Summer Particle Astrophysics Workshop 2025

7 May 2025, 12:00 → 16 May 2025, 16:00 America/Toronto

Minya Bai (Queen's University), Neha Panchal (Postdoctoral Fellow), Yilda Boukhtouchen (Queen’s University)

The 7th SummEr PartIclE AstrophysIcs WOrkshOp (EIEIOO)

This workshop series is directed at incoming undergraduate and master's students new to the field of particle astrophysics. Any individuals with an interest in the material (or looking to refresh their skills) are welcome to join for any aspects of the workshop. No prior knowledge is required for participants to attend.

Sessions consist of introductory lectures, experimental talks, and coding workshops. 

The workshop is running in hybrid form this year. All sessions will be broadcast live over zoom with closed captioning enabled. Speakers at Queen's University will present in person in Stirling Hall with live streaming over the same zoom line. Lectures will be recorded and made available after the workshop.

Connection Information

All connections will be done through Zoom. The link is sent directly to attendees emails. All sessions will be recorded and made available to registrants.

If you have any questions, including those related to content or registration, please contact Minya Bai, Yilda Boukhtouchen, or Neha Panchal at eieioo@queensu.ca.

Wednesday 7 May

1 Welcome

Speakers: Minya Bai (Queen's University), Neha Panchal (Postdoctoral Fellow), Yilda Boukhtouchen (Queen’s University)

2 Introduction to Particle Physics

Speaker: Tony Noble

video1847621577.mp4

3 Accelerator Physics

Through the telling of historical facts and stories, you'll learn about how particle accelerators work and some of the ways accelerators are used for fundamental research. In this talk, I'll also introduce some of the well-known particle accelerators used for discovery research around the world, and some of the future ideas!

Speaker: Brigitte Vachon (McGill University, (CA))

video1768600150.mp4

4 UNIX & Command Line

This workshop is intended to get participants familiar with using the command line to manipulate data files and write scripts. No knowledge of Unix or programming is assumed.

Speaker: Derek Cranshaw (Queen's University)

Main_UNIX_Workshop.docx

Main_UNIX_Workshop.pdf

PracticeDirectory.zip

video1878538505.mp4

Thursday 8 May

5 High Energy Astroparticle Physics

I will review the observations of high-energy astroparticle physics focusing on experiments I am involved in (HELIX, IceCube, P-ONE, VERITAS).

Speaker: Nahee Park

video1540538729.mp4

6 GIT: A Brief Primer

A hands-on introduction to controlling revisions to a shared project using Git.

Speaker: Dr Stephen Sekula (SNOLAB and Queen's University)

20250508-EIEIOO-Git-Workshop.pdf

video1347953058.mp4

7 HELIX - The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment

Beryllium-10, a so called clock isotope can provide unique measurements of Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) lifetimes with respect to the size of the propagation halo in the Milky Way. To this date there are no high-precision measurements of beryllium-10 above 2 GeV/n. The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX), a balloon-borne magnet spectrometer, directly measures a cosmic ray’s charge, magnetic rigidity, and velocity to identify the isotopes of beryllium and other light nuclei with ultimate goal of extending the resolved measurements of beryllium isotopes to 10 GeV/n. HELIX employs three detectors to achieve its science goal : the rigidity of cosmic rays is measured with the high-precision drift chamber tracker (DCT) which sits inside a 1T superconducting magnet, the charge of incident cosmic rays is measured by the time-of-flight (TOF) as well as velocities of lower energy cosmic rays, finally an aerogel-based ring-imaging Cherenkov detector is used to measure the velocities of higher energy cosmic rays. HELIX underwent an engineering flight in the boreal spring of 2024 from Esrange, Sweden. In this contribution the payload, flight, and the status of ongoing analysis efforts will be discussed.

Speaker: Dr Conor McGrath (Queen's University)

HELIX_Connor_McGrath.mp4

8 Neutrino astrophysics with IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometer neutrino detector located 2 km under the South Pole. Since it became operational in the early 2010s, IceCube has detected the most energetic neutrinos ever seen (from TeV to PeV -- solar neutrinos are ~ MeV for scale). It is clear that these high energy neutrinos are astrophysical in origin, but how are they being produced? It is thought that these neutrinos are emitted by the most explosive astrophysical phenomena in the Universe such as accreting super massive black holes and colliding neutron stars to name some examples. This talk will focus on how IceCube came to discover the diffuse flux of high energy astrophysical neutrinos and its continuing search for their sources, as well as discussing the role of neutrinos in multi-messenger astronomy.

