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Physics Physics Instrumentation and Detectors

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Tuesday 22 September

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ph

Spectral shaping of Gaussian white noise for synthetic axion signal generation in microwave cavity haloscopes

D. Vattolo, D. Ahn, G. Carugno et al. (+6 more)

Microwave cavity haloscopes search for dark-matter axions through the weak electromagnetic field generated by axion-photon conversion in a static magnetic field. Realistic synthetic signals are essential for end-to-end calibration of the receiver, validation of the analysis pipeline, measurement of signal recovery efficiency, and blind-injection studies. Here, we present a general method for producing stochastic synthetic axion waveforms by shaping Gaussian white noise in the frequency domain. The target axion power spectral density is imposed directly on the Fourier coefficients, and arbitrarily long continuous time streams are generated efficiently using an overlap-save implementation. The method reproduces both the ensemble-averaged spectral line shape and the time-domain fluctuations expected for a classical axion field, while providing direct control of the total injected power. Because the spectral model enters only through a replaceable transfer function, the routine can accommodate the Standard Halo Model as well as nonstandard velocity distributions and narrow substructure.
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All authors D. Vattolo, D. Ahn, G. Carugno, R. Di Vora, D. Maiello, A. Ortolan, G. Ruoso, G. Sardo Infirri, C. Braggio

Instrumentation and Detectors

Investigation of Widefield NV-Center Magnetic Imaging for Non-Destructive Materials Testing

Niklas Mathes, Marvin Feuerhelm, Simon Philipp et al. (+7 more)

Due to progressing miniaturization, material fatigue is expected to gain importance on microscopic scales. Nevertheless, most non-destructive testing techniques are optimized for macroscopic scales. Therefore, new approaches applicable to miniaturized samples need to be explored. High spatial resolution imaging of a material's magnetic stray field enables sensitive detection of microstructural changes due to the local interplay of magnetic properties, strain, and defects. Up to now, this approach has rarely been used for materials testing since high-resolution magnetic sensing is traditionally challenging. Novel quantum sensing techniques offer the potential to close this gap. One of the most prominent quantum sensors, the nitrogen vacancy center in diamond, is investigated for non-destructive testing applications within the scope of this work. An experimental system based on a widefield sensing approach was developed to image magnetic stray field distributions within seconds to minutes over areas up to 1 x 1 $mm^2$. Magnetic sensitivities below 10 $\mu$T/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ and a spatial resolution of 1-2 $\mu$m were achieved. The technique offers high mechanical stability, which is crucial for non-destructive testing applications. Comparison with magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements showed that the magnetic field maps are strongly correlated with the material's surface domains while containing additional information from deeper inside the sample. Characteristic changes in the magnetic stray field distribution were detected in an electrical steel sample after cyclic loading. A potential marker for early fatigue damage was deduced from the splitting gradient distribution, while 2D Fourier transform analysis provided additional insight.
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All authors Niklas Mathes, Marvin Feuerhelm, Simon Philipp, Ivan Soldatov, Philipp D'Astolfo, Peter Knittel, Thomas Straub, Jan Jeske, Rüdiger Quay, Xavier Vidal

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

An enhanced track reconstruction for the CMS experiment at the HL-LHC

Mario Masciovecchio

This contribution presents the new phase-2 CMS baseline tracking strategy currently proposed for online event reconstruction, which can be similarly useful in offline reconstruction under the extreme pileup conditions of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). By unifying diverse algorithmic paradigms and integrating machine learning (ML) techniques into a coherent sequence, CMS can maintain high-efficiency and high-resolution tracking while improving the fake track rate and the computational performance, a crucial aspect especially for the HL-LHC. The approach combines GPU-optimized algorithms (Patatrack, LST) with vectorized CPU methods (mkFit), exploiting modern hardware to maximize throughput. This heterogeneous strategy reduces the resource requirements and enhances the physics reach by incorporating a global displaced track reconstruction and extending sensitivity to rare, interesting signatures, such as long-lived particles.
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Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

Improving the CMS High Level Trigger tracking at the HL-LHC with novel and evolved heterogeneous algorithms

Mario Masciovecchio

Charged particle track reconstruction is one of the heaviest computational tasks in the event reconstruction chain at LHC experiments. Furthermore, projections for the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) show that the required computing resources for single-threaded CPU algorithms will exceed those that are expected to be available. It follows that experiments at the HL-LHC will need to employ novel and evolved track reconstruction algorithms, within heterogeneous computing systems that include many-core CPUs as well as GPUs, in the attempt to maximize the computational performance while retaining the best possible reconstruction efficiency. In the context of the CMS High Level Trigger (HLT) at the HL-LHC, the mkFit algorithm, already in use for the CMS track reconstruction during the LHC Run 3, will exploit its parallelized and vectorized nature on CPUs to perform pattern recognition using seed tracks produced with algorithms that are designed to be fully parallelizable and hardware agnostic, thus suitable for heterogeneous systems: the Patatrack and the Line Segment Tracking (LST) algorithms. Patatrack is an established algorithm, already used for the CMS pixel track reconstruction at HLT during the Run 3 of the LHC, while LST is a novel algorithm, recently integrated in the CMS software, targeting the reconstruction of tracks in the outer tracker of the HL-LHC CMS detector. The state-of-the-art performance for the CMS HLT track reconstruction at the HL-LHC is presented, obtained using the combination of the mkFit, Patatrack, and LST algorithms, that in turn use machine-learning (ML) techniques such as deep neural networks and multi-objective particle swarm optimization to suppress duplicate and misreconstructed tracks. Prospects of further improvements are also presented, with a focus on the usage of ML techniques for track reconstruction at CMS.
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Instrumentation and Detectors

Characterization of immersed SiPM arrays in liquid scintillator between room temperature and $-30\,^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$

