The Super Fine-Grained Detector for the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment
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 the Super Fine-Grained Detector (SuperFGD), made of approximately 2 million optically isolated 1 cm 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/. 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.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.14921,
title = {The Super Fine-Grained Detector for the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment},
author = {S. Abe and H. Alarakia-Charles and I. Alekseev and T. Arai and T. Arihara and S. Arimoto and A. M. Artikov and Y. Awataguchi and N. Babu and V. Baranov and G. Barr and D. Barrow and L. Bartoszek and A. Beliakova and L. Bernardi and L. Berns and S. Bhattacharjee and A. V. Boikov and A. Blondel and A. Bonnemaison and F. Cadoux and S. Cap and A. Cauchois and J. Chakrani and P. S. Chong and A. Chvirova and M. Danilov and C. Davis and V. Davouloury and Yu. I. Davydov and A. Dergacheva and C. Domangue and D. Douqa and T. A. Doyle and O. Drapier and A. Eguchi and J. Elias and G. Erofeev and Y. Favre and D. Fedorova and S. Fedotov and D. Ferlewicz and Y. Fujii and R. Fujita and Y. Furui and F. Gastaldi and A. Gendotti and A. Germer and L. Giannessi and C. Giganti and V. Glagolev and R. Guillaumat and I. Heitkamp and J. Hu and C. Husi and A. K. Ichikawa and T. H. Ishida and A. Izmaylov and K. Iwamoto and M. Jakkapu and C. Jesús-Valls and J. Y. Ji and J. Juneau and C. K. Jung and H. Kakuno and M. Kawaue and P. T. Keener and M. Khabibullin and N. V. Khomutov and A. Khotjantsev and T. Kikawa and H. Kikutani and N. V. Kirichkov and H. Kobayashi and T. Kobayashi and L. Koch and S. Kodama and A. O. Kolesnikov and M. Kolupanova and T. Koto and Y. Kudenko and S. Kuribayashi and T. Kutter and M. Lachat and K. Lachner and M. Lamers James and D. Last and N. Latham and D. Leon Silverio and B. Li and W. Li and C. Lin and M. Louzir and T. Lux and K. K. Mahtani and S. Manly and D. A. Martinez Caicedo and N. Mashin and T. Matsubara and C. Mauger and K. S. McFarland and C. McGrew and J. McKean and A. Mefodiev and E. Miller and O. Mineev and A. Minamino and A. L. Moreno and A. Muñoz and T. Nakadaira and K. Nakagiri and T. Nakaya and J. Nanni and L. Nicolas and V. Nguyen and E. Noah Messomo and T. Nosek and H. M. O'Keeffe and T. Ogawa and W. Okinaga and L. Osu and V. Paolone and G. Pelleriti and L. Pickering and M. A. Ramírez and M. Reh and G. Reina and C. Riccio and A. Rubbia and F. Saadi and K. Sakashita and N. Sallin and F. Sanchez and T. Schefke and C. Schloesser and D. Sgalaberna and A. Shaikovskiy and N. Shvarev and A. Shvartsman and Y. Shiraishi and N. Skrobova and A. Speers and M. Smy and D. Svirida and S. Tairafune and M. Tani and H. Tanigawa and A. Teklu and S. Tereshchenko and V. V. Tereshchenko and T. Tsushima and M. Tzanov and R. Van Berg and I. I. Vasilyev and T. Vladisavljevic and D. Wakabayashi and H. Wallace and A. Weber and N. Whitney and C. Wret and Y. Xu and Y. Yang and N. Yershov and A. J. P. Yrey and M. Yokoyama and Y. Yoshimoto and X. Y. Zhao and H. Zheng and H. Zhong and T. Zhu and E. D. Zimmerman and M. Zito},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.14921},
year = {2026}
}