Studying the performance of the DUNE LAr neutrino detector

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Neutrinos are very intriguing particles and have revealed unexpected properties. The discovery of neutrino oscillation, demonstrating that neutrinos have a non-zero mass, has challenged the well-established Standard Model of Particle Physics. Furthermore, neutrinos may hold the key to many other great question of physics such as why is the Universe dominated by matter (over anti-matter). This long-lasting important question of Physics could be answered if neutrinos and anti-neutrinos behave differently and this is the main goal of the next generation of neutrino experiments. The main project for the next generation of neutrino experiments is the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). This very-large scale experiment, neutrino detector of up to 40 kiloton of liquid argon, is currently being designed and optimised by the largest neutrino collaboration ever seen (over 800 people worldwide). DUNE will use a brand-new, much more powerful, neutrino beam from the Fermilab National Laboratory in the US and will send neutrinos 1300km away to four 10kt liquid argon detectors located deep underground in a mine in South Dakota. DUNE is an unprecedented experiment that will address several great questions of the field such as the imbalance between matter and anti-matter in the Universe, the ordering of the neutrino masses and information on potential underlying symmetries beyond the Standard Model. However, before we can build the unprecedentedly large-scale liquid argon detector for DUNE, some intermediate scale detectors have to demonstrate that it can be achieved and this is why the DUNE collaboration is currently constructing a DUNE prototype (protoDUNE). The protoDUNE liquid argon time projection chamber is located in a particle beam at CERN, offering a unique dataset to study the interactions of individual particles in liquid argon detectors and verify the main performance characteristics of the eventual DUNE detector. This project will allow the student to participate in the commissioning and operation of the detector at CERN. In addition the student would help develop the reconstruction and analysis software for protoDUNE in the goal of performing the full data analysis with selected particles from beam and cosmic rays. He will use this data to refine the simulation and reconstruction algorithms and analysis techniques that will be used for the data analysis once the DUNE experiment starts taking neutrino data from 2026. Since protoDUNE and DUNE are both part of the STFC Particle Physics strategic plan, this work is in perfect alignment with the UK priorities and will be performed as part of the international DUNE collaboration. In addition, liquid argon detectors are used in many different experiments (MicroBooNE, SBND, protoDUNE and DUNE) and many other fields of particle physics, such as Dark Matter searches and Neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments, use similar detector technologies. The skills that the student will learn will be directly transferable to these current and future projects. Finally, computing and hardware techniques developed for the project will also be highly relevant to the industries doing pattern recognition software development or medical instrument development.