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Register a new userExploring quantum vacuum with low-energy photons
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Although quantum mechanics (QM) and quantum field theory (QFT) are highly successful, the seemingly simplest state -- vacuum -- remains mysterious. While the LHC experiments are expected to clarify basic questions on the structure of QFT vacuum, much can still be done at lower energies as well. For instance, experiments like PVLAS try to reach extremely high sensitivities, in their attempt to observe the effects of the interaction of visible or near-visible photons with intense magnetic fields -- a process which becomes possible in quantum electrodynamics (QED) thanks to the vacuum fluctuations of the electronic field, and which is akin to photon-photon scattering. PVLAS is now close to data-taking and if it reaches the required sensitivity, it could provide important information on QED vacuum. PVLAS and other similar experiments face great challenges as they try to measure an extremely minute effect. However, raising the photon energy greatly increases the photon-photon cross-section, and gamma rays could help extract much more information from the observed light-light scattering. Here we discuss an experimental design to measure photon-photon scattering close to the peak of the photon-photon cross-section, that could fit in the proposed construction of an FEL facility at the Cabibbo Lab near Frascati (Rome, Italy).
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The Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Experiment (CONNIE) uses low-noise fully depleted charge-coupled devices (CCDs) with the goal of measuring low-energy recoils from coherent elastic scattering (CE$ u$NS) of reactor antineutrinos with silicon nuclei and testing nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI). We report here the first results of the detector array deployed in 2016, considering an active mass 47.6 g (8 CCDs), which is operating at a distance of 30 m from the core of the Angra 2 nuclear reactor, with a thermal power of 3.8 GW. A search for neutrino events is performed by comparing data collected with reactor on (2.1 kg-day) and reactor off (1.6 kg-day). The results show no excess in the reactor-on data, reaching the world record sensitivity down to recoil energies of about 1 keV (0.1 keV electron-equivalent). A 95% confidence level limit for new physics is established at an event rate of 40 times the one expected from the standard model at this energy scale. The results presented here provide a new window to low-energy neutrino physics, allowing one to explore for the first time the energies accessible through the low threshold of CCDs. They will lead to new constrains on NSI from the CE$ u$NS of antineutrinos from nuclear reactors.
We investigate the behavior of low energy photons radiated by the deceleration processes of two colliding nuclei in relativistic heavy ion collisions using the Wigner function approach for electromagnetic radiation fields. The angular distribution reveals the information of the initial geometric configurations. Such a property is reflected in the anisotropic parameter $v_{2}$, showing an increasing $v_{2}$ as energy decreases, which is a behavior qualitatively different from $v_{2}$ from hadrons produced in the collisions.
Given the increasing data collection capabilities and limited computing resources of future collider experiments, interest in using generative neural networks for the fast simulation of collider events is growing. In our previous study, the Bounded Information Bottleneck Autoencoder (BIB-AE) architecture for generating photon showers in a high-granularity calorimeter showed a high accuracy modeling of various global differential shower distributions. In this work, we investigate how the BIB-AE encodes this physics information in its latent space. Our understanding of this encoding allows us to propose methods to optimize the generation performance further, for example, by altering latent space sampling or by suggesting specific changes to hyperparameters. In particular, we improve the modeling of the shower shape along the particle incident axis.
The search for a novel technology able to detect and reconstruct nuclear recoil events in the keV energy range has become more and more important as long as vast regions of high mass WIMP-like Dark Matter candidate have been excluded. Gaseous Time Projection Chambers (TPC) with optical readout are very promising candidate combining the complete event information provided by the TPC technique to the high sensitivity and granularity of last generation scientific light sensors. A TPC with an amplification at the anode obtained with Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) was tested at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati. Photons and neutrons from radioactive sources were employed to induce recoiling nuclei and electrons with kinetic energy in the range [1-100] keV. A He-CF4 (60/40) gas mixture was used at atmospheric pressure and the light produced during the multiplication in the GEM channels was acquired by a high position resolution and low noise scientific CMOS camera and a photomultiplier. A multi-stage pattern recognition algorithm based on an advanced clustering technique is presented here. A number of cluster shape observables are used to identify nuclear recoils induced by neutrons originated from a AmBe source against X-ray 55Fe photo-electrons. An efficiency of 18% to detect nuclear recoils with an energy of about 6 keV is reached obtaining at the same time a 96% 55Fe photo-electrons suppression. This makes this optically readout gas TPC a very promising candidate for future investigations of ultra-rare events as directional direct Dark Matter searches.
A photomultiplier setup for precise relative CsI(Tl) crystal light yield and uniformity measurements is described. It is used for wrapping material studies to optimize the uniformity and the yield of the light output of 36 cm long crystals. The uniformity is an important property in high energy photon calorimetry. Results of an optimization of photodiode coupling to crystals, the influence of temperature and radiation damage to light and photoelectron yield are also presented.
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