Speaker: Benjamin James Poyner Jones, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract: Liquid argon as a particle detection medium is of central importance to current and future neutrino and dark matter experiments. As well as ionization charge, particles traversing liquid argon produce copious 128 nm scintillation light. The detection of this scintillation light can be used to great effect for triggering, for reconstruction, and for offline analysis in such experiments. In this talk I will discuss some of the microphysics associated with scintillation light production and propagation as well as the technology used to detect it. In particular I will focus on recent liquid argon scintillation R&D performed at Fermilab, and the development of optical systems for the MicroBooNE experiment.