The 16th “Terascale Detector Workshop” took place at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) as part of the Helmholtz Alliance “Physics at the Terascale”, a network of German research institutes involved in the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Around 100 scientists came together to discuss the most important aspects of current experiments in which particles are accelerated to energies of up to several teraelectronvolts.

The local organizers teamed up with the Research Training Group “Particle Detectors for Future Experiments” and the PRISMA Detector Laboratory to combine a two-day “hands-on” school on silicon photomultipliers and scintillators with the traditional series of plenary lectures in the same week. The event began on Monday morning, May 19, with a tour of the MAMI accelerator on the campus of the JGU.

From Monday, May 19 to Wednesday, May 21, almost 30 registered young researchers took part in the PRISMA⁺ School 2024, which was organized and led by Dr. Stefan Schoppmann, Dr. Quirin Weitzel and members of the PRISMA Detector Laboratory. After an introductory lecture on silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and plastic and liquid scintillators, the participants began with practical laboratory exercises. With the help of photon kits, they investigated the properties of SiPMs, from their spectrum and resolution to their voltage and temperature dependence. In particular, gain, dark count rate and crosstalk were investigated. With this knowledge, the participants applied their kits to the detection of muons from cosmic radiation. Finally, the groups worked on practical exercises with coincidence logic and opaque scintillator samples.

From Wednesday, September 21 to Friday, September 23, around 100 researchers from various German universities and research institutes met to talk about and discuss the requirements, technologies and operation of particle detectors. “The program of the workshop was proposed by the organizing committee and is based on the latest developments in the field, with carefully selected topics and invited speakers, all of whom present their work in plenary sessions,” comments Prof. Dr. Lucia Masetti, organizer of the event. Renowned experts and young members of the international collaborations presented the latest developments in gas detectors, current studies on the radiation hardness of various types of equipment, the performance of the newly upgraded detectors at the LHC, the requirements that various physical measurements place on the design of the corresponding detector systems, as well as the particular challenges for trackers with a low material budget in order to minimize the influence on the trajectories and the energy of the particles flying through.

Not only were the LHC experiments represented, but also several future fixed-target experiments at CERN, as well as Mu3e at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and Belle II at the SuperKEKB accelerator complex in Japan. “For future experiments, studies on the radiation hardness and aging of various materials and devices are of great importance,” explains Prof. Masetti. As in previous years, the program was designed to give young researchers ample opportunity to exchange ideas with the experts in their field.