High-Pressure Gaseous Argon TPC for the DUNE Near Detector

TL;DR

This paper describes the design, physics goals, and R&D efforts of a high-pressure gaseous argon TPC for the DUNE Near Detector, aimed at improving neutrino interaction measurements and reducing systematic uncertainties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel high-pressure gaseous argon TPC design for the DUNE Near Detector, detailing its capabilities and ongoing development efforts.

Findings

Design specifications and physics objectives outlined.

Prototype TPC being developed and tested at Fermilab.

Expected to enhance constraints on neutrino-argon nuclear effects.

Abstract

The DUNE Near Detector design consists of multiple components, each designed to produce complementary constraints on flux and neutrino interaction systematic uncertainties for the oscillation analyses. One of these subdetectors is a magnetized high-pressure gaseous-argon TPC (HPgTPC), which will provide fine-grained tracking in a low-density detector, using the same target nucleus as the DUNE far detector. With its low momentum threshold for particle detection, the HPgTPC will be able to constrain one of the most crucial - and least-well understood - uncertainties for the oscillation analysis: nuclear effects in neutrino-argon interactions. These proceedings describe the current design, physics goals, and projected performance of the HPgTPC, as well as the ongoing R&D work at Fermilab, in which a test-stand TPC is being built and will be operated at up to 10 atm pressure.