M. S. Kwak, J. S. Chung, C. Ha et al. (+9 more)

Liquid scintillator detectors instrumented with distributed silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays can be used in compact, topology-sensitive, and low-background experiments, but the temperature dependence of SiPMs immersed directly in the scintillation medium has not been widely characterized. We report the operation of a 125-liter linear-alkylbenzene-based liquid scintillator detector read out by 125 SiPM channels immersed in the active volume, over the range from room temperature to $-30\,^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$. The detector response was measured with cosmic-ray muons, including stopping muons followed by their Michel-electron decay. Cooling from $+15\,^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ to $-30\,^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ reduced the SiPM dark-count rate by a factor of 13.5, increased the single-photoelectron response by 49.1%, and increased the cosmic-ray muon light yield by 16.7%. The improved photoelectron separation and baseline stability at low temperature enabled a selection of stopping-muon events, from which the effective muon lifetime was measured to be $1959\pm132\,\mathrm{ns}$, consistent with the value expected for a hydrocarbon scintillator once $\mu^{-}$ capture on carbon is taken into account.
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All authors M. S. Kwak, J. S. Chung, C. Ha, T. Z. Huang, J. Y. Kim, S. A. Kim, H. Kimku, B. C. Koh, H. S. Lee, S. Lee, Y. J. Lee, J. Seo

Instrumentation and Detectors

Charged-particle topology reconstruction with an in-liquid SiPM array

H. Kimku, J. S. Chung, C. Ha et al. (+8 more)

Liquid scintillator detectors instrumented with photosensors inside the scintillation volume preserve local optical information that is largely lost in conventional boundary-readout geometries. We demonstrate that this information is sufficient for charged-particle topology reconstruction using a sparse three-dimensional lattice of silicon photomultipliers. After validating the Geant4 detector response against measured photon-count distributions, a simulation-trained, time-informed convolutional neural network reconstructs the entry and exit points of through-going muons with median residuals of 1.91~cm and 2.39~cm, respectively. The reconstructed endpoints are geometrically consistent with acceptance regions defined by external trigger counters in cosmic-ray muon data. The same framework also reconstructs the production vertices of simulated positron starting-track events with a median residual of about 4.5~cm. These results establish the feasibility of topology-sensitive reconstruction using sparse in-liquid photosensor arrays in homogeneous liquid scintillator detectors.
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All authors H. Kimku, J. S. Chung, C. Ha, T. Z. Huang, J. Kim, S. Kim, B. C. Koh, M. S. Kwak, S. Lee, Y. J. Lee, J. Seo

Monday 21 September

Instrumentation and Detectors

Pulse-shape discrimination with machine learning for CZT detectors at the DA$\Phi$NE beam test facility

Simone Manti, Francesco Artibani, Leonardo Abbene et al. (+36 more)

Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors offer versatility, operational simplicity, and room-temperature X- and gamma-ray spectroscopy, making them attractive for collider applications, yet their use under high-flux conditions remains limited. Here, we present a preliminary feature-based pulse-shape analysis employing machine learning, on data acquired with a quasi-hemispherical CZT detector at the DA$\\Phi$NE beam test facility of the National Laboratory of Frascati of INFN. A 300-MeV electron beam impinging on a lead target produced characteristic Pb X-rays together with a broad background extending up to the electron-positron annihilation region. Physically motivated temporal and morphological features were extracted from the recorded waveforms and used to distinguish nominal photon-like pulses from anomalous events. An XGBoost classifier trained and validated on 10,000 labeled waveforms achieved an accuracy of approximately 97%, with most of its classification performance reached using only a few hundred labeled examples. The trained model was applied to more than 700,000 events, substantially reducing the spectral continuum and coincidence peaks, while preserving the characteristic Pb X-ray lines up to the 511-keV annihilation peak. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of machine-learning-assisted pulse-shape discrimination for improving CZT spectroscopy in collider environments.
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All authors Simone Manti, Francesco Artibani, Leonardo Abbene, Massimiliano Bazzi, Manuele Bettelli, Giacomo Borghi, Damir Bosnar, Mario Bragadireanu, Antonino Buttacavoli, Mario Carminati, Alberto Clozza, Francesco Clozza, Luca De Paolis, Raffaele Del Grande, Kamil Dulski, Carlo Fiorini, Ivica Friščić, Gaetano Gerardi, Carlo Guaraldo, Mihai Iliescu, Masa Iwasaki, Alexander Khreptak, Johan Marton, Pawel Moskal, Hiroaki Ohnishi, Kristian Piscicchia, Fabio Principato, Alessandro Scordo, Francesco Sgaramella, Michał Silarski, Diana Sirghi, Florin Sirghi, Magdalena Skurzok, Antonio Spallone, Kairo Toho, Oton Vazquez Doce, Andrea Zappettini, Johann Zmeskal, Catalina Curceanu

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from gr-qc

Analytical estimates of core optics stray light noise and design requirements for ground based gravitational wave detectors

M. Andrés-Carcasona and M. Evans

We present an analytical framework to translate detector sensitivity into stray light requirements for the core optics region of ground based gravitational wave interferometers. We derive analytical estimates for several relevant scattering regimes, extend the treatment to collections of planar baffles, and obtain an analogous requirement for deterministic ghost beams intercepted by beam dumps. The framework is intended to provide conservative design requirements before a complete optical layout is available. We apply it to Cosmic Explorer to show how these estimates can be used to derive requirements for next generation detectors. The resulting expressions provide a compact set of tools for stray light budgeting and early design studies in current and future gravitational wave detectors.
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Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

Jevons' Paradox and Fast Generative Simulation for HEP: Why Realistic Benchmarking is Essential

Thorsten Buss, Henry Day-Hall, Frank Gaede et al. (+7 more)

