WHAT ELSE - N2 is better than N

Friday 15 May 2026, 09:30 → 17:00 Europe/Rome

Room Majorana (LNGS)

Marcello Messina (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

What Else – N² is better than N

Exploiting Coherent Effects in Neutrino and Dark Matter Interactions

 The detection of neutrinos and dark matter remains one of the foremost challenges in modern physics, owing to their extremely small interaction cross sections.

In the era of high-precision measurements, the ability to accumulate large event statistics has become increasingly critical. Exploiting coherent effects in neutrino interactions offers a promising avenue to enhance event rates and achieve the statistical sensitivity required to measure, for instance, the Cosmological Neutrino Background (CNB). Meanwhile, continuous advances in quantum technologies are paving the way for the coherent control of macroscopic quantum states involving a large number N of atoms or molecules.

This one-day workshop will bring together experts to review the theoretical foundations of coherent interactions and to explore innovative experimental strategies aimed at harnessing this phenomenon for CNB and DM detections.

The program will include invited talks and discussion sessions, fostering collaboration between theorists and experimentalists working in this rapidly evolving field.

Participation is open to researchers and students interested in neutrino physics, dark matter detection, and related areas.

 

IMPORTANT
The event will be in person. It is mandatory to pre-register in order to attend. Registration form will be available up to and including May 11, 2026 (see top-left menu or the button "Register now" here below). 


 

INFN personal data information meetings events 2026.pdf

informativa-eventi-DPO-INFN-per-giornate-studio-ricercatori.pdf

1 Introduction to the Physics of Coherent interactions

Speaker: Angelo Esposito (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

10:30 Coffee break

2 Superradiant interactions of cosmic relics

Cosmic relics such as the cosmic neutrino background (CνB) are among the most compelling predictions of modern cosmology, yet they remain undetected because their interactions with ordinary matter are extraordinarily weak — a 10-cm detector would expect far less than one event over the age of the universe. I will describe a new approach in which macroscopic targets, such as spin ensembles familiar from NMR, prepared in easy to achieve quantum states can respond collectively to these tiny signals. In this regime, interactions are superradiantly enhanced, with rates scaling as the square of the number of particles in the target, boosting relic neutrino signals to the Hz level.

I will discuss the broader implications for detecting relic neutrinos, axion and dark-photon dark matter, and explain why neutron beams incident on tabletop systems based on NMR techniques provide a natural testing ground. Finally, I will argue that these interactions appear not as conventional energy deposits but as correlated noise, pointing toward new detection strategies rooted in quantum measurement science.

Speaker: Asimina Arvanitaki (Perimeter Insitute)

3 Discussion

13:30 Lunch break

4 Superradiant Neutrino Sources

Many analogies exist between neutrino physics and optics because the neutrino is a nearly massless particle whose feeble environmental interactions permit coherent quantum effects. However, it is only relatively recently that we have begun to explore the potential of quantum phenomena in neutrino physics, with neutrino oscillations and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering as prominent examples. Superradiance — which emerges from collective spontaneous emission in optically pumped gases — may also have a parallel counterpart in neutrino physics.In my talk, I will discuss some of these analogies and introduce a new — and highly speculative — concept of superradiant neutrino emission from a radioactive Bose-Einstein condensate, which could form the basis for a superradiant neutrino laser.

Speaker: Benjamin Jones (University of Texas at Arlington & University of Manchester)

5 Experimental Investigation of Macroscopically Coherent States in Optically Excited Erbium-Doped Crystals

We report the experimental observation and characterization of
macroscopically coherent states involving several 10¹² erbium ions in
cryogenically cooled crystals. These states emerge spontaneously from an
optically excited population of 10¹⁵ ions, coupled solely through
their own near-infrared emission. The synchronization of the ions'
dipoles accelerates their radiative decay by up to a million times,
producing a powerful burst of coherent emission. Our results reveal the
dynamics of large-scale coherent phenomena in solid-state ensembles and
open new perspectives for exploiting such coherent states to enhance the
rate of extremely rare processes through cooperative behavior.

Speaker: Federico Chiossi (University of Padova)