The measurement of the antideuteron flux in cosmic rays has been proposed as a probe towards the discovery of exotic sources, due to a smaller background from more ordinary process with respect to the antiproton flux in the low energy region of the spectrum. This comes from the higher mass of the antideuteron with respect to the antiproton, which leads to the suppression of its production from...
Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays are strong photodetector candidates for future RICH detectors owing to their excellent single-photon detection efficiency, time resolution and fine granularity. The main challenge in operating SiPM arrays is the dark-count rate (DCR), especially after irradiation damage. Operation at cryogenic temperature effectively mitigates the DCR. The design and...
Silica aerogel has gained increasing popularity over the past few decades as a Cherenkov radiator, thanks to its exceptional properties. One of its most distinctive features is the ability to finely tune its refractive index to meet the specific requirements of various RICH detectors for future HEP experiments, such as the ALICE 3-RICH and the ePIC-dRICH detectors. At the INFN Bari...
ALCOR (A Low-power Chip for Optical sensor Readout) is a mixed-signal ASIC designed for the readout of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensors and developed in the framework of the ePIC dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The current version of ALCOR integrates 32 channels, arranged in an 8ร4 matrix, to provide a precise time measurement with...
Detector-related systematics effects will become increasingly critical in the planned ''LS3-enhancements'' and ''Upgrade-II'' phases for the RICH detectors of the LHCb experiments at CERN LHC, due to the large photo-detector occupancy caused by the large particle flux in the high-luminosity environment.
Therefore, the requirements for calibration, alignment and monitoring will be even more...
The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment (CBM) at FAIR is designed to explore the QCD phase diagram at high baryon densities with interaction rates up to 10 MHz using triggerless free-streaming data acquisition. The CBM Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) contributes to the overall PID by identification of electrons from the lowest momenta up to 6-8 GeV/c, with a pion suppression factor of...
We present the development and experimental characterisation of a novel photodetector configuration designed for water Cherenkov detectors, aimed at future use in high-energy gamma-ray observatories. The design consists of a small-area photomultiplier tube (PMT) coupled with a wavelength-shifting (WLS) plate, which aims to increase the effective light collection area by converting and guiding...
The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX), a balloon-borne detector targeting 3% mass resolution for cosmic-ray isotope composition, uses a Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) with aerogel radiators (n=1.155, 1 cm thick) for velocity measurements above 1 GeV/n. Achieving the mass resolution requires a velocity resolution of 0.1%, necessitating characterization of the aerogel radiator's...
The LHCb experiment is planning a major detector upgrade for the LHC RUN5 (2035) to cope with the foreseen instantaneous peak luminosity of โผ 1.0 โ 1.5 ร 1034 cm$^{โ2}$s$^{โ1}$. For the RICH Upgrade-II detectors, new photo-sensors are under study since the present MaPMTs cannot stand the high particle flux in the central high occupancy region in a very harsh environment.
Silicon Photo...
The Electron-ion collider in China (EicC) is a proposed future electron-ion collider with a high luminosity above 2.0 ร 10^33 cm^2ยทs^โ1 and center-of-mass energy ranging from 15 to 20 GeV. Excellent particle identification (PID) with large momentum coverage is crucial for investigating exclusive and semi-inclusive processes, as well as enabling precise 3D imaging of the nucleon structure in...
Abstract content is in the attached summary file: RICH2025abstract-ksuzuki.pdf
To meet the growing demand for photosensors with high time resolution, large photocoverage, and low cost in Cherenkov imaging detectors, we have developed a gaseous photomultiplier (GasPM). It has a photocathode and a simple electron multiplication mechanism similar to that of resistive plate chambers. Using a picosecond pulse laser, we have already demonstrated that the GasPM with a LaB$_6$...
The TORCH time-of-flight detector is part of a proposed upgrade of the LHCb detector foreseen for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. The detector comprises an array of modules each comprising a fused-silica radiator plate of size 66 cm-by-250 cm-by-1 cm. The modules are designed to have a minimal depth and are supported using a light-weight carbon-fibre structure, designed to minimise the...
