Plotting with CERN@school: an introduction to functions

This set of slides provides a guide to creating a plot with the Python programming language, making use of the matplotlib and numpy libraries. The function plotted is the surrogate function that describes the relationship between the number of Time-over-Threshold (ToT) counts and the energy measured by the Timepix detector [1], as described by Jakubek et al [2, 3] - though the code may be altered to plot any function required. The calibration constants used are those that were obtained for pixel 00000 of the LUCID experiment's TPX 0 detector: a = 2.24852, b = 80.6086, c = 252.004 and t = -0.62902.

This workshop was first given at the CERN@school Research Symposium 2014 on Monday the 8th September 2014 at the University of Surrey. The symposium formed part of the 10th International Conference on Position Sensitive Detectors (PSD10).  This is CAS-PUB-GEN-000012 (formerly 000193) in the CERN@school document index.

The work was kindly supported by the Institute of Physics through the Top50 work placement scheme, and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 through a Special Award.  CERN@school was supported by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) via grant numbers ST/J000256/1 and ST/N00101X/1.

[1] X. Llopart et al, "Timepix, a 65k programmable pixel readout chip for arrival time, energy and/or photon counting measurements", Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A. 581 (2007) 485-494 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2007.08.079

[2] J. Jakubek et al, "Pixel detectors for imaging with heavy charged particles", Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A. 591 (2008) 155-158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2008.03.091

[3] J. Jakubek, "Precise energy calibration of pixel detector working in time-over-threshold mode", Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A. 633 (2010) S262--S266 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.06.183