Laboratory of Applied Nuclear Physics (LANPh)

Applied Nuclear Physics in Service of Society

Nuclear Detection With Geiger Counters

The AUA College of Science and Engineering in collaboration with MIT is excited to share an excellent opportunity for engineering enthusiasts who are eager to learn the basics of Nuclear Physics. From January 10 to January 27, three MIT students, Grigor Tukharyan, Jaron Cota, and Armando Martinez, will introduce the “Nuclear Detection with Geiger Counters” course at AUA.

During the three-week course, you will learn the basics of nuclear interactions with photons, learn relevant concepts in statistics that are vital for nuclear detection, understand the analog electronics required to make a Geiger counter, learn how to analyze data using python, create a Geiger counter by hand using analog electronics and breadboards, and perform experimentation with your own Geiger counters

Instructors: Grigor Tukharyan, Jaron Cota, and Armando Martinez

Course Lead / Contact Person: Grigor Tukharyan

TAs: To Be Determined

Language: English (lectures); English and Armenian (labs)

Times and Location:

  • Dates: Jan 10 – 27
  • All meetings start at 14:30 and last 2-3 hrs
  • Location:
    • Jan 10 – 17: 314W Paramaz Avedisian Building
    • Jan 18 – 27: 610M Main Building

Application to the Course

Prerequisites: 

  • Highschool Level Mathematics
  • Highschool Level Physics
  • Knowledge of English

Application to the course: https://forms.gle/JKaRj2mHGxn4H5Yh7

Deadline to apply: January 8th

Selected applications will be emailed on the 9th of January

Note:  MIT is an equal opportunity institution.  We do not allow discrimination against gender, race, religion, political views, nationality, or sexual orientation and/or identity.  This policy applies to all our programs — whether in the US or in Armenia.  We are also strongly committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Course Material

You can find most of our lecture notes, course materials, code examples etc. in this LINK.

Additionally, here are some useful links:

From GitHub:

Tentative Plan: 

Theory classes will last 1.5 – 2 hours a day, while lab classes will last about 3 hours a day. To receive a Certificate of Participation, students will have to complete four assignments. 

  1. Nuclear Science Problem Set – – due on Friday, January 13th
  2. Statistics Problem Set – – due on Wednesday, January 17th
  3. Python Assignment – – due on Friday, January 20th 
  4. Geiger Counter Lab Report – – Thursday, January 26th

Theory Classes

Tuesday, January 10 — Basics of Radiation

Radiation — what is it?  Today we will start with a general discussion about radiation.

  • What is radiation?
  • How does radiation affects us?
  • What is radiation dose?  What does it mean when we say that someone got a “high dose?”

Wednesday, January 11 — Introduction to Nuclear Physics

  • Energy:  electron-Volt
  • Photons and Electrons
  • Photon interactions
    • Photoelectric effect
    • Compton Scattering
    • Pair production
  • Nuclear detection, the simplest device:  Geiger-Muller Counter
  • Shielding and attenuation:  how to calculate attenuation using mass attenuation coefficient
  • Hands on exercise:
    • Calculate attenuation using XCOM tables (see here)
    • …

Thursday and Friday, January 12 and 13  — Statistics

Read Knoll Chapter 3 (~ 2hrs)

  • Random processes, independence
  • Binomial distribution
  • Poisson distribution
  • Gaussian statistics and Central Limit Theorem
  • Error propagation
  • Statistical tests:
    • Z-score
    • Chi2 test
  • Waiting time between two consecutive random events
  • Hands on exercises:
    • Use Z-score to calculate the probabilities of a) a political party winning the elections, and b) that a radioactive source is present
    • Apply the chi2 test for three data points and verify whether they come from the same process
    • calculate error

Monday, January 16 — EE.101: basics of electronics, from resistors to High Voltage

During this lecture we’ll do an overview of the basics of electricity.  We will use some material from 22.071, MIT course on analog electronics.

  • resistors as voltage dividers
  • inductors and capacitors
    • as integrators
    • as differentiators
    • 1st order circuits
  • transistors
    • as simple switches
    • as logic inverters
  • Diodes as simple “one way” trap-doors
  • boost converters — DC to DC transformers, High Voltage

Tuesday, January 17 – Python workshop

  • Give the basic of working with Python computing language and Jupyter notebooks, specifically applying the statistics knowledge gained throughout the course
  • Navigating command prompt
    • Downloading python and packages necessary
  • Python and programming basics
    • Syntax, variable types, lists, loops, graphing
  • Packages and their usage
    • Numpy, Pandas, Matplotlib
  • Demo on histograms, gaussian fits, optimization, random.int

Wednesday, January 18 — Nuclear Detection and Detector Types

  • Gives an overview of detection technology
    • Ion tubes, proportional counters, Geiger counters
    • Basic detection properties
    • Scintillators, if time permits

Thursday, January 19 — Geiger Counters

Detectors — Geiger counters as ionization chambers

  • Basics of electricity – how does the Geiger counter work?

Lab Classes

Friday, January 20 — Lab 0 (3 hrs)

During our first (zero-th) lab we will assemble the analog “core” of our Geiger counter.  

Monday, January 23 — Lab 1 (3 hrs)

Now that we have a working Geiger counter we can instrument it with a small Arduino microcontroller, which will serve as the data acquisition (DAQ) of the system.  It will count and digitize the analog pulses and estimate the count rate and the dose rate.  It will also transfer data to the computer, allowing you to analyze it and observe some very interesting statistical phenomena

Tuesday, January 24 — Lab 2 (3 hrs)

Now that we have a working radiation detection system, we will perform experiments with radioactive sources to determine the effects of materials on radiation.

Exercises with the Geiger Counter…

  • Take two measurements:
    • Background
    • Source + background
    • Apply the Z-test to determine the probability that a source is present
  • Make multiple measurements of the background or source:
    • Apply the chi2 test to verify that the background is stable
    • Plot the waiting time between consecutive hits – is it exponential?
  • Test the statistical models and the Central Limit Theorem:
    • Plot the distribution of the 5-sec long measurements, such that you only get 1-2 counts – do you get a Poisson distribution?  
    • What if you do 1-min long measurements – do you get a Gaussian?
  • Measurements of attenuation using different targets
    • Measure with a source
    • Measure with a source and a target/absorber
    • Does the number of counts correspond to the predictions that are based on the mass attenuation coefficient?

Wednesday, January 25 — Lab 3 (3 hrs)

  • This will be our computational lab, where we will analyze the data acquired on the previous days and apply our data computation methods described in class

Special Topics, Time Permitting

Thursday, January 26 – Nuclear Energy Production: Fission Power Plants

  • Learn the basics of general energy generation and distribution
  • Learn the basics of how fission power plants operate
  • Gives a basic overview of different reactor types

Friday, January 27 – Nuclear Energy Production: Fusion Power Plants

  • Learn the basics of fusion energy and plasma physics
    • Introduction to plasmas: what are they and how they behave
    • Fusion reactions and the “triple product”
    • Fusion reactor concepts