Preparation for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and Measurement of Pion-Argon Cross-sections

The project will comprise preparatory studies for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment DUNE, at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility LBNF, USA.

Neutrinos are generated from a 1.2 MW proton beam at Fermilab, USA, and travel 800km to the Sanford Underground Research Facility. The beam is instrumented with two near and far detectors.

The Far Detector is based around an active volume of 40k-tonne of liquid Argon, instrumented as a time projection chamber TPC.

In order to reduce the data volume produced by the Far Detector over the 20-year lifespan of the experiment, the data acquisition system includes a data-selection system, or "trigger".

This project will include development of trigger algorithms, and estimation of their performance with Monte-Carlo simulation.

Trigger algorithms will also be deployed and characterised at the ProtoDUNE detector, an 800 tonne prototype of the future DUNE Far Detector, currently in operation at CERN.

Finally, using data collected during Run 2 of ProtoDUNE in 2024, a measurement of pion-Argon cross-sections will be performed.

This will focus on the charge-exchange process and will investigate use of machine learning algorithms to identify neutral pions in the liquid Argon TPC.