Simulation is a major computational expense in HEP, and calorimeter simulation in particular drives the overall energy cost of our physics analyses. Future detectors will contain more finely grained calorimeters than ever, and their data analyses will demand unprecedented simulated statistics. Fast generative models redefine what is possible, producing simulations 100 times more efficiently. This article addresses Jevons' paradox in our field and considers the importance of realistic metrics in achieving "true" efficiency.
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All authors Thorsten Buss, Henry Day-Hall, Frank Gaede, Gregor Kasieczka, Katja Krüger, Anatolii Korol, Thomas Madlener, Peter McKeown, Martina Mozzanica, Lorenzo Valente

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

Scalable Multiple Electron Transport Architectures for Feedback Traceable Current Sources

Agustin Javier Lapi, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Fernando Chierchie et al. (+8 more)

We present a scalable electron-counting current cell based on a floating gate architecture operated as a Multiple Electron Transport device (MET). The system enables controlled injection, transport, and precise quantification of discrete charge packets using the sensor non-destructive multiple readout capability. We repurposed the charge-injection technique, jointly with the electron-resolution capability, for a controlled generation of quantized charge packets for an electron-traceable current source. Scalable architectures based on parallel and series multi-amplifier configurations are explored. Experimental results confirm noise reduction following the square root of the number of independent measurements and demonstrate stable, programmable output current. This approach provides a compact and scalable platform for electron-counting current sources and precision quantum metrology applications.
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All authors Agustin Javier Lapi, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Fernando Chierchie, Fabricio Alcalde Bessia, Miqueas Ezequiel Gamero, Brenda Aurea Cervantes Vergara, Blas Junior Irigoyen Gimenez, Eduardo Paolini, Claudio Rodrigo Chavez Blanco, Juan Estrada, Javier Tiffenberg

Sunday 20 September

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from quant-ph

A four-state quantum communication protocol with mesoscopic twin beams

Stefano Carsi

Twin-beam (TWB) states generated by parametric down-conversion exhibit strong photon-number correlations that can be exploited for quantum communication. In the mesoscopic regime, these correlations can be directly investigated using photon-number-resolving detectors, such as silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Their nonclassical nature is quantified by the noise reduction factor (NRF), which provides a witness of quantum correlations and a means of monitoring channel security. In this work, a quantum communication protocol based on TWB states, originally proposed for binary encoding, is extended to a four-state scheme capable of transmitting two bits per use. Information is encoded by combining two mean photon-number values and two mode numbers of thermal noise superimposed on one arm of the twin beam, defining four distinguishable states in the (m,R) plane. While the mean detected photon number enables the retrieval of one bit, the NRF provides discrimination of the second bit and a security check against intercept-and-resend attacks, which introduce additional noise and degrade the quantum correlations. The protocol is investigated through two experimental measurement campaigns. First, the twin-beam source is characterized in terms of photon-number statistics, NRF, and detection efficiency to establish the operating conditions of the communication channel. Subsequently, the four-state protocol is implemented and evaluated through the analysis of state distributions and their 95% confidence regions, error probability as a function of sample size, and a comparative assessment of machine learning classifiers for state discrimination. Finally, the response of the NRF to an intercept-and-resend attack is investigated to assess the protocol's ability to detect eavesdropping.
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Instrumentation and Detectors

Leveraging Industrial Foundation Models at the Edge of Particle Physics Detectors via Distillation Learning and Hardware Co-design

Gia Ancone, Qibin Liu, Liangyu Wu et al. (+1 more)

Data acquisition (DAQ) systems at future particle physics experiments stand to benefit from the extremes of AI/ML development: large-scale foundation models can enhance the performance of feature extraction algorithms, and small-scale on-detector deployments can enable real-time intelligent data handling. This work provides the first fine-tuning of an industrial foundation model for particle physics DAQ. Starting from the backbone of Google Research's TimesFM (Time Series Foundation Model), we demonstrate fine-tuning on real-time regression tasks for drift chamber trackers and dual-readout calorimeters. Furthermore, the fine-tuned TimesFM model is distilled into a student and co-designed with FPGA implementation to enable these models to run in real-time at future colliders. The fine-tuned distillations meet or exceed the performance of previously published AI/ML solutions for each task. Further, the pipeline of distillation and model compression from TimesFM is generic and can be easily adapted to a variety of 1D waveform tasks across domains.
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All authors Gia Ancone, Qibin Liu, Liangyu Wu, Julia Gonski

Instrumentation and Detectors

ARGUS: an experiment-agnostic framework for detector-health monitoring in particle physics

Kamal Benslama

Every particle-physics experiment builds detector-health monitoring, and many end up rebuilding it, because a first system written under commissioning pressure often proves too rigid to maintain. ARGUS (Automated Anomaly-detection, Run-quality and General Unified Surveillance) is a configuration-driven framework that separates what is generic in this problem (the health monitors, their validation, and the reporting) from what is not (the data schema and the thresholds). Standing it up for a new detector requires a data adapter and a configuration file, not a rewrite. Detector health is judged by four independent monitors: expert cuts, which are authoritative; a machine-learning second opinion that is additive and off by default; a trend forecast that gives early warning before a threshold is crossed; and a reference-histogram comparison with pluggable statistical tests. The monitors are compared and never merged, and an alerting layer turns their flags and warnings into deduplicated notifications. We demonstrate the full chain on a synthetic reference detector with planted pathologies and a fault-injection campaign that manufactures ground truth: the cuts recover every planted pathology with no false positives, the machine-learning monitor reaches a ROC AUC of 0.896 on injected faults and extends coverage to fault classes no cut was written for, the forecast flags a drifting channel before its cut fires, and the histogram comparison catches every planted shape distortion while holding its configured false-positive rate on clean pairs. A second demonstration shows the framework adapting to a reorganized file layout with no change to code or configuration. Every result and figure in this paper regenerates from the code alone. The framework has been implemented for two particle-physics experiments, where it is under evaluation; adoption decisions rest with the collaborations.
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Saturday 19 September

Instrumentation and Detectors

Radiation hardness characterization of SiPM sensors for Low Earth Orbit space missions

