Statistical position reconstruction for RPC-based thermal neutron detectors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a statistical position reconstruction method for multilayer 10B-RPC thermal neutron detectors, improving image quality and operational monitoring compared to centroid methods.

Contribution

A novel statistical approach for position reconstruction in RPC-based neutron detectors, enhancing image quality and enabling automatic quality monitoring.

Findings

Similar spatial resolution and linearity to centroid method

Improved image quality at detector edges

Enhanced event filtering and operational monitoring

Abstract

Multilayer position-sensitive 10B-RPC thermal neutron detectors offer an attractive combination of sub-millimeter spatial resolution and high (>50%) detection efficiency. Here we describe a new position reconstruction method based on a statistical approach. Using experimental data, we compare the performance of this method with that of the centroid reconstruction. Both methods result in a similar image linearity/uniformity and spatial resolution. However, the statistical method allows to improve the image quality at the detector periphery, offers more flexible event filtering and allows to develop automatic quality monitoring procedures for early detection of situations when a change in the detector operation conditions starts to affect reconstruction quality.