Search

Silicon photo-multipliers (SiPM) have been replacing traditional photomultiplier tubes in most light sensing applications. However, when large detection surface coverage is needed, photomultipliers (PMTs) are still the preferred choice. The main reasons are the sensor thermal noise and the duration of the fast component of its signal, both increasing with the sensor surface. In this work we propose an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), called Fast ANalog SiPM Integrated Circuit (FANSIC), for the readout of large SiPMs addressing these limitations. The ASIC has an active summation stage, which allows to divide a large detection surface into smaller ones offering faster response both in single ended and differential outputs. The high input bandwidth allows to reach full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) signals or the order of 3--5 ns which limits the impact of internal and external uncorrelated noise. The results of the first implementation of FANSIC, designed in CMOS 65 nm technology, is described in this paper., Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, journal

T2K is a long baseline neutrino experiment, entering Phase II with a Near Detector upgrade. The T2K near detector (ND280) upgrade consists of the installation of three new detector systems: a plastic scintillator neutrino active target (Super-FGD), two time projection chambers (HA-TPC) and a time of flight detector (TOF). The Super-FGD is composed of 2-million 1 cm-cube scintillating cubes read by almost 60 thousand wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibers coupled to an MPPC on one end. Given the large number of channels, the limited space inside magnetic environment, and the limited time from production to installation, the development and testing of the Front-end electronics boards (FEB) for the read-out of the Super-FGD channels represented a challenging task for the success of the upgrade. This work presents the performance tests confirming that the FEB aligns with detector requirements, and the hardware qualification of 240 FEBs through a custom QC test bench designed to detect and locate hardware failures to speed up the repairing process. Installation of the electronics in the detector took place in March 2024, one year after the beginning of the FEB mass production, and the first successful neutrino beam run took place in June of the same year., Comment: Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics - TWEPP 2024 - 30 September - 4 October, 2024 - Glasgow, Scotland

The first FASER search for a light, long-lived particle decaying into a pair of photons is reported. The search uses LHC proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13.6~\text{TeV}$ collected in 2022 and 2023, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $57.7\text{fb}^{-1}$. A model with axion-like particles (ALPs) dominantly coupled to weak gauge bosons is the primary target. Signal events are characterised by high-energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter and no signal in the veto scintillators. One event is observed, compared to a background expectation of $0.44 \pm 0.39$ events, which is entirely dominated by neutrino interactions. World-leading constraints on ALPs are obtained for masses up to $300~\text{MeV}$ and couplings to the Standard Model W gauge boson, $g_{aWW}$, around $10^{-4}$ GeV$^{-1}$, testing a previously unexplored region of parameter space. Other new particle models that lead to the same experimental signature, including ALPs coupled to gluons or photons, U(1)$_B$ gauge bosons, up-philic scalars, and a Type-I two-Higgs doublet model, are also considered for interpretation, and new constraints on previously viable parameter space are presented in this paper., Comment: 37 pages, 22 figures

The High Energy Modular Array (HEMA) is one of three instruments that compose the STROBE-X mission concept. The HEMA is a large-area, high-throughput non-imaging pointed instrument based on the Large Area Detector developed as part of the LOFT mission concept. It is designed for spectral timing measurements of a broad range of sources and provides a transformative increase in sensitivity to X-rays in the energy range of 2--30 keV compared to previous instruments, with an effective area of 3.4 m$^{2}$ at 8.5 keV and an energy resolution of better than 300 eV at 6 keV in its nominal field of regard., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures

