The forward physics facility: Physics opportunities and conceptual design

Nuclear Physics B · 2026-03-17

The Forward Physics Facility (FPF) is a proposed extension of the HL-LHC program designed to exploit the unique scientific opportunities offered by the intense flux of high energy neutrinos, and possibly new particles, in the far-forward direction. Located in a well-shielded cavern 627 m downstream of one of the LHC interaction points, the facility will support a broad and ambitious physics program that significantly expands the discovery potential of the HL-LHC. Equipped with four complementary detectors -- FLArE, FASER$ν$2, FASER2, and FORMOSA -- the FPF will enable breakthrough measurements that will advance our understanding of neutrino physics, quantum chromodynamics, and astroparticle physics, and will search for dark matter and other new particles. With this Letter of Intent, we propose the construction of the FPF cavern and the construction, integration, and installation of its experiments. We summarize the physics case, the facility design, the layout and components of the detectors, as well as the envisioned collaboration structure, cost estimate, and implementation timeline.

The forward physics facility: Physics opportunities and conceptual design

Nuclear Physics B · 2026-03-17

International audience

characterizingHNL data

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-07 · 1 citations

characterizingHNL data

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-07

First Measurement of the Muon Neutrino Interaction Cross Section and Flux as a Function of Energy at the LHC with FASER

Physical Review Letters · 2025-05-27 · 16 citations

This Letter presents the measurement of the energy-dependent neutrino-nucleon cross section in tungsten and the differential flux of muon neutrinos and antineutrinos. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of (65.6±1.4) fb^{-1}. Using the active electronic components of the FASER detector, 338.1±21.0 charged current muon neutrino interaction events are identified, with backgrounds from other processes subtracted. We unfold the neutrino events into a fiducial volume corresponding to the sensitive regions of the FASER detector and interpret the results in two ways: (i) we use the expected neutrino flux to measure the cross section, and (ii) we use the predicted cross section to measure the neutrino flux. Both results are presented in six bins of neutrino energy, achieving the first differential measurement in the TeV range. The observed distributions align with standard model predictions. Using this differential data, we extract the contributions of neutrinos from pion and kaon decays.

Latest neutrino results from the FASER experiment and their implications for forward hadron production

ArXiv.org · 2025-07-31 · 2 citations

The muon puzzle -- an excess of muons relative to simulation predictions in ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray air showers -- has been reported by many experiments. This suggests that forward particle production in hadronic interactions is not fully understood. Some of the scenarios proposed to resolve this predict reduced production of forward neutral pions and enhanced production of forward kaons (or other particles). The FASER experiment at the LHC is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point and is sensitive to neutrinos and muons, which are the decay products of forward charged pions and kaons. In this study, the latest measurements of electron and muon neutrino fluxes are presented using the data corresponding to 9.5 $\mathrm{fb^{-1}}$ and 65.6 $\mathrm{fb^{-1}}$ of proton-proton collisions with $\sqrt{s}=13.6~\mathrm{TeV}$ by the FASER$ν$ and the FASER electronic detector, respectively. These fluxes are compared with predictions from recent hadronic interaction models, including EPOS-LHCr, SIBYLL 2.3e, and QGSJET 3. The predictions are generally consistent with the measured fluxes from FASER, although some discrepancies appear in certain energy bins. More precise flux measurements with additional data will follow soon, enabling validation of pion, kaon, and charm meson production with finer energy binning, reduced uncertainties, and multi-differential analyses.

Characterizing Heavy Neutral Leptons: Measuring Parameters, Discriminating Majorana versus Dirac, and Using FASER2 as a Trigger for ATLAS

ArXiv.org · 2025-10-17

This work explores the potential of the proposed FASER2 experiment at the LHC to determine the properties of a discovered heavy neutral lepton (HNL), including its mass, couplings, and whether it is a Majorana or Dirac fermion. We first consider a Majorana HNL with mass $m_N = 1.84\,\rm{GeV}$ that is primarily produced through decays $D \to μN$ at the ATLAS interaction point. Such HNLs may travel macroscopic distances in the far-forward direction and then decay, yielding approximately 8600 $N \to μπ$ decays in FASER2 at the High-Luminosity LHC. With FASER2 measurements alone, the HNL's mass and couplings can be measured to fractional uncertainties of approximately 0.1% and 3% at 95% CL, respectively, and the Dirac fermion hypothesis can be rejected at 99.8% CL. We then consider a second, more difficult, case of a Majorana HNL with mass $m_N = 2.00\,\rm{GeV}$, yielding only 80 $N \to μπ$ decays in FASER2. With FASER2 alone, measurements of HNL properties are still possible, but somewhat less precise. However, by using FASER2 as a trigger for ATLAS and measuring the charge of the muon produced in association with the HNL at ATLAS to search for lepton number violation, one can precisely measure the HNL's properties and reject the Dirac fermion hypothesis at 99.7% CL. These results show that FASER2, sometimes in coordination with ATLAS, can precisely determine HNL properties, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of neutrino masses, baryogenesis, and the fundamental symmetries of nature.

Reconstruction and Performance Evaluation of FASER's Emulsion Detector at the LHC

ArXiv.org · 2025-04-17 · 2 citations

This paper presents the reconstruction and performance evaluation of the FASER$ν$ emulsion detector, which aims to measure interactions from neutrinos produced in the forward direction of proton-proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The detector, composed of tungsten plates interleaved with emulsion films, records charged particles with sub-micron precision. A key challenge arises from the extremely high track density environment, reaching $\mathcal{O}(10^5)$ tracks per cm$^2$. To address this, dedicated alignment techniques and track reconstruction algorithms have been developed, building on techniques from previous experiments and introducing further optimizations. The performance of the detector is studied by evaluating the single-film efficiency, position and angular resolution, and the impact parameter distribution of reconstructed vertices. The results demonstrate that an alignment precision of 0.3 micrometers and robust track and vertex reconstruction are achieved, enabling accurate neutrino measurements in the TeV energy range.

A Dataset and Benchmark for Enhancing Retained Foreign Object Detection Through Physics-Based Image Synthesis

Lecture notes in computer science · 2025-10-11

Shining light on the dark sector: search for axion-like particles and other new physics in photonic final states with FASER

Journal of High Energy Physics · 2025-01-31 · 17 citations

A bstract The first FASER search for a light, long-lived particle decaying into a pair of photons is reported. The search uses LHC proton-proton collision data at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:msqrt> </mml:math> = 13 . 6 TeV collected in 2022 and 2023, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 57 . 7 fb − 1 . A model with axion-like particles (ALPs) dominantly coupled to weak gauge bosons is the primary target. Signal events are characterised by high-energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter and no signal in the veto scintillators. One event is observed, compared to a background expectation of 0 . 44 ± 0 . 39 events, which is entirely dominated by neutrino interactions. World-leading constraints on ALPs are obtained for masses up to 300 MeV and couplings to the Standard Model W gauge boson, g aWW , around 10 − 4 GeV − 1 , testing a previously unexplored region of parameter space. Other new particle models that lead to the same experimental signature, including ALPs coupled to gluons or photons, U(1) B gauge bosons, up-philic scalars, and a Type-I two-Higgs doublet model, are also considered for interpretation, and new constraints on previously viable parameter space are presented in this paper.