R&D on Liquid Argon detectors for neutrino physics

希格斯玻色子是一种长期寻找的粒子，它的历史性发现在全世界引起了轰动，但另一种粒子中微子最近也吸引了很多关注。这个粒子物理学标准模型中难以捉摸的粒子（这个模型预测了希格斯玻色子的存在）在过去已经让物理学家感到惊讶。中微子有质量（尽管很小）的重大发现严重挑战了标准模型，该模型预测了无质量的中微子。在过去的几年里，惊人的发现再一次把中微子带到了科学的前沿。虽然中微子是宇宙中最丰富的粒子之一，但它们可能是最不为人所知的，因为它们与物质的相互作用非常弱。出于这个原因，需要非常大的探测器来回答中微子物理学可以解决的剩余问题，比如解释为什么物质在宇宙中战胜了反物质（这是科学上最大的谜团之一）。液态氩（LAr）探测器是一种很有前途的研究中微子的新技术。这些最先进的探测器在探测中微子方面非常有效，并允许粒子相互作用的3D图像，这提供了前所未有的方法来拒绝不希望的相互作用。英国最近开展了一项科学计划，以开发和更好地了解这项技术。这项提议提供了一个独特的机会，通过显著增加英国对MicroBooNE实验的参与，来实现新战略的目标，MicroBooNE实验是唯一一个将在未来几年运行的微型中微子实验。由该提案组成的小组，在对MicroBooNE的结果产生重大科学影响的同时，也将建造用于研发的小型LAr探测器。有了这些新的尖端测试平台，牛津大学的研究小组将能够对LAr的光学特性进行急需的测量，这对中微子物理学和暗物质群落（一些暗物质探测器使用LAr探测器）都是必不可少的。此外，研发工作将致力于一种新的方法来测量LAr探测器，以更有效地检测粒子相互作用。后者可以证明是成像粒子相互作用的一种创新方式，可以直接应用于医学成像，因此对医疗行业非常感兴趣。就像过去的几个粒子物理项目在医学上取得了巨大的进步一样，这项研究将为一种前卫的成像技术铺平道路，这种技术可以用于医学目的。这个项目的结果将使英国在人工智能开发工作中处于领先地位。它们还将提供非常经济有效的方法，大大提高中微子研究和寻找神秘暗物质的LAr探测器的性能。这项研究将对许多当前和未来的实验产生直接影响，并可能最终揭开科学中一些最大的谜团。

The historical discovery of the Higgs boson, a long-sought particle, has made waves around the world, but another particle, the neutrino, has also attracted a lot of attention recently. This elusive particle of the Standard Model of Particle Physics (this same model that predicted the existence of the Higgs) has already surprised physicists in the past. The seminal discovery that neutrinos have mass (although tiny) has seriously challenged the Standard Model, which predicted massless neutrinos. In the last years, amazing findings have once more brought neutrinos to the forefront of Science.Although neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the Universe, they are probably the least understood because they interact very weakly with matter. For this reason, very large detectors are required to answer the remaining questions neutrino physics can address, like explaining why matter won over the anti-matter in the Universe (one of the greatest puzzle of Science).Liquid Argon (LAr) detectors are a promising new technology to study neutrinos. These state-of-the-art detectors are extremely efficient at detecting neutrinos and allow 3D images of the particle interactions, which provide unprecedented ways to reject undesirable interactions.The UK has recently undertaken a scientific programme to develop and better understand this technology. This proposal offers a unique opportunity to fulfil the goals of the new strategy by increasing significantly the UK involvement in the MicroBooNE experiment, the only LAr neutrino experiment that will be running in the next years. The group formed from this proposal, while making significant scientific impact with the MicroBooNE results, will also build small LAr detectors that will be used for R&D. With these new cutting-edge test stands, the Oxford group will be able to perform much needed measurements of the optical properties of LAr, which are essential for both neutrino physics and dark matter communities (some dark matter detectors use LAr detectors). In addition, R&D effort will be dedicated to a new way of instrumenting the LAr detector to detect even more efficiently the particle interactions. The latter could prove to be an innovative way of imaging particle interactions, which could be directly applied to medical imaging, hence of great interest for the medical industries. In the same way several particle physics projects in the past produced great advances in medicine, this research will lay the path to an avant-garde imaging technology that could be use for medical purposes. The results that will come out of this project will establish the UK at the forefront of the LAr development effort. They will also provide very cost-efficient ways to considerably improve the performance of the LAr detectors for neutrino studies and for the search of the mysterious dark matter. This research will have direct impact on many current and future experiments and could culminate in unravelling some of the greatest mysteries of Science.