This paper presents the first results of the study of high-energy electron and muon neutrino charged-current interactions in the FASER$\nu$ emulsion/tungsten detector of the FASER experiment at the LHC. A subset of the FASER$\nu$ volume, which corresponds to a target mass of 128.6~kg, was exposed to neutrinos from the LHC $pp$ collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 13.6~TeV and an integrated luminosity of 9.5 fb$^{-1}$. Applying stringent selections requiring electrons with reconstructed energy above 200~GeV, four electron neutrino interaction candidate events are observed with an expected background of $0.025^{+0.015}_{-0.010}$, leading to a statistical significance of 5.2$\sigma$. This is the first direct observation of electron neutrino interactions at a particle collider. Eight muon neutrino interaction candidate events are also detected, with an expected background of $0.22^{+0.09}_{-0.07}$, leading to a statistical significance of 5.7$\sigma$. The signal events include neutrinos with energies in the TeV range, the highest-energy electron and muon neutrinos ever detected from an artificial source. The energy-independent part of the interaction cross section per nucleon is measured over an energy range of 560--1740 GeV (520--1760 GeV) for $\nu_e$ ($\nu_{\mu}$) to be $(1.2_{-0.7}^{+0.8}) \times 10^{-38}~\mathrm{cm}^{2}\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ ($(0.5\pm0.2) \times 10^{-38}~\mathrm{cm}^{2}\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$), consistent with Standard Model predictions. These are the first measurements of neutrino interaction cross sections in those energy ranges.

The Forward Search Experiment (FASER) at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has recently directly detected the first collider neutrinos. Neutrinos play an important role in all FASER analyses, either as signal or background, and it is therefore essential to understand the neutrino event rates. In this study, we update previous simulations and present prescriptions for theoretical predictions of neutrino fluxes and cross sections, together with their associated uncertainties. With these results, we discuss the potential for possible measurements that could be carried out in the coming years with the FASER neutrino data to be collected in LHC Run 3 and Run 4., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures

We report the first direct observation of neutrino interactions at a particle collider experiment. Neutrino candidate events are identified in a 13.6 TeV center-of-mass energy $pp$ collision data set of 35.4 fb${}^{-1}$ using the active electronic components of the FASER detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The candidates are required to have a track propagating through the entire length of the FASER detector and be consistent with a muon neutrino charged-current interaction. We infer $153^{+12}_{-13}$ neutrino interactions with a significance of 16 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis. These events are consistent with the characteristics expected from neutrino interactions in terms of secondary particle production and spatial distribution, and they imply the observation of both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos with an incident neutrino energy of significantly above 200 GeV., Comment: Submitted to PRL on March 24 2023

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is an experiment dedicated to searching for light, extremely weakly-interacting particles at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Such particles may be produced in the very forward direction of the LHC's high-energy collisions and then decay to visible particles inside the FASER detector, which is placed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point, aligned with the beam collisions axis. FASER also includes a sub-detector, FASER$\nu$, designed to detect neutrinos produced in the LHC collisions and to study their properties. In this paper, each component of the FASER detector is described in detail, as well as the installation of the experiment system and its commissioning using cosmic-rays collected in September 2021 and during the LHC pilot beam test carried out in October 2021. FASER will start taking LHC collision data in 2022, and will run throughout LHC Run 3., Comment: 92 pages, 72 Figures

FASER is a new experiment designed to search for new light weakly-interacting long-lived particles (LLPs) and study high-energy neutrino interactions in the very forward region of the LHC collisions at CERN. The experimental apparatus is situated 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction-point aligned with the beam collision axis. The FASER detector includes four identical tracker stations constructed from silicon microstrip detectors. Three of the tracker stations form a tracking spectrometer, and enable FASER to detect the decay products of LLPs decaying inside the apparatus, whereas the fourth station is used for the neutrino analysis. The spectrometer has been installed in the LHC complex since March 2021, while the fourth station is not yet installed. FASER will start physics data taking when the LHC resumes operation in early 2022. This paper describes the design, construction and testing of the tracking spectrometer, including the associated components such as the mechanics, readout electronics, power supplies and cooling system.

