NI-DPU ASW v1.3.8 Test Plan and Test Report

The objective of this document is to provide the test plan carried out on v1.3.8 of the DPU ASW and to report the test results. All tests were done at system level. This document is focused on the ASW test phase carried out on DPU AVM at TAS premises in Turin after its qualification to validate the applicative before installing it on DPU FM unit

DPU_ASW Configuration Control Issues

This document is a printed version of the configuration control (CC) of the DPU_ASW. For CC the Jira tool was used, with a repository provided by INFN. The tool provides a web interface at the following link: https://issues.infn.it/jira/browse/EUNIDPUASW/?selectedTab=com.atlassian.jira.jira-projects-plugin:summary-panel, to access INFN credential are need. The webpage as well as this document are organized by sections, corresponding to each release of the DPU_ASW versions. Starting in section 4 are listed the differences with respect to the previous release. The first release under CC is DPU-ASW version v0.0 (delta-CDR). For each CC entry, an identification code is automatically generated, and a title is assigned e.g. [EUNIDPUASW-72] ICU counter test. Here the entry title (listed in the table of contents) is a hyperlink to the webpage of the corresponding entry in at Jira on-line documentation. Each entry is classified according to its type: New Feature or Bug, and a priority is assigned: Trivial, Minor or Major. The status is specified in the field Resolution: all Done. In the on-line version of the documentation, entries can be sort according any of these criteria; and ancillary attached files quoted in the entries can be downloaded from the on-line version of the document (here are included only plots and pictures). DPU-ASW versioning is fully documented in RD-8

Zero Bias Configuration - validation test using the NI-PLM setup

The validation of the ZBC procedure applied to the NISP flight hardware is describe

DPU-ASW Management of the DCU ERROR REG content with possible off-line recovery actions

A new strategy is defined for the management of the errors in the DCU science interface dedicated to the scientific data acquisitio

ATHENA Italian Management Plan

The scope of this management plan (MP) is to describe the management of the Italian team in the ATHENA space mission and to clarify roles and responsibilities within the Italian team. Objective of this document is to provide a structured and consistent approach to the Italian management of the ATHENA project to be compliant with the ESA programmatic development. This MP considers all the project management activities that are addressed by the ESA standard ECSS-M-ST-10C “Space project management” in the framework of the Italian Collaboration in the ATHENA mission. The Funding Agency (FA) responsible for the national contribution to the mission is the Italian Space Agency (ASI)

Test Report of NISP dedicated test activities during the CSL campaign - DCU-SCE Communication issue

A complete analysis of the communication issue in the science interface observed during the NISP CSL test campaig

Flux Modulations seen by the Muon Veto of the GERDA Experiment

The GERDA experiment at LNGS of INFN is equipped with an active muon veto. The main part of the system is a water Cherenkov veto with 66~PMTs in the water tank surrounding the GERDA cryostat. The muon flux recorded by this veto shows a seasonal modulation. Two effects have been identified which are caused by secondary muons from the CNGS neutrino beam (2.2 %) and a temperature modulation of the atmosphere (1.4 %). A mean cosmic muon rate of $I^0_{\mu} = (3.477 \pm 0.002_{\textrm{stat}} \pm 0.067_{\textrm{sys}}) \times 10^{-4}$/(s$\cdot$m$^2$) was found in good agreement with other experiments at LNGS at a depth of 3500~meter water equivalent.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Limit on the Radiative Neutrinoless Double Electron Capture of 36^{36}Ar from GERDA Phase I

Neutrinoless double electron capture is a process that, if detected, would give evidence of lepton number violation and the Majorana nature of neutrinos. A search for neutrinoless double electron capture of $^{36}$Ar has been performed with germanium detectors installed in liquid argon using data from Phase I of the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment at the Gran Sasso Laboratory of INFN, Italy. No signal was observed and an experimental lower limit on the half-life of the radiative neutrinoless double electron capture of $^{36}$Ar was established: $T_{1/2} >$ 3.6 $\times$ 10$^{21}$ yr at 90 % C.I.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Procedure for short-lived particle detection in the OPERA experiment and its application to charm decays

The OPERA experiment, designed to perform the first observation of $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_\tau$ oscillations in appearance mode through the detection of the $\tau$ leptons produced in $\nu_\tau$ charged current interactions, has collected data from 2008 to 2012. In the present paper, the procedure developed to detect $\tau$ particle decays, occurring over distances of the order of 1 mm from the neutrino interaction point, is described in detail. The results of its application to the search for charmed hadrons are then presented as a validation of the methods for $\nu_\tau$ appearance detection

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).Comment: 48 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy with minor editin