Construction of the CHIPS-M prototype and simulations of a 10 kiloton module

TL;DR

This paper reports on the construction and testing of a prototype water Cherenkov detector, CHIPS-M, and uses simulations to guide the design of a larger 10 kiloton detector for neutrino physics research.

Contribution

It introduces the CHIPS-M prototype and demonstrates how simulations inform the design of a scalable, cost-effective 10 kiloton neutrino detector.

Findings

CHIPS-M successfully deployed and tested in a flooded mine pit.

Simulations provide insights into optimal PMT configurations for large detectors.

Design strategies aim to reduce costs for future neutrino experiments.

Abstract

During the summer of 2014, the CHIPS collaboration constructed and deployed CHIPS-M, a 26 ton prototype water Cherenkov detector in a flooded mine pit in Northern Minnesota, 7mrad off-axis from the NuMI neutrino beam. The detector will be recovered in summer 2015 after taking cosmic ray data throughout the winter to test the structure and materials, and the water filtration and pumping system. Geant4 simulations of generic water Cherenkov detectors with a variety of PMT types and layouts will be used to guide the design of a 10 kiloton module, intended to provide complementary information to current experiments on \delta_{CP}, and chart a course towards cheaper large neutrino detectors.