The FASER experiment is a new small and inexpensive experiment that is placed 480 meters downstream of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC. FASER is designed to capture decays of new long-lived particles, produced outside of the ATLAS detector acceptance. These rare particles can decay in the FASER detector together with about 500-1000 Hz of other particles originating from the ATLAS interaction point. A very high efficiency trigger and data acquisition system is required to ensure that the physics events of interest will be recorded. This paper describes the trigger and data acquisition system of the FASER experiment and presents performance results of the system acquired during initial commissioning.

FASER$\nu$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to directly detect collider neutrinos for the first time and study their cross sections at TeV energies, where no such measurements currently exist. In 2018, a pilot detector employing emulsion films was installed in the far-forward region of ATLAS, 480 m from the interaction point, and collected 12.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. We describe the analysis of this pilot run data and the observation of the first neutrino interaction candidates at the LHC. This milestone paves the way for high-energy neutrino measurements at current and future colliders., Comment: Auxiliary materials are available at https://faser.web.cern.ch/fasernu-first-neutrino-interaction-candidates

FASERnu is a proposed small and inexpensive emulsion detector designed to detect collider neutrinos for the first time and study their properties. FASERnu will be located directly in front of FASER, 480 m from the ATLAS interaction point along the beam collision axis in the unused service tunnel TI12. From 2021-23 during Run 3 of the 14 TeV LHC, roughly 1,300 electron neutrinos, 20,000 muon neutrinos, and 20 tau neutrinos will interact in FASERnu with TeV-scale energies. With the ability to observe these interactions, reconstruct their energies, and distinguish flavors, FASERnu will probe the production, propagation, and interactions of neutrinos at the highest human-made energies ever recorded. The FASERnu detector will be composed of 1000 emulsion layers interleaved with tungsten plates. The total volume of the emulsion and tungsten is 25cm x 25cm x 1.35m, and the tungsten target mass is 1.2 tonnes. From 2021-23, 7 sets of emulsion layers will be installed, with replacement roughly every 20-50 1/fb in planned Technical Stops. In this document, we summarize FASERnu's physics goals and discuss the estimates of neutrino flux and interaction rates. We then describe the FASERnu detector in detail, including plans for assembly, transport, installation, and emulsion replacement, and procedures for emulsion readout and analyzing the data. We close with cost estimates for the detector components and infrastructure work and a timeline for the experiment., Comment: 49 pages, 25 figures; submitted to the CERN LHCC on 28 October 2019

The next generation of Cherenkov telescope cameras feature Silicon Photo Multipliers (SiPM), which can guarantee excellent performance and allow for observation also under moonlight, increasing duty-cycle and therefore the physics reach. A 4 m-diameter Davies-Cotton prototype telescope with a 9-degree optical FoV and a 1296-pixel SiPM camera, has been designed to meet the requirements of the next generation of ground-based gamma-ray observatories at the highest energies. The large-scale production of the telescopes for array deployment has required the development of a fully automated calibration strategy which relies on a dedicated hardware, the Camera Test Setup (CTS). For each camera pixel, the CTS is equipped with two LEDs, one operated in pulsed mode to reproduce signal and one in continuous mode to reproduce night-sky background. In this contribution we will present the camera calibration strategy, from the laboratory measurement to the on-site monitoring with emphasis on the results obtained with the first camera prototype. In addition, key performances such as charge resolution, time resolution and trigger efficiencies and their degradation with increasing night-sky background level will be presented.

Neutrinos are copiously produced at particle colliders, but no collider neutrino has ever been detected. Colliders, and particularly hadron colliders, produce both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos of all flavors at very high energies, and they are therefore highly complementary to those from other sources. FASER, the recently approved Forward Search Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, is ideally located to provide the first detection and study of collider neutrinos. We investigate the prospects for neutrino studies of a proposed component of FASER, FASER$\nu$, a 25cm x 25cm x 1.35m emulsion detector to be placed directly in front of the FASER spectrometer in tunnel TI12. FASER$\nu$ consists of 1000 layers of emulsion films interleaved with 1-mm-thick tungsten plates, with a total tungsten target mass of 1.2 tons. We estimate the neutrino fluxes and interaction rates at FASER$\nu$, describe the FASER$\nu$ detector, and analyze the characteristics of the signals and primary backgrounds. For an integrated luminosity of 150 fb$^{-1}$ to be collected during Run 3 of the 14 TeV Large Hadron Collider from 2021-23, and assuming standard model cross sections, approximately 1300 electron neutrinos, 20,000 muon neutrinos, and 20 tau neutrinos will interact in FASER$\nu$, with mean energies of 600 GeV to 1 TeV, depending on the flavor. With such rates and energies, FASER will measure neutrino cross sections at energies where they are currently unconstrained, will bound models of forward particle production, and could open a new window on physics beyond the standard model., Comment: Version published in EPJ C