Speaker: Patrick Hatch

IceCube_Patrick_Hatch.mp4

9 VERITAS

The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is an array of four 12 m Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona, USA, that has been in full array operation since 2007. VERITAS pursues a broad science program spanning both Galactic and extragalactic targets: it probes supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, and binary systems; searches for γ-ray bursts and fast radio bursts; monitors jetted active galactic nuclei; and undertakes multimessenger follow-ups and indirect dark matter searches. In this talk, I will first introduce the IACT technique and the VERITAS instrumentation, review the employed to discriminate between γ-ray showers from cosmic-ray backgrounds, and finally highlight several landmark results that showcase VERITAS’s role in advancing VHE astrophysics.

Speaker: Bryan Owens (Queen's University)

VERITAS_Bryan_Owens.mp4

VERITAS EIEIOO (2025).pdf

Friday 9 May

10 Intro to Dark Matter

Speaker: Yilda Boukhtouchen (Queen’s University)

video1397157526.mp4

11 KDK+

Potassium-40 is one of the most abundant naturally occurring radio isotopes. Though it's primary decay mode is well known the rare decay via positron emission is not well understood. KDK+ is an experiment that will look for this rare positron decay using liquid scintillators, and sophisticated gamma detection techniques.

Speaker: Nicholas Swidinsky (Queen's University)

video1193642897.mp4

12 Light Detection

Speaker: Kenneth Clark

video2193642897.mp4

Monday 12 May

13 C++

C++ is an object-oriented successor to the programming language C and has become one of the most common programming languages used today. In physics research, it is commonly used in simulation software packages like GEANT4, or analysis packages like ROOT.

In this talk, it is assumed that attendees have zero knowledge of C++. Starting with the basics of data types and operations, we will build towards more complex topics such as templates and pointers. The objective is to give you, the student, enough exposure to these concepts so that you can interpret, modify, and use the analysis scripts or simulations you shall encounter throughout your summer work. This presentation will not discuss the more complex topics like polymorphism.

To be able to participate in planned activities, the student will be required to have:
• A C++ compiler (preferably g++, or equivalent). If you need help with this, please reach out to me in advance.
• A code editor (I use VS code, but the choice is yours).
• A positive attitude.

Speaker: Mr Remington Hill

GMT20250512-160346_Recording_1920x1080.mp4

14 A Crash Course in Statistics

In this two-hour whirlwind session, I'll introduce basic principles of frequentist and Bayesian statistics and illustrate the most common statistical techniques used in particle physics.

Speaker: Scott Oser

GMT20250512-183239_Recording_2560x1600.mp4

oser_statistics_crashcourse.pdf

Tuesday 13 May

15 Nuclear Physics and Backgrounds

Speaker: Gary Sweeney (Part-time PhD Student)

16 Mental Well-Being in Academia

Mental well-being is incredibly important in our daily life and can affect positively or negatively how we navigate challenges. Many surveys have shown that academia negatively impacts student's mental well-being. In this talk, we will go over these surveys, understand how mental well-being can impact your studies and your research and have a discussion amongst participants about their shared experiences.

This session was not recorded to provide a safe space for the participants to share their own experiences.

Speaker: Jeremy Savoie (Université de Montréal)

EIEIOO Mental Health Workshop 2025.pdf

17 ROOT

This tutorial is intended as an initial introduction to ROOT for new students in particle astrophysics.

The contents of the workshop will assume you have ROOT already installed!

Please refer to the ROOT website for installation instructions (https://root.cern/install/), as this session will not go through how to install it.

Truthfully, you (the student) will not be a ROOT expert in 2 hours. Instead, these slides aim to provide a practical first-look at some basic functionality to serve as a basis point for further exploration/use of ROOT, and contains some ‘guided’ tutorial problems that will be worked on during the session (time permitting).

Also included is a “hands-on” analysis exercise: “Finding the Higgs Boson”. I would encourage students to attempt this problem after going through these slides and other resources in order to test their ROOT skills.

Speaker: Brian Krar

Background_1fb.root

EIEIOO_Intro_To_ROOT_Tutorial_2025_BrianKrar-1.pdf

PseudoData_Histogram_100fb.root

Signal_1fb.root

video1294191843.mp4

Wednesday 14 May

18 Searching for Dark Matter

Basics of dark matter searches, with a focus on direct detection experiments.

Speaker: Guillaume Giroux

EIEIOO - 2025.pdf

19 PICO

Introduction to the PICO experiment and the use of superheated bubble chambers in the search for dark matter.

