ARIADNE, a Photographic LAr TPC at the CERN Neutrino Platform

This letter of intent describes a novel and innovative two-phase LAr TPC with photographic capabilities as an attractive alternative readout method to the currently accepted segmented THGEMs which will require many thousands of charge readout channels for kton-scale two-phase TPCs. These colossal LAr TPCs will be used for the future long-baseline-neutrino-oscillation experiments. Optical readout also presents many other clear advantages over current readout techniques such as ease of scalability, upgrade, installation and maintenance, and cost effectiveness. This technology has already been demonstrated at the Liverpool LAr facility with the photographic capturing of cosmic muon tracks and single gammas using a 40-litre prototype. We have now secured ERC funding to develop this further with the ARIADNE programme. ARIADNE will be a 1-ton two-phase LAr TPC utilizing THGEM and EMCCD camera readouts in order to photograph interactions, allowing for track reconstruction and particle identification. We are requesting for ARIADNE to be given time at a charged particle beam within the CERN Neutrino Platform, a facility dedicated to Neutrino detector R&D. This will allow for characterization of calorimetric and particle identification capabilities. ARIADNE will mature and validate the photographic readout technology, informing future LAr TPC design.