IAPS @ Gran Sasso - Particle & Astroparticle Physics Spring Event

7 May 2015, 08:45 → 8 May 2015, 21:00 Europe/Rome

Gran Sasso National Laboratory - Gran Sasso Science Institute

Alba Formicola (INFN - LNGS), Giulia Pagliaroli (LNGS), Massimo Mannarelli (INFN - LNGS), Matteo Lorenzini (INFN - GSSI), Natalia Di Marco (INFN - LNGS), Roberto Aloisio (INFN - GSSI)

 

The International Association of Physics Students (IAPS) in collaboration with the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is pleased to announce the first

IAPS @ Gran Sasso - Particle & Astroparticle Physics Spring Event

The event will be held at LNGS in Assergi and at GSSI in L'Aquila, Italy, May 7-8, 2015.

LNGS is one of the four INFN national laboratories. It hosts experiments from the field of Astoparticle Physics, Nuclear Astrophysics, and other disciplines requiring a low background environment.
GSSI is an international PhD school and a center for advanced studies in physics, mathematics, computer science and social sciences.

Scientific Programme
The programme will offer the unique possibility to overview  the activity of the GSSI and the Underground National Laboratory, LNGS.
The researchers will review the activity on Dark Matter, Double Beta Decay, Nuclear Astrophysics, Low Background facilities and of the Theory Group.
The Local Committee encourages the submission of oral and poster contributions by IAPS students to present their research projects. A dedicated committee will review and select the contributions. More details on the submission of the presentations can be found on the official event web page on IAPS site.
All the students will have the opportunity to visit both the LNGS Underground Laboratory and the GSSI headquarter.

Thursday, 7 May

09:00 → 09:30 Welcome

Speaker: Stefano Ragazzi (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_LNGS.pptx

09:30 → 10:00 An Introduction to Dark Matter

I shall discuss, in a very simple way, cosmological and astrophysical indications for dark matter in the Universe, particle candidates for dark matter and experimental ways for their detection, direct and indirect.

Speaker: Zurab Berezhiani (L'Aquila University)

Slides IAPS_Dark_Matter.pdf

10:00 → 10:15 DAMA

The DAMA project is an observatory for rare processes that develops and uses highly radiopure crystal scintillators. It consists of various low-background apparata located in Gran Sasso laboratory. DAMA has a pioneer activity in the direct investigation of Dark Matter. In particular, its main experiment, DAMA/LIBRA, gave evidence for the presence of Dark Matter particles in the galactic halo by exploiting the model-independent annual modulation signature. This result confirms the evidence obtained by the former DAMA/NaI experiment. DAMA/LIBRA is now running in a new phase of measurement with an increased sensitivity. Other searches for rare events, such as double beta decay in various isotopes, axions, etc., are carried out with the other set-ups. In the seminar the main results obtained by DAMA in all its field of activity will be presented as well as the present measurements and advanced perspectives.

Speaker: Vincenzo Caracciolo (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_DAMA.pdf

10:15 → 10:30 DARKSIDE

There is a wide range of astronomical evidence that the visible stars and gas in all galaxies are immersed in a much larger cloud of non-luminous 'dark matter'. The nature of this dark matter is still totally unknown. Dark matter may be comprised of as yet undiscovered Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). WIMPs could in principle be detected in terrestrial experiments through their collisions with ordinary nuclei, giving observable low-energy (<100 keV) nuclear recoils. DarkSide-50 is a liquid argon detector for WIMP detection. In the seminar, I will review the features of DarkSide-50.

Speaker: Stefano Davini (GSSI)

Slides IAPS_DARKSIDE.pdf

10:30 → 10:45 Exploring low wimp masses with CRESST

In recent years the hunt for the direct detection of Dark Matter has become one of the most challenging physic searches. While the presence of dark matter in the universe was verified by observations on various astronomical scales, the nature of dark matter still remains a puzzling question. CRESST-II (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers), located at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, is a direct dark matter search experiment aiming to detect WIMPs scattering off nuclei in CaWO4 target crystals. Using cryogenic detectors the CRESST-II setup was able to reach extremely low energy threshold (~600 eV). Recent results from 29 kg-days of exposure acquired by a single 249 g CaWO4 detector are presented. A leading limit on the spin-independent IMP-nucleon cross section in the low-mass WIMPs region is reported together with the probe of a new region of parameter space for WIMP masses below 3GeV/c2. Plans and status of the CRESST-III phase 1 with new upgraded detectors optimized towards the detection of low-mass WIMPs are also reported.

