Track reconstruction and matching between emulsion and silicon pixel detectors for the SHiP-charm experiment

In July 2018 an optimization run for the proposed charm cross section measurement for SHiP was performed at the CERN SPS. A heavy, moving target instrumented with nuclear emulsion films followed by a silicon pixel tracker was installed in front of the Goliath magnet at the H4 proton beam-line. Behind the magnet, scintillating-fibre, drift-tube and RPC detectors were placed. The purpose of this run was to validate the measurement's feasibility, to develop the required analysis tools and fine-tune the detector layout. In this paper, we present the track reconstruction in the pixel tracker and the track matching with the moving emulsion detector. The pixel detector performed as expected and it is shown that, after proper alignment, a vertex matching rate of 87% is achieved.Peer Reviewe

Observation of Collider Muon Neutrinos with the SND@LHC Experiment

We report the direct observation of muon neutrino interactions with the SND@LHC detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A dataset of proton-proton collisions at √ s = 13.6 TeV collected by SND@LHC in 2022 is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.8 fb − 1 . The search is based on information from the active electronic components of the SND@LHC detector, which covers the pseudorapidity region of 7.2 < η < 8.4 , inaccessible to the other experiments at the collider. Muon neutrino candidates are identified through their charged-current interaction topology, with a track propagating through the entire length of the muon detector. After selection cuts, 8 ν μ interaction candidate events remain with an estimated background of 0.086 events, yielding a significance of about 7 standard deviations for the observed ν μ signal

Observation of Collider Muon Neutrinos with the SND@LHC Experiment

We report the direct observation of muon neutrino interactions with the SND@LHC detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A dataset of proton-proton collisions at s=13.6 TeV collected by SND@LHC in 2022 is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.8 fb-1. The search is based on information from the active electronic components of the SND@LHC detector, which covers the pseudorapidity region of 7.2&lt;8.4, inaccessible to the other experiments at the collider. Muon neutrino candidates are identified through their charged-current interaction topology, with a track propagating through the entire length of the muon detector. After selection cuts, 8 νμ interaction candidate events remain with an estimated background of 0.086 events, yielding a significance of about 7 standard deviations for the observed νμ signal

Measurement of the muon flux at the SND@LHC experiment

The Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC (SND@LHC) started taking data at the beginning of Run 3 of the LHC. The experiment is designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC in an energy range between 100 GeV and 1 TeV. It covers a previously unexplored pseudo-rapidity range of 7.2 &lt; η&lt; 8.4 . The detector is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point in the TI18 tunnel. It comprises a veto system, a target consisting of tungsten plates interleaved with nuclear emulsion and scintillating fiber (SciFi) trackers, followed by a muon detector (UpStream, US and DownStream, DS). In this article we report the measurement of the muon flux in three subdetectors: the emulsion, the SciFi trackers and the DownStream Muon detector. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through an 18 × 18 cm 2 area in the emulsion is: 1.5±0.1(stat)×104fb/cm2. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 31 × 31 cm 2 area in the centre of the SciFi is: 2.06±0.01(stat)±0.12(sys)×104fb/cm2 The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 52 × 52 cm 2 area in the centre of the downstream muon system is: 2.35±0.01(stat)±0.10(sys)×104fb/cm2 The total relative uncertainty of the measurements by the electronic detectors is 6 % for the SciFi and 4 % for the DS measurement. The Monte Carlo simulation prediction of these fluxes is 20–25 % lower than the measured values

Results and Perspectives from the First Two Years of Neutrino Physics at the LHC by the SND@LHC Experiment

After rapid approval and installation, the SND@LHC Collaboration was able to gather data successfully in 2022 and 2023. Neutrino interactions from νμs originating at the LHC IP1 were observed. Since muons constitute the major background for neutrino interactions, the muon flux entering the acceptance was also measured. To improve the rejection power of the detector and to increase the fiducial volume, a third Veto plane was recently installed. The energy resolution of the calorimeter system was measured in a test beam. This will help with the identification of νe interactions that can be used to probe charm production in the pseudo-rapidity range of SND@LHC (7.2 < η < 8.4). Events with three outgoing muons have been observed and are being studied. With no vertex in the target, these events are very likely from muon trident production in the rock before the detector. Events with a vertex in the detector could be from trident production, photon conversion, or positron annihilation. To enhance SND@LHC’s physics case, an upgrade is planned for HL-LHC that will increase the statistics and reduce the systematics. The installation of a magnet will allow the separation of νμ from ν¯μWe acknowledge the support for the construction and operation of the SND@LHC detector provided by the following funding agencies: CERN; the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science within the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2020–2027 (object CERN); ANID—Millennium Program—ICN2019_044 (Chile); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, ID 496466340); the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN); JSPS, MEXT, the Global COE program of Nagoya University, the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan for Japan; the National Research Foundation of Korea with grant numbers 2021R1A2C2011003, 2020R1A2C1099546, 2021R1F1A1061717, and 2022R1A2C100505; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT (Portugal), CERN/FIS-INS/0028/2021; the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); TENMAK for Turkey (Grant No. 2022TENMAK(CERN) A5.H3.F2-1). M. Climesu, H. Lacker and R. Wanke are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Project 496466340. We acknowledge the funding of individuals by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT (Portugal) with grant numbers CEECIND/01334/2018, CEECINST/00032/2021 and PRT/BD/153351/2021.CERNBulgarian Ministry of Education and ScienceANID—Millennium ProgramDeutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftItalian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN)JSPS, MEXT, the Global COE program of Nagoya University, the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan for JapanNational Research Foundation of KoreaFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT (Portugal)Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)TENMAK for TurkeyPeer Reviewe

