John Theibert
By John Theibert
(B.S. Computer Science, Class of 2019)
My 2015 internship with Dr. Julie Roche in Physics & Astronomy involved programming for the Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) experiment. Dr. Roche assigned me to create a series of C++ programs with the ultimate goal of incorporating the results into the DVCS experiment. The programs are designed to simulate the pion background from the DVCS experiment, model the calorimeter used in the experiment, and modify the experiment’s trigger to help isolate and remove a large portion of the unwanted background radiation stemming from pion degeneration.
I used ROOT software to compile and run the programs that I created. ROOT is a data analysis framework software created by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The DVCS experiment will be performed at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) in Hall A in 2016. The purpose of the DVCS experiment is to measure the absolute cross section of the hydrogen nucleon, which will ultimately provide new information about its internal structure.
During my internship I also took a trip to the JLab users group meeting, in Newport News, VA. The main topic of the meeting was the 12 GeV upgrade progress for the facility. Other topics included experiments to be performed after the upgrade, and theoretical predictions about the experiments.
Hopefully, the modified trigger will provide useful background removal and be incorporated into the dedicated FPGA-based trigger function for use in the DVCS experiment. Preliminary tests of the modified trigger in simulated experiments have had encouraging results.
(This internship was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Award No. 1306376.)
John Theibert – 2015 Intern with Dr. Julie Roche – freshman at Ohio University
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