Conveners
Contributed Talks
- Main Venue Chair: Clementina Agodi (INFN.LNS)
- Parallel Venue Chair: Javier Menendez (University of Barcelona)
Contributed Talks
- Main Venue Chair: Klaus Blaum (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik)
- Parallel Venue Chair: Giorgio Gratta (Stanford University)
Contributed Talks
- Parallel Venue Chair: Smarajit Triambak (University of Western Cape)
- Main Venue Chair: Yuichi Oyama (KEK/J-PARC)
Contributed Talks
- Main Venue Chair: Manuela Cavallaro (INFN - LNS)
- Parallel Venue Chair: Giovanni Benato (LNGS-INFN)
The Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB energy-asymmetric $e^+ e^-$ collider is a substantial upgrade of the B factory facility at the Japanese KEK laboratory. The design luminosity of the machine is $8\times 10^{35}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ and the Belle II experiment aims to record 50 ab$^{-1}$ of data, a factor of 50 more than its predecessor. Main operation of SuperKEKB has started in March...
EDELWEISS is a direct dark matter search experiment aiming at the detection of WIMPS and other candidates as the composition of the galactic dark matter halo. The EDELWEISS detection method is based on arrays of germanium mono-crystals operated at temperatures around or below 20 mK. Energy deposited in the crystals by particle interactions are read out simultaneously by thermal sensors, which...
The Direct search Experiment for Light Dark Matter (DELight) aims to develop a novel detector technology for the search for light dark matter based on the properties of the superfluid phase of the inert gas 4He. This detector uses the purest material imaginable, provides multiple independent signals for background suppression, has the potential to exploit directionality for event...
Theoretical description of half-lives and electron spectra for higher order forbidden non-unique $\beta$ decays
Anil Kumar and Praveen C. Srivastava
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,
Roorkee 247 667, India
In this work we have calculated log$ft$ and half-lives values of the higher order forbidden $\beta$-decays for selected nuclei [for e.g....
The most recent results of the XENON1T direct dark matter detector will be presented. XENON1T was a two-phase xenon TPC using 248 low radioactivity PMTs to detect scintillation signals in a 2-ton active liquid xenon target. The detector was operational between 2016 and 2018 at the Laboratori Nazionale del Gran Sasso with continuously improving xenon purity and reduction of the internal Kr-85...
The Recoil Directionality project (ReD) within the DarkSide Collaboration aims to characterize the light and charge response of a liquid argon (LAr) dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to neutron-induced nuclear recoils. The main goal of the project is to probe for the possible directional dependence suggested by the SCENE experiment. Furthermore, ReD will have the possibility to study...
Neutrinos produced in the Sun can be used as a probe of neutrino physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). In this study, two BSM processes are considered, namely, non-standard neutrino-electron interactions, and electromagnetic neutrino interaction caused by an anomalous magnetic moment. These processes may occur during both neutrino propagation through the solar matter and detection, causing...
The DARWIN observatory is a proposed next-generation experiment whose primary goal is to search for particle dark matter. It will operate 50 tonnes of natural xenon in a dual-phase time projection chamber under ultra-low background conditions. These two characteristics make DARWIN sensitive to other rare interactions, like the neutrinoless double beta decay of the isotope Xe136. Without...
Nuclear astrophysics plays an important role in understanding open issues of neutrino physics. As an example, the two key reactions of the solar p-p chain $^3He(^3He,2p)^4He$ and $^3He(^4He,\gamma)^7Be$ were studied at low energy with LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics), providing an accurate experimental footing for the Standard Solar Model and consequently to study the...
Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a hypothetical rare nuclear transition (T^1/2>1026 y). Its observation would provide an important insight about the nature of neutrinos (Dirac or Majorana particle) demonstrating that the lepton number is not conserved. This decay can be investigated with bolometers embedding the double beta decay isotope, the possibility to investigate this rare process is...
Solar neutrino spectrum measurement plays a crucial role for solar metallicity determination. 127I(nu,e)127Xe reaction is sensitive to CNO and boron components of the solar neutrino spectrum due to the relatively high threshold (662 KeV).
For neutrinos with energies upper S_n = 7.246 MeV 127I(nu,e) capture produces 126Xe + n. The concentration ratio of 127Xe and 126Xe could clarify...
Pair-transfer reactions such as (p,t) and (3He,n) have been used to probe the pairing in nuclei. The nature of pairing in neutrinoless double-beta decay candidates can strongly impact the predicted nuclear matrix elements linking the ground states of the parent and daughter nuclei in neutrinoless double-beta decay candidates, with various different theoretical approaches such as the...
Over the past 15 years, in the consortium EARTH (Earth AntineutRino TomograpHy), low energy experiments have been carried out with the detection of antineutrinos as a theme. The ultimate goal was to learn more about the role of nuclear decay in the interior of the Earth [1-3]. This required developing direction sensitive antineutrino detection to detect geoneutrinos. Here searching for...