R. Aloisio, F.C.T. Barbato, I. De Mitri et al. (+16 more)

This work presents a comprehensive radiation hardness characterization of SiPM devices for space-based applications: FBK NUV-HD-MT and NUV-HD-LowCT (1$\times$1, 3$\times$3, and 6$\times$6~mm$^2$) and Hamamatsu S14160 MPPCs with equivalent active areas. Total Ionizing Dose (TID) tests were performed at the ESA/ESTEC Co-60 facility with a level of dose up to 20~krad in silicon, while displacement damage effects were evaluated using 100~MeV protons with a fluence up to $1.12\times10^{11}$~p/cm$^2$ at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Radiation damage in SiPMs manifests through two main mechanisms: ionizing energy loss and non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL), which increases dark current and dark count rate. In this work, breakdown voltage, dark current, and quenching resistance were systematically measured as functions of accumulated dose and fluence. Gain and dark count rates were indirectly measured from the characterized electrical parameters. Both technologies exhibit remarkable stability of most of the functional parameters across all dose levels, while dark current shows predictable increases significantly more pronounced under proton irradiation due to displacement damage. Based on these results, both FBK and Hamamatsu devices are confirmed suitable for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mission environment.
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All authors R. Aloisio, F.C.T. Barbato, I. De Mitri, A. Di Giovanni, G. Fontanella, D. Kyratzis, R. Nicolaidis, D. Pattanaik, P. Savina, C. Trimarelli, L. Burmistrov, S. Davarpanah, M. Heller, T. Montaruli, T. Borel, A. Costantino, F. Acerbi, A. Gola, M. Ruzzarin

Instrumentation and Detectors

Precise measurement of the thermal quenching factor of alpha particles in Li2MoO4 cryogenic calorimeters

M. Girola, R. Serino, M. Biassoni et al. (+7 more)

We present direct measurements of the thermal quenching factor (QF)for alpha-particles in Li2MoO4 scintillating crystals, conducted at base temperatures of 13 mK and 19 mK. Using gamma-calibration peaks from a 232Th source and alpha-lines from a surface 224Ra source, the QF_alpha was determined to range from 1.07 to 1.09 which is consistent with previous studies. A slight energy-dependent trend in QF_alpha was observed.
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All authors M. Girola, R. Serino, M. Biassoni, C. Brofferio, M. Faverzani, E. Ferri, A. Gianvecchio, L. Gironi, I. Nutini, S. Pozzi

Instrumentation and Detectors

Single-electron detection in a high-purity Ge device

Antoine Armatol, Corinne Augier, Laurent Bergé et al. (+69 more)

High-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors are among the most powerful instruments for gamma ray spectroscopy, combining exceptional energy resolution with large active volumes. Although they operate close to the fundamental resolution limit at high energies, their performance at very low energies has long been limited by electronic noise, restricting detection thresholds to above approximately 30 electron-hole pairs ($\sim$100 eV). Here we introduce a cryogenic HPGe detector architecture that achieves single electron-hole pair sensitivity by calorimetrically measuring ionization at temperatures near 20 mK. The device integrates a NbSi transition-edge sensor into a point-contact-inspired geometry, concentrating athermal phonon energy generated during charge drift and enabling eV-scale sensitivity ultimately set by the semiconductor band gap. Beyond single-charge detection, the device rejects the low-energy excess background that limits existing cryogenic low-threshold technologies, establishing a pathway towards discrimination between electron- and nuclear-recoil events below 100 eV. These advances open a route towards next-generation detectors for direct dark matter searches, coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, and nuclear reactor monitoring for non-proliferation applications.
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All authors Antoine Armatol, Corinne Augier, Laurent Bergé, Julien Billard, Harvey Birch, Juliette Blé, Clarence Chang, Yen-Yung Chang, Luke Chaplinsky, Gordon Cline, Alec Cochard, Ion Cojocari, Jules Colas, Simon Connolly, Maryvonne De Jesus, Pierre de Marcillac, Kamil Dwinger, Romain Faure, Simon Fiorucci, Maurice Garcia-Sciveres, Jules Gascon, Ryan Gibbons, Gil Gilchriese, Cloé Girard-Carillo, Wei Guo, Leila Haegel, Scott Haselschwardt, Scott Hertel, Tyler Horoho, Keith Hunter, Leslie Juigne, Alexandre Juillard, Alex Kavner, Jacob Lamblin, Tatiana Le-Bellec, Junsong Lin, Rupak Mahapatra, Stefanos Marnieros, Claire Marrache-Kikuchi, Nicolas Martini, Will Matava, Daniel McKinsey, Connor McLaughlin, Johann Menu, Knut Moraa, Valentina Novati, Emiliano Olivieri, Björn Penning, Mark Platt, Denys Poda, Matt Pyle, Yinghe Qi, Rafsan Rabbi, Ivar Rydstrom, Bernard Sadoulet, Silvia Scorza, Bruno Serfass, Peter Sorensen, Gabrielle Soum-Sidikov, Samara Steinfeld, Henry Su, Toki Suzuki, Ronald Vaughn II, Charlie Veihmeyer, Paul Vittaz, Gensheng Wang, Yue Wang, Michael R. Williams, Joanna Wuko, Volodymyr Yefremenko, Alexandre Broniatowski, Louis Dumoulin

Instrumentation and Detectors

Real-time Tunable Probability Distributions From Perimeter-Gated SPAD TRNGs

Yanbing Icey Chen, Md Sakibur Sajal and Marc Dandin

True random number generators (TRNGs) based on the dark noise of perimeter-gated single-photon avalanche diodes (pg-SPADs) naturally produce outputs that follow a tunable Bernoulli distribution. For applications requiring non-uniform random numbers, multiple such units can be coupled, or the inherent Poisson statistics of the accumulated dark events from a single pg-SPAD can be exploited. In this work, we present the principles for extending pg-SPAD-based TRNGs from the uniform to the non-uniform regime and investigate the impact of the perimeter-gate voltage on the underlying probability distributions. The proposed concepts were experimentally validated using a prototype 64 x 64 pg-SPAD chip, fabricated in a standard 0.35 $\mu$m CMOS process. Collectively, we showed that common non-uniform distributions such as Poisson, exponential, and approximated Gaussian can be achieved and tuned in real-time using pg-SPAD TRNGs.
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Friday 18 September