Speaker: Paolo Gorla (LNGS)

10:45 → 11:00 XENON

The XENON Project aims at directly detecting dark matter particles through their interaction in a liquid xenon target. The XENON100 detector, a double phase Time Projection Chamber employing 161 kg of liquid xenon, started the first science run at INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS), Italy, in 2010. It provided limits on the spin-independent and spin-dependent interaction cross sections of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with xenon nuclei, and on the couplings of solar axions and galactic xions-like particles. A new data taking run is currently ongoing, mainly focused on additional calibration for the low energy response of the detector. While still taking data with XENON100 the collaboration is also committed to build the third generation detector, XENON1T. This new detector, currently under construction at LNGS and starting data taking by the end of 2015, will exploit a liquid xenon target of tonnes scale, reaching a sensitivity to spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section of the order of 10-47 cm^2 in a 2 yr data taking.

Speaker: Marcello Messina (Columbia University)

Slides IAPS_XENON.pdf

11:00 → 11:20 Coffee break

11:20 → 11:50 The neutrinoless double beta-decay: a brief overview

More than 80 years after the postulation of the neutrino important properties of this particleare still unknown. In case neutrinos are Majorana particles [1], which implies the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, an extremely rare process should be observable, namely the so-called Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (0vDBD) [2]. Its experimental observation would prove that neutrinos are their own anti-particles, that lepton number is not conserved and, more importantly, it would set constraints on the mass scale of the neutrinos at the level of a few tens of meV, important answers to outstanding questions in present-day physics. The present contribution reviews the different experimental approaches and results which have been performed and achieved in the past. Furthermore, next generation experiments using different isotopes and experimental techniques in order to explore the inverted hierarchy region will be discussed. An overview on the expected sensitivities of future experiments will be given. [1] E. Majorana, Il Nuovo Cimento 14, 171 (1937). [2] F. T. Avignone, S. R. Elliott and J. Engel, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 481 (2008).

Speaker: Karoline Schaeffner (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_Double_Beta.pdf

11:50 → 12:05 CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a large-scale double beta decay experiment based on cryogenic bolometers. Its primary goal is to observe neutrino-less double beta decay and measure Majorana neutrino masses with a projected sensitivity reaching the so-called inverted mass hierarchy region. A single CUORE-like tower, CUORE-0, assembled with 52 CUORE-like bolometers has started taking data in spring 2013. In the talk, the results from CUORE-0 will be discussed and the status and the physics potential of CUORE will be presented.

Speaker: Lucia Canonica (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_CUORE.pdf

12:05 → 12:20 The current status of LUCIFER experiment

The registration of elusive particles requires the use of new high quality detectors with enhanced characteristics. The production of such materials often depends up on the application of dedicated methods for the entire production process from synthesis of raw materials up to the storage and transport of the finished product ready for use for the construction of the particle detector. Scintillating bolometers are among the most promising detectors used in rare event physics, what have clearly demonstrated by the excellent background rejection capabilities that arise from the simultaneous, independent, double readout of heat and scintillation light. Moreover, the bolometric technique allows an extremely good energy resolution. The main goal of LUCIFER experiment is to build a “background-free” small-scale experiment in order to directly prove the potentiality of this technique for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (0νDBD) searches. The current report reviews scientific and technological aspects related to the Zn82Se enriched scintillating crystal production, and progress in bolometric technique in framework of LUCIFER experiment.

Speaker: Serge Nagorny (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_LUCIFER.pptx

12:20 → 12:35 GERDA

Speaker: Valerio D'Andrea (GSSI)

Slides IAPS_GERDA.pdf

12:35 → 13:00 Round table

Chair: Carlo Bucci (LNGS) & Paolo Gorla (LNGS)

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 14:30 Neutrinos

The study of neutrino properties is one of the main topics of the researches carried out at the LNGS. Several experiments have been or are currently devoted to the study of neutrinos exploiting different sources both natural or artificial. In this talk a general introduction about neutrino oscillation properties together with an overview about present and future LNGS experimental activities, will be presented.

Speaker: Natalia Di Marco (LNGS)

Slides NDiMarco_NeutrinoReview_IAPS@LNGS_May2015.pdf

14:30 → 14:45 BOREXINO

The Borexino experiment (located at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso) is the most radiopure liquid scintillator neutrino detector all over the world. Starting from 2007, the Borexino experiment provided a precision measurement of "Be7" solar neutrino flux (including also a detailed day/night modulation analysis), and gave the first detection of pep neutrinos, a detection of the B8 neutrinos at low energy threshold (3 MeV) and an important contribution to the geo-neutrino physics. In 2014, we presented the first direct observation of the low energy neutrinos coming from the "pp" fusion in the core of the Sun. The forthcoming program includes an improvement of the solar neutrino and geo-neutrino detection and an important project focused on the sterile neutrino search (SOX).

Speaker: Nicola Rossi (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_BOREXINO.pdf

14:45 → 15:00 LVD

The Large Volume Detector (LVD), located in Hall A at LNGS, is an underground neutrino observatory mainly designed to study neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae. It is in operation since 1992, under different larger configurations. LVD currently consists of an array of 840 scintillator counters, arranged in a compact and modular geometry, for a total active mass of M=1000 t. Since July 2005 LVD has taken part to the Supernovae Early Warning System (SNEWS), the network of supernova neutrino observatories whose main goal is to provide the astronomical community with a prompt alert for the next galactic core-collapse supernova.

