Introducing a Markov chain-based time calibration procedure for multi-channel particle detectors: application to the SuperFGD and ToF detectors of the T2K experiment

Journal Article · Wed Oct 15 00:00:00 UTC 2025 · Journal of Instrumentation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/20/10/P10030 · OSTI ID:3010842

Abe, S.; Alarakia-Charles, H.; Alekseev, I.; Alt, C.; Arai, T.; Arihara, T.; Arimoto, S.; Artikov, A.M.; Awataguchi, Y.; Babu, N.; Baranov, V.; Barr, G.; Barrow, D.; Bartoszek, L.; Bernardi, L.; Berns, L.; Bhattacharjee, S.; Boikov, A.V.; Blanchet, A.; Blondel, A. ; Bonnemaison, A.; Bordoni, S.; Bui, M.H.; Bui, T.H.; Cadoux, F.; Cap, S.; Cauchois, A.; Chakrani, J.; Chong, P.S.; Chvirova, A.; Collard, P.; Danilov, M.; Davis, C.; Davouloury, V.; Davydov, Yu.I.; Dergacheva, A.; Domangue, C.; Douqa, D.; Doyle, T.A.; Drapier, O.; Eguchi, A.; Elias, J.; Erofeev, G.; Favre, Y.; Fedorova, D.; Fedotov, S.; Ferlewicz, D.; Fujii, Y.; Fujita, R.; Furui, Y.; Gastaldi, F.; Gendotti, A.; Germer, A.; Giannessi, L. ; Giganti, C.; Glagolev, V.; Guillaumat, R.; Ha, G.; Hastings, N.C.; Heitkamp, I.; Hu, J.; Husi, C.; Ichikawa, A.K.; Ishida, T.H.; Izmaylov, A.; Iwamoto, K.; Jakkapu, M.; Jesús-Valls, C.; Ji, J.Y.; Jonsson, P.; Jung, C.K.; Kakuno, H.; Kasturi, V.S. ; Kawaue, M.; Keener, P.T.; Khabibullin, M.; Khomutov, N.V.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kikawa, T.; Kikutani, H.; Kirichkov, N.V.; Klustová, A.; Kobayashi, H.; Kobayashi, T.; Koch, L.; Kodama, S.; Kolesnikov, A.O.; Kolupanova, M.; Korzenev, A.; Koto, T.; Kudenko, Y.; Kuribayashi, S.; Kutter, T.; Lachat, M.; Lachner, K.; Lamers James, M.; Last, D.; Latham, N.; Lawe, M.; Le, T.A.; Leon Silverio, D.; Li, B.; Li, W.; Lin, C.; Louzir, M.; Lux, T.; Mahtani, K.K.; Manly, S.; Martinez Caicedo, D.A.; Mashin, N.; Matsubara, T.; Mauger, C.; McFarland, K.S.; McGrew, C.; McKean, J.; Mefodiev, A.; Miller, E.; Mineev, O.; Minamino, A.; Moreno, A.L.; Muñoz, A.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakagiri, K.; Nakaya, T.; Nanni, J.; Nicolas, L.; Nguyen, A.D.; Nguyen, D.T.; Nguyen, H.; Nguyen, V.; Noah Messomo, E.; Nosek, T.; O'Keeffe, H.M.; Ogawa, T.; Okinaga, W.; Osu, L.; Paolone, V.; Pelleriti, G.; Pickering, L.; Ramírez, M.A.; Reh, M.; Reina, G. ; Riccio, C.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Saadi, F.; Sakashita, K.; Sallin, N.; Samani, S.; Sanchez, F.; Schefke, T.; Schloesser, C.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shaikovskiy, A.; Shvartsman, A.; Shiraishi, Y.; Shvarev, N.; Skrobova, N.; Smyczek, D.; Smy, M.; Speers, A.; Svirida, D.; Ta, M.; Tairafune, S.; Tani, M.; Tanigawa, H.; Teklu, A.; Tereshchenko, S.; Tereshchenko, V.V.; Thaiduc, T.; Tsushima, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Vasilyev, I.I.; Villa, E.; Vladisavljevic, T.; Wakabayashi, D.; Wallace, H.; Weber, A.; Whitney, N.; Wret, C.; Xu, Y.; Yang, Y.; Yershov, N.; Yrey, A.J.P.; Yokoyama, M.; Yoshimoto, Y.; Zhao, X.Y.; Zheng, H. ; Zhong, H.; Zhu, T.; Zimmerman, E.D.; Zito, M.

Inter-channel mis-synchronisation can be a limiting factor to the time resolution of high performance timing detectors with multiple readout channels and independent electronics units. In these systems, time calibration methods employed must be able to efficiently correct for minimal mis-synchronisation between channels and achieve the best detector performance. We present an iterative time calibration method based on Markov Chains, suitable for detector systems with multiple readout channels. Starting from correlated hit pairs alone, and without requiring an external reference time measurement, the method solves for fixed per-channel offsets, with precision limited only by the intrinsic single-channel resolution. A mathematical proof that the method is able to find the correct time offsets to be assigned to each detector channel in order to achieve inter-channel synchronisation is given, and it is shown that the number of iterations to reach convergence within the desired precision is controllable with a single parameter. Numerical studies are used to confirm unbiased recovery of true offsets. Finally, the application of the calibration method to the Super Fine-Grained Detector (SuperFGD) and the Time of Flight (TOF) detector at the upgraded T2K near detector (ND280) shows good improvement in overall timing resolution, demonstrating the effectiveness in a real-world scenario and scalability.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0010005
• OSTI ID: 3010842
• Journal Information: Journal of Instrumentation, Journal Name: Journal of Instrumentation Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 20; ISSN 1748-0221
• Publisher: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English