24,728 papers in this slice of arXiv.
Vishal Kumar, Andreas Jehle, Tizian Lorenzen +4
Fast pixelated detectors are driving 4D-STEM toward microsecond dwell times, a regime in which the finite response of the scan deflection coils becomes comparable to the dwell time itself. Using direct probe imaging and sub-frame diffraction analysis, we document a significant intra-dwell scan-coil delay that systematically smears the recorded signal anisotropically along the fast scan direction, with a settling timescale of several tens of microseconds. We present a phase-correlation-based sub-frame alignment procedure that measures and corrects this smearing, and we assess its impact on focused and defocused 4D-STEM reconstructions over a range of scan step sizes. The correction restores signal across a broad range of spatial frequencies, with the largest gains at the large step sizes required for low-dose biological imaging. Because it operates on existing data with no modification to the microscope, the method offers a practical route to recovering signal that would otherwise be lost to scan-coil delay.
Kaido Suzuki, Ryo Iden, Ken-ichi Harada +1
The high-frequency sensitivity of laser-interferometric gravitational-wave detectors is limited by quantum shot noise. Increasing the circulating optical power reduces shot noise, but is constrained by thermal effects and optomechanical instabilities. We propose cyclic-quadrature intracavity signal amplification, in which an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) inside a detuned signal-recycling cavity is used as a phase-sensitive amplifier of the gravitational-wave signal quadrature. By detuning the signal-recycling cavity for π/4, the optical quadratures rotate by π/2 on each round trip, so a signal generated in the phase quadrature appears in the readout phase quadrature only after odd-numbered passes through the OPA. Successive contributions to the readout phase quadrature, which are separated by two round trips, have alternating signs, making this two-round-trip evolution anti-resonant. During each two-round-trip cycle, however, the same field experiences one amplification and one deamplification, so neither vacuum squeezing nor parametric gain accumulates. Despite the destructive interference between signal contributions separated by two round trips, the OPA increases the signal component extracted through the output coupler, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio. When the OPA gain is sufficiently large, the response approaches that of an interferometer with an effective power enhancement of 1/τ2, where τ is the amplitude transmissivity of the quadrature-rotation mirror that forms the amplifier cavity. We apply the proposed scheme to a current gravitational-wave detector with a near-future upgrade and show that it improves the quantum-noise-limited sensitivity over a broad frequency range extending into the kilohertz band.
Emilia Majerz, Jacek Otwinowski, Witold Dzwinel +1
Simulating the ALICE Zero Degree Calorimeter (ZDC) neutron detector responses at the LHC is computationally expensive, requiring complex Monte Carlo chains. We develop a generative surrogate, focusing on Normalizing Flows (NFs). Through transfer learning, we pre-train on the full imbalanced dataset and fine-tune specialized models for different particle types (γ, n, Λ, KS0, Σ+) using two gradual-unfreezing schemes. As standard ZDC metrics like Wasserstein distance overlook conditional structure, we introduce refined metrics: conditional weighted MAE, dispersion ratio, and Jaccard co-activation error, that better capture physics-relevant input-output dependencies and response variability. Our ensemble of fine-tuned models achieves a Wasserstein distance of 1.61±0.02, outperforming baselines across all metrics. This work provides a generalizable NF-based framework for LHC detector simulation, combining NFs, conditional fine-tuning, and physics-motivated evaluation.