Speaker: Emily Adams (Queen's University)

EmilyAdams-PICO-EIEIOO2025.mp4

PICO_BubbleChambers_EIEIO2025_Adams.pptx

20 SBC

Speaker: Carter Garrah

CarterGarrah-SBC-EIEIOO2025.mp4

21 Liquid Argon Detector

This talk will present a summary of liquid argon technology and the scientific opportunities it offers for probing fundamental physics. The main focus will be on two experiments: DEAP-3600, a single-phase detector located at SNOLAB, and DarkSide-20k, a future liquid argon time projection chamber currently under construction at LNGS, Italy. This talk will highlight recent progress, challenges, and future prospects in the field, emphasizing how these detectors contribute to the broader quest to unravel the mysteries of dark matter and neutrino properties.

Speaker: Theo Hugues (Queen's University)

Liquid Argon Detectors EIEIOO.pdf

22 The NEWS-G Experiment

The NEWS-G experiment searches for low-mass dark matter using spherical proportional counters (SPCs). An SPC is a sphere filled with gas, with a high-voltage anode at its centre producing a radial electric field, sensitive to ionizing particles within the detector. The largest NEWS-G detector is a sphere of 135cm of diameter currently taking data at SNOLAB. This talk will explain how an SPC works, how NEWS-G discriminates background signal events and what work is being done at Queen’s University to contribute to the search for dark matter, and more!

Speaker: Jean-Marie Coquillat (Queen's University, Canada)

23 SuperCDMS SNOLAB and the hunt for low-mass dark matter

Located 2km underground at SNOLAB, the SuperCDMS (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) experiment is currently being constructed and will focus on the detection of low-mass (<10 GeV/c2) dark matter particles. The experiment will utilize 6 silicon and 18 germanium cryogenic calorimeters arranged in 4 detector towers. There are two types of individual detectors; HV and iZIP. The HV detectors are instrumented with phonon sensors, and are operated at a high voltage (100V) to take advantage of the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke effect and achieve a lower threshold. In addition to the phonon sensors, the iZIP detectors have charge sensors, which allow for event-by-event particle discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils. Commissioning is expected to begin in mid-2025, with the first science run occuring in late 2025. This talk will provide an overview of the SuperCDMS experiment, detail its main science goals and key results from a recent testing of an HV detector tower inside the Cryogenic Underground TEst (CUTE) facility at SNOLAB.

Speaker: Dr Matthew Stukel (Gran Sasso Science Institute)

Thursday 15 May

24 Introduction to Neutrino Physics

Neutrinos. What are they? What do we know about them? What do we still need to know about them? Tune in to learn about the history of research in neutrinos and the motivation behind the various experiments in neutrino physics.

Speaker: Ryan Martin

Neutrinos_EIEIOO_RMartin_May25.pdf

RyanMartinNeutrinos.mp4

25 SNO+

An overview of the global experimental program searching for neutrinoless double beta decay will be given.

Speaker: Alex Wright (IPP/Queen's University)

video1431514618.mp4

26 The Super-Kamiokande and the Hyper-Kamiokande Experiments

The discovery of neutrino oscillation in atmospheric neutrinos by the Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) and solar neutrinos by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) led to the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. Super-K has been a long-running neutrino experiment using Water Cherenkov Detector for more than 20 years using ultra-pure water as its neutrino target. Recently it has been upgraded to Super-K-Gd. The new generation of water Cherenkov detectors is also on its way. The Hyper-K detector, which is similar to the Super-K but larger in dimensions and a more improved version, is being built to make precision measurements of neutrino oscillation, and to search for a potentially large CP-violation of neutrinos. This talk will present a brief physics overview of the neutrino oscillation, the Super-Kamiokande Experiment, and the new Hyper-Kamiokande Experiment in Japan, the construction of which is currently in full-swing, and aims to start taking data by the end of 2027, thus boosting the physics searches with neutrinos.

Speaker: Dr Ali Ajmi (University of Winnipeg)

video2431514618.mp4

27 nEXO

Speaker: Thomas Brunner (McGill University)

20250515-EIEIOO-summer-student-workshop-nEXO.pdf

video3431514618.mp4

28 Mandatory Fun

Speakers: Minya Bai (Queen's University), Neha Panchal (Postdoctoral Fellow), Yilda Boukhtouchen (Queen’s University)

Friday 16 May

29 LaTeX

Speaker: Nicholas Swidinsky (Queen's University)

EIEIOO_2024_sample_document(1).zip

EIEIOO_template_slides.zip

LaTeXRecording.mp4

30 Python

This workshop will aim to review the basics of Python and dive deeper into how it is often used in physics.

I will perform examples using jupyter notebook with python 3.13.2. If you do not have it installed, I would recommend using syzygy (Queen's student) or https://colab.google/ (non Queen's student).

I will upload slides and scripts to Indico after the workshop.

Speaker: Minya Bai (Queen's University)

example_data.txt

PythonRecording.mp4