Rare weak beta decays can be potentially used in searches for the neutrino mass. These are, e.g., decays between nuclear ground states and excited states in daughter nuclei that have very small (< 1 keV) decay energy ($Q$-value). The beta decay of $^{115}$In $9/2^+$ ground state to $3/2^+$ state in $^{115}$Sn currently has the smallest measured $Q$-value (0.155(24) keV [1,2]) of any beta...
Since 2010, the GERDA project has been operated at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) of Ge-76 to Se-76. GERDA is nowadays completing its mission, having attained 100 kgy exposure and, as first experiment, surpassed the goal sensitivity of 10^26 yr on the half-life of the searched process. Since its beginning in 2010 GERDA has...
NEON is a proposed experiment to detect coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CENNS) with high light yield NaI(Tl) detectors and a reactor as antinuetrino source. Due to extremely low energy signal predicted from the CENNS process, one needs to develop extremely low threshold detectors. We have optimized size of the crystals and developed new optical coupling design for high light...
Neutrino-nucleus interactions can produce excited nuclear states that can de-excite by emitting particles, including neutrons. Neutrino-induced neutrons (NINs) produced in common gamma shielding material, such as lead or iron, can pose a background for neutrino and dark matter experiments. Additionally, NIN production in lead is the primary mechanism for the Helium and Lead Observatory (HALO)...
In February 1987 neutrinos from the SN1987 traveled a distance of about 50 kpc from the Large Magellanic Cloud and were detected on Earth by two of the largest neutrino telescopes of that time, Kamiokande-II and IMB, thus confirming the vast amount of energy (~10^53 ergs) predicted to be emitted in neutrinos and setting allowed intervals for the emission parameters like the neutrinosphere...
MINOS and MINOS+ experiments collected unprecedented amount of data using two long baseline detectors that operated on axis of the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab. This has allowed to conduct some of the best measurements of neutrino oscillations that provide stringent constraints on neutrino mixing and transitions involving sterile neutrinos. We will present the latest results from these studies.
Neutrinos in the Standard Model (SM) are considered neutral particles. However, recent experiments showed that the neutrino has infinitesimal electric charge leads to non-zero magnetic moment (μ) with precise constraints on the value, this electromagnetic interaction contribution enhances neutrino properties i.e. Oscillation, Scattering, and Spin. This work discusses the possible neutrino...
The ICARUS collaboration employed the 760-ton T600 detector in a successful three-year physics run at the underground LNGS laboratories studying neutrino oscillations with the CNGS neutrino beam from CERN, and searching for atmospheric neutrino interactions. ICARUS performed a sensitive search for LSND-like anomalous $\nu_e$ appearance in the CNGS beam, which contributed to the constraints on...
The NOvA experiment has two segmented liquid scintillation detectors,
which are sensitive to the neutrino signal from a core-collapse
supernova in our galaxy. Each of these detectors performs an online
reconstruction and analysis of the neutrino interaction candidates,
comparing their time distribution to that of the signals expected from a
core-collapse supernova. The statistical...
The mixing of three neutrino flavours is parameterised by the unitary
PMNS matrix. If there are more than three neutrino flavours, effective $3\times 3$ neutrino mixing
matrix will be non-unitary. In this paper, we have analysed the
latest T2K and NO$\nu$A data with the hypothesis of non-unitary mixing matrix.
Present results from NO$\nu$A and T2K collaboration have tension between them...
KM3NeT is the next-generation neutrino Cherenkov telescope currently under construction in the Mediterranean Sea. Its low energy configuration ORCA (Oscillations Research with Cosmics in the Abyss) is optimised for the detection of atmospheric neutrinos with energies above ∼1 GeV. The main research target of the ORCA detector is the measurement of the neutrino mass ordering (NMO) and...
The search for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay, a process only allowed if the neutrino were a Majorana particle, recently gained much attention with numerous experiments being dedicated to its observation. It would demonstrate lepto-genesis in the universe and allow the determination of the neutrino mass from its decay rate. However, to quantitatively extract the neutrino mass or...
In the last decade, two unsolved anomalies have appeared from the study of reactor neutrinos: one related to the neutrino spectral shape, and another to the absolute neutrino flux. The second one, known as the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly, presents a deficit in the observed flux compared to the expected one that could point to the existence of a light sterile neutrino in the eV range...
Neutrino-matter interaction has great importance for neutrino physics and astrophysics. Neutrino capture cross-section depends on the structure of the target nucleus strength function. 71Ga(v,e)71Ge process could be analysed using the charge-exchange strength functions of 71Ga(p,n)71Ge and 71Ga(3He,t)71Ge reactions. Nuclear phenomenology of charge-exchange reactions describes not only discrete...
The reactor antineutrino and gallium anomalies have been long unexplained. Possible explanations for both of these anomalies include new physics, such as the existence of one or more eV-scale sterile neutrino [Ga15]. However, the previous theoretical calculations, which do not replicate the experimental results, rely on many simplifying approximations [Ba97,Ha19].