Angel Bueno Rodriguez, Christina Hrytsiuk, Maximilian Perez Prada +6
Maritime cargo inspection requires imaging technologies capable of detecting concealed threats within dense, sealed containers, a role for which Muon Scattering Tomography (MST) is well suited: it images their interior through the density-dependent deflection of naturally occurring cosmic muons. However, MST remains constrained by the scarcity of labeled scans and by a cosmic muon flux that is both low and stochastic. Anomaly detection algorithms must therefore be trained on simulations, yet operate on measured scans acquired under different conditions, a sim-to-real gap that remains a central obstacle to operational deployment. We present the first end-to-end anomaly detection framework for maritime MST, from physically consistent simulations to validation on real container scans from the SilentBorder demonstration campaign. The task is cast as an out-of-distribution problem: the framework learns the spatial configurations of benign cargo and flags threats as deviations in the reconstruction error space, remaining agnostic to threat type and geometry. An attention U-Net, trained exclusively on benign synthetic scenes, preserves small-scale scattering signatures through its skip connections, and contraband consequently persists in the pixel-wise reconstruction error instead of being absorbed into the reconstructed background. A scoring function, the Homogeneity Index (HI), suppresses spatially uniform cosmic-ray statistical noise while amplifying coherent anomaly signatures: where pixel-level metrics collapse under a change of cargo configuration, HI retains its discriminative power. We evaluate three training strategies across two distinct cargo configurations under operational one-hour scan times, and test the best model on real muon cargo scans. The results for the studied scenarios indicate that the sim-to-real gap can be bridged.
N. Ackermann, H. Bonet, C. Buck +13
The CONUS+ experiment is measuring the coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEνNS) process using reactor anti-neutrinos as a source and four low energy threshold point-contact high-purity germanium spectrometers for their detection. It achieved the first measurement of coherent neutrino scattering at a nuclear reactor in run 1 of the experiment with a detection energy threshold of 160 eVee. This work presents the decomposition of the background spectra of the three detectors used in the run 1 analysis and the development of the corresponding background model with Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulations. The background model is used as the underlying input for the likelihood fit of the analysis. It is shown that reactor-correlated backgrounds are subdominant in all energy regions, specifically in the region of interest for CEνNS searches below 350 eVee where their contribution is one order of magnitude below the expected CEνNS signal. Furthermore, cosmic ray muons and neutrons are identified as the dominant background source below 1 keVee contributing approximately 75 - 90 % of the recorded background rate. The final background model predicts an average rate of (47.5 ± 3.2) d−1 kg−1 in reactor on measurement in the energy region between [0.4, 1.0] keVee, which is in excellent agreement with the average measured value of (48.0 ± 0.6) d−1 kg−1. Similar agreement is found in all energy regions of both reactor on and off measurements.
Kentaro Kitagawa
Automated measurement of condensed-matter experiments requires instrument-control, data-acquisition, and user-interface threads to access shared, naturally hierarchical state concurrently. Coarse-grained locking can delay acquisition and cause sample loss, whereas fine-grained locking requires deadlock-prone lock ordering across instruments. Instead, we describe the lock-free software transactional memory (STM) that has been at the core of an open-source measurement platform for 16 years, in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments and, more recently, in optically detected magnetic resonance experiments. The STM organizes this state as a tree and provides atomic subtree updates and consistent subtree snapshots. After initial bundling, an unchanged subtree snapshot is acquired in O(1) time through a custom lock-free atomic shared pointer. Within each bounded TLA+ configuration, TLC exhaustively checks the state space, establishing the safety and livelock-freedom properties specified for that configuration. Bounded executions of the atomic shared-pointer implementation are separately checked under the C11 weak-memory model. The same Snapshot and Transaction interfaces are exposed to Python scripting and AI-assisted automation.
David Rohr for the ALICE Collaboration
ALICE, the dedicated heavy ion experiment at the LHC, records Pb-Pb collisions at an interaction rate of up to 50 kHz. It was the first LHC experiment to leverage GPUs for online data processing during LHC Runs 1 and 2, and its Run 3 online data processing is now fully based on GPUs with more than 90% of the compute load offloaded to the accelerator. In order to use its online processing server farm also for offline processing in an efficient way while the LHC is not operating, ALICE has been running the offline TPC tracking on GPUs since 2023. Since then, ALICE has been conducting an ongoing effort to offload more offline reconstruction steps to GPUs, and to use the GPUs at other GRID sites beyond the ALICE online computing farm for offline reconstruction. In particular, porting the track model decoding and ITS tracking to GPU has improved the throughput by 29%. In 2026, ALICE ran the first GPU reconstruction jobs on the NVIDIA GPUs of the NERSC Perlmutter cluster, marking the first use of GPUs for LHC offline reconstruction on the GRID. Users can submit GPU reconstruction jobs by specifying only the required GPU count and type, while the underlying infrastructure handles all remaining configurations transparently.
