The Short-Baseline Near Detector at Fermilab
Abstract
SBND is a 112 ton liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detector located 110 meters from the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) target at Fermilab. Its main goals include searches for eV-scale sterile neutrinos as part of the Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program, other searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, and precision studies of neutrino-argon interactions. In addition, SBND is providing a platform for LArTPC neutrino detector technology development and is an excellent training ground for the international group of scientists and engineers working towards the upcoming flagship Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). SBND began operation in July 2024, and started collecting stable neutrino beam data in December 2024 with an unprecedented rate of ~7,000 neutrino events per day. During its currently approved operation plans (2024-2027), SBND is expected to accumulate nearly 10 million neutrino interactions. The near detector dataset will be instrumental in testing the sterile neutrino hypothesis with unprecedented sensitivity in SBN and in probing signals of beyond the Standard Model physics. It will also be used to significantly advance our understanding of the physics of neutrino-argon interactions ahead of DUNE. After the planned accelerator restart at Fermilab (2029+), opportunities are being explored to operate SBND in antineutrino mode in order to address the scarcity of antineutrino-argon scattering data, or in a dedicated beam-dump mode to significantly enhance sensitivity to searches for new physics. SBND is an international effort, with approximately 40% of institutions from Europe, contributing to detector construction, commissioning, software development, and data analysis. Continued European involvement and leadership are essential during SBND's operations and analysis phase for both the success of SBND, SBN and its role leading up to DUNE.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2504.00245,
title = {The Short-Baseline Near Detector at Fermilab},
author = {SBND Collaboration and R. Acciarri and L. Aliaga-Soplin and O. Alterkait and R. Alvarez-Garrote and D. Andrade Aldana and C. Andreopoulos and A. Antonakis and L. Arellano and W. Badgett and S. Balasubramanian and A. Barnard and V. Basque and J. Bateman and A. Beever and E. Belchior and M. Betancourt and A. Bhat and M. Bishai and A. Blake and B. Bogart and J. Bogenschuetz and D. Brailsford and A. Brandt and S. Brickner and M. B. Brunetti and A. Bueno and L. Camilleri and A. Campos and D. Caratelli and D. Carber and B. Carlson and M. Carneiro and R. Castillo and F. Cavanna and A. Chappell and H. Chen and S. Chung and R. Coackley and J. I. Crespo-Anadón and C. Cuesta and Y. Dabburi and O. Dalager and M. Dall'Olio and R. Darby and M. Del Tutto and V. Di Benedetto and Z. Djurcic and V. do Lago Pimentel and S. Dominguez-Vidales and K. Duffy and S. Dytman and A. Ereditato and J. J. Evans and A. Ezeribe and C. Fan and A. Filkins and B. Fleming and W. Foreman and D. Franco and G. Fricano and I. Furic and A. Furmanski and S. Gao and D. Garcia-Gamez and S. Gardiner and G. Ge and I. Gil-Botella and S. Gollapinni and P. Green and W. C. Griffith and R. Guenette and P. Guzowski and L. Hagaman and A. Hamer and P. Hamilton and M. Hernandez-Morquecho and B. Howard and Z. Imani and C. James and R. S. Jones and M. Jung and T. Junk and D. Kalra and G. Karagiorgi and L. Kashur and K. Kelly and W. Ketchum and M. King and J. Klein and L. Kotsiopoulou and S. Kr Das and T. Kroupova and V. A. Kudryavtsev and N. Lane and H. Lay and R. LaZur and J. -Y. Li and K. Lin and B. Littlejohn and L. Liu and W. C. Louis and E. Lourenco and X. Lu and X. Luo and A. Machado and P. Machado and C. Mariani and F. Marinho and J. Marshall and A. Mastbaum and K. Mavrokoridis and N. McConkey and B. McCusker and M. Mooney and A. F. Moor and G. Moreno Granados and C. A. Moura and J. Mueller and S. Mulleriababu and A. Navrer-Agasson and M. Nebot-Guinot and V. C. L. Nguyen and F. J. Nicolas-Arnaldos and J. Nowak and S. Oh and N. Oza and O. Palamara and N. Pallat and V. Pandey and A. Papadopoulou and H. B. Parkinson and J. L. Paton and L. Paudel and L. Paulucci and Z. Pavlovic and D. Payne and L. Pelegrina Gutiérrez and J. Plows and F. Psihas and G. Putnam and X. Qian and R. Rajagopalan and P. Ratoff and H. Ray and M. Reggiani-Guzzo and M. Roda and J. Romeo-Araujo and M. Ross-Lonergan and N. Rowe and P. Roy and I. Safa and A. Sanchez-Castillo and P. Sanchez-Lucas and D. W. Schmitz and A. Schneider and A. Schukraft and H. Scott and E. Segreto and J. Sensenig and M. Shaevitz and B. Slater and J. Smith and M. Soares-Nunes and M. Soderberg and S. Söldner-Rembold and J. Spitz and M. Stancari and T. Strauss and A. M. Szelc and C. Thorpe and D. Totani and M. Toups and C. Touramanis and L. Tung and G. A. Valdiviesso and R. G. Van de Water and A. Vázquez Ramos and L. Wan and M. Weber and H. Wei and T. Wester and A. White and A. Wilkinson and P. Wilson and T. Wongjirad and E. Worcester and M. Worcester and S. Yadav and E. Yandel and T. Yang and L. Yates and B. Yu and H. Yu and J. Yu and B. Zamorano and J. Zennamo and C. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.00245},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Input to the European Strategy for Particle Physics 2026 Update