Prospects for Improving Light Collection in Large-Volume Water-Cherenkov Antineutrino Detectors with Wavelength Shifting Plates

Particle interactions in large-volume water-Cherenkov detectors produce few photons; as such, the performance depends on maximizing its light collection efficiency. One method to do this is by coupling each of the detector’s photomultiplier tubes to a wavelength shifting plastic plate to increase its effective surface area for light collection. To better understand the behavior of such plates, a scan of a rectangular wavelength-shifting plate was performed. The relative light collection efficiency at various points across the plate’s surface was computed. The results of the scan were used to validate a Monte Carlo model, which then simulated the effects of including wavelength shifting plates in a large-volume water-Cherenkov antineutrino detector. The results of the simulations demonstrate a modest increase in the light collected from antineutrino events in the detector. This increase, however, must be balanced against other factors when considering the overall effects on detector performance, such as a degradation of event reconstruction caused by a distorted light timing distribution. In this poster presentation we will present an analysis of detector performance that includes these sometimes-opposing effects and present an overall performance evaluation.