Construction of a Wire Chamber for Reactor Neutrino Studies

Neutrino interactions can be used as a probe for exploring physics beyond the Standard Model. However, the rarity of neutrino interactions and presence of high backgrounds make detection difficult. We wish to construct a time projection chamber (TPC) capable of reconstructing the kinematics of an inverse beta decay event. The TPC will detect the products of inverse beta decay using isobutane as the target material. As isobutane is not a well-characterized gas, we have constructed a wire chamber to study quenching factors in isobutane. We first study the wire chamber’s response for known spectra, obtaining a muon spectrum using P-10 gas as a target. In the future, we will use the wire chamber to characterize isobutane for use in the TPC. Additionally, we have created a GEANT4 simulation package for a commercially bought wire chamber that is filled with an unknown target gas, and seek to calibrate the chamber.