A Conceptual Design of the Readout System for a Neutrino Experiment at SNS

An experiment measuring neutrino-nucleus cross sections has been proposed to the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) under construction at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The 1 GeV proton beam, incident on a liquid mercury target, produces a flux of $10^{15 }$ neutrinos/sec $(\nu)$ from the decays of pions and muons that have been brought to rest in the neutron production target. In order to measure the neutrino-nucleus interaction with nuclei, two neutrino detectors will be placed 22 meters from the neutron source. The electronic readout of one of these proposed detectors is discussed in this paper. This detector consists of approximately 20 500 straws tubes interlaced with 20 tons of target foils (e.g., Iron), and allows the measurement of the charged-current, neutrino-nucleus cross section with ${≪} 10\hbox{\%}$ accuracy.