Instrumentation and Detectors

Proof-of-Concept and User Perspective on Photon-to-Digital Converter Applications in Particle Physics

M. Á. García-Peris, B. Palmeiro, G. Lessard et al. (+7 more)

Photon-to-Digital Converters (PDCs) are photosensors with single photon resolution and large dynamic range that digitise the output of individual single-photon avalanche diodes directly on-chip, offering potential advantages with respect to analogue Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs). In this work, we assess the PDC technology from the perspective of particle physics, using early, low-coverage PDC prototypes for proof-of-concept studies in calorimetry and tracking. Under simple, but extrapolable, detector conditions, we qualitatively compare PDCs with SiPM-based systems to illustrate their potential in terms of detector performance and readout. As the first application of this technology to particle physics instrumentation, we place particular emphasis on the user perspective, reporting on the practical experience of operating PDCs, from setup and calibration to data handling, and highlighting the relative ease of integration compared to conventional SiPM readout. We discuss the potential of PDCs to address key challenges in large-scale instrumentation, and their prospective integration into next-generation high-energy physics experiments.
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All authors M. Á. García-Peris, B. Palmeiro, G. Lessard, R. Guenette, S. A. Charlebois, E. Gramellini, J.-F. Pratte, T. Rossignol, N. Roy, F. Vachon

Instrumentation and Detectors

A Deep Neural Network based Level-1 Trigger for the Magnetic Monopole Search in the SCEP Experiment

Changqing Ye, Yunhan Wang, Yifan Qiao et al. (+4 more)

The Search for Cosmic Exotic Particles (SCEP) experiment proposes a multilayer magnetic monopole (MM) detection array with a target exposure of O(10^4) m^2 year. Continuously recording the raw waveforms at this scale would generate approximately O(10) EB of data per year, making full waveform storage impractical. A Level-1 trigger is therefore required to reduce the stored-data volume while retaining rare MM signals. MM waveforms vary with particle velocity and trajectory, so a single filter kernel cannot match all possible signals. A mismatch between the kernel and the signal waveform can reduce the detection probability. This work therefore develops a compact template-bank construction method for MM detection. Each incoming waveform is filtered with all kernels in the bank, and the best-matched kernel is identified from their responses. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) trigger is further developed to combine all template responses and improve signal detection. With a 31-sample window and a stored-data fraction of 10^(-3), the MLP increases the mean net acceptance P_net from 6.72% for the conventional template-bank trigger to 8.79%, a relative improvement of 30.8%. The network is then implemented on a Xilinx AC701 board equipped with a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to process a 20-bit input waveform sampled at 1 MHz using 200 MHz trigger logic. At the target stored-data fraction, the fixed-point implementation reduces P_net by only 3/(3.2 x 10^6) relative to the floating-point reference. On-board tests reproduce the bit-accurate reference trigger outputs and sustain continuous 1 MHz processing without dropped input samples, verifying the functional correctness and real-time operation of the FPGA-based Level-1 trigger.
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All authors Changqing Ye, Yunhan Wang, Yifan Qiao, Zhe Cao, Beige Liu, Qing Lin, Lei Zhao

Instrumentation and Detectors

A compact fibre-coupled active beamstop for fast time-resolved monitoring of synchrotron X-ray beams

Friedjof Tellkamp, David von Stetten and Martin Kollewe

We have developed a compact fibre-coupled active beamstop for simultaneous interception and time-resolved monitoring of the direct X-ray beam in synchrotron diffraction experiments. The complete beamstop tip has a maximum transverse dimension of 1 mm and incorporates a 700 $\mu$m-wide Ce:YAG scintillator. The scintillator converts the intercepted X-rays into visible light, which is transported through a multimode optical fibre to a silicon photodiode at the bottom of the blade that is connected to a dedicated fast amplifier electronics. Tests with a pulsed laser yielded a system decay time of 69.4 ns, consistent with reported luminescence decay times for Ce:YAG. Measurements at the P14.EH2 end station of PETRA III demonstrated the detection of individual bunch signals separated by 192 ns in the 40-bunch operating mode. The active beamstop also provided an in-situ timing signal for synchronising an experimental sequence with the approximately 190 $\mu$s transmission window of a mechanical X-ray chopper. The device therefore combines a compact obstruction of the direct beam with fast monitoring of X-ray timing and flux during diffraction data acquisition.
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Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

Development of a Temperature-Variable Cold Blackbody Calibrator for Millimeter and Submillimeter Wave Detectors

Kazuki Watanabe, Taiki Sato, Shuhei Inoue et al. (+3 more)

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of a cryogenic blackbody calibrator intended for laboratory-based detector characterization, providing multi-temperature calibration of millimeter- and submillimeter-wave detectors over a temperature range of 4 K to ~10 K. The device employs a Stycast/SiC absorber shaped for uniform array illumination and mounted on a phosphor-bronze substrate with optimized thermal links. Measured thermal conductance and heat capacity show the expected temperature dependence, although the conductance was lower than estimated, yielding a thermal time constant of 8.5 s at 10 K versus the 3.7 s design estimate. The response remains practical, demonstrating the calibrator's effectiveness as a stable reference source for precise calibration of detector arrays.
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All authors Kazuki Watanabe, Taiki Sato, Shuhei Inoue, Shinsuke Uno, Tatsuya Takekoshi, Tai Oshima

