The science and technology of liquid argon detectors

Abstract

Liquid argon detectors are ubiquitous in particle, astroparticle, and applied physics. They reached an unprecedented level of maturity thanks to more than 20 years of R&D and the operation of large-scale facilities at CERN, Fermilab, and the Gran Sasso laboratories. This article reviews such an impressive advance - from the grounding of the experimental technique up to cutting-edge applications. We commence the review by describing the physical and chemical properties of liquid argon as an active and target medium for particle detection, together with advantages and limitations compared with other liquefied noble gases. We examine the opportunities and challenges of liquid argon detectors operated as calorimeters, scintillators, and time projection chambers. We then delve into the core applications of liquid argon detectors at colliders (ATLAS), accelerator neutrino beams (SBN, DUNE), and underground laboratories (DarkSide, DEAP, ICARUS) for the observation of rare events. We complete the review by looking at unconventional developments (pixelization, combined light-charge readout, Xe-doped devices, all-optical readout) and applications in medical and applied physics to extend this technology's scope toward novel research fields.

45 pages, 22 figures, submitted to Rev. Mod. Phys

References in corpus (57)

• First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment
• First Dark Matter Search with Nuclear Recoils from the XENONnT Experiment
• Supernova Neutrino Detection
• First Results from the DarkSide-50 Dark Matter Experiment at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
• First results from a Dark Matter search with liquid Argon at 87 K in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory
• Measurement of the specific activity of Ar-39 in natural argon
• Supernova Neutrino Burst Detection with the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
• First results on ProtoDUNE-SP liquid argon time projection chamber performance from a beam test at the CERN Neutrino Platform
• Search for dark matter particle interactions with electron final states with DarkSide-50
• Precise 3D track reconstruction algorithm for the ICARUS T600 liquid argon time projection chamber detector
• Response Uniformity of the ATLAS Liquid Argon Electromagnetic Calorimeter
• First direct detection constraints on Planck-scale mass dark matter with multiple-scatter signatures using the DEAP-3600 detector
• Evidence of delayed light emission of TetraPhenyl Butadiene excited by liquid Argon scintillation light
• Measurement of Space Charge Effects in the MicroBooNE LArTPC Using Cosmic Muons
• Performance Of A Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber Exposed To The WANF Neutrino Beam
• First constraints on light sterile neutrino oscillations from combined appearance and disappearance searches with the MicroBooNE detector
• The ArDM Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory: a ton-scale detector for Dark Matter Searches
• The Liquid Argon Purity Demonstrator
• Search for an anomalous excess of charged-current quasi-elastic ${\nu }_e$ interactions with the MicroBooNE experiment using Deep-Learning-based reconstruction
• Physics reach of a low threshold scintillating argon bubble chamber in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering reactor experiments
• Search for Neutrino-Induced Neutral Current $\Delta$ Radiative Decay in MicroBooNE and a First Test of the MiniBooNE Low Energy Excess Under a Single-Photon Hypothesis
• Wavelength shifters for applications in liquid argon detectors
• The first search for bosonic super-WIMPs with masses up to 1 MeV/c${}^2$ with GERDA
• Pulseshape discrimination against low-energy Ar-39 beta decays in liquid argon with 4.5 tonne-years of DEAP-3600 data
• Experimental observation of an extremely high electron lifetime with the ICARUS-T600 LAr-TPC
• Performance study of the effective gain of the double phase liquid Argon LEM Time Projection Chamber
• Measurement of the two-photon absorption cross-section of liquid argon with a time projection chamber
• Properties of Liquid Argon Scintillation Light Emission
• Sensitivity of future liquid argon dark matter search experiments to core-collapse supernova neutrinos
• Calibration of the liquid argon ionization response to low energy electronic and nuclear recoils with DarkSide-50
• Sensitivity projections for a dual-phase argon TPC optimized for light dark matter searches through the ionization channel
• High-performance Generic Neutrino Detection in a LArTPC near the Earth's Surface with the MicroBooNE Detector
• Cosmic Ray Background Rejection with Wire-Cell LArTPC Event Reconstruction in the MicroBooNE Detector
• LANNDD - A line of liquid argon TPC detectors scalable in mass from 200 Tons to 100 Ktons
• First results on light readout from the 1-ton ArDM liquid argon detector for dark matter searches
• Performance of novel VUV-sensitive Silicon Photo-Multipliers for nEXO
• Final Results of GERDA on the Two-Neutrino Double-$\beta$ Decay Half-Life of ${}^{76}$Ge
• Performance of Hamamatsu VUV4 SiPMs for detecting liquid argon scintillation
• Xenon-Doped Liquid Argon TPCs as a Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Platform
• Overhaul and Installation of the ICARUS-T600 Liquid Argon TPC Electronics for the FNAL Short Baseline Neutrino Program
• Impact of cross-section uncertainties on supernova neutrino spectral parameter fitting in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
• R&D of Wavelength-Shifting Reflectors and Characterization of the Quantum Efficiency of Tetraphenyl Butadiene and Polyethylene Naphthalate in Liquid Argon
• Enhanced low-energy supernova burst detection in large liquid argon time projection chambers enabled by Q-Pix
• The Electronics, Trigger and Data Acquisition System for the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber of the DarkSide-50 Search for Dark Matter
• ARIADNE -- A Novel Optical LArTPC: Technical Design Report and Initial Characterisation using a Secondary Beam from the CERN PS and Cosmic Muons
• Large Low Background kTon-Scale Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers
• Very large SiPM arrays with aggregated output
• Precision Measurement of the Specific Activity of ${}^{39}$Ar in Atmospheric Argon with the DEAP-3600 Detector
• Measurement of isotopic separation of argon with the prototype of the cryogenic distillation plant Aria for dark matter searches
• Measurement of ambient radon progeny decay rates and energy spectra in liquid argon using the MicroBooNE detector
• Evaluation of cosmogenic production of ${}^{39}Ar$ and ${}^{42}Ar$ for rare-event physics using underground argon
• Coded masks for imaging of neutrino events
• Study of cosmogenic activation above ground for the DarkSide-20k experiment
• Space charge in liquid argon time-projection chambers: a review of analytical and numerical models, and mitigation methods
• Large-Scale, Precision Xenon Doping of Liquid Argon
• Characterization of the scintillation time response of liquid argon detectors for dark matter search
• Front-end Electronics and Optimal Ganging Schemes for Single Photon Detection with Large Arrays of SiPMs in Liquid Argon

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Enhanced feature encoding and classification on distributed quantum hardware
• Self-compensating Light Calorimetry with Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber for GeV Neutrino Physics
• Demonstration of the light collection stability of a PEN-based wavelength shifting reflector in a tonne scale liquid argon detector