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

TL;DR

SND@LHC is a compact neutrino detector located near the LHC interaction point, designed to measure neutrinos in the very forward region and search for feebly interacting particles, providing new insights into heavy flavor physics and astrophysical neutrinos.

Contribution

This paper introduces the design and initial deployment of SND@LHC, a novel detector for measuring neutrinos and feebly interacting particles in the LHC's forward region.

Findings

Detector successfully distinguishes all three neutrino flavors.

First phase will collect 250 fb^{-1} of data during LHC Run 3.

Probing heavy flavor production in the very forward region.

Abstract

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 $\text{fb}^{-1}$.