Thursday 17 September

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

Calibration electronics for the 30 and 40 GHz instrument (TFGI) of the QUIJOTE experiment

Jorge Luis Díaz-Acosta, Roger John Hoyland, Francisco Javier Casas et al. (+1 more)

The 30 and 40 GHz instruments of the QUIJOTE radio astronomy experiment use very sensitive receivers which need to be characterized both to ensure their proper functioning and for their calibration. Given the age of the PXI-1031DC device used up until now for this purpose, the design of a new device, the Calibrator TFGI QUIJOTE, has been proposed. This new device has been designed with the idea of being simple and modular, easy to use and upgrade. It is built on a Raspberry Pi 5 system, using an MCC 118 as analog reading module. This system, widely known among both makers and professionals, not only meets the requirements of modularity and ease of use, but also ensures that the device is much more economically competitive than the PXI. A first version of the device has been built and tested, obtaining good results in accuracy and ease of use.
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All authors Jorge Luis Díaz-Acosta, Roger John Hoyland, Francisco Javier Casas, Enrique Martinez-González

Instrumentation and Detectors

Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter 2026 Proceedings

Alexey Elykov, Patrick Stengel, Natsue Abe et al. (+81 more)

The fourth "Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter" (MDvDM'26) meeting was held April 14-17, 2026 in Karlsruhe, Germany, hosted by the Institute for Astroparticle Physics (IAP) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). These proceedings detail the contributions that were presented during MDvDM'26, illustrating the unprecedented progress in theoretical, computational and experimental studies towards the realization of the concept of mineral detectors. Mineral detectors represent an emerging particle detection concept that has risen in prominence in recent years due to the advent of modern computational and high-resolution microscopy techniques. Natural and synthetic crystals are capable of retaining microscopic damage features induced by nuclear recoils, which could be then read out with a variety of micrometer and nanometer resolution microscopy techniques. On laboratory time scales mineral detectors could be employed for reactor neutrino monitoring and dark matter detection, with the potential to measure the directions as well as the energies of the induced nuclear recoils. Uniquely, ancient natural crystals (so-called paleo-detectors) that have been recording nuclear recoils over geological timescales could be used for studying astrophysical neutrinos, cosmic rays, dark matter and heavy exotic particles, as well as the variation of their fluxes over our Galaxy's lifetime. In recent years the international MDvDM community has been successfully tackling the challenges associated with realizing the concept of mineral detectors, opening the pathway towards a fully fledged experimental program and potential future discoveries.
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All authors Alexey Elykov, Patrick Stengel, Natsue Abe, Daniel Ang, Lorenzo Apollonio, Levente Balogh, Laura Baudis, Chinmay Bharathulwar, Priyanshu Bhattacharya, Yilda Boukhtouchen, Joseph Bramante, Vincent Breton, Andrew Buchanan, Jens Burkhart, Lorenzo Caccianiga, Andrew Calabrese-Day, Mason Camp, Jordan Chapman, Anson Cook, Reza Ebadi, Denis Erkal, Katherine Freese, Audrey Fung, Shota Futamura, Claudio Galelli, Kevin Gao, Peter W. Graham, Thomas Haddock, Minako Hashiguchi, Alexander Hayes, Adam A. Hecht, Samuel C. Hedges, Shigenobu Hirose, Luisa M. Hötzsch, Patrick Huber, Yohei Igami, Vsevolod Ivanov, Florian Jörg, Ayuki Kamada, Takenori Kato, Yoji Kawamura, Katharina Kehl, Chris Kelso, Holger Kluck, Emilie M. LaVoie-Ingram, Matthew Leybourne, Gavishta H. M. Liyanage, Thalles Lucas, Brenden A. Magill, Paolo Magnani, Jennika McIntosh, Naoki Mizutani, Kohta Murase, Tatsuhiro Naka, Lina Necib, Pranav Parvathaneni, Andre Peterson, Zachary S. C. Picker, Rabeya Rabu, Harikrishnan Ramani, Anupam Ray, Morteza Roostaeinia, Hannah Ross, Issei Saikyo, Lukas Scherne, Maximilian Shen, Aaron Shugar, Joshua Spitz, Kai Sun, Jiashen Tang, Erwin H. Tanin, Dionysios P. Theodosopoulos, Yoichi Usui, Pieter Vermeesch, Aaron Vincent, Ronald Walsworth, Jin-Wei Wang, David Waters, Samuel S. Y. Wong, Audrey Wu, Gregory Wurtz, Wen Yin, Xiuyuan Zhang, Zhexian Zhang

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

A heterogeneous and vectorized sequence for the HL-LHC full tracking reconstruction of the CMS experiment

Emmanouil Vourliotis

This contribution presents the new baseline strategy for the Phase-2 tracking of the CMS experiment for online event reconstruction, and for the main iteration of offline tracking. This tracking sequence takes advantage of the combination of cutting-edge tracking algorithms that are either optimized for parallel execution on GPUs (Patatrack and LST), or vectorized for efficient CPU performance (mkFit). Such a combined approach offers an effective solution to deal with the unprecedented computational challenges caused by the large number of simultaneous collisions per bunch crossing expected at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The proposed combination not only reduces the computational resource requirements but also enhances the physics reach by incorporating displaced tracking and increasingly leveraging machine learning techniques.
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Instrumentation and Detectors

Commissioning and Performance of the Time-of-Flight Detector for the T2K Neutrino Oscillation Experiment

