After approximately 18 months, the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider was ready to restart its work. The long shutdown (LS1) provided ample time to upgrade the collider and the Belle II detector. Since 20 February Belle II is recording collision data again.
Björn Spruck from AG Sfienti is currently in Japan making sure the new Pixel Vertex Detector (PXD2), which was installed last year during LS1, is operational for successful data collection.
After years of development work, the new Pixel Vertex Detector (PXD2) was successfully installed in the international Belle-II experiment at the SuperKEKB electron-positron accelerator in Japan. Under our leadership, real-time monitoring of data quality was implemented and key sections of the software controlling the PXD2 were programmed. In addition, sensor modules were tested at MAMI for their radiation hardness.
Read the full press release here
The Belle II detector in Japan is getting a new pixel detector. After long preparations and an exciting journey in the passenger cabin of an aircraft, the new pixel detector PXD2 has now arrived safely in Japan and can replace its not fully instrumented predecessor.
At the moment, the SuperKEKB accelerator in Japan is at a standstill. One of the main reasons for this is the planned installation of the new two-layer Belle II Pixel Vertex Detector (PXD2). The greatly improved small detector, which is responsible for measuring the shortest-lived particle decays in the Belle II detector, is to replace the current PXD1. This is necessary in view of future data-taking periods with higher luminosity and the associated greater hit density on the sensors, which are only a few millimetres away from the beam axis, in order to avoid performance losses for physics analyses.
Continue reading "Belle II gets a new centrepiece: The new pixel detector PXD2 has arrived in Japan"
