Speaker
Description
The PRImuS experiment is an experimental effort to validate natural minerals as solid-state detectors for paleo-cosmic ray fluxes. This talk presents recent simulative efforts and the experimental status of the project. I will first highlight the results from our latest published paper, in which we simulate the cosmic-ray-induced track count in olivine xenoliths from the Chaîne des Puys, France. Volcanic annealing reset their track records, providing a pristine chronosequence to measure secondary muon and neutron fluxes over the last ~50,000 years. Additionally, I will discuss ongoing simulations of quartz from the Cradle of Humankind, where paleo-detector data may provide essential context and aid for the dating of hominid fossils. While the olivine study is finalized from a modeling perspective, both the olivine and quartz targets are now transitioning to the experimental phase. I will outline the PRImuS laboratory pipeline, including plasma etching and automated optical microscopy readout with micron precision, and track detection and measurement via the OptimusPrimus ML model. I will also discuss how to simulate the distortion coming from the chosen experimental technique to better compare observations to expectations from theory.
| Do you plan to give the talk in person? | Yes |
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