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Operation and performance of ProtoDUNE Dual Phase liquid argon time projection chamber
Authors:
DUNE Collaboration,
S. Abbaslu,
F. Abd Alrahman,
A. Abed Abud,
R. Acciarri,
L. P. Accorsi,
M. A. Acero,
M. R. Adames,
G. Adamov,
M. Adamowski,
K. Adhikari,
C. Adriano,
K. Agudelo-Jaramillo,
F. Akbar,
F. Alemanno,
N. S. Alex,
L. Aliaga Soplin,
A. Alqaisi,
M. Alrashed,
A. Alton,
R. Alvarez,
T. Alves,
A. Aman,
H. Amar,
R. Amarinei
, et al. (1341 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
ProtoDUNE-DP was the largest ever built Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) operating in Dual-Phase (DP) mode, with a liquid target and charge read-out placed in the gas. It had an active volume of $6\times6\times6$\,m$^3$ corresponding to an active mass of 300\,t (total LAr mass of 720\,t), constructed at the CERN Neutrino Platform and took data from 2019 to 2020 with cosmic muons. In P…
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ProtoDUNE-DP was the largest ever built Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) operating in Dual-Phase (DP) mode, with a liquid target and charge read-out placed in the gas. It had an active volume of $6\times6\times6$\,m$^3$ corresponding to an active mass of 300\,t (total LAr mass of 720\,t), constructed at the CERN Neutrino Platform and took data from 2019 to 2020 with cosmic muons. In ProtoDUNE-DP the electric drift field is oriented in the vertical direction, causing the electrons to drift vertically towards the anode at the top. The ionization charge is then extracted into the gaseous argon above the liquid surface, amplified by Townsend avalanches, and collected by the charge readout planes. The detector experienced significant technical problems affecting the long-term operation of the Charge Readout Planes, formed by the Large Electron Multipliers, but other critical segments demonstrated required performance including the delivery of -300 kV to the TPC cathode, verification of replaceable charge read-out electronics, and operation of the photon detection system. ProtoDUNE-DP experience resulted in improved designs of the Vertical Drift LArTPC.
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Submitted 21 July, 2026; v1 submitted 17 July, 2026;
originally announced July 2026.
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Charge readout electronics for the DUNE horizontal drift far detector: design and performance in ProtoDUNE-HD
Authors:
DUNE Collaboration,
S. Abbaslu,
F. Abd Alrahman,
A. Abed Abud,
R. Acciarri,
L. P. Accorsi,
M. A. Acero,
M. R. Adames,
G. Adamov,
M. Adamowski,
K. Adhikari,
C. Adriano,
K. Agudelo-Jaramillo,
F. Akbar,
F. Alemanno,
N. S. Alex,
L. Aliaga Soplin,
A. Alqaisi,
M. Alrashed,
A. Alton,
R. Alvarez,
T. Alves,
A. Aman,
H. Amar,
R. Amarinei
, et al. (1346 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment currently under construction, whose far detectors will be the largest liquid argon time projection chambers ever built. This detector design calls for custom-built cryogenic front-end electronics to meet its performance requirements. This paper describes the charge readout electronics that will be used i…
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DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment currently under construction, whose far detectors will be the largest liquid argon time projection chambers ever built. This detector design calls for custom-built cryogenic front-end electronics to meet its performance requirements. This paper describes the charge readout electronics that will be used in the DUNE horizontal drift (HD) far detector and presents performance results using data from the ProtoDUNE-HD detector, a 770 ton liquid argon time projection chamber operated at the CERN Neutrino Platform in 2024 that served as the final prototype of the DUNE HD design.
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Submitted 12 August, 2026; v1 submitted 26 April, 2026;
originally announced April 2026.
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Design and operation of a flash lamp for vacuum ultraviolet light production
Authors:
Silas Bosco,
Jonas Bürgi,
Livio Calivers,
Richard Diurba,
Johannes Furrer,
Jan Kunzmann,
Saba Parsa,
Sascha Rivera,
Nicolas Sallin,
Camilla Tognina,
Serhan Tufanli,
Michele Weber,
Dominik Wermelinger
Abstract:
Noble liquids, notably argon and xenon, are utilised as both detector media and as the detector target for dark matter and neutrino physics experiments. When the noble liquid is excited by particles, it scintillates vacuum ultraviolet light, which sensors then detect. A major focus of the detector development community is on producing precision light sensors for noble liquid detectors. We introduc…
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Noble liquids, notably argon and xenon, are utilised as both detector media and as the detector target for dark matter and neutrino physics experiments. When the noble liquid is excited by particles, it scintillates vacuum ultraviolet light, which sensors then detect. A major focus of the detector development community is on producing precision light sensors for noble liquid detectors. We introduce a flash lamp to test VUV-sensitive light sensors with light at wavelengths observed at noble liquid detectors. This paper discusses the design and presents results from a flash lamp prototype operated at room temperature.
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Submitted 14 May, 2026; v1 submitted 16 March, 2026;
originally announced March 2026.
