7–9 Jan 2026
King's College London
Europe/London timezone

The DUNE Photon Detection System

8 Jan 2026, 10:17
13m
Safra Lecture Theatre (King's College London)

Safra Lecture Theatre

King's College London

Speaker

Dr Patricia Sanchez-Lucas (University of Granada)

Description

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), currently under construction in the US, has a broad physics program that covers topics including oscillation physics at the GeV scale, the search for the proton decay, and the observation of supernova and solar neutrinos. The DUNE far detector is based on the technology of the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC), that allows for a 3D real-time position reconstruction of the events and their energy. This is possible thanks to the collection of both electrons and scintillation photons produced after an interaction. The light signal in particular is key to provide the timing of the interactions. To fully exploit the light signal, DUNE will be equipped with a Photon Detection System (PDS). The main element of the PDS is a novel device called the X-Arapuca, a light trap that detects scintillation photons with SiPMs. The X-Arapuca will enhance significantly the potential of DUNE at the lowest energies by improving the overall energy resolution. Thanks to an intense R&D campaign conducted in several labs and at the two ProtoDUNEs at CERN, the PDS system has been optimised and validated. We describe here the DUNE PDS, the latest results from test facilities, the plans for the future installation in DUNE, and its role in the physics goals of DUNE.

Author

Dr Patricia Sanchez-Lucas (University of Granada)

Presentation materials