R&D for Future 100 kton Scale Liquid Argon Detectors

TL;DR

This paper discusses research and development efforts for constructing large-scale (up to 100 kton) liquid argon detectors aimed at advancing neutrino physics and proton decay searches, emphasizing cryogenic stability and charge drift capabilities.

Contribution

It reviews the current R&D initiatives worldwide for large liquid argon detectors, highlighting common challenges and technological considerations.

Findings

Identification of key R&D challenges for large LAr detectors

Assessment of cryogenic stability requirements

Analysis of charge drift and readout optimization

Abstract

Large liquid argon (LAr) detectors, up to 100 kton scale, are presently being considered for proton decay searches and neutrino astrophysics as well as far detectors for the next generation of long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, aiming at neutrino mass hierarchy determination and CP violation searches in the leptonic sector. These detectors rely on the possibility of maintaining large LAr masses stably at cryogenic conditions with low thermal losses and of achieving long drifts of the ionization charge, so to minimize the number of readout channels per unit volume. Many R&D initiatives are being undertaken throughout the world, following somewhat different concepts for the final detector design, but with many common basic R&D issues.