Speaker: Andrea Molinario (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_LVD.pdf

15:00 → 15:30 Round table

Chair: Riccardo Cerulli (LNGS)

15:30 → 18:30 Visit to Underground Lab

Friday, 8 May

09:30 → 10:30 GSSI Presentation

Speaker: Eugenio Coccia

10:30 → 11:15 Nuclear Astrophysics at Gran Sasso

The understanding of the processes that power stars and that produce and continue to produce (almost) all elements in the universe is the subject matter of the field of Nuclear Astrophysics. In part this involves measuring in a laboratory the extremely small cross sections of stellar nuclear reactions. Due to the very low expected event rate reduction of the natural background level is of major importance. For over 20 years, the experiments LUNA and LUNA-II at the LNGS have exploited the background reduction provided by the underground location to measure critical reactions at energies directly inside the relevant stellar energy range. I will present an overview over nuclear astrophysics and connect the general subject to the past, present and future activities of LUNA at LNGS.

Speaker: Andreas Best (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_Nuclear_Astro.pdf

11:15 → 11:30 Break

11:30 → 12:15 STELLA

The LNGS ultra low background counting facility STELLA (SubTErranean Low Level Assay) is a service infrastructure located in the underground laboratories of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), devoted to highly sensitive radiopurity measurements and material screening for the experiments installed at the LNGS. The lab is working at the frontier of ultra low-level radioactivity measurements. Its main core is the pool of about 10 high purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors used for gamma spectroscopy. The installations and experimental set-ups using ultra low background techniques will be described shortly. Gamma spectroscopy is a very powerful tool that can be applied to many physics fields. Moreover, performing this technique in a deep underground laboratory using ultra low background equipment gives the unique opportunity of having almost background free measurements. This is very helpful for example when measuring tiny objects with small amounts of radioactivity. The most stunning examples that have been measured recently are on the one hand small meteorite specimens, and on the other hand activated materials that were exposed to neutrons and charged particles under extreme conditions close to the plasma in the JET facility. These examples will show how useful this application can be to physics fields other than Astroparticle physics.

Speaker: Matthias Laubenstein (LNGS)

Slides IAPS_STELLA.pdf

12:15 → 13:00 Theory Group scientific activity

The main theoretical research activity of INFN is organized in 5 groups. The research topics concern five main areas: i) Astroparticle physics; ii) Compact stellar objects and dense hadronic matter; iii) Cosmology, large scale structures and dark matter; iv) Computer simulations of gauge theories; v) Particle physics phenomenology. We will briefly outline the topics of interest.

Speakers: Francesco Lorenzo Villante (L'Aquila University), Giulia Pagliaroli (LNGS)

Slides TheoryGroup.pdf

13:00 → 14:30 Lunch

14:30 → 15:30 Poster session

• Evolution of galaxies and AGN triggering through mergers - Linda Baronchelli (ETH Zurich)

• Development of THGEM-based Cherenkov detectors - Gabor Galgoczi (Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest)

• Measurement of the accretion rate of nearby x-rays selected AGN using optical spectroscopy - Isabella Lamperti (ETH Zurich)

• f(R) Theories - Maria Ramos (Universidade do Porto)

15:30 → 15:50 Search for Second Laws and Landauer’s principle: connecting information and physics

Speakers: Alessandro Georgoudis (ETH Zurich), Umut Kaya (ETH Zurich)

Abstract Kaya_Georgoudis_Abstract_IAPS_Talk.pdf

Slides IAPS_Kaya.pdf

15:50 → 16:10 Development of a prototype for a fluorescence detector array of single-pixel telescopes

Speaker: Ariel Matalon (KICP, University of Chicago)

Abstract Matalon_Abstract_IAPS_Talk_Poster.pdf

Slides IAPS_Matalon.pdf

16:10 → 16:30 Searching for WIMPs at the EDELWEISS experiment by optimization of the background reduction

Speaker: Tobias Messer (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Abstract Messer_Abstract_IAPS_Talk.pdf

Slides IAPS_Messer.pdf

16:30 → 16:50 Evaluating input parameter uncertainty affecting the Global Braginskii Solver

Speaker: Lucio Milanese (Imperial College London)

Abstract Milanese_Abstract_IAPS_Talk_Poster.pdf

Slides IAPS_Milanese.pdf

16:50 → 17:10 Calibration of the CMS Pixel Detector at the Large Hadron Collider

Speaker: Tamas Almos Vami (Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest)

Abstract Vami_Abstract_IAPS_Talk.pdf

Slides IAPS_Vami.pdf

17:10 → 17:30 On the Stability of Fundamental Couplings in the Galaxy

Speaker: Pedro Vianez (Universidade do Porto)

Abstract Vianez_Abstract_IAPS_Talk_Poster.pdf

Slides IAPS_Vianez.pdf

17:30 → 17:50 Poster prize-giving ceremony