Calibration of HiSPARC Detectors & Use in Education as an Outreach Project

Abstract

Cosmic rays have historically been invaluable to particle physics and astronomy andto this day continue to be so, even possibly providing insight into dark matter. HiS-PARC studies these rays while offering secondary school students the opportunity toparticipate in science. The HiSPARC collaboration lacked a software based automaticcalibration algorithm for its detectors. In this thesis we present a first version of thecalibration algorithm. It is a based on a Python script that finds the domain in whichthe relation between the pulse height and pulse integral of a detector is linear. Outsideof this domain the data cannot be used for further analysis. Through this calibration weshow that HiSPARC detectors do not deteriorate over time. This implies that detectorswon’t require regular replacements. We also demonstrate how to use our calibrationmethod to find detectors that could require maintenance.Lastly we contribute to HiSPARC’s outreach program by creating a Jupyter Note-book for secondary school students. In this notebook the students are introduced toscientific data analysis. The students will learn how to use our calibration method toasses the quality of detectors themselves.