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F. Cindolo

Publications and source records attributed to F. Cindolo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Construction, commissioning, and performance of the ENUBET demonstrator

A final full-size prototype of the instrumented decay tunnel of ENUBET, referred to as the Demonstrator, was constructed and its performance was tested during the 2022, 2023 and 2024 beam test campaigns at the CERN East Area facility. We demonstrate the full scalability of this specialized longitudinal sampling calorimeter technology, based on iron absorbers and scintillator tiles readout by wavelength-shifting fibers and SiPMs. In addition, we evaluate the channel-by- channel response and the performance in terms of electron energy resolution, linearity, and particle identification capabilities, using charged particle beams with energies up to 5 GeV. A comparison with the predictions of a GEANT4 simulation of the prototype is also presented. The results meet the requirements for neutrino monitoring through lepton identification in the decay tunnel and validate the ENUBET full simulation. Although some limitations have been identified, they can be readily addressed in future developments.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2026

Measurement of the muon neutrino charged-current cross section with SND@LHC

We report a measurement of the muon neutrino charged-current (CC) interaction cross section on tungsten using the electronic detectors of the SND@LHC experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The analysis uses proton--proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13.6$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $68.6 ~\text{fb}^{-1}$ collected during LHC Run 3 in 2022 and 2023. A total of 31 $\nu_\mu$ CC candidates are selected against an expected background of $5.0 \pm 1.1$ events, consistent with a signal expectation of $24^{+10}_{-9}$ events. The signal strength is measured to be $\hat{\mu} = 1.09^{+0.72}_{-0.37}$, and the combined muon neutrino and anti-neutrino CC cross section on tungsten is determined to be $\sigma(\nu_\mu + \bar{\nu}_\mu) = (37^{+24}_{-12})\times 10^{-35}~\text{cm}^2$ at a median energy of $228$ GeV. In addition, a calorimetric measurement of the hadronic energies of the neutrino candidate events is performed, making use of calibration data from dedicated test-beam campaigns.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2026

Electron identification and hadron discrimination using Cherenkov radiation in air and SiPMs

This paper presents a method to identify electrons using the Cherenkov light emitted when a charged particle travels in air and photons are detected with a Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SiPM). The analysis is based on a photon-counting approach using SPAD cells and uses data collected during a test beam at CERN PS. The results are well described by a simple Monte Carlo simulation, which further demonstrates that a very good electron identification and a strong pion/hadron rejection could be obtained over a wide momentum range.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2025

nuSCOPE: A short-baseline neutrino beam at CERN for high-precision cross-section measurements

A new generation of neutrino cross-section experiments at the GeV scale is crucial in the precision era of oscillation physics and lepton flavor studies. In this document, we present a novel neutrino beam design that leverages the experience and R&D achievements of the NP06/ENUBET and NuTag Collaborations and explore its potential implementation at CERN. This beam enables flux monitoring at the percent level and provides a neutrino energy measurement independent of final state particle reconstruction at the neutrino detector. As a result, it eliminates the two primary sources of systematic uncertainty in cross-section measurements: flux normalization and energy bias caused by nuclear effects. We provide a detailed description of the beam technology and instrumentation, along with an overview of its physics potential, with particular emphasis on cross-sections relevant to DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2025