C. Alt, L. Amziane, N. Baudis et al. (+23 more)

The T2K ND280 Upgrade aims to reduce systematic uncertainties in measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters and improve sensitivity to the charge-parity (CP)-violating phase, $\delta_{\mathrm{CP}}$. A key component is the Time-of-Flight (ToF) detector, comprising six panels with 118 EJ-200 plastic-scintillator bars surrounding the Super Fine-Grained Detector (SuperFGD) and two High-Angle Time Projection Chambers (HA-TPCs). Each bar is read out at both ends by silicon photomultiplier arrays and digitised using SAMPIC waveform electronics. The ToF provides precise timing and particle-direction information for particle identification and rejection of backgrounds entering the tracker from outside. This article presents the detector design, construction, signal reconstruction, integration, commissioning, and performance. Dedicated single-bar measurements achieve a time resolution of approximately 130 ps and a longitudinal position resolution of 2.6 cm. After installation in ND280, cosmic-ray calibration yields an in situ single-bar time resolution of $169 \pm 1$ ps for Top-Bottom crossing events. Beam data clearly resolve the eight-bunch T2K spill structure, confirming synchronisation with the ND280 trigger and data-acquisition systems. The ToF has been successfully commissioned and operates stably within the upgraded ND280 detector.
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All authors C. Alt, L. Amziane, N. Baudis, A. Blanchet, S. Bordoni, T. H. Bui, F. Cadoux, P. Collard, M. El Baz, Y. Favre, L. Giannessi, G. Ha, C. Jesús-Valls, V. S. Kasturi, A. Klustová, A. Korzenev, T. A. Le, T. Lux, A. D. Nguyen, D. T. Nguyen, H. Nguyen, S. Samani, F. Sánchez, M. Ta, T. Thaiduc, E. Villa

Instrumentation and Detectors

Design and characterization of large-size monolithic layers of 3D-segmented plastic scintillator

Jon Berisha, Xingyu Zhao, Andrey Boyarintsev et al. (+10 more)

Three-dimensional fine-grained plastic scintillator detectors are extensively used in high-energy physics experiments where particle tracking, identification, calorimetry and sub-nanosecond timing information are required. Moreover, the low cost of plastic scintillator makes, in principle, the scalability to multi-tonne detectors possible. In order to circumvent the difficulties related to the long production time and the challenging assembly of millions of tiny independent scintillating voxels, a new technology consisting of gluing a few thousand $9 \times 9 \times 9$ mm$^3$ plastic scintillator cubes in a single large monolithic layer with machining precision, while ensuring an efficient optical separation, was developed and demonstrated. In this work we demonstrate that such technology can be reliably extended to a monolithic layer of $48 \times 48$ optically-isolated scintillating cubes, the size required for future ton-scale detectors, fulfilling the requirements of future neutrino detectors and sampling calorimeters.
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All authors Jon Berisha, Xingyu Zhao, Andrey Boyarintsev, Sebastien Cap, Diogo Di Calafiori, Maksim Kiktev, Umut Kose, Anzhelika Kuzmina, Natalia Leskina, André Rubbia, Tetiana Sibilieva, Tim Weber, Davide Sgalaberna

Instrumentation and Detectors

Proposing, never assigning: fair allocation of control-room shifts in experimental particle physics collaborations from ranked wishes under institutional quotas

Kamal Benslama

Experimental particle physics collaborations staff their detectors around the clock with members drawn from dozens of institutions. The established practice is a credit system with self-sign-up: institutions owe a quota of credit, and people take the seats they want when booking opens. This paper describes a method in which seats are instead allocated from ranked wishes under institutional quotas, the result is issued as offers that each person accepts or declines, and an independent checker recomputes every rule before anything is published: the platform proposes, never assigns, and proves that it kept the rules. The credit and quota model is inherited from current practice. Around that core the paper adds a quota rule that keeps indivisible blocks fair to institutions whose share of a period is smaller than one block, and four rules that make fairness visible beyond the count: shares of owl, weekend and holiday blocks, seats shown in the laboratory's clock and the institution's own, reachable pools for institutions that cannot travel, and booking order by balance. On a synthetic collaboration of 48 institutions and 256 eligible members, the method allocates 70 to 72 of 72 seats per period in two rounds, with a mean rank satisfaction of 84 to 95% and no rule broken; after a year of running every institution of four members or more is within 13% of its cumulative share, and the smallest institutions, which one block overshoots by arithmetic, are brought within the same range by pooling in pairs. The method is stated completely enough to be reimplemented; a reference implementation exists and is available to collaborations under license. It applies as it stands to any scientific collaboration that staffs a facility in blocks of shifts under institutional quotas.
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Wednesday 16 September

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from physics.app-ph

Giant Resonant Reflection Gain from Injection-Induced Quenching in a Tunnel Diode

Darmindra Arumugam, Jack Bush and Brook Feyissa

Negative-resistance microwave oscillators can simultaneously sustain autonomous oscillations and coherently scatter electromagnetic waves, enabling active reflection beyond conventional linear amplification. Here we demonstrate giant resonant reflection gain from synchronization-induced phase localization in a self-sustained tunnel diode oscillator operating near 2.96 GHz. Weak resonant RF injection drives a transition from a broadband free running state to a phase localized narrowband reflected carrier. The resulting reflected enhancement reaches 83.1dB relative to the injected signal and is accompanied by greater than order of magnitude linewidth collapse, nonlinear injection pulling, and a synchronization bandwidth of 15.84 kHz. Time resolved spectrograms directly resolve injection locking and frequency entrainment, while noisy Stuart Landau simulations reproduce the observed spectral concentration and detuning dependent gain roll off near the Hopf instability. Artificially increasing phase diffusion with broadband bias noise suppresses the reflected enhancement, confirming synchronization-induced quenching of phase fluctuations as the origin of the giant coherent reflection gain.
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Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Observing and evading quantum back-action on a kilogram-scale oscillator

Begüm Kabagöz, Eric Oelker, Dhruva Ganapathy et al. (+203 more)

