Atomistic simulations explored the origins of this observation and suggest that twin/HAGB triple junctions are microstructural weak points.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A new approach for measuring the carbon and oxygen content of atmospherically relevant compounds and mixtures

Abstract. Due to its complexity, gas- and particle-phase organic carbon in the atmosphere is often classified by its bulk physicochemical properties. However, there is a dearth of robust, moderate-cost approaches to measure the bulk chemical composition of organic carbon in the atmosphere. This is particularly true for the degree of oxygenation, which critically affects the properties and impacts of organic carbon but for which routine measurement approaches are lacking. This gap has limited the understanding of a wide range of atmospheric components, including particulate matter, the mass of which is monitored worldwide due to its health and environmental effects but the chemical characterization of which requires relatively high capital costs and complex operation by highly trained technical personnel. In this work, we demonstrate a new approach to estimate the mass of carbon and oxygen in analytes and mixtures that relies only on robust, moderate-cost detectors designed for use with gas chromatography. Organic compounds entering a flame ionization detector were found to be converted with approximately complete efficiency to CO2, which was analyzed downstream using an infrared detector to measure the mass of carbon analyzed. The ratio of the flame ionization detector (FID) signal generated to CO2 formed (FID∕CO2) was shown to be strongly correlated (R2=0.89) to the oxygen-to-carbon ratio (O∕C) of the analyte. Furthermore, simple mixtures of analytes behaved as the weighted average of their components, indicating that this correlation extends to mixtures. These properties were also observed to correlate well with the sensitivity of the FID estimated by structure activity relationships (quantified as the relative effective carbon number). The relationships between measured FID∕CO2, analyte O∕C, and FID sensitivity allow the estimation of one property from another with <15 % error for mixtures and <20 % error for most individual analytes. The approach opens the possibility of field-deployable, autonomous measurement of the carbon and oxygen content of particulate matter using time-tested, low-maintenance detectors, though such an application would require some additional testing on complex mixtures. With some instrumental modifications, similar measurements on gas-phase species may be feasible. Moreover, the potential expansion to additional gas chromatography detectors may provide concurrent measurement of other elements (e.g., sulfur, nitrogen).

42 ENGINEERING↗

Commercially available Hydrogen Detection Systems for Corrosive, Oxygen-free Gas Streams: A Technical Summary

The growing use of hydrogen gas across energy, transportation, and chemical applications necessitates better hydrogen sensors and detectors. Few sensors exist for quantifying hydrogen gas in a corrosive, oxygen-free gas stream due to the challenging nature of the sampling environment and current technological status. Handheld, economic options include palladium-based, metal oxide, catalytic bead, and electrochemical sensors. More permanent and costly options include electrochemical sensors, thermal gas analyzers, mass spectrometers, gas chromatographs, and Raman spectrometers. In this technical report, a short review of current technology, along with the associated commercially available products, is provided. Raman spectroscopy is recommended as an ideal technology for on-line detection of hydrogen at low concentrations in a corrosive, oxygen-free gas stream.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Probing and controlling oxygen impurity diffusion in h -BN semi-bulk crystals

Combining its unique features of ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) and two-dimensional nature, h-BN has been explored for emerging applications such as deep ultraviolet optoelectronic devices and single photon emitters. One of the unusual applications of h-BN is for solid-state neutron detectors by utilizing the property of high thermal neutron capture cross section of B-10 as well as its UWBG properties. Although a record high detection efficiency of 59% has been attained by h-BN detectors, the understanding/minimization of defects and impurities is still needed to further advance the h-BN material and detector technologies. We report metal organic chemical vapor deposition growth and oxygen (O) impurity diffusion in thick h-BN. The diffusion coefficient (D) of O impurities has been measured via the evolution of an oxygen related emission with the etching depth, providing a value of D of ∼ 2 × 10−13 cm2/s at 1450 °C and supporting the interpretation that oxygen in h-BN is a substitutional donor. A multiple-buffer-layer approach was employed to mitigate to a certain degree the issue of oxygen diffusion from sapphire substrate during growth. It was demonstrated that the performance of h-BN neutron detectors fabricated from the wafer incorporating multiple buffer layers was significantly improved, as manifested by the enhanced thermal neutron detection efficiency. The advancement of the crystal growth technology of h-BN semi-bulk crystals creates applications in optoelectronic and power electronic devices utilizing the UWBG semiconductor properties of h-BN, while high efficiency h-BN neutron detectors have the potential to supplant the traditional He-3 gas detectors in various application areas by offering the obvious advantages of UWBG semiconductor technologies.

