Search results for " Instrumentation."
showing 10 items of 712 documents
Proposal to Detect Dark Matter using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets
2019
Antiferromagnetically doped topological insulators (A-TI) are among the candidates to host dynamical axion fields and axion-polaritons; weakly interacting quasiparticles that are analogous to the dark axion, a long sought after candidate dark matter particle. Here we demonstrate that using the axion quasiparticle antiferromagnetic resonance in A-TI's in conjunction with low-noise methods of detecting THz photons presents a viable route to detect axion dark matter with mass 0.7 to 3.5 meV, a range currently inaccessible to other dark matter detection experiments and proposals. The benefits of this method at high frequency are the tunability of the resonance with applied magnetic field, and t…
A test of electric charge conservation with Borexino
2015
Borexino is a liquid scintillation detector located deep underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS, Italy). Thanks to the unmatched radio-purity of the scintillator, and to the well understood detector response at low energy, a new limit on the stability of the electron for decay into a neutrino and a single mono-energetic photon was obtained. This new bound, tau > 6.6 10**28 yr at 90 % C.L., is two orders of magnitude better than the previous limit.
The beam and detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN
2017
NA62 is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS dedicated to measurements of rare kaon decays. Such measurements, like the branching fraction of the $K^{+} \rightarrow \pi^{+} \nu \bar\nu$ decay, have the potential to bring significant insights into new physics processes when comparison is made with precise theoretical predictions. For this purpose, innovative techniques have been developed, in particular, in the domain of low-mass tracking devices. Detector construction spanned several years from 2009 to 2014. The collaboration started detector commissioning in 2014 and will collect data until the end of 2018. The beam line and detector components are described together with their early …
Axion search with BabyIAXO in view of IAXO
2020
Axions are a natural consequence of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, the most compelling solution to the strong-CP problem. Similar axion-like particles (ALPs) also appear in a number of possible extensions of the Standard Model, notably in string theories. Both axions and ALPs are very well motivated candidates for Dark Matter, and in addition, they would be copiously produced at the sun's core. A relevant effort during the last decade has been the CAST experiment at CERN, the most sensitive axion helioscope to-date. The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a large-scale 4th generation helioscope. As its primary physics goal, IAXO will look for solar axions or ALPs with a signal to backgro…
Neutrino Physics with JUNO
2016
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purpose underground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy as a primary physics goal. It is also capable of observing neutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, including supernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, as well as exotic searches such as nucleon decays, dark matter, sterile neutrinos, etc. We present the physics motivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for various proposed measurements. By detecting reactor antineutrinos from two power plan…
International Scoping Study (ISS) for a future neutrino factory and Super-Beam facility. Detectors and flux instrumentation for future neutrino facil…
2009
Technical report by The ISS Detector Working Group; This report summarises the conclusions from the detector group of the International Scoping Study of a future Neutrino Factory and Super-Beam neutrino facility. The baseline detector options for each possible neutrino beam are defined as follows: 1. A very massive (Megaton) water Cherenkov detector is the baseline option for a sub-GeV Beta Beam and Super Beam facility. 2. There are a number of possibilities for either a Beta Beam or Super Beam (SB) medium energy facility between 1-5 GeV. These include a totally active scintillating detector (TASD), a liquid argon TPC or a water Cherenkov detector. 3. A 100 kton magnetized iron neutrino det…
Reference-Plane Invariant Method for Measuring Electromagnetic Parameters of Materials
2010
This paper presents a simple and effective wideband method for the determination of material properties, such as the complex index of refraction and the complex permittivity and permeability. The method is explicit (non-iterative) and reference-plane invariant: it uses a certain combination of scattering parameters in conjunction with group-velocity data. This technique can be used to characterize both dielectric and magnetic materials. The proposed method is verified experimentally within a frequency range between 2 to 18 GHz on polytetrafluoroethylene and polyvinylchloride samples. A comprehensive error and stability analysis reveals that, similar to other methods based on transmission/re…
Charge reconstruction in large-area photomultipliers
2018
Large-area PhotoMultiplier Tubes (PMT) allow to efficiently instrument Liquid Scintillator (LS) neutrino detectors, where large target masses are pivotal to compensate for neutrinos' extremely elusive nature. Depending on the detector light yield, several scintillation photons stemming from the same neutrino interaction are likely to hit a single PMT in a few tens/hundreds of nanoseconds, resulting in several photoelectrons (PEs) to pile-up at the PMT anode. In such scenario, the signal generated by each PE is entangled to the others, and an accurate PMT charge reconstruction becomes challenging. This manuscript describes an experimental method able to address the PMT charge reconstruction …
Operation and first results of the NEXT-DEMO prototype using a silicon photomultiplier tracking array
2013
NEXT-DEMO is a high-pressure xenon gas TPC which acts as a technological test-bed and demonstrator for the NEXT-100 neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. In its current configuration the apparatus fully implements the NEXT-100 design concept. This is an asymmetric TPC, with an energy plane made of photomultipliers and a tracking plane made of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) coated with TPB. The detector in this new configuration has been used to reconstruct the characteristic signature of electrons in dense gas, demonstrating the ability to identify the MIP and "blob" regions. Moreover, the SiPM tracking plane allows for the definition of a large fiducial region in which an excellent e…
The fast photon detection system of COMPASS RICH-1
2007
Abstract A fast photon detection system has been built for the upgrade of COMPASS RICH-1, the large size gaseous RICH detector in use at the COMPASS Experiment at the CERN SPS since 2001. The photon detectors of the central region have been replaced by a new system based on multi-anode photomultipliers coupled to individual fused silica lens telescopes and a fast readout electronics system, while in the outer region the existing MWPCs with CsI photocathodes have been equipped with a new readout system, based on the APV chip. RICH-1 has been successfully operated in its upgraded version during the 2006 run. We report on the upgrade design and construction, and on the preliminary characteriza…