The ENUBET monitored neutrino beam and its implementation at CERN

The ENUBET project recently concluded the R&D for a site independent design of a monitored neutrino beam for high precision cross section measurements, in which the neutrino flux is inferred from the measurement of charged leptons in an instrumented decay tunnel. In this phase three fundamental results were obtained and will be discussed here: 1) a beamline not requiring a horn and relying on static focusing elements allows to perform a $\nu_e$ cross section measurement in the DUNE energy range with 1% statistical uncertainty employing $10^{20}$ 400 GeV protons on target (pot) and a neutrino detector of the size of ProtoDUNE; 2) the instrumentation of the decay tunnel, based on a cost effective sampling calorimeter solution, has been tested with a large scale prototype achieving the performance required to identify positrons and muons from kaon decays with high signal-to-noise ratio; 3) the systematics budget on the neutrino flux is constrained at the 1% level by fitting the charged leptons observables measured in the decay tunnel. Based on these successful results ENUBET is now pursuing a study for a site dependent implementation at CERN in the framework of Physics Beyond Colliders. In this context a new beamline, able to enrich the neutrino flux at the energy of HK and to reduce by more than a factor 3 the needed pot, has been designed and is being optimized. The civil engineering and radioprotection studies for the siting of ENUBET in the North Area towards the two ProtoDUNEs are also in the scope of this work, with the goal of proposing a neutrino cross section experiment in 2026. The combined use of both the neutrino detectors and of the improved beamline would allow to perform cross section measurements with unprecedented precision in about 5 years with a proton request compatible with the needs of other users after CERN Long Shutdown 3.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2023

Design and performance of the ENUBET monitored neutrino beam

The ENUBET project is aimed at designing and experimentally demonstrating the concept of monitored neutrino beams. These novel beams are enhanced by an instrumented decay tunnel, whose detectors reconstruct large-angle charged leptons produced in the tunnel and give a direct estimate of the neutrino flux at the source. These facilities are thus the ideal tool for high-precision neutrino cross-section measurements at the GeV scale because they offer superior control of beam systematics with respect to existing facilities. In this paper, we present the first end-to-end design of a monitored neutrino beam capable of monitoring lepton production at the single particle level. This goal is achieved by a new focusing system without magnetic horns, a 20 m normal-conducting transfer line for charge and momentum selection, and a 40 m tunnel instrumented with cost-effective particle detectors. Employing such a design, we show that percent precision in cross-section measurements can be achieved at the CERN SPS complex with existing neutrino detectors.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2020

The ENUBET positron tagger prototype: construction and testbeam performance

A prototype for the instrumented decay tunnel of ENUBET was tested in 2018 at the CERN East Area facility with charged particles up to 5 GeV. This detector is a longitudinal sampling calorimeter with lateral scintillation light readout. The calorimeter was equipped by an additional "$t_0$-layer" for timing and photon discrimination. The performance of this detector in terms of electron energy resolution, linearity, response to muons and hadron showers are presented in this paper and compared with simulation. The $t_0$-layer was studied both in standalone mode using pion charge exchange and in combined mode with the calorimeter to assess the light yield and the 1 mip/2 mip separation capability. We demonstrate that this system fulfills the requirements for neutrino physics applications and discuss performance and additional improvements.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2020

The hadronic beamline of the ENUBET neutrino beam

The ENUBET ERC project (2016-2021) is studying a facility based on a narrow band beam capable of constraining the neutrino fluxes normalization through the monitoring of the associated charged leptons in an instrumented decay tunnel. A key element of the project is the design and optimization of the hadronic beamline. In this proceeding we present progress on the studies of the proton extraction schemes. We also show a realistic implementation and simulation of the beamline.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2020

Decay tunnel instrumentation for the ENUBET neutrino beam

The uncertainty in the initial neutrino flux is the main limitation for a precise determination of the absolute neutrino cross section. The ERC funded ENUBET project (2016-2021) is studying a facility based on a narrow band beam to produce an intense source of electron neutrinos with a ten-fold improvement in accuracy. Since March 2019 ENUBET is also a Neutrino Platform experiment at CERN: NP06/ENUBET. A key element of the project is the instrumentation of the decay tunnel to monitor large angle positrons produced together with $\nu_e$ in the three body decays of kaons ($K_{e3}$) and to discriminate them from neutral and charged pions. The need for an efficient and high purity e/$\pi$ separation over a length of several meters, and the requirements for fast response and radiation hardness imposed by the harsh beam environment, suggested the implementation of a longitudinally segmented Fe/scintillator calorimeter with a readout based on WLS fibers and SiPM detectors. An extensive experimental program through several test beam campaigns at the CERN-PS T9 beam line has been pursued on calorimeter prototypes, both with a shashlik and a lateral readout configuration. The latter, in which fibers collect the light from the side of the scintillator tiles, allows to place the light sensors away from the core of the calorimeter, thus reducing possible irradiation damages with respect to the shashlik design. This contribution will present the achievements of the prototyping activities carried out, together with irradiation tests made on the Silicon Photo-Multipliers. The results achieved so far pin down the technology of choice for the construction of the 3 m long demonstrator that will take data in 2021.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2020