Continuous quantum displacement measurements are fundamentally limited by a trade-off between readout imprecision and measurement back-action, constrained by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), these two quantum noise components dominate much of the observation band, making it an excellent testbed. We induce a sub-Hz-linewidth optomechanical mode by trapping the differential motion of the 40-kg mirrors in a band where radiation-pressure back-action dominates the motion. Engineering the quantum state entering the dark port creates correlations between imprecision and back-action that partially cancel their contributions, reducing observed motion near resonance by ~47%. A framework resolving the imprecision, back-action, and correlation terms identifies the origin of this suppression. These results demonstrate quantum back-action evasion and quantum reservoir engineering in a macroscopic optomechanical system.
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All authors Begüm Kabagöz, Eric Oelker, Dhruva Ganapathy, Nergis Mavalvala, Vivishek Sudhir, Vladimir Bossilkov, Joseph Betzweiser, Valery V. Frolov, Anamaria Effler, Adam Mullavey, Lisa Barsotti, Evan D. Hall, Peter Fritschel, R. Abbott, I. Abouelfettouh, R. X. Adhikari, A. Ananyeva, S. Appert, S. K. Apple, K. Arai, N. Aritomi, S. M. Aston, M. Ball, S. W. Ballmer, D. Barker, B. K. Berger, D. Bhattacharjee, G. Billingsley, S. Biscans, C. D. Blair, N. Bode, E. Bonilla, A. Branch, A. F. Brooks, D. D. Brown, J. Bryant, C. Cahillane, A. Calafat, S. R. Callos, H. Cao, E. Capote, F. Clara, J. Collins, C. M. Compton, G. Connolly, R. Cottingham, D. C. Coyne, R. Crouch, J. Csizmazia, A. Cumming, L. P. Dartez, D. Davis, N. Demos, E. Dohmen, K. L. Dooley, J. C. Driggers, S. E. Dwyer, A. Ejlli, T. Etzel, M. Evans, J. Feicht, R. Frey, W. Frischhertz, M. Fuentes-Garcia, P. Fulda, M. Fyffe, B. Gateley, T. Gayer, J. A. Giaime, K. D. Giardina, J. Glanzer, E. Goetz, R. Goetz, A. W. Goodwin-Jones, S. Gras, C. Gray, D. Griffith, H. Grote, T. Guidry, J. Gurs, J. Hanks, J. Hanson, M. C. Heintze, A. F. Helmling-Cornell, N. A. Holland, D. Hoyland, H. Y. Huang, Y. Inoue, A. L. James, A. Jamies, R. Jaume, A. Jennings, W. Jia, D. H. Jones, S. Karat, S. Karki, M. Kasprzack, K. Kawabe, N. Kijbunchoo, P. J. King, J. S. Kissel, K. Komori, A. Kontos, R. Kumar, K. Kuns, M. Landry, B. Lantz, M. Laxen, K. Lee, M. Lesovsky, F. Llamas Villarreal, M. Lormand, H. A. Loughlin, R. Macas, M. MacInnis, C. N. Makarem, B. Mannix, G. L. Mansell, R. M. Martin, K. Mason, F. Matichard, N. Maxwell, G. McCarrol, R. McCarthy, D. E. McClelland, S. McCormick, T. McRae, F. Mera, E. L. Merilh, J. R. Mérou, F. Meylahn, R. Mittleman, D. Moraru, G. Moreno, M. Nakano, T. J. N. Nelson, A. Neunzert, J. Notte, J. Oberling, T. O'Hanlon, R. Oram, C. Osthelder, D. J. Ottaway, H. Overmier, W. Parker, O. Patane, A. Pele, H. Pham, M. Pirello, J. Pullin, V. Quetschke, K. E. Ramirez, K. Ransom, J. Reyes, J. W. Richardson, M. Robinson, J. G. Rollins, C. L. Romel, J. H. Romie, M. P. Ross, B. I. Rotimi, K. Ryan, T. Sadecki, A. Sanchez, E. J. Sanchez, L. E. Sanchez, R. L. Savage, D. Schaetzl, M. G. Schiworski, R. Schnabel, R. M. S. Schofield, E. Schwartz, D. Sellers, T. Shaffer, R. W. Short, D. Sigg, B. J. J. Slagmolen, C. Soike, S. Soni, V. Srivastava, L. Sun, D. B. Tanner, M. Thomas, P. Thomas, K. A. Thorne, M. R. Todd, C. I. Torrie, G. Traylor, A. S. Ubhi, G. Vajente, J. Vanosky, A. Vecchio, P. J. Veitch, A. M. Vibhute, E. R. G. von Reis, J. Warner, B. Weaver, R. Weiss, C. Whittle, B. Willke, C. C. Wipf, J. L. Wright, V. A. Xu, H. Yamamoto, L. Zhang, M. E. Zucker

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

After 60 years, here comes the Sun

Anatael Cabrera, Mark Chen, Stefano Dusini et al. (+7 more)

For sixty years, the Sun served neutrino physics more than the reverse: its neutrinos established oscillations rather than probing the star itself. That is now changing. Reactor antineutrinos have pinned down the oscillation parameters governing solar-neutrino flavour conversion so precisely that the propagation-related uncertainty is becoming negligible – closing the first of two abysses. Solar neutrinos can, at last, be turned on the Sun. Yet a second abyss remains: today's solar-neutrino detection falls an order of magnitude short of the precision the Standard Solar Model already predicts for the dominant pp flux ($>\,$90$\%$) – a gap no reactor experiment can close. The intrinsic $^{14}\mathrm{C}$ background walls off the pp region; only new detection techniques can breach it. Bridging this second abyss demands a revolution, not an increment. Combined with helioseismology's complementary reading of the Sun's mechanical structure, precision neutrino measurements of the nuclear source terms would enable a multi-messenger heliotomography of the solar interior – reading our star from both sides at once. A new age of solar discoveries may follow, on one condition: that the field builds the instruments equal to the task.
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All authors Anatael Cabrera, Mark Chen, Stefano Dusini, Jeff Hartnell, Jorge Martín Camalich, Diana Navas Nicolás, Hiroshi Nunokawa, Aldo Serenelli, Javier Trujillo Bueno, Frédéric Yermia