The SST-1M telescope was developed as a prototype of a Small-Size-Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array observatory and it has been extensively tested in Krakow since 2017. In this contribution we present validation of the Monte Carlo model of the prototype and expected performance in Krakow conditions. We focus on gamma/hadron separation and mono reconstruction of energy and gamma photon arrival direction using Machine learning methods., Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures, ICRC 2019 proceeding

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is a proposed experiment dedicated to searching for light, extremely weakly-interacting particles at the LHC. Such particles may be produced in the LHC's high-energy collisions in large numbers in the far-forward region and then travel long distances through concrete and rock without interacting. They may then decay to visible particles in FASER, which is placed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point. In this work, we describe the FASER program. In its first stage, FASER is an extremely compact and inexpensive detector, sensitive to decays in a cylindrical region of radius R = 10 cm and length L = 1.5 m. FASER is planned to be constructed and installed in Long Shutdown 2 and will collect data during Run 3 of the 14 TeV LHC from 2021-23. If FASER is successful, FASER 2, a much larger successor with roughly R ~ 1 m and L ~ 5 m, could be constructed in Long Shutdown 3 and collect data during the HL-LHC era from 2026-35. FASER and FASER 2 have the potential to discover dark photons, dark Higgs bosons, heavy neutral leptons, axion-like particles, and many other long-lived particles, as well as provide new information about neutrinos, with potentially far-ranging implications for particle physics and cosmology. We describe the current status, anticipated challenges, and discovery prospects of the FASER program., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted as Input to the European Particle Physics Strategy Update 2018-2020 and draws on FASER's Letter of Intent, Technical Proposal, and physics case documents (arXiv:1811.10243, arXiv:1812.09139, and arXiv:1811.12522)

FASER is a proposed small and inexpensive experiment designed to search for light, weakly-interacting particles during Run 3 of the LHC from 2021-23. Such particles may be produced in large numbers along the beam collision axis, travel for hundreds of meters without interacting, and then decay to standard model particles. To search for such events, FASER will be located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS IP in the unused service tunnel TI12 and be sensitive to particles that decay in a cylindrical volume with radius R=10 cm and length L=1.5 m. FASER will complement the LHC's existing physics program, extending its discovery potential to a host of new, light particles, with potentially far-reaching implications for particle physics and cosmology. This document describes the technical details of the FASER detector components: the magnets, the tracker, the scintillator system, and the calorimeter, as well as the trigger and readout system. The preparatory work that is needed to install and operate the detector, including civil engineering, transport, and integration with various services is also presented. The information presented includes preliminary cost estimates for the detector components and the infrastructure work, as well as a timeline for the design, construction, and installation of the experiment., Comment: 82 pages, 62 figures; submitted to the CERN LHCC on 7 November 2018

In this paper we present the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission - eXTP. eXTP is a space science mission designed to study fundamental physics under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. The mission aims at determining the equation of state of matter at supra-nuclear density, measuring effects of QED, and understanding the dynamics of matter in strong-field gravity. In addition to investigating fundamental physics, eXTP will be a very powerful observatory for astrophysics that will provide observations of unprecedented quality on a variety of galactic and extragalactic objects. In particular, its wide field monitoring capabilities will be highly instrumental to detect the electro-magnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources. The paper provides a detailed description of: (1) the technological and technical aspects, and the expected performance of the instruments of the scientific payload; (2) the elements and functions of the mission, from the spacecraft to the ground segment., Comment: Accepted for publication on Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. (2019)

