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DUNE Collaboration(Abi, B. et al), Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Cervera-Villanueva, A., De Romeri, V., Fernandez Menendez, P., et al. (2020). First results on ProtoDUNE-SP liquid argon time projection chamber performance from a beam test at the CERN Neutrino Platform. J. Instrum., 15(12), P12004–100pp.
Abstract: The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber with an active volume of 7.2 x 6.1 x 7.0 m(3). It is installed at the CERN Neutrino Platform in a specially-constructed beam that delivers charged pions, kaons, protons, muons and electrons with momenta in the range 0.3 GeV/c to 7 GeV/c. Beam line instrumentation provides accurate momentum measurements and particle identification. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, and it incorporates full-size components as designed for that module. This paper describes the beam line, the time projection chamber, the photon detectors, the cosmic-ray tagger, the signal processing and particle reconstruction. It presents the first results on ProtoDUNE-SP's performance, including noise and gain measurements, dE/dx calibration for muons, protons, pions and electrons, drift electron lifetime measurements, and photon detector noise, signal sensitivity and time resolution measurements. The measured values meet or exceed the specifications for the DUNE far detector, in several cases by large margins. ProtoDUNE-SP's successful operation starting in 2018 and its production of large samples of high-quality data demonstrate the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design.
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DUNE Collaboration(Abud, A. A. et al), Amedo, P., Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Cervera-Villanueva, A., De Romeri, V., et al. (2023). Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU. J. Instrum., 18(4), P04034–35pp.
Abstract: The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 103 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype.
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DUNE Collaboration(Abud, A. A. et al), Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Cervera-Villanueva, A., De Romeri, V., Fernandez Menendez, P., et al. (2022). Design, construction and operation of the ProtoDUNE-SP Liquid Argon TPC. J. Instrum., 17(1), P01005–111pp.
Abstract: The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) that was constructed and operated in the CERN North Area at the end of the H4 beamline. This detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which will be constructed at the Sandford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, U.S.A. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector incorporates full-size components as designed for DUNE and has an active volume of 7 x 6 x 7.2 m3. The H4 beam delivers incident particles with well-measured momenta and high-purity particle identification. ProtoDUNE-SP's successful operation between 2018 and 2020 demonstrates the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design. This paper describes the design, construction, assembly and operation of the detector components.
Keywords: Noble liquid detectors (scintillation, ionization, double-phase); Photon detectors for UV; visible and IR photons (solid-state) (PIN diodes, APDs, Si-PMTs, G-APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EMCCDs, CMOS imagers, etc); Scintillators; scintillation and light emission processes (solid, gas and liquid scintillators); Time projection Chambers (TPC)
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Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., & Ferrario, P. (2017). Monte Carlo study of the coincidence resolving time of a liquid xenon PET scanner, using Cherenkov radiation. J. Instrum., 12, P08023–13pp.
Abstract: In this paper we use detailed Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that liquid xenon (LXe) can be used to build a Cherenkov-based TOF-PET, with an intrinsic coincidence resolving time (CRT) in the vicinity of 10 ps. This extraordinary performance is due to three facts: a) the abundant emission of Cherenkov photons by liquid xenon; b) the fact that LXe is transparent to Cherenkov light; and c) the fact that the fastest photons in LXe have wavelengths higher than 300 nm, therefore making it possible to separate the detection of scintillation and Cherenkov light. The CRT in a Cherenkov LXe TOF-PET detector is, therefore, dominated by the resolution (time jitter) introduced by the photosensors and the electronics. However, we show that for sufficiently fast photosensors (e.g, an overall 40 ps jitter, which can be achieved by current micro-channel plate photomultipliers) the overall CRT varies between 30 and 55 ps, depending on the detection efficiency. This is still one order of magnitude better than commercial CRT devices and improves by a factor 3 the best CRT obtained with small laboratory prototypes.
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Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Ferrario, P., Monrabal, F., Rodriguez, J., & Toledo, J. F. (2016). Investigation of the coincidence resolving time performance of a PET scanner based on liquid xenon: a Monte Carlo study. J. Instrum., 11, P09011–18pp.
Abstract: The measurement of the time of flight of the two 511 keV gammas recorded in coincidence in a PET scanner provides an effective way of reducing the random background and therefore increases the scanner sensitivity, provided that the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the gammas is sufficiently good. The best commercial PET-TOF system today (based in LYSO crystals and digital SiPMs), is the VEREOS of Philips, boasting a CRT of 316 ps (FWHM). In this paper we present a Monte Carlo investigation of the CRT performance of a PET scanner exploiting the scintillating properties of liquid xenon. We find that an excellent CRT of 70 ps (depending on the PDE of the sensor) can be obtained if the scanner is instrumented with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) sensitive to the ultraviolet light emitted by xenon. Alternatively, a CRT of 160 ps can be obtained instrumenting the scanner with (much cheaper) blue-sensitive SiPMs coated with a suitable wavelength shifter. These results show the excellent time of flight capabilities of a PET device based in liquid xenon.
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Rebel, B., Hall, C., Bernard, E., Faham, C. H., Ito, T. M., Lundberg, B., et al. (2014). High voltage in noble liquids for high energy physics. J. Instrum., 9, T08004–57pp.
Abstract: A workshop was held at Fermilab November 8-9, 2013 to discuss the challenges of using high voltage in noble liquids. The participants spanned the fields of neutrino, dark matter, and electric dipole moment physics. All presentations at the workshop were made in plenary sessions. This document summarizes the experiences and lessons learned from experiments in these fields at developing high voltage systems in noble liquids.
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Renner, J. et al, Romo-Luque, C., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., Martinez, A., Querol, M., et al. (2022). Monte Carlo characterization of PETALO, a full-body liquid xenon-based PET detector. J. Instrum., 17(5), P05044–17pp.
Abstract: New detector approaches in Positron Emission Tomography imaging will play an important role in reducing costs, lowering administered radiation doses, and improving overall performance. PETALO employs liquid xenon as the active scintillating medium and UV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers for scintillation readout. The scintillation time in liquid xenon is fast enough to register time-of-flight information for each detected coincidence, and sufficient scintillation is produced with low enough fluctuations to obtain good energy resolution. The present simulation study examines a full-body-sized PETALO detector and evaluates its potential performance in PET image reconstruction.
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Sorel, M. (2014). Expected performance of an ideal liquid argon neutrino detector with enhanced sensitivity to scintillation light. J. Instrum., 9, P10002–25pp.
Abstract: Scintillation light is used in liquid argon (LAr) neutrino detectors to provide a trigger signal, veto information against cosmic rays, and absolute event timing. In this work, we discuss additional opportunities offered by detectors with enhanced sensitivity to scintillation light, that is with light collection efficiencies of about 10(-3). We focus on two key detector performance indicators for neutrino oscillation physics: calorimetric neutrino energy reconstruction and neutrino/antineutrino separation in a non-magnetized detector. Our results are based on detailed simulations, with neutrino interactions modelled according to the GENIE event generator, while the charge and light responses of a large LAr ideal detector are described by the Geant4 and NEST simulation tools. A neutrino energy resolution as good as 3.3% RMS for 4 GeV electron neutrino charged-current interactions can in principle be obtained in a large detector of this type, by using both charge and light information. By exploiting muon capture in argon and scintillation light information to veto muon decay electrons, we also obtain muon neutrino identification efficiencies of about 50%, and muon antineutrino misidentification rates at the few percent level, for few-GeV neutrino interactions that are fully contained. We argue that the construction of large LAr detectors with sufficiently high light collection efficiencies is in principle possible.
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