Speaker
Description
Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are selected as the photodetector technology for the dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector of the ePIC experiment at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). A large-area prototype readout surface consisting of a total of 1280 3 x 3 mm$^{2}$ SiPM sensors was recently built and installed on the dRICH prototype during a beam test in October 2023 at the CERN-PS. The SiPM prototype readout is based on a novel EIC-driven prototype photodetection unit (PDU) developed by INFN from a concept that integrates all SiPM services (cooling, front-end and readout electronics) in a $\approx$ 5 x 5 x 14 cm$^{3}$ volume. A few PDU detector prototypes have been realized featuring the full electronics chain for the readout of the SiPM sensors, based on the second version of the ALCOR chip developed by INFN Torino.
In this presentation I will discuss the features of the dRICH SiPM photodetector unit and the details that lead to the realization of a successful beam test at CERN-PS in October 2023. The results from the analysis of the beam test data will also be presented to highlight the performance of the new SiPM detector readout surface. An approach based on machine learning is also explored for Cherenkov image reconstruction and compared to classical ring reconstruction algorithms.
