Enabling Precision Neutrino Physics with DUNE: Development of Design and Production Plan for DUNE TPC Wire Planes

世纪的主要学术成就之一是粒子物理学标准模型（SM）的发展。该模型成功地将当时已知的所有基本粒子分类为具有相似量子特性的组的层次结构。到目前为止，这个模型的有效性被欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机上发现的希格斯玻色子所证实。然而，目前存在的标准模型留下了许多关于宇宙的问题，包括为什么希格斯质量具有它的价值以及为什么宇宙中没有反物质等基本问题。对于这些和其他关于宇宙的开放性问题，它是如何形成的，以及为什么它是这样的，寻找答案的主要领域之一是专注于中微子性质的研究，并利用我们所知道的和可以了解的关于中微子的知识作为超越标准模型（BSM）的科学探针。 标准模型预测有三种不同类型的中微子，它们都没有质量，通过它们与物质相互作用时所经历的不同相互作用可以区分。但是最近的测量已经完全改变了我们对中微子的看法。我们现在知道中微子确实有质量，因为它们有质量，它们实际上可以从一种类型变成另一种类型。对这些变化以及其他变化的详细测量是探索标准模型之外的新物理学的最有希望的方法之一。深层地下中微子实验（DUNE）将对中微子和反中微子振荡进行全面测量，以研究中微子CP破坏，确定中微子质量本征态的顺序，并对中微子标准模型进行精确测试。DUNE将利用费米实验室的加速器中微子束，并对地外中微子敏感，包括来自超新星爆炸的中微子。DUNE的大质量探测器，一个40千吨的液体氩时间投影室（LAr-TPC）系统，将使中微子物理学和天体物理学中的这些精确测量成为可能，并扩大了寻找核子衰变的灵敏度。 LAr-TPC系统将分为四个10千吨模块。 其中两个大型模块的核心是被称为阳极平面组件（阿帕）的金属丝室平面，它记录了粒子在氩气中传播的特征，并提供了中微子相互作用的高分辨率图像。 领导这一规划项目的小组，部分资金来自NSF的早期投资，已经领导了LAr-TPC实验的线室飞机的开发，为DUNE奠定了基础。 这些小组现在将制定建造战略、方法和计划，以建造DUNE的前两个10千吨模块所需的一半APA。 根据设想，将在大学所在地建造2-3个阿帕“工厂”，这些工厂拥有阿帕生产线所需的技术设施和基础设施。这些多个区域工厂将允许许多合作的大学团体直接参与。 最终，开发并运行阿帕建设项目将为博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生提供极好的培训机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

One of the major intellectual achievements of the 20th century was the development of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. This model succeeded in classifying all of the elementary particles known at the time into a hierarchy of groups having similar quantum properties. The validity of this model to date was confirmed by the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. However, the Standard Model as it currently exists leaves open many questions about the universe, including such fundamental questions as to why the Higgs mass has the value it has and why there is no antimatter in the universe. One of the primary areas to search for answers to these and other open questions about the universe, how it came to be, and why it is the way it is, is to focus on a study of the properties of neutrinos and to use what we know and can learn about neutrinos as probes of science Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). The Standard Model predicted that there were three different kinds of neutrinos, all massless, that were distinguishable through the different interactions that they undergo whenever they interact with matter. But recent measurements have totally changed our picture of neutrinos. We now know that neutrinos do have a mass and because they do, they can actually change from one type to another. Detailed measurements of these changes as well as others form one of the most promising ways to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will make comprehensive measurements of neutrino and anti-neutrino oscillations to investigate neutrino CP violation, determine the ordering of the neutrino mass eigenstates, and perform precision tests of the neutrino Standard Model. DUNE will take advantage of both an accelerator-based neutrino beam from Fermilab and be sensitive to extra-terrestrial neutrinos, including those from supernova explosions. DUNE's massive detector, a 40-kton Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr-TPC) System, will both enable these precision measurements in neutrino physics and astrophysics as well as extend the sensitivity in the search for nucleon decay. The LAr-TPC System will be divided into four 10-kton modules. At the heart of two of these large modules are wire chamber planes called Anode Plane Assemblies (APA) which record the signatures of particles propagating in the argon and provide high resolution images of neutrino interactions. The groups leading this planning project, funded in part through earlier investments from the NSF, have led the development of wire chamber planes for LAr-TPC experiments laying the groundwork for DUNE. These groups will now develop a construction strategy, methodology and plan to construct half of the APAs needed for the first two 10-kton modules of DUNE. It is envisioned that 2-3 APA "factories" would be built at university sites that have the technical facilities and infrastructure required to host the APA production lines. These multiple regional factories would allow for direct participation by many collaborating university groups. Ultimately, developing and then operating an APA construction program would provide excellent training opportunities for postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. It is anticipated that the project would interest and engage a diverse group of undergraduate students at each of the construction sites.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.