The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) aims to make precise measurements of long-baseline neutrino oscillations over a 1300 km baseline. A high power wide-band beam operating in neutrino (anti-neutrino) mode will be produced at Fermilab, with its flux and flavour composition characterised with the Near Detector system. At the Sandford Underground Research Facility (SURF), 1300 km away, deep underground, four gigantic Far Detector modules (with 70 kton total mass) will observe νμ (ν̄μ ) disappearance, νe (ν̄e ) and ντ (ν̄τ ) appearance. In doing so DUNE will be able to determine the Neutrino Mass Ordering (at more than 5 sigmas), measure the CP Violating phase over a wide range of values, measure precisely the oscillation parameters and test the 3-flavour paradigm. With gigantic Far Detectors, deep underground, DUNE will be able to detect neutrinos from a Galactic core-collapse supernova, should one occur, and search for nucleon decay and other physics beyond the Standard Model.
The DUNE Far Detectors will be Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (TPC). The designs of the first two modules have been chosen, known as Horizontal-Drift and Vertical-Drift, and construction of detector parts is underway. Such gigantic detectors need large-scale prototyping not only to determine the performance but also to validate the technology, engineering solutions, and installation procedures. At the CERN neutrino platform, a large cryostat, known as the coldbox, is used to develop the TPC instrumentation. At the kton-scale, two large cryostats host full detectors, known as the protoDUNEs, allowing performance testing with cosmic ray muons and charged particle beams.
In this talk I will describe the DUNE experiment, particularly focusing on the Far Detector modules. I will describe the technical contribution of the APC team to the development of the Photon Detector System of the Vertical-Drift TPC (FD2). In this TPC, Photon Detectors are located within the High Voltage cathode of the TPC, held at a potential of -300 kV. To achieve this, the devices (and associated electronics) are powered and signals are read-out by optical fiber. The APC team has pioneered the development of Signal-over-Fiber; transmitting and receiving the analog signals from the Silicon PhotoMultipliers of the Photon Detectors.
Zoom: https://cern.zoom.us/j/64458678005?pwd=bzRZcWNYZit3aHNuSlVRMXViQmUwdz09
