Aerogel RICH Counter at the Belle II Detector

Abstract

We report on the design, operation, and performance of a novel proximity-focusing Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector equipped with a multilayer focusing aerogel radiator, developed for the forward region of the Belle II spectrometer at the SuperKEKB $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider. The system achieves effective separation of charged pions, kaons, and protons across the full kinematic range of the experiment, from 0.5 GeV/c to 4 GeV/c. To date, the detector has successfully operated in data-taking, contributing to the collection and analysis of nearly 600/fb of Belle II $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collision data.

25 pages, 30 figures. Corresponding authors: S. Korpar, S. Nishida