New 3D fine-grained scintillation detector for the T2K experiment

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 3D scintillation detector with fine granularity designed for the T2K neutrino experiment's upgrade, aiming to improve measurement precision and reduce systematic errors.

Contribution

It presents the development status of a new super fine-grained 3D scintillator detector with WLS fiber readout for the T2K ND280 upgrade.

Findings

Design of 2 million scintillation cubes with 3D readout

Implementation of 3D WLS fiber readout system

Potential to significantly reduce systematic errors in neutrino measurements

Abstract

The main goal of the T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment is the precise measurement of the parameters of neutrino oscillation and the search for CP-violation in the lepton sector. In 2017, the T2K collaboration launched the Near Detector Upgrade project. This upgrade aims to reduce the systematic errors of the oscillation parameters from 6-7% to 3-4%. In order to accomplish such goal, ND280 Upgrade proposes to implement new upstream trackers to improve the wide angle acceptance and low momentum threshold. One of the novel technologies introduced in ND280 Upgrade is super fine-grained (SuperFGD) scintillator target with 3D WLS fiber readout. The detector will consist of about 2 million (192x184x56) scintillation cubes of 1-cm size. Each cube has three orthogonal holes for WLS fibers to provide 3D optical readout. The total mass of the detector is about 2 tons and the number of the readout channels is about 60,000. This paper presents the current status of the development of this detector.