Developing opportunities for LAr discovery science at the Boulby Underground Laboratory

This proposal will explore and develop the opportunity to bring new world-leading, international experiments to the UK and to the Boulby Underground Laboratory in the areas of direct dark matter detection, neutrino physics, and novel instrumentation development through the use of liquid argon time projection chambers and cutting-edge silicon photosensor and charge pixel readout technologies.

The proposed work will engage the international experimental communities to capture the ambitions and requirements for any future large-scale liquid argon science programme that could be pursued, and through close collaboration with staff at the Boulby Underground Laboratory ensure that the development of the Laboratory is directed to enable these opportunities.

This proposal will explore the feasibility and design requirements to exploit both the existing laboratory space at Boulby to develop an experimental testbed facility for the development of new instrumentation technologies; determine the requirements for the construction of a cryostat at Boulby to host a new dark matter / neutrino physics experiment; and perform and document the necessary studies to both:

(i) develop the concept designs for siting such an experiment with world-leading scientific discovery potential in the next decade within a future expansion of the Boulby laboratory, and

(ii) promote the UK and Boulby to the international community as a credible site for future large-scale scientific investment in these areas and to attract an international user base to the UK.