The electronics, trigger and data acquisition system for the liquid argon time projection chamber of the DarkSide-50 search for dark matter

Agnes, P.;Albuquerque, I. F. M.;Alexander, T.;Alton, A. K.;Arisaka, K.;Asner, D. M.;Ave, M.;Back, H. O.;Baldin, B.;Biery, K.;Bocci, V.;Bonfini, G.;Bonivento, W.;Bossa, M.;Bottino, B.;Brigatti, A.;Brodsky, J.;Budano, F.;Bussino, S.;Cadeddu, M.;Cadoni, M.;Calaprice, F.;Canci, N.;Candela, A.;Cao, H.;Caravati, M.;Cariello, M.;Carlini, M.;Catalanotti, S.;Cataudella, V.;Cavalcante, P.;Chepurnov, A.;Cicaló, C.;Cocco, A. G.;Covone, G.;Crippa, L.;D'Angelo, D.;D'Incecco, M.;Davini, S.;De Candia, A.;De Cecco, S.;De Deo, M.;De Filippis, G.;De Rosa, G.;De Vincenzi, M.;Derbin, A.;Devoto, A.;Di Eusanio, F.;Dionisi, C.;Di Pietro, G.;Edkins, E.;Empl, A.;Fan, A.;Fiorillo, G.;Fomenko, K.;Forster, G.;Franco, D.;Gabriele, F.;Galbiati, C.;Giagu, S.;Giganti, C.;Giovanetti, G. K.;Goretti, A. M.;Granato, F.;Grandi, L.;Gromov, M.;Guan, M.;Guardincerri, Y.;Hackett, B. R.;Herner, K. R.;Hughes, D.;Humble, P.;Hungerford, E. V.;Ianni, A.;Ianni, A.;James, I.;Johnson, T. N.;Keeter, K.;Kendziora, C. L.;Kobychev, V.;Koh, G.;Korablev, D.;Korga, G.;Kubankin, A.;Li, X.;Lissia, M.;Loer, B.;Lombardi, P.;Longo, G.;Luitz, S.;Ma, Y.;Machado, A.;Machulin, I. N.;Mandarano, A.;Mari, S. M.;Maricic, J.;Marini, L.;Martoff, C. J.;Meyers, P. D.;Miletic, T.;Milincic, R.;Montanari, D.;Monte, A.;Montuschi, M.;Monzani, M. E.;Mosteiro, P.;Mount, B. J.;Muratova, V. N.;Musico, P.;Agasson, A. Navrer;Nelson, A.;Odrowski, S.;Oleinik, A.;Orsini, M.;Ortica, F.;Pagani, L.;Pallavicini, M.;Pantic, E.;Parmeggiano, S.;Pelczar, K.;Pelliccia, N.;Pocar, A.;Pordes, S.;Pugachev, D. A.;Qian, H.;Randle, K.;Ranucci, G.;Razeti, M.;Razeto, A.;Reinhold, B.;Renshaw, A. L.;Rescigno, M.;Riffard, Q.;Romani, A.;Rossi, B.;Rossi, N.;Rountree, S. D.;Sablone, D.;Saggese, P.;Saldanha, R.;Sands, W.;Sangiorgio, S.;Savarese, C.;Schlitzer, B.;Segreto, E.;Semenov, D. A.;Shields, E.;Singh, P. N.;Skorokhvatov, M. D.;Smirnov, O.;Sotnikov, A.;Stanford, C.;Suvorov, Y.;Tartaglia, R.;Tatarowicz, J.;Testera, G.;Tonazzo, A.;Trinchese, P.;Unzhakov, E. V.;Verducci, M.;Vishneva, A.;Vogelaar, R. B.;Wada, M.;Walker, S.;Wang, H.;Wang, Y.;Watson, A. W.;Westerdale, S.;Wojcik, M. M.;Xiang, X.;Xiao, X.;Xu, J.;Yang, C.;Yoo, J.;Zavatarelli, S.;Zec, A.;Zhong, W.;Zhu, C.;Zuzel, G.

2017-01-01

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Abstract

The DarkSide-50 experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso is a search for dark matter using a dual phase time projection chamber with 50 kg of low radioactivity argon as target. Light signals from interactions in the argon are detected by a system of 38 photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs), 19 above and 19 below the TPC volume inside the argon cryostat. We describe the electronics which processes the signals from the photo-multipliers, the trigger system which identifies events of interest, and the data-acquisition system which records the data for further analysis. The electronics include resistive voltage dividers on the PMTs, custom pre-amplifiers mounted directly on the PMT voltage dividers in the liquid argon, and custom amplifier/discriminators (at room temperature). After amplification, the PMT signals are digitized in CAEN waveform digitizers, and CAEN logic modules are used to construct the trigger; the data acquisition system for the TPC is based on the Fermilab artdaq software. The system has been in operation since early 2014.