The new gas tracker of the MAGNEX spectrometer for high-rate ion detection: an experimental challenge for the NUMEN project

Not scheduled
20m
Palazzo Grimaldi (Modica)

Palazzo Grimaldi

Modica

Corso Umberto I, 106, 97015 Modica RG
Poster & Mini-talk

Speaker

Antonino Pitronaci (UniCT Department of Physics & Astronomy "E. Majorana" - INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud)

Description

The NUMEN (NUclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless double beta decay) project, as well as the NURE (NUclear REactions for neutrinoless double beta decay) project, have recently been proposed at the INFN-LNS laboratory to study Heavy-Ion-induced Double Charge Exchange (HI-DCE) reactions to provide data-driven information on the neutrinoless double beta (0νββ)-decay nuclear matrix elements. Since HI-DCE reactions are characterized by small cross sections (tens of nb), the use of high-intensity beams is a key feature: in this scenario, the ongoing upgrade of the LNS facility will have a crucial role. The experimental challenge the NUMEN project wants to address lies precisely in a substantial upgrade of the MAGNEX facility (installed at INFN-LNS laboratory), requiring a new focal plane detector (a low-pressure gas tracker based on a micropattern gas detector and a telescope array of SiC – CsI(Tl) for particle identification) and a scintillator array of LaBr3(Ce). These new devices must cope with extremely high fluxes of reaction products (up to MHz of ions) and should be sufficiently radiation-hard (up to fluencies of 10^13 ions/cm^2) while guaranteeing the good performance of the previous detection systems (to resolve mass ΔA/A∼1/300, angles Δθ/θ∼0.2° and energy ΔE/E ∼1/1000).
An important phase of stand-alone characterization of these devices is in progress at both INFN-LNS and different laboratories. At INFN-LNS the use of different radioactive sources emitting α particles has allowed the unveiling of important features of the detector response, partially discussed in the present contribution. According to the specifications, the results obtained are promising, but new tests are needed to better understand the behaviour of the devices at high rates and fully integrate them into the spectrometer. In this view, a new test has already been performed at the Tandem facility at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) using well collimated beams (300 μm beam spot size) of medium/heavy ions at different rate.

Primary authors

Antonino Pitronaci (UniCT Department of Physics & Astronomy "E. Majorana" - INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud) Dr Alfonso Boiano (INFN - Sezione di Napoli) Dr Giuseppe Brischetto (INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud) Dr Daniela Calvo (INFN - Sezione di Torino) Prof. Francesco Cappuzzello (UniCT Department of Physics & Astronomy "E. Majorana" - INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sus) Dr Manuela Cavallaro (INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud) Dr Irene Ciraldo (INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud) Dr Konstantina Palli (eDepartment of Physics and HINP, The University of Ioannina - Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and HINP) Dr Dimitra Pierroutsaku (INFN - Sezione di Napoli) Dr Diego Sartirana (INFN - Sezione di Torino) Dr Onoufrios Sgouros (INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud) Dr Vasilis Soukeras (INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud) Dr Domenico Torresi (INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud)

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