Doohyeok Lee, Jae Young Cho, Chang Hyon Ha +23
The COSINE-100 experiment was designed to test the DAMA/LIBRA annual-modulation claim using low-background NaI(Tl) detectors. For the COSINE-100U upgrade, we developed a new crystal-encapsulation system to increase light-collection efficiency while preserving long-term detector stability, thereby improving sensitivity to low-mass dark matter. The upgraded design eliminates the quartz optical windows used in COSINE-100 and directly couples the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to the crystal end faces through 2-mm-thick silicone optical pads, thereby reducing the number of optical interfaces. For the larger crystals, the crystal edges were beveled to guide scintillation light more efficiently onto 3-inch high-quantum-efficiency PMTs. The performance study uses 2462 h (102.6 days) of room-temperature COSINE-100U data and, for direct background comparisons, reference COSINE-100 data acquired near the end of operation. 698 h (29.1 days) of COSINE-100 data acquired near the end of operation in March 2023. All eight crystals showed higher light yields than in COSINE-100, with values ranging from 15.8 to 27.7 p.e./keV; six crystals exceeded 20 p.e./keV. The measured bulk-α rates were lower than the COSINE-100 values and consistent with the expected time evolution of internal 210Pb, while the 1--2-MeV surface-α rates were substantially reduced. The upgrade also restored two crystals that had previously been excluded from the COSINE-100 physics analysis because of poor optical performance. Independent validation tests demonstrated that the encapsulation remains mechanically robust and optically stable during long-term immersion in liquid scintillator at low temperature. This paper presents the encapsulation design, the room-temperature detector performance, and the reduction in surface-related backgrounds achieved at the Yemilab facility.
W. K. Kim, H. Y. Lee, K. W. Kim +1
We report the first temperature-dependent characterization of a NaI(Tl) crystal readout by two silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) directly coupled to opposite ends of the crystal for rare-event searches. A 6 mm×6 mm×13 mm NaI(Tl) crystal was directly coupled to two SiPMs and characterized in a liquid nitrogen-cooled cryostat over a temperature range of 94−293 K. The light yield, energy resolution, and scintillation decay time were measured using γ-ray peak from a 241Am source. After correcting for optical crosstalk contributions, the light yield increased, reaching 17.7±1.1 photoelectrons/keV at 238 K, corresponding to a 34.5% enhancement relative to room temperature (293 K). Furthermore, dual-channel configuration effectively suppresses random thermal noise via coincidence triggers, which together with the observed increase in light yield, provides a critical pathway toward lowering the energy threshold for dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino−nucleus scattering searches.
F. Albiol, Elena Larrea Estrelles, Salvador Tortajada +4
Compton cameras are proposed for tasks whose value decays with delay: verifying a range during irradiation, guiding an intervention, characterising an inaccessible volume, surveying a band no telescope covers. Whether a device can serve such a task is settled by the composition of its whole chain, while the literature that would answer the question is organised by stage -- so claims made at application level routinely rest on evidence obtained at component level. This review walks that chain, asking at each stage what binds first and what a reader can determine from the published text, and then asks what governs whether a capability transfers between groups and between application domains. The evidence is of two kinds: 83 full texts scored in context against defined markers, and, for five application domains measured alike, the size of the receiving literature, of the need it states, of the incumbent and of deployment commitment. Performance is reported at one operating point in 65 of 83 full texts, with count rate swept in none: the field reports values where transfer requires gradients. An accelerator is used in 39 works and a learned model in 31, while separability is discussed in 28, a memory footprint given in 9, and the cost of a precomputation or the inference time of a model in none. Across domains, neither the size of the receiving literature, nor of the incumbent, nor of the stated need orders the domains as deployment commitment does, while whether the incumbent can serve the task at all, and how many domain boundaries the output must cross, do so consistently. The distribution of publication is close to the inverse of the distribution of deployment commitment. We give the quantities a report must contain for a third party to judge whether a method fits an application it was not built for.