FASER,the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment,is a proposed experiment dedicated to searching for light, extremely weakly-interacting particles at the LHC. Such particles may be produced in the LHC's high-energy collisions and travel long distances through concrete and rock without interacting. They may then decay to visible particles in FASER, which is placed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point. In this work we briefly describe the FASER detector layout and the status of potential backgrounds. We then present the sensitivity reach for FASER for a large number of long-lived particle models, updating previous results to a uniform set of detector assumptions, and analyzing new models. In particular, we consider all of the renormalizable portal interactions, leading to dark photons, dark Higgs bosons, and heavy neutral leptons (HNLs); light B-L and $L_i - L_j$ gauge bosons; axion-like particles (ALPs) that are coupled dominantly to photons, fermions, and gluons through non-renormalizable operators; and pseudoscalars with Yukawa-like couplings. We find that FASER and its follow-up, FASER 2, have a full physics program, with discovery sensitivity in all of these models and potentially far-reaching implications for particle physics and cosmology.

The TT-PET collaboration is developing a small animal TOF-PET scanner based on monolithic silicon pixel sensors in SiGe BiCMOS technology. The demonstrator chip, a small-scale version of the final detector ASIC, consists of a 3 x 10 pixel matrix integrated with the front-end, a 50 ps binning TDC and read out logic. The chip, thinned down to 100 {\mu}m and backside metallized, was operated at a voltage of 180 V. The tests on a beam line of minimum ionizing particles show a detection efficiency greater than 99.9 % and a time resolution down to 110 ps.

The eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission is a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and China National Space Administration (CNSA) currently performing an extended phase A study and proposed for a launch by 2025 in a low-earth orbit. The eXTP scientific payload envisages a suite of instruments (Spectroscopy Focusing Array, Polarimetry Focusing Array, Large Area Detector and Wide Field Monitor) offering unprecedented simultaneous wide-band X-ray spectral, timing and polarimetry sensitivity. A large European consortium is contributing to the eXTP study and it is expected to provide key hardware elements, including a Large Area Detector (LAD). The LAD instrument for eXTP is based on the design originally proposed for the LOFT mission within the ESA context. The eXTP/LAD envisages a deployed 3.4 m2 effective area in the 2-30 keV energy range, achieved through the technology of the large-area Silicon Drift Detectors - offering a spectral resolution of up to 200 eV FWHM at 6 keV - and of capillary plate collimators - limiting the field of view to about 1 degree. In this paper we provide an overview of the LAD instrument design, including new elements with respect to the earlier LOFT configuration., Comment: Paper presented at SPIE Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018

The single-mirror small-size telescope (SST-1M) is one of the three proposed designs for the small-size telescopes (SSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project. The SST-1M will be equipped with a 4 m-diameter segmented mirror dish and an innovative fully digital camera based on silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs). Since the SST sub-array will consist of up to 70 telescopes, the challenge is not only to build a telescope with excellent performance, but also to design it so that its components can be commissioned, assembled and tested by industry. In this paper we review the basic steps that led to the design concepts for the SST-1M camera and the ongoing realization of the first prototype, with focus on the innovative solutions adopted for the photodetector plane and the readout and trigger parts of the camera. In addition, we report on results of laboratory measurements on real scale elements that validate the camera design and show that it is capable of matching the CTA requirements of operating up to high-moon-light background conditions., Comment: 30 pages, 61 figures

A 100um thick silicon detector with 1mm2 pad readout optimized for sub-nanosecond time resolution has been developed and tested. Coupled to a purposely developed amplifier based on SiGe HBT technology, this detector was characterized at the H8 beam line at the CERN SPS. An excellent time resolution of (106+-1)ps for silicon detectors was measured with minimum ionizing particles.