Dark Matter Search with Cryogenic Phonon-Light Detectors

The CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) Dark Matter search is aiming to directly detect Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their elastic scattering off nuclei in a target. Due to the low event rate expected for WIMP-nucleus scattering the suppression of background which would hide or mimic the WIMP signal is of crucial importance. Moreover, since the energy transferred to a nucleus in a WIMP-nucleus elastic scattering is extremely low (a few tens of keV), the energy threshold and the sensitivity of detectors are additional fundamental issues in a Dark Matter search. CRESST detectors consist of a 300g CaWO4 scintillating crystal operated as a cryogenic calorimeter in close proximity to a second much smaller cryogenic calorimeter used to detect the scintillation light produced in the target crystal. The lower light yield of nuclear recoils, caused by neutrons and WIMPs, with respect to electron recoils resulting from alpha, beta and gamma interactions is used to identify the event in the scintillating absorber. In the second phase of the CRESST experiment, active background suppression is achieved by the simultaneous measurement of a phonon and a light signal from a scintillating cryogenic calorimeter. Passive background suppression is achieved by operating CRESST detectors in a low background facility located in a deep underground site. About 1% of the energy deposited in CaWO4 by beta or gamma interactions can be detected as scintillation light; therefore the sensitivity of light detectors is a fundamental issue for the discrimination of electron recoils from nuclear recoils at energies relevant for WIMP searches. This work reports on the development of extremely sensitive cryogenic calorimeters for the detection of the scintillation light. These detectors applied a new thermometer geometry characterized by phonon collectors and a thin film thermal coupling to the heat sink. This concept allows a high sensitivity by decoupling the area required for the collection of non-thermal phonons and the heat capacity of the sensor and permits to make the thermal relaxation time of the thermometer long enough to allow for the integration of the scintillation light, despite the slow light emission of CaWO4 at low temperature. Results on new materials to be used as absorbers for a new generation of light detectors are presented. First competitive limits on WIMP Dark Matter established by the CRESST experiment running scintillating CaWO4 cryogenic detectors in association with the light detectors developed in the course of this work are reported together with main results of the detector prototyping phase

New Technique for the Measurement of the Scintillation Efficiency of Nuclear Recoils

We present a new technique developed for the measurement of the scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoils in solid scintillators. Using this technique we measured the quenching of the scintillation efficiency for the various recoiling nuclei in CaWO4 crystals which are used in direct Dark Matter searches.Comment: Preprint accepted for publication in NIM

The Initiative for Dark Matter in Europe and Beyond (iDMEu): An Expression of Interest as a Joint Activity between ECFA, NuPECC, and APPEC

Understanding dark matter (DM; Figure 1), how it was produced in the early universe, what is its nature, and where it is located in the cosmos is one of the fundamental physics problems of our cent..

Regesto di documenti e di fonti letterarie secentesche

Regesto di fonti documentarie manoscritte e stampate circa il pittore Carlo Saracen

Brittle-ductile transition depth versus convergence rate in shallow crustal thrust faults: Considerations on seismogenic volume and impact on seismicity

Earthquakes occur in the Earth’s crust where rocks are brittle, with magnitude increasing with the volume involved in the coseismic stage. Largest volumes are expected in convergent tectonic settings since thrust fault may be even more than 25 times larger than hypocenter depth. In general, the maximum depth of hypocenters within the crust corresponds to the brittle-ductile transition (BDT). The deepening of the BDT increases the potential seismic volume, hence raising the energy released during an earthquake. Here, by means of 2-D thermo-mechanical modelling dedicated to intraplate thrusts and thrusts within fold-and-thrust belts (shallow crust), the deepening of the BDT depth in convergent settings with variable convergence rates is investigated. Results of models characterized by shallow faults (15 ° –20 ° dip) show that BDT depth deepens by 15 km in- creasing the convergence rate from 1 to 10 cm/yr. Steeper thrust faults (25 ° –40 ° dip) show a lower degree of deepening of the BDT ( 5 km) as convergence rate is increased. Calculated BDT depths allow the calculation of maximum seismic volumes involved during thrust earthquakes. Deeper BDT depths obtained assuming higher convergence rates imply larger seismic volumes and an increase of 2 orders of magnitude of the stored potential energy, as effectively observed in nature.Published72-812T. Deformazione crostale attivaJCR Journa

Direct Detection of Dark Matter -- APPEC Committee Report

This Report provides an extensive review of the experimental programme of direct detection searches of particle dark matter. It focuses mostly on European efforts, both current and planned, but does it within a broader context of a worldwide activity in the field. It aims at identifying the virtues, opportunities and challenges associated with the different experimental approaches and search techniques. It presents scientific and technological synergies, both existing and emerging, with some other areas of particle physics, notably collider and neutrino programmes, and beyond. It addresses the issue of infrastructure in light of the growing needs and challenges of the different experimental searches. Finally, the Report makes a number of recommendations from the perspective of a long-term future of the field. They are introduced, along with some justification, in the opening Overview and Recommendations section and are next summarised at the end of the Report. Overall, we recommend that the direct search for dark matter particle interactions with a detector target should be given top priority in astroparticle physics, and in all particle physics, and beyond, as a positive measurement will provide the most unambiguous confirmation of the particle nature of dark matter in the Universe

Tocilizumab therapy in rheumatoid arthritis with interstitial lung disease: a multicenter retrospective study

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the most severe extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although it is responsible of 10-20% of all RA mortality, no controlled studies are available for the treatment of RA-ILD and its therapeutic approach is still debated

EXCESS workshop: Descriptions of rising low-energy spectra

International audienceMany low-threshold experiments observe sharply rising event rates of yet unknown origins below a few hundred eV, and larger than expected from known backgrounds. Due to the significant impact of this excess on the dark matter or neutrino sensitivity of these experiments, a collective effort has been started to share the knowledge about the individual observations. For this, the EXCESS Workshop was initiated. In its first iteration in June 2021, ten rare event search collaborations contributed to this initiative via talks and discussions. The contributing collaborations were CONNIE, CRESST, DAMIC, EDELWEISS, MINER, NEWS-G, NUCLEUS, RICOCHET, SENSEI and SuperCDMS. They presented data about their observed energy spectra and known backgrounds together with details about the respective measurements. In this paper, we summarize the presented information and give a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences between the distinct measurements. The provided data is furthermore publicly available on the workshop’s data repository together with a plotting tool for visualization