Tests of a cooling system for thin targets submitted to intense ion beams for the numen experiment

The NUMEN experiment, hosted at LNS (Catania, Italy), aims to determine the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) involved in 0β β decay via heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. High intensity beams of about 50 μA and of energies ranging from 15 to 60 MeV/u are necessary, due to the low DCE cross sections and the use of very thin targets (several hundreds of nm) needed to reach the required energy resolution. These intense beams produce a considerable amount of heat inside the target, which can be dissipated by depositing the targets on a highly thermally conductive substrate, HOPG (Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite), and coupling it with a suitable designed target-cooler system. The heat transfer from the beam spot to the cold region has been studied by solving numerically the heat equation to determine the evolution in space and time of the temperature inside the target. According to calculations, the temperatures of most of the target isotopes remain under the melting points. Experimental tests with a laser were initiated to validate the whole cooling system and the calculations

The NUMEN heavy ion multidetector for a complementary approach to the neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinos are so far the most elusive known particles, and in the last decades many sophisticated experiments have been set up in order to clarify several questions about their intrinsic nature, in particular their masses, mass hierarchy, intrinsic nature of Majorana or Dirac particles. Evidence of the Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (NDBD) would prove that neutrinos are Majorana particles, thus improving the understanding of the universe itself. Besides the search for several large underground experiments for the direct experimental detection of NDBD, the NUMEN experiment proposes the investigation of a nuclear mechanism strongly linked to this decay: the Double Charge Exchange reactions (DCE). As such reactions share with the NDBD the same initial and final nuclear states, they could shed light on the determination of the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs), which play a relevant role in the decay. The physics of DCE is described elsewhere in this issue, while the focus of this paper will be on the challenging experimental apparatus currently under construction in order to fulfil the requirements of the NUMEN experiment. The overall structure of the technological improvement to the cyclotron, along with the newly developed detection systems required for tracking and identifying the reaction products and their final excitation level are described

The NUMEN heavy ion multidetector for a complementary approach to the neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinos are so far the most elusive known particles, and in the last decades many sophisticated experiments have been set up in order to clarify several questions about their intrinsic nature, in particular their masses, mass hierarchy, intrinsic nature of Majorana or Dirac particles. Evidence of the Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (NDBD) would prove that neutrinos are Majorana particles, thus improving the understanding of the universe itself. Besides the search for several large underground experiments for the direct experimental detection of NDBD, the NUMEN experiment proposes the investigation of a nuclear mechanism strongly linked to this decay: the Double Charge Exchange reactions (DCE). As such reactions share with the NDBD the same initial and final nuclear states, they could shed light on the determination of the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs), which play a relevant role in the decay. The physics of DCE is described elsewhere in this issue, while the focus of this paper will be on the challenging experimental apparatus currently under construction in order to fulfil the requirements of the NUMEN experiment. The overall structure of the technological improvement to the cyclotron, along with the newly developed detection systems required for tracking and identifying the reaction products and their final excitation level are described

The NUMEN project: NUclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless double beta decay

The article describes the main achievements of the NUMEN project togetherwith an updated and detailed overview of the related R&D activities andtheoretical developments. NUMEN proposes an innovative technique to access thenuclear matrix elements entering the expression of the lifetime of the doublebeta decay by cross section measurements of heavy-ion induced Double ChargeExchange (DCE) reactions. Despite the two processes, namely neutrinoless doublebeta decay and DCE reactions, are triggered by the weak and strong interactionrespectively, important analogies are suggested. The basic point is thecoincidence of the initial and final state many-body wave-functions in the twotypes of processes and the formal similarity of the transition operators. Firstexperimental results obtained at the INFN-LNS laboratory for the40Ca(18O,18Ne)40Ar reaction at 270 MeV, give encouraging indication on thecapability of the proposed technique to access relevant quantitativeinformation. The two major aspects for this project are the K800Superconducting Cyclotron and MAGNEX spectrometer. The former is used for theacceleration of the required high resolution and low emittance heavy ion beamsand the latter is the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer for the detectionof the ejectiles. The use of the high-order