Simone Probst, Marc Serra Garcia, Johan O. A. Robertsson +1
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) measures dynamic strain along a fiber-optic cable, offering a robust, densely-sampled alternative to traditional seismic sensors. To ensure good ground-to-cable coupling, cables are typically buried in a shallow trench. Unburied surface deployments are attractive for rapid-response terrestrial applications as well as extraterrestrial missions, such as on the Moon, where burial is impractical. However, unburied DAS often suffers from severely degraded signal quality, due to poor strain transfer from ground to cable. The physical mechanism responsible remains unknown. Here, we identify bending stress relief as a mechanism that can explain this loss: suspended cable segments accommodate ground strain by bending rather than by stretching or compressing, reducing the measurable axial strain that reaches the fiber. We develop the first analytical and numerical model of unburied DAS coupling, representing the draped cable as a series of suspended segments between discrete ground contact points, to explain and quantify the bending stress relief mechanism. Our analysis reveals a dimensionless parameter, Theta, set by the ratio of the cable's initial gravity-induced sag to its radius, which governs the strain transfer efficiency. Once a segment's sag exceeds a quarter of the cable's radius, ground displacement starts to be absorbed by bending rather than being transferred as measurable axial strain. This framework predicts how mechanical properties, cable dimensions, pretension, and gravity affect strain transfer efficiency and provides quantitative guidelines for optimizing cable design and deployment strategies on both Earth and the Moon.
E. Craig Dukes, Ralf Ehrlich, Daniel Lee +4
Scintillator counters employing embedded wavelength-shifting fibers have been used in particle physics experiments for several decades. Such counters have been produced with square, rectangular, and triangular profiles. An advantage of arrays of triangular counters is that their position resolution can be greatly enhanced by interpolation between adjacent counters using their relative light yields. We report here on a testbeam study of the position resolution of such a scintillator hodoscope and compare the results to a simulation. We find an order of magnitude improvement in the position resolution over that found by simply using the fiber separation.
Jayson R. Vavrek, Thomas D. MacDonald, Yue Shi Lai
We present methods for recovering spectroscopic information from multiple concurrent photon interactions that would normally be lost due to pulse pileup. In particular, we focus on machine learning methods to recover information based on spatial (rather than temporal) energy deposition patterns in position-sensitive detectors. We construct two representative problems, namely (1) recovering the fraction of total energy deposition stemming from a monoenergetic signal vs. a smooth background; and (2) recovering the signal multiplicity, i.e., the number of interacting photons, in a pure-source-term example. In the signal fraction recovery problem, we use 3D convolutional neural networks (CNNs), fully-connected neural networks (FCNNs), a network based on the PointNet++ architecture, and two non-machine-learning methods to estimate the signal fraction in synthetic data when up to 20 total piled-up photons are present. The CNN, FCNN, and PointNet++ models reconstruct the signal energy deposition fractions with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 14.5%, 18.8%, and 16.8% given training datasets that fit in-core, while the classical methods perform poorly and will not improve with additional training data. In the multiplicity recovery problem, we demonstrate that, when trained with synthetically-piled-up real Cs-137 data, the 3D CNN architecture can recover the multiplicity with sub-photon RMSE, outperforming non-ML baselines. These methods can be adapted to future, more specific photon active interrogation applications, helping to re-enable spectroscopic analyses in those domains.
