LBNO-DEMO: Large-scale neutrino detector demonstrators for phased performance assessment in view of a long-baseline oscillation experiment

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and testing of a large-scale liquid argon neutrino detector prototype, aiming to validate design, performance, and systematic error assessments for future long-baseline neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a 6x6x6 m³ liquid argon detector prototype and demonstrates its operation and calibration in a test beam, paving the way for larger underground neutrino detectors.

Findings

Successful operation and characterization of the prototype in a test beam.

Development of advanced reconstruction algorithms for particle tracking and identification.

Validation of detector response assumptions for future large-scale experiments.

Abstract

In June 2012, an Expression of Interest for a long-baseline experiment (LBNO) has been submitted to the CERN SPSC. LBNO considers three types of neutrino detector technologies: a double-phase liquid argon (LAr) TPC and a magnetised iron detector as far detectors. For the near detector, a high-pressure gas TPC embedded in a calorimeter and a magnet is the baseline design. A mandatory milestone is a concrete prototyping effort towards the envisioned large-scale detectors, and an accompanying campaign of measurements aimed at assessing the detector associated systematic errors. The proposed $6\times 6\times 6$m$^3$ DLAr is an industrial prototype of the design discussed in the EoI and scalable to 20 kton or 50~kton. It is to be constructed and operated in a controlled laboratory and surface environment with test beam access, such as the CERN North Area (NA). Its successful operation and full characterisation will be a fundamental milestone, likely opening the path to an underground deployment of larger detectors. The response of the DLAr demonstrator will be measured and understood with an unprecedented precision in a charged particle test beam (0.5-20 GeV/c). The exposure will certify the assumptions and calibrate the response of the detector, and allow to develop and to benchmark sophisticated reconstruction algorithms, such as those of 3-dimensional tracking, particle ID and energy flow in liquid argon. All these steps are fundamental for validating the correctness of the physics performance described in the LBNO EoI.