Physics↗

Evaluating the ProtoDUNE-SP Detector Performance to Measure a 6 GeV/c Positive Kaon Inelastic Cross Section on Argon

The ProtoDUNE Single-Phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber \\ (ProtoDUNE-SP LArTPC) is a prototype for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Based at the CERN Neutrino Platform, ProtoDUNE-SP LArTPC collected data from a charged test beam in the fall of 2018. It then took data of cosmic-ray muons from November 2018 to the summer of 2020. The main goals of the prototype were to measure parameters related to charged particle passage in argon and evaluate the performance of the detector to inform future DUNE Far Detector development. The test beam provided kaons, pions, muons, protons, and electrons to the detector. These particles represent common final state particles in neutrino interactions, therefore providing information to DUNE on modeling charged particles in argon for its neutrino physics program. In addition to neutrino physics, DUNE has proposed an analysis using the DUNE Far Detector module to set limits for proton decay through the decay channel $p\rightarrow K^++\bar{\nu}$. This measurement would require information on kaons in argon, providing ProtoDUNE-SP LArTPC another opportunity to aid DUNE. This thesis describes the calibration of ProtoDUNE-SP and its detector performance, which serves as a benchmark for the performance of the DUNE Far Detector modules. A specific calibration highlighted is the evaluation of the liquid argon purity in the detector. These measurements use cosmic-ray muons reconstructed in the detector that are calibrated and matched to data from scintillator strips external to the TPC, known as the Cosmic Ray Tagger (CRT). The thesis will discuss the algorithms to match the data between the ProtoDUNE-SP LArTPC and the CRT and discuss the liquid argon purity measurements using one of the algorithms. Data sets of calibrated tracks measured the liquid argon contamination as consistently below 100 ppt oxygen equivalent. After these discussions on the ProtoDUNE-SP LArTPC detector, the thesis will present an evaluation of the inclusive inelastic, sometimes referred to as a reactive, cross section on argon of kaons from the ProtoDUNE-SP test beam with an average momentum of 6 GeV/c.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

MeV-scale performance of water-based and pure liquid scintillator detectors

This paper presents studies of the performance of water-based liquid scintillators (WbLS) in both 1-kt and 50-kt detectors. In this work, performance is evaluated in comparison to both pure water Cherenkov detectors and a nominal model for pure scintillator detectors. Performance metrics include energy, vertex, and angular resolution, along with a metric for the ability to separate the Cherenkov from the scintillation signal as being representative of various particle identification capabilities that depend on the Cherenkov/scintillation ratio. We also modify the time profile of scintillation light to study the same performance metrics as a function of rise and decay time. We go on to interpret these results in terms of their impact on certain physics goals, such as solar neutrinos and the search for Majorana neutrinos. This work supports and validates previous results, and the assumptions made therein, and serves as a significant stepping stone to complete detector design studies by using a more detailed detector model and full reconstruction, with a primarily data-driven optical model, and fewer model assumptions. With this model, a high-coverage 50-kt detector achieves better than 10 (1)% precision on the flux of neutrinos from the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen cycle with a water-based liquid scintillator (pure LS) target in five years of data taking. A 1-kt LS detector, with a conservative 50% fiducial volume of 0.5 kt, can achieve better than 5% detection. A liquid scintillator detector has sensitivity into the normal hierarchy region for Majorana neutrinos with half-life sensitivity of $T^{0νββ}_{1/2}$ > 1.4 × 10 28 years at 90% C.L. for 10 years of data taking with a Te-loaded target.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Molecular Characterization of Water-Soluble Brown Carbon Chromophores in Snowpack from Northern Xinjiang, China

