The Under-Water Dark-Room Experimental Facility at the University of Winnipeg

TL;DR

The paper introduces a new underwater dark-room test facility at the University of Winnipeg, designed for calibrating optical equipment and detectors for large-scale underwater physics experiments like Hyper-Kamiokande.

Contribution

It presents the design, features, and initial calibration results of a novel underwater testing facility for optical and detector equipment used in major physics experiments.

Findings

Successful calibration of underwater camera housings for Hyper-Kamiokande

Facility's capability to simulate experimental conditions accurately

Initial tests demonstrate precise optical calibration

Abstract

A completely new under-water dark-room test facility (UWDTF) has been built at the University of Winnipeg during 2021-2023, for the testing of the equipments, optical components and detectors before they might be used in different underwater experiments, like the Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K), and others. The Facility is designed for Research and Development activities primarily related to the different calibration systems, which are/will be used in the Water Cherenkov Test Experiment (WCTE) at CERN, the Intermediate Water Cherenkov Detector (IWCD) at Tokai, Japan and the Hyper-Kamiokande Far Detector at Kamioka, Japan. The facility houses a large tank of water (1000 gallons) in an optically isolated room, and is equipped with a gantry that provides for the 3D motion of a maximum of 50 lbs of load inside the tank. A customized pan-tilt system has also been devised to accommodate further degrees of freedom of motion to the payload in the polar and azimuthal direction. The facility is primarily used for testing of the under-water camera housings designed for the Hyper-K experiment, besides many other research and development activities. The preliminary results of the camera calibration done in this multi-purpose underwater-darkroom facility are presented here, starting with the description of the vital features of this facility.