Polysiloxane-based scintillators for shashlik calorimeters

We present the first application of polysiloxane-based scintillators as active medium in a shashlik sampling calorimeter. These results were obtained from a testbeam campaign of a $\sim$6$\times$6$\times$45 cm$^3$ (13 $X_0$ depth) prototype. A Wavelength Shifting fiber array of 36 elements runs perpendicularly to the stack of iron (15 mm) and polysiloxane scintillator (15 mm) tiles with a density of about one over cm$^2$. Unlike shashlik calorimeters based on plastic organic scintillators, here fibers are optically matched with the scintillator without any intermediate air gap. The prototype features a compact light readout based on Silicon Photo-Multipliers embedded in the bulk of the detector. The detector was tested with electrons, pions and muons with energies ranging from 1 to 7 GeV at the CERN-PS. This solution offers a highly radiation hard detector to instrument the decay region of a neutrino beam, providing an event-by-event measurement of high-angle decay products associated with neutrino production (ENUBET, Enhanced NeUtrino BEams from kaon Tagging, ERC project). The results in terms of light yield, uniformity and energy resolution, are compared to a similar calorimeter built with ordinary plastic scintillators.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2019

The ENUBET narrow band neutrino beam

The narrow band beam of ENUBET is the first implementation of the "monitored neutrino beam" technique proposed in 2015. ENUBET has been designed to monitor lepton production in the decay tunnel of neutrino beams and to provide a 1% measurement of the neutrino flux at source. In particular, the three body semi-leptonic decay of kaons monitored by large angle positron production offers a fully controlled $\nu_{e}$ source at the GeV scale for a new generation of short baseline experiments. In this contribution the performances of the positron tagger prototypes tested at CERN beamlines in 2016-2018 are presented.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2019

The ENUBET Beamline

The ENUBET ERC project (2016-2021) is studying a narrow band neutrino beam where lepton production can be monitored at single particle level in an instrumented decay tunnel. This would allow to measure $\nu_{\mu}$ and $\nu_{e}$ cross sections with a precision improved by about one order of magnitude compared to present results. In this proceeding we describe a first realistic design of the hadron beamline based on a dipole coupled to a pair of quadrupole triplets along with the optimisation guidelines and the results of a simulation based on G4beamline. A static focusing design, though less efficient than a horn-based solution, results several times more efficient than originally expected. It works with slow proton extractions reducing drastically pile-up effects in the decay tunnel and it paves the way towards a time-tagged neutrino beam. On the other hand a horn-based transferline would ensure higher yields at the tunnel entrance. The first studies conducted at CERN to implement the synchronization between a few ms proton extraction and a horn pulse of 2-10 ms are also described.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2019

Irradiation and performance of RGB-HD Silicon Photomultipliers for calorimetric applications

