Preparation for LAr 35 ton Phase II Test Underway
View inside the 35t prototype cryostat. The access hatch can be seen in the top of the image.
In March, 2015 the Phase II operation of the 35 ton will begin where a prototype time projection chamber (TPC) cell (for the LBNE far detector) will be tested. The anode plane assembly portion of this cell will contain prototype photon detectors as well. The prototype cryostat is a scaled down version of the membrane cryostats that will be used to house the LBNE far detector components. The 35t test will use a large sample of cosmic ray data collected during the run to test the operation of the TPC as well as providing an opportunity to correlate cosmic track data with the photon data collected by the prototype photon detectors.
It is expected that the 35t phase II test will run for approximately 3 months allow for significant data collection of cosmic tracks in addition to smaller scale samples, such as the Michel electrons coming from cosmic muons decaying in the detector volume. This test will provide the first major milestone toward the full development of the LBNE far detector.
Installation of the TPC cell into the 35t cryostat has begun and the cathode plane assembly has been inserted into the cryostat volume. The remainder of the installation will take place in early 2015. Currently the photon detectors are installed in the APA frames which have been wrapped with the wires for the TPC. The data acquisition system is being checked out which will allow a full pre-installation testing of all detector hardware prior to installation.
