Conveners
Fundamental physics
- Matthias Laubenstein (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is the first bolometric experiment searching for 0νββ decay that has been able to reach the one-tonne mass scale. The detector, located at the LNGS in Italy, consists of an array of 988 TeO2 crystals arranged in a compact cylindrical structure of 19 towers. CUORE began its first physics data run in 2017 at a base temperature of...
DarkSide-20k is a direct dark matter search experiment, that looks for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) events. The detector is based on an ultrapure liquid Argon double-phase Time Projection Chamber, which will be located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. In the rare event search experiments (like the DarkSide case), it is crucial to keep under control any background...
Recently, efforts have been made to improve the low-level measurements in Hf isotopes. In particular a passive approach, using a gamma-ray spectrometry technique, and active one, using the so-called “source = detector” approach have been adopted and here summarized. Both the techniques are implemented and optimized to investigate rare nuclear decays in Hf nuclides, such as $\alpha$ decay to...
One of the most energetic events in the Universe are core-collapse Supernovae (SNe), where almost all the star's binding energy is released as neutrinos. These particles are direct probes of the processes occurring in the stellar core and provide unique insights into the gravitational collapse and the neutrino properties. Currently, astroparticle physics is in need of SN observations and of a...
Recent development of ultra-sensitive particle detectors have opened the possibility to detect the neutrinos via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS). Having a larger cross-section, this process offers opportunities to further study this elusive particle in rather compact detectors and paves the way for new explorations beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.
The...
CaWO4 is a well-known target material for experiments searching for rare events like coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering with NUCLEUS or hypothetical dark matter-nucleus scattering with CRESST. Pushing the detection threshold down to sub-keV energies, experiments encounter new phenomena like an exponential rise of observed events towards lowest energies of yet unknown...
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a 20 kton multi-purpose liquid scintillator detector currently being built in a dedicated underground laboratory in China, expected to start taking data in 2023. JUNO's primary physics goal is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering, with an expected significance of 3-4 sigma in about six years of data taking, by measuring the...
CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) is a direct dark matter search experiment, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy, where an overburden of 1400m of rock (3800m water equivalent) provides an efficient reduction of the cosmic radiation background.
In the CRESST experiment, ~25g scintillating CaWO$_4$ crystals are used as target...