Dionysios P. Theodosopoulos, Katherine Freese, Chris Kelso +1
Paleo-detectors record and retain crystal damage in ancient minerals from nuclear recoils induced by dark matter scattering over geological timescales. Previous studies have shown that paleo-detectors can provide sensitivity to a variety of dark matter (DM) scenarios which is complementary to conventional direct-detection experiments. In this paper, we complete the first detailed study of how well paleo-detectors can reconstruct DM parameters or distinguish between different types of DM interactions with nuclei in the presence of a DM signal, considering both elastic and inelastic DM-nucleus scattering. For representative nuclear recoil track read-out scenarios, we demonstrate that weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) DM masses can be reconstructed for a variety of Non-Relativistic Effective Field Theory (NREFT) interactions between WIMPs and nuclei. In particular, paleo-detectors are projected to be capable of reconstructing WIMP masses ≲ 10 GeV, a regime that is challenging for conventional direct-detection experiments; further, we find that paleo-detectors could reconstruct WIMP masses up to 1 TeV for hypothetical signals within their accessible parameter space, extending the mass range over which reconstruction is possible by up to a factor of ∼2 compared with analogous studies of conventional direct-detection experiments. In addition, we demonstrate that paleo-detectors could discriminate between canonical spin-independent or spin-dependent NREFT interactions and non-canonical interactions which can depend on the relative velocity or momentum transferred between the WIMP and nucleus. Specifically, at WIMP masses ≳ 10 GeV, we project that canonical NREFT interactions can be excluded by paleo-detectors in the cases of nearly all non-canonical interactions without measurement of nuclear recoil direction, which conventional experiments typically require.
G. Angloher, M. R. Bharadwaj, A. Boehmer +42
The remoTES design, developed within the COSINUS experiment, enables a broader range of materials to be operated as cryogenic calorimeters read out with Transition Edge Sensors (TESs). In this configuration, the TES is fabricated onto a separate chip and thermally coupled to the absorber via a gold (Au) link. The remoTES concept has been successfully tested on various target materials. To further enhance detector performance and to fully exploit the advantages of the remote coupling design a series of optimization studies has been conducted using silicon (Si) absorbers as benchmark. This work presents an evaluation of several measurements aimed at reducing the thermal boundary resistance and enhancing signal transmission across Si remoTES interfaces, specifically from the absorber to the phonon collector and from the phonon collector to the TES. By testing a new Au link design and three distinct phonon collector configurations, Au, copper, and aluminum (Al)/Au, we achieved a baseline resolution of (21.5 +/- 0.3)eV using the Al/Au phonon collector.
Nora Timm, Florian Hartwig, Jonas Faltinath +3
Magneto-mechanical resonators (MMRs) are an emerging class of passive, wireless sensors. Their torsional oscillation mode has recently been established for sensing and tracking applications. In this work, we report the identification and characterization of a second mechanical mode, the tilting mode, that provides sensitivity along an axis inaccessible to the torsional mode, opening up a new degree of freedom for tracking and sensing with a single MMR sensor. We derive an analytical model predicting the tilting frequency as a function of the geometric and magnetic parameters of the resonator, compare the tilting mode frequency to that of the torsional mode, and obtain a characteristic frequency ratio between the torsional and the tilting mode in the small angle approximation. Experimental characterization using three-axis excitation and detection confirms the mode's existence and its directional selectivity. Notably, the three-axis frequency response shows no observable cross-coupling between the torsional and the tilting mode. We further show that the tilting mode frequency follows the predicted dependence on magnet distance, confirming the analytical model and the mode's applicability for sensing, analogous to that of the torsional mode.