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The Super Fine-Grained Detector for the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment
Authors:
S. Abe,
H. Alarakia-Charles,
I. Alekseev,
T. Arai,
T. Arihara,
S. Arimoto,
A. M. Artikov,
Y. Awataguchi,
N. Babu,
V. Baranov,
G. Barr,
D. Barrow,
L. Bartoszek,
A. Beliakova,
L. Bernardi,
L. Berns,
S. Bhattacharjee,
A. V. Boikov,
A. Blondel,
A. Bonnemaison,
F. Cadoux,
S. Cap,
A. Cauchois,
J. Chakrani,
P. S. Chong
, et al. (147 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
The magnetised near detector ND280 of the long-baseline neutrino experiment T2K has been upgraded to improve its detection performance and, consequently, enhance our understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions, reducing the systematic uncertainties in measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters. A key component of the upgrade is a novel segmented plastic scintillator detector, called th…
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The magnetised near detector ND280 of the long-baseline neutrino experiment T2K has been upgraded to improve its detection performance and, consequently, enhance our understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions, reducing the systematic uncertainties in measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters. A key component of the upgrade is a novel segmented plastic scintillator detector, called the Super Fine-Grained Detector (SuperFGD), made of approximately 2 million optically isolated 1 cm$^3$ cubes read out by three orthogonal wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibres. Scintillation photons are detected by 55,888 Hamamatsu Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs). The SuperFGD provides 3D images of neutrino interactions by tracking the final-state charged particles produced isotropically, including protons down to a threshold of around 330 MeV/$c$. The high light yield of SuperFGD greatly improves particle identification and the sub-nanosecond time resolution provides an excellent identification of Michel electrons. The SuperFGD is also able to detect neutrons from neutrino interactions and, for the first time in a neutrino experiment, to reconstruct their kinetic energy using a fine detector segmentation and by measuring the time-of-flight with sub-nanosecond precision. In this article the details of the detector design, construction and performance are described. The detector was installed in ND280 and successfully commissioned with cosmic data in 2023 and, later, with the T2K neutrino beam. The detector response has been characterised with the 2023 and 2024 data and the results are reported in this article.
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Submitted 16 March, 2026;
originally announced March 2026.
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Introducing a Markov Chain-Based Time Calibration Procedure for Multi-Channel Particle Detectors: Application to the SuperFGD and ToF Detectors of the T2K Experiment
Authors:
S. Abe,
H. Alarakia-Charles,
I. Alekseev,
C. Alt,
T. Arai,
T. Arihara,
S. Arimoto,
A. M. Artikov,
Y. Awataguchi,
N. Babu,
V. Baranov,
G. Barr,
D. Barrow,
L. Bartoszek,
L. Bernardi,
L. Berns,
S. Bhattacharjee,
A. V. Boikov,
A. Blanchet,
A. Blondel,
A. Bonnemaison,
S. Bordoni,
M. H. Bui,
T. H. Bui,
F. Cadoux
, et al. (168 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
Inter-channel mis-synchronisation can be a limiting factor to the time resolution of high performance timing detectors with multiple readout channels and independent electronics units. In these systems, time calibration methods employed must be able to efficiently correct for minimal mis-synchronisation between channels and achieve the best detector performance. We present an iterative time calibr…
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Inter-channel mis-synchronisation can be a limiting factor to the time resolution of high performance timing detectors with multiple readout channels and independent electronics units. In these systems, time calibration methods employed must be able to efficiently correct for minimal mis-synchronisation between channels and achieve the best detector performance. We present an iterative time calibration method based on Markov Chains, suitable for detector systems with multiple readout channels. Starting from correlated hit pairs alone, and without requiring an external reference time measurement, the method solves for fixed per-channel offsets, with precision limited only by the intrinsic single-channel resolution. A mathematical proof that the method is able to find the correct time offsets to be assigned to each detector channel in order to achieve inter-channel synchronisation is given, and it is shown that the number of iterations to reach convergence within the desired precision is controllable with a single parameter. Numerical studies are used to confirm unbiased recovery of true offsets. Finally, the application of the calibration method to the Super Fine-Grained Detector (SuperFGD) and the Time of Flight (TOF) detector at the upgraded T2K near detector (ND280) shows good improvement in overall timing resolution, demonstrating the effectiveness in a real-world scenario and scalability.
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Submitted 19 September, 2025; v1 submitted 11 August, 2025;
originally announced August 2025.
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Characterization of the optical model of the T2K 3D segmented plastic scintillator detector
Authors:
S. Abe,
I. Alekseev,
T. Arai,
T. Arihara,
S. Arimoto,
N. Babu,
V. Baranov,
L. Bartoszek,
L. Berns,
S. Bhattacharjee,
A. Blondel,
A. V. Boikov,
M. Buizza-Avanzini,
J. Capó,
J. Cayo,
J. Chakrani,
P. S. Chong,
A. Chvirova,
M. Danilov,
C. Davis,
Yu. I. Davydov,
A. Dergacheva,
N. Dokania,
D. Douqa,
T. A. Doyle
, et al. (106 additional authors not shown)
Abstract:
The magnetised near detector (ND280) of the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment has been recently upgraded aiming to satisfy the requirement of reducing the systematic uncertainty from measuring the neutrinonucleus interaction cross section, which is the largest systematic uncertainty in the search for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation. A key component of the upgrade is Super…
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The magnetised near detector (ND280) of the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment has been recently upgraded aiming to satisfy the requirement of reducing the systematic uncertainty from measuring the neutrinonucleus interaction cross section, which is the largest systematic uncertainty in the search for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation. A key component of the upgrade is SuperFGD, a 3D segmented plastic scintillator detector made of approximately 2,000,000 optically-isolated 1 cm3 cubes. It will provide a 3D image of GeV neutrino interactions by combining tracking and stopping power measurements of final state particles with sub-nanosecond time resolution. The performance of SuperFGD is characterized by the precision of its response to charged particles as well as the systematic effects that might affect the physics measurements. Hence, a detailed Geant4 based optical simulation of the SuperFGD building block, i.e. a plastic scintillating cube read out by three wavelength shifting fibers, has been developed and validated with the different datasets collected in various beam tests. In this manuscript the description of the optical model as well as the comparison with data are reported.
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Submitted 31 October, 2024;
originally announced October 2024.