Overview of ProtoDUNE

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international collaboration focused on studying neutrino oscillation over a long baseline (1300 km). DUNE will make use of a near detector and neutrino beam originating at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside of Chicago, IL and a far detector operating 1.5 km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. The near and far detectors will use LArTPC (Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber) technology to image neutrino interactions. The single-phase (LAr only) far-detector prototype, ProtoDUNE-SP, which contains 0.77 kilotonnes of LAr, is currently the largest single-phase LArTPC and has been in operation at CERN since September 2018.

ProtoDUNE-SP acts as a test and validation of the design for the single-phase far detector, making use of one full-scale unit of the current far detector design. Data taken using a charged particle test beam and operation in a large cosmic flux enable the study of detector calibrations and optimization of event reconstruction algorithms. In this talk, I will give an overview of the construction, commissioning, and operation of ProtoDUNE-SP with an emphasis on first data analysis and critical detector calibrations, including calibration of space charge effects.