In the...
The work presents calculations of the neutrino-nuclear reaction cross-sections using the
example of the nucleus 𝐺𝑒'( (𝐺𝑒'( 𝜈*, 𝑒 𝐴𝑠'( ). In the structure of the nucleus, not only
discrete, but also continuous states formed due to the collective interaction of nucleons were
distinguished. In particular, the contribution of the Giant Gamow-Teller resonance and so-called
pygmy resonances in...
Neutrino-nucleus reactions on $^{13}$C and $^{16}$O at supernova (SN) energies are investigated by shell-model calculations with the use of new Hamiltonian, which can describe spin responses of nuclei quite well. Cabon-based scintillators and water-Cerenkov scintillators relevent to SN observation and experiments at the spallation neutron sources are now available. Cross sections for various...
The success of experiments such as DUNE require the determination of neutrino flux and cross-section with nuclear targets with unprecedented accuracy. A crucial input in the calculations of these is the axial form factor. Starting from the standard model that defines the interaction of the axial current with quarks, one needs to include both QCD corrections that bind quarks into nucleons and...
We analysed the angular distribution of two-proton pickup transfer for the 40Ca(18O,20Ne)38Ar reaction at 270 MeV incident energy. The coupled reaction channel (CRC) and coupled channel Born approximations (CCBA) methods were considered in the theoretical calculations to obtain the two-proton transfer angular distributions, in which the results have reproduced very well the experimental data....
The NUMEN Experiment, at INFN-LNS (Catania), aims to get information on the Nuclear Matrix Elements of the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, by measuring Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions cross-sections [1]. The energy of the reaction products must be measured with high resolution. To fulfil this requirement, the target must be thin to minimize dispersion and straggling effects on the...
Nowadays astronomical observations have provided solid proof for the existence of dark matter (DM), yet a direct measurement is lacking.
COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches) has the aim of detecting DM via elastic scattering off the nuclei of a target NaI crystal which is the core of the detector. The NaI crystal is kept at ~10 mK and it...
Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a next generation underground reactor antineutrino experiment, is proposed to determine the
neutrino mass hierarchy and precisely measure neutrino oscillation parameters using a massive liquid scintillator detector underground. The experimental
hall, spanning more than 50 meters, is under a granite mountain of over 700 m overburden. The...
By comparing rates of neutrinoless double positron emission and electron capture with positron emission one could distinguish mechanism (due to light neutrino exchange or right-handed currents admixture in the weak interaction) of the neutrinoless double beta “minus” decay when observed. However, even the allowed two-neutrino mode of electron capture with positron emission is not observed yet....
Understanding the origin of lepton number violation is one of the major questions in physics today. Neutrinoless double beta decay provides a way in which this violation can be tested. Furthertmore, neutrinoless double beta decay can significantly help to shed light on the issue of nonzero neutrino mass, as the observation of this lepton-number-violating process would imply that...
There have been two intriguing and unresolved puzzles surrounding recent measurements of reactor antineutrino spectrum in comparison with various calculated spectra, namely a deficient in the total number of measured antineutrinos and an excess of antineutrinos for energies from 5-7 MeV. While these observations could point to new physics, the beta-decay properties of fission fragments used...
The Inverse Beta Decay antineutrino spectrum generated by nuclear reactors is calculated using the summation methods with the highest fidelity nuclear databases to date to understand deviations from the smooth Huber-Mueller model due to the decay of individual fission products. Several numerical methods were explored, and concluded that plotting the ratio of two adjacent spectra points can...
The GEANT4 [1] Hadrontherapy model [2] was used to predict the outcome of several reactions of interest to the NUMEN project (LNS/INFN, Catania, Italy). In this project, Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reaction matrix elements of interest to neutrino double-beta decay physics are to be experimentally assessed. In the last phase of the NUMEN project, very large intensity beams from the CS...
The $^{150}$Nd nuclide is one of the most promising ones to search for double beta decay among the 35 naturally occurring double beta isotopes because of the high energy release: 3371.38(20) keV, and of the comparatively high isotopic abundance: 5.638(28)%. The 2$\beta$ transition to the 740.5 keV $0_1^+$ excited level of $^{150}$Sm was observed in few experiments with half-lives in a wide...
The search for physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) is presently a major issue. Despite its spectacular success, it is recognized that the SM could be incomplete and could eventually be incorporated into a more fundamental framework. As an example the excess of matter over antimatter in the Universe indicates the presence of baryon-number-violating interactions and most likely of new sources...
Total absorption spectroscopy is presently the most reliable technique that provides beta
decay transition probabilities free from the Pandemonium systematic error [1-3]. In this
contribution we will present recent results from the work performed by our
collaboration employing this technique, which is relevant for reactor applications and in
particular for the prediction of the...
