Data Quality Control for the Muon g-2 Experiment

In the Muon g-2 experiment, parameters such as the voltages applied to the focusing electric quadrupoles can affect the recorded time spectrum of positrons from muon decay. When a spark occurs in the quadrupole system, the voltages must be reduced and brought back up before collection of valid data resumes. A data quality control process eliminates these intervals of unstable quadrupole voltages to produce a usable time spectrum for analysis of the muon spin precession frequency. Using Python libraries numpy, scipy, and matplotlib to interact with a PostgreSQL database, optimal settings for the parameters in the selected timeframe are found from a histogram and a time series plot. The data set is divided into time intervals on the order of 10 seconds, known as subruns. The data quality algorithm determines if each subrun is acceptable for use based on the optimal settings that were found. This process can be used on any parameter that may introduce a systematic error into the physics result.