As the core photoelectric conversion device in Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors, the microchannel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) exhibits dynamic response characteristics that critically determine the spatial resolution accuracy of particle trajectory reconstruction. Under high-flux detection conditions, the nonlinear gain attenuation caused by electron cloud saturation effects...
This study presents the development of a high-precision time measurement system for Micro-Channel Plate Photomultiplier Tubes, combining a custom front-end electronics ASIC and a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) ASIC. The system aims to improve the time resolution of current photon detector, enabling critical applications in high-energy physics experiments, such as particle identification and...
Analyzing data from Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) requires large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of air showers and the detailed simulation of telescope optics and Cherenkov camera. Within the simulation of the telescope response, optical ray-tracing and camera electronics are the most time-consuming parts. Fortunately, these tasks involve many independent calculations (photon...
The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) is a commercially available photon detector based on microchannel plate technology (MCP), which has garnered significant attention from the scientific community due to its large size, outstanding timing resolution, high gain, and low dark count rate. With a large sensitive area of $200\times200$ mm$^2$, the LAPPD is particularly appealing for...
The MANTRA project is an inter-university effort to develop an algorithm to measure anti-neutron momentum using existing detectors installed in the BESIII and Belle II experiments. Both experiments are equipped with CsI electromagnetic calorimeters: these provide a loose measurement of the anti-neutron energy, which is heavily affected by shower containment. This can be mitigated by using the...
Innovations to reduce afterpulsing, develop MCP-PMTs with 6 um microchannel plates for improved time resolution and rate capacity and a compact position sensitive MCP-PMT are in progress at Incom. A hydrophobic ALD film has been developed for use on top of an MgO secondary electron emission film. It is intended to reject water layers from air exposure, thereby reducing the load of adsorbed...
Sven Peter for the CBM-RICH collaboration
This poster presents the progress of the mechanical design, mirror properties and mirror alignment monitoring system of the Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector for the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR.
CBM is designed to explore the phase structure of strongly interacting matter at high net-baryon densities and moderate...
Water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs) are widely used in gamma-ray astronomy. At high altitudes (>4000 m a.s.l.), where detectors such as those in the LAGO network, HAWC, and the upcoming SWGO operate, gamma-induced air showers can be detected more efficiently due to reduced atmospheric absorption. However, the harsh conditions at these sites make regular maintenance and calibration extremely...
The design of the LHCb/RICH optical systems operating during the current Run-3 data-taking period of the LHC, will be presented with its full characterisation, to set the realistic reference for the similar designs begin developed for the envisaged Upgrade-II, which requires more stringent requirements.
Designs for Upgrade-II are then presented and analytically compared with the reference one...
Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are widespread photon detectors in high-energy physics. Their performance degrades significantly when exposed to radiation, particularly high-energy hadrons (neutrons or protons) that induce defects in the silicon lattice. A moderate level of radiation causes damage in SiPMs, leading to an increase in dark current and dark count rate (DCR) and potentially...
The Belle II experiment produces large numbers of B mesons by colliding electrons and positrons at the ฮฅ(4S) resonance (โs = 10.58 GeV). It aims to validate the Standard Model precisely, search for new physics, and elucidate the internal structure of hadrons. The target integrated luminosity is 50 ab-1, fifty times larger than the previous B-factory experiment.
The Time-of-Propagation (TOP)...
We are preparing a spectroscopy experiment of $\Xi$ and $\Omega$ baryons at the $\pi20$ beamline, a secondary particle beamline of the high-momentum beamline at J-PARC. We utilize negatived kaons as incident particles with momenta ranging from 5.0 to 8.5 GeV/c. An unseparated secondary beam contains, however, approximately 100 times the amount of pions as a background, and the number of...
The timing performance of photodetector is a critical parameter for the development of Radiation Imaging Detectors based on Time Of Flight (TOF) technique, notably in applications like TOF Positron Emission Tomography (TOF-PET). The small size Microchannel Plate Photomultiplier (MCP-PMT), also referred to as Fast timing MCP-PMT (FPMT), is a popular candidate photodetector of TOF-PET for its...
Multi-anode Microchannel Plate (MCP) detectors offer distinct advantages, including timing resolutions below 30 ps, single-photon sensitivity, and a modular architecture. Advancements in High-Energy Physics experimentsโsuch as the TORCH projectโare driving the need for increased photon rate capability and higher spatial resolution granularity of detector designs. This study presents...
High-precision time-resolved detectors are core technologies in fields such as particle physics, nuclear physics, and medical imaging, with their performance critically depending on the decay time, light yield of ultrafast scintillation crystals, and the temporal response characteristics of fast photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Traditional materials like LYSO and BGO, which suffer from slow...
Particle identification plays a critical role in the core physics program of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). A dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (dRICH) will provide hadron identification over a momentum range from a 3 GeV/c up to 50 GeV/c in the forward region of the ePIC experiment. The ePIC dRICH will also perform pion rejection to identify electrons in order to reconstruct DIS...
In recent years, Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors have explored new photon detection technologies to improve timing, spatial, and amplitude resolutions. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) fulfill the requirements for future experiments in high-energy physics, such as single-photon resolution, picosecond timing precision, and high photon detection efficiency. However, they suffer from high...
In the next generation of experiments in high energy particle physics a large increase in beam interaction density will necessitate upgrades of particle detectors. Examples are the Ring imaging Cherenkov detectors (RICH) in the planned upgrades of the LHCb, Belle II and ALICE 3 experiments. The upgraded RICH detectors will need photo detectors capable of detecting rings of Cherenkov photons at...
The Aerogel Ring Imaging CHerenkov (ARICH) counter of the Belle II spectrometer performs particle identification by detecting Cherenkov ring images from the aerogel radiator using Hybrid Avalanche Photo Detectors (HAPDs). Belle II will operate into the 2040s targeting 50 /ab integrated luminosity. To support extended operation and improve particle identification efficiency, an ARICH upgrade is...
An international collaboration composed of Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swiss institutes, is developing the advanced camera (AdvCam), the next-generation camera for Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), designed specifically for the Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). AdvCam incorporates cutting-edge Silicon photomultipliers and a...
A novel ASIC, called the FastRICH, is designed and produced for the front-end electronics of single-photon detectors in future RICH detectors. Owing to the prompt Cherenkov radiation and precise optical arrangement of RICH detectors, the Cherenkov photon time-of-arrival can be used to improve the particle identification performance. The 24.4 ps detector hit timestamps provided by the FastRICH...
The readout electronics chain of the LHCb RICH sub-detectors will be upgraded during LS3 Enhancements program scheduled for the 3rd LHC long shutdown. A novel front-end application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) has been custom designed as the main core of the future RICH readout electronics. The FastRICH is implemented by using TSMCโs 65 nm CMOS technology node together with several...
The CBM (Compressed Baryonic Matter) experiment to be built at the future FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany aims to investigate the QCD phase diagram at high-net baryon densities and moderate temperatures. The FAIR accelerator will provide high-intensity heavy-ion beams for this fixed target experiment. To ensure the best operability of CBM at day one, a prototype of CBM has been set up,...
We present the concept of the next-generation DIRC (xpDIRC), a
novel detector geometry under development for next-generation particle
Identification systems. Building upon the high-performance DIRC
(hpDIRC) designed for the ePIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider
(EIC), the xpDIRC introduces a hybrid optical architecture featuring
enhanced focusing optics, a wide-plate light guide, and...
Water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs) provide a durable and cost-effective solution for real-time radiation monitoring by exploiting Cherenkov light emitted when charged particles exceed the speed of light in water. This work introduces a two-stage classification framework for gamma-neutron source discrimination: a physics-driven energy threshold filters out unambiguous low-energy gamma sources,...
Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCDs), traditionally employed in particle physics to detect cosmic rays, are now being repurposed for a groundbreaking application: precision soil moisture monitoring via neutron sensing. This method offers distinct advantages over conventional neutron probes, including possible enhanced sensitivity to low moisture levels and the ability to cover larger soil volumes...
