Global analysis of Rutherford scattering data from the PING 2023-2025 cohorts

The Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation: Exploring the Nuclear Matter (PING) started at FRIB in 2019 and has exposed pre-college students and undergraduate students to nuclear science through the Rutherford scattering kit from Leybold (Germany) since 2023. This experiment uses 210Po source emitting alpha particles that impinge on a thin (few microns) target foil. Three PING cohorts (2023, 2024 and 2025) measured scattered profiles off 13Al, 79Au, and an unknown isotope to predict the unknown isotope's atomic number. A global analysis of the compiled data from more than 20 groups was performed that included calibrating the effect of the sources misalignment, varied target collimators, effects from the vacuum settings, background radiation, vibration noise and systematics due to the group data collection dynamics. The angular distribution matches closely with the expected theoretical scattering distribution. There was a positive correlation between vacuum time and alpha particle rate between up to 4.0 seconds, after which a plateau was observed. When testing varied target types, a circular front with a 5 mm rectangular slit on the back had the highest particle rate, and a circular front with a 1 mm rectangular slit on the back had the lowest recorded rate. Noise reduction was achieved by adding two, or three layers of paper towels underneath the vacuum chamber. While aggregation of the data between multiple Leybold kits is not heavily dependent on the vacuum time and can be corrected for source position, there remain discrepancies that introduce a large error on the material characterization.