Refurbishing a spark chamber
If walked through the Jordan Hall of Science last year, you may have seen a particle detector known as a spark chamber in the Particle Physics display. This detector was designed by Notre Dame undergraduate researchers about 15 years ago to detect cosmic rays from outer space. Although it never consistently worked before this year, Quarknet summer researchers recently resurrected the spark chamber and it now produces sparks! But before putting it back on display in Jordan Hall, it needs to some further work to ensure it sparks efficiently when cosmic rays pass through it. In particular, the optimal gas pressure and operational voltage need to be determined, and it needs to be modified to work with a motion detector so that it turns on when visitors approach the display.
Modern particle physics is done in large collaboration at a few laboratories around the world. As such, most Notre Dame particle physics researchers travel to labs such as CERN in Switzerland or Fermilab in Illinois to do hands-on particle physics research. This spark chamber provides a rare opportunity for an Undergraduate to do hands-on particle detector development on campus at Notre Dame. Depending on student interest, it could also lead to other particle physics research projects in the High Energy Physics group.