This study reports molecular-level characterization of brown carbon (BrC) attributed to water-soluble organic carbon in six snowpack samples collected from northern Xinjiang, China. Here, the molecular composition and light-absorbing properties of BrC chromophores were unraveled by application of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to a photodiode array (PDA) detector and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The chromophores were classified into five major types, that is, (1) phenolic/lignin-derived compounds, (2) flavonoids, (3) nitroaromatics, (4) oxygenated aromatics, and (5) other chromophores. Identified chromophores account for ~23–64% of the total light absorption measured by the PDA detector in the wavelength range of 300–370 nm. In the representative samples from urban and remote areas, oxygenated aromatics and nitroaromatics dominate the absorption in the wavelengths below and above 320 nm, respectively. The highly polluted urban sample shows the most complex HPLC-PDA chromatogram, and more other chromophores contribute to the bulk absorption. Phenolic/ lignin-derived compounds are the most light-absorbing species in the soil-influenced sample. Chromophores in two remote samples exhibit ultraviolet–visible features distinct from other samples, which are attributed to flavonoids. Identification of individual chromophores and quantitative analysis of their optical properties are helpful for elucidating the roles of BrC in snow radiative balance and photochemistry.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Measurement of Neutron Multiplicity in Charged Current Neutrino Interactions on Oxygen

The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE) is a 26-ton gadolinium-doped water Cherenkov detector located 100~meters downstream in the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Its primary goals are to (1) measure the neutron yield from $\nu_\mu$ interactions as a function of momentum transfer $Q^2$ so that neutrino-nucleus interaction models can be better constrained, and (2) demonstrate the power of novel, fast-timing detectors with the first deployment of Large Area Picosecond PhotoDetectors (LAPPDs). Current knowledge of neutrino-nucleus interactions fall short in modeling the topologies of such interactions, leading to inaccurate reconstruction of event kinematics such as particle energy, direction, and vertex. As a consequence, the accuracy of cross section measurements is impacted, which is necessary for precise physics measurements. Neutrons are an indication of inelasticity and affect the determination of the energy of the parent neutrino. Quantifying the neutron yield is a step towards reducing the associated uncertainties, and thus improving our understanding of these complex interactions and benefiting the next generation of long-baseline neutrino experiments. ANNIE will make use of LAPPDs to measure neutron multiplicity of CC-0$\pi$ $\nu_\mu$ interactions on oxygen, making it the first experiment to deploy an array of these photodetectors. Because the LAPPD is a novel photodetection technology, much customization is required to integrate it into existing electronics. The first half of this thesis covers the significant progress made towards the first deployment of the LAPPD system. From its test stand at Fermilab, the LAPPD system was systematically tested and put together until deployment readiness was achieved. I present my contributions to the design, fabrication, and testing of the waterproof housing and cables, and the commissioning of the LVHV board that powers the LAPPD and its readout electronics. These efforts brought the LAPPD system significantly closer to deployment, and eventually first data. The second half of this thesis presents the vertex and energy reconstruction algorithms developed to analysis the beam data with PMT-only information. While much progress has been made towards the deployment of LAPPDs, with several in the detector tank, efforts to integrate the LAPPD datastream are in progress. Thus, I developed a ring edge detection technique using PMT data to fit the muon vertex and determine its energy. The analysis in this thesis finds average neutron yields of $\Bar{n}_{data} = 0.452 \pm 0.039 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.27 (\text{sys})$ for a selection of muon neutrino candidates in the fiducial volume of ANNIE and corrected with an averaged neutron detection efficiency. An equivalent analysis for simulated beam data results in an average neutron yield of $\Bar{n}_{MC} = 0.582 \pm 0.018 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.25 (\text{sys})$. Future work includes application of efficiency corrections at a positional level, quantification of all systematic uncertainties, and neutron multiplicity measurements with other event topologies.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