A measurement of the group velocity of scintillation light in liquid argon

Abstract

The propagation velocity of scintillation light in liquid argon $v_g$ at $\lambda \sim 128$~nm wavelength, has been measured for the first time in a dedicated experimental setup at CERN.\\ The obtained result $\frac{1}{v_g}=7.46\pm 0.08$~ns/m , is then used to derive the value of the refractive index (n) and the Rayleigh scattering length ($\mathcal{L}$) for liquid argon in the VUV region. For $\lambda =128$~nm we found $n=1.358\pm 0.003$ and $\mathcal{L}=99.1\pm 2.3$~cm. The measured values are of interest for a variety of experiments searching for rare events like neutrino and dark matter interactions. The derived quantities also represent key information for theoretical models describing the propagation of scintillation light in liquid argon.

arXiv comment20 pages, 10 figures

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• Scintillation Light in SBND: Simulation, Reconstruction, and Expected Performance of the Photon Detection System
• The science and technology of liquid argon detectors
• Predicting Transport Effects of Scintillation Light Signals in Large-Scale Liquid Argon Detectors
• Xenon doping of Liquid Argon in ProtoDUNE Single Phase
• Study of scintillation light collection, production and propagation in a 4 tonne dual-phase LArTPC
• The DUNE Vertical Drift Photon Detection System
• Doping Liquid Argon with Xenon in ProtoDUNE Single-Phase: Effects on Scintillation Light
• Scintillation light detection in the 6-m drift length ProtoDUNE Dual Phase liquid argon TPC
• Refractive index for the mechanical refraction of a relativistic particle