Silicon Photomultipliers with cell-pitch ranging from 12 $\mu$m to 20 $\mu$m were tested against neutron irradiation at moderate fluences to study their performance for calorimetric applications. The photosensors were developed by FBK employing the RGB-HD technology. We performed irradiation tests up to $2 \times 10^{11}$ n/cm$^2$ (1 MeV eq.) at the INFN-LNL Irradiation Test facility. The SiPMs were characterized on-site (dark current and photoelectron response) during and after irradiations at different fluences. The irradiated SiPMs were installed in the ENUBET compact calorimetric modules and characterized with muons and electrons at the CERN East Area facility. The tests demonstrate that both the electromagnetic response and the sensitivity to minimum ionizing particles are retained after irradiation. Gain compensation can be achieved increasing the bias voltage well within the operation range of the SiPMs. The sensitivity to single photoelectrons is lost at $\sim 10^{10}$ n/cm$^2$ due to the increase of the dark current.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2019

A high precision neutrino beam for a new generation of short baseline experiments

The current generation of short baseline neutrino experiments is approaching intrinsic source limitations in the knowledge of flux, initial neutrino energy and flavor. A dedicated facility based on conventional accelerator techniques and existing infrastructures designed to overcome these impediments would have a remarkable impact on the entire field of neutrino oscillation physics. It would improve by about one order of magnitude the precision on $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_e$ cross sections, enable the study of electroweak nuclear physics at the GeV scale with unprecedented resolution and advance searches for physics beyond the three-neutrino paradigm. In turn, these results would enhance the physics reach of the next generation long baseline experiments (DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande) on CP violation and their sensitivity to new physics. In this document, we present the physics case and technology challenge of high precision neutrino beams based on the results achieved by the ENUBET Collaboration in 2016-2018. We also set the R&D milestones to enable the construction and running of this new generation of experiments well before the start of the DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande data taking. We discuss the implementation of this new facility at three different level of complexity: $\nu_\mu$ narrow band beams, $\nu_e$ monitored beams and tagged neutrino beams. We also consider a site specific implementation based on the CERN-SPS proton driver providing a fully controlled neutrino source to the ProtoDUNE detectors at CERN.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2018

A narrow band neutrino beam with high precision flux measurements

The ENUBET facility is a proposed narrow band neutrino beam where lepton production is monitored at single particle level in the instrumented decay tunnel. This facility addresses simultaneously the two most important challenges for the next generation of cross section experiments: a superior control of the flux and flavor composition at source and a high level of tunability and precision in the selection of the energy of the outcoming neutrinos. We report here the latest results in the development and test of the instrumentation for the decay tunnel. Special emphasis is given to irradiation tests of the photo-sensors performed at INFN-LNL and CERN in 2017 and to the first application of polysiloxane-based scintillators in high energy physics.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2018

Testbeam performance of a shashlik calorimeter with fine-grained longitudinal segmentation

An iron- plastic-scintillator shashlik calorimeter with a 4.3 $X_0$ longitudinal segmentation was tested in November 2016 at the CERN East Area facility with charged particles up to 5 GeV. The performance of this detector in terms of electron energy resolution, linearity, response to muons and hadron showers are presented in this paper and compared with simulation. Such a fine-grained longitudinal segmentation is achieved using a very compact light readout system developed by the SCENTT and ENUBET Collaborations, which is based on fiber-SiPM coupling boards embedded in the bulk of the detector. We demonstrate that this system fulfills the requirements for neutrino physics applications and discuss performance and additional improvements.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2016

A compact light readout system for longitudinally segmented shashlik calorimeters

The longitudinal segmentation of shashlik calorimeters is challenged by dead zones and non-uniformities introduced by the light collection and readout system. This limitation can be overcome by direct fiber-photosensor coupling, avoiding routing and bundling of the wavelength shifter fibers and embedding ultra-compact photosensors (SiPMs) in the bulk of the calorimeter. We present the first experimental test of this readout scheme performed at the CERN PS-T9 beamline in 2015 with negative particles in the 1-5~GeV energy range. In this paper, we demonstrate that the scheme does not compromise the energy resolution and linearity compared with standard light collection and readout systems. In addition, we study the performance of the calorimeter for partially contained charged hadrons to assess the $e/\pi$ separation capability and the response of the photosensors to direct ionization.

physics.ins-det↗