Ingo Rehberg, Helmut Soltner, Peter Blümler
A long-standing goal in magnet design is to completely surround a volume of highly homogeneous magnetic field with permanent magnets while maintaining practical access to that volume. In this work, we present a theoretical and experimental investigation of mechanically accessible spherical magnets in Halbach configuration that can be opened with minimal or vanishing force. Focusing on dipolar Halbach spheres composed of discrete magnetic subunits, we derive conditions for force-free opening along specific cutting planes. These conditions define a continuous set of geometries for which tensile magnetic forces cancel, leaving only shear components, enabling mechanically effortless opening. The theoretical predictions are validated experimentally using icosahedral approximations of the Halbach sphere, for which both opening forces and magnetic field properties are measured. The results demonstrate that excellent field homogeneity can be preserved while reducing opening forces by orders of magnitude. Although discussed in detail for the dipolar case, the theoretical framework is general and applicable to higher-order multipole Halbach systems. Finally, the concepts are extended to spherocylindrical Halbach configurations, highlighting their potential for large-volume, highly homogeneous, and mechanically accessible permanent-magnet systems for magnetic resonance
Aditya Raghavan, Yu Liu, Ian Mercer +2
Scanning probe microscopy provides nanoscale access to structural, electrical, electromechanical, magnetic, and mechanical properties of materials. Its increasing use for wafer-scale characterization and combinatorial materials exploration creates a need to distribute measurements efficiently across large spatial domains. This is particularly important when available modalities differ in acquisition time and potential for tip and sample damage, making exhaustive multimodal mapping over spatial grids impractical. Here, we demonstrate multitask scanning probe microscopy, a live, closed-loop workflow in which a multitask Gaussian process learns spatial and cross-modal relationships and autonomously selects both the next measurement location and the next experimental protocol. The approach is implemented on an automated large-sample atomic force microscope and demonstrated on a composition-spread AlScN wafer using tapping-mode and Dual AC Resonance Tracking (DART) measurements. Paired initial measurements establish the relation between the tasks, after which noncoincident measurements are used to update both response landscapes. The resulting workflow extends active learning in scanning probe microscopy from spatial sampling to autonomous allocation of measurement modalities and provides a basis for combining rapid, weakly perturbative imaging with slower contact, electrical, electromechanical, magnetic, or spectroscopic measurements.
De Zhang, Kuo Ma, Juzheng Zhang +3
We present a high-gain, low-noise preamplifier board designed for reading out low-charge semiconductor detectors--specifically Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs) and three-dimensional (3D) silicon sensors--in high-energy physics applications. The circuit employs a three-stage architecture featuring a discrete SiGe:C bipolar junction transistor (BJT)-based transimpedance amplifier (TIA) front-end followed by two resistive feedback amplification stages using LTC6431 chips. This configuration achieves a charge gain of 115.27 mV ns/fC with excellent linearity over an input range of 0.5 fC to 25 fC and a wide bandwidth spanning from 34.0 MHz to 594.3 MHz. Experimental evaluations coupled with LGAD detectors demonstrate a time resolution of 36.41 ps and an equivalent noise charge (ENC) of 0.18 fC at 20 °C. Furthermore, tests with conventional PIN sensors without a gain layer yield a timing resolution of 76.10 ps with an ENC of 0.10 fC, and tests with the 3D silicon detector yield 39.40 ps with an ENC of 0.09 fC, all measured under the same thermal condition. All configurations confirm the board's capability in low-signal regimes, significantly outperforming previous reference designs. A six-channel variant of the board has also been developed to support position-sensitive measurements. These findings demonstrate the board's suitability for laboratory-based 4D tracking detector characterisation, while simultaneously providing the groundwork for dedicated ASIC development.
B. Azmoun, Y. Ilieva, Y. Jin +9
High-Rate Picosecond Photodetectors (HRPPDs) are state-of-the-art microchannel-plate (MCP) photodetectors that offer excellent timing and spatial resolution, together with high single-photon detection efficiency. They are currently being considered for the ePIC experiment at the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. A key requirement for the application of this technology is reliable operation in a strong magnetic field up to 1.5 T, with magnetic flux lines at an inclination of ≤15∘ to the normal of the MCP surface. Magnetic field-induced distortions of the collected charge in MCP-based detectors can be compensated by tuning the operating parameters; however, the objective of this study is to quantify this performance in the case of the EIC-HRPPD, a particular MCP stack-up specialized for operation within ePIC. This photosensor employs a high quantum efficiency photocathode, 10 μm capillary pores, narrow transfer gaps, and a custom ceramic pixelated DC-coupled readout. This article explores the optimal operating parameters (mainly the voltages applied across the gaps and the MCPs) for single photon detection at various inclination angles in a uniform field up to 1.8 T. Ultimately, it was found that the gain and single photon detection efficiency of the HRRPD could be recovered over a range of polar inclination angles up to ±35∘.