SND@LHC: The Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC

SND@LHC is a compact and stand-alone experiment designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced at the LHC in the pseudo-rapidity region of ${7.2 < \eta < 8.4}$. The experiment is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point, in the TI18 tunnel. The detector is composed of a hybrid system based on an 830 kg target made of tungsten plates, interleaved with emulsion and electronic trackers, also acting as an electromagnetic calorimeter, and followed by a hadronic calorimeter and a muon identification system. The detector is able to distinguish interactions of all three neutrino flavours, which allows probing the physics of heavy flavour production at the LHC in the very forward region. This region is of particular interest for future circular colliders and for very high energy astrophysical neutrino experiments. The detector is also able to search for the scattering of Feebly Interacting Particles. In its first phase, the detector will operate throughout LHC Run 3 and collect a total of 250 $\text{fb}^{-1}$

The SHiP experiment at the proposed CERN SPS Beam Dump Facility

The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) Collaboration has proposed a general-purpose experimental facility operating in beam-dump mode at the CERN SPS accelerator to search for light, feebly interacting particles. In the baseline configuration, the SHiP experiment incorporates two complementary detectors. The upstream detector is designed for recoil signatures of light dark matter (LDM) scattering and for neutrino physics, in particular with tau neutrinos. It consists of a spectrometer magnet housing a layered detector system with high-density LDM/neutrino target plates, emulsion-film technology and electronic high-precision tracking. The total detector target mass amounts to about eight tonnes. The downstream detector system aims at measuring visible decays of feebly interacting particles to both fully reconstructed final states and to partially reconstructed final states with neutrinos, in a nearly background-free environment. The detector consists of a 50 m long decay volume under vacuum followed by a spectrometer and particle identification system with a rectangular acceptance of 5 m in width and 10 m in height. Using the high-intensity beam of 400 GeV protons, the experiment aims at profiting from the 4 x 10(19) protons per year that are currently unexploited at the SPS, over a period of 5-10 years. This allows probing dark photons, dark scalars and pseudo-scalars, and heavy neutral leptons with GeV-scale masses in the direct searches at sensitivities that largely exceed those of existing and projected experiments. The sensitivity to light dark matter through scattering reaches well below the dark matter relic density limits in the range from a few MeV/c(2) up to 100 MeV-scale masses, and it will be possible to study tau neutrino interactions with unprecedented statistics. This paper describes the SHiP experiment baseline setup and the detector systems, together with performance results from prototypes in test beams, as it was prepared for the 2020 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. The expected detector performance from simulation is summarised at the end

Track reconstruction and matching between emulsion and silicon pixel detectors for the SHiP-charm experiment

In July 2018 an optimization run for the proposed charm cross section measurement for SHiP was performed at the CERN SPS. A heavy, moving target instrumented with nuclear emulsion films followed by a silicon pixel tracker was installed in front of the Goliath magnet at the H4 proton beam-line. Behind the magnet, scintillating-fibre, drift-tube and RPC detectors were placed. The purpose of this run was to validate the measurement's feasibility, to develop the required analysis tools and fine-tune the detector layout. In this paper, we present the track reconstruction in the pixel tracker and the track matching with the moving emulsion detector. The pixel detector performed as expected and it is shown that, after proper alignment, a vertex matching rate of 87% is achieved

BDF/SHiP at the ECN3 high-intensity beam facility

The BDF/SHiP collaboration has proposed a general-purpose intensity-frontier experimental facility operating in beam-dump mode at the CERN SPS accelerator to search for feebly interacting GeV-scale particles and to perform measurements in neutrino physics. CERN is uniquely suited for this programme owing to the proton energy and yield available at the SPS. This puts BDF/SHiP in a unique position worldwide to make a breakthrough in a theoretically and experimentally attractive range of the FIP parameter space that is not accessible to other experiments. The existing ECN3 experimental facility makes it possible to implement BDF at a fraction of the cost of the original proposal, without compromising on the physics scope and the physics reach. SHiP has demonstrated the feasibility to construct a large-scale, versatile discovery experiment capable of coping with $4\times 10^{19}$ protons per year at 400 GeV/c and ensuring a < 1-event background for the FIP decay search even up to $6\times 10^{20}$ PoT. With the feasibility of the facility and the detector proven, the BDF/SHiP collaboration are ready to proceed with the TDR studies and commence implementation in CERN’s Long Shutdown 3. During the operational lifetime of BDF/SHiP, several prominent opportunities for upgrades and extensions are open, such as the use of a LAr TPC, a synergistic tau flavour violation experiment, and exploiting the secondary mixed-field radiation from the proton target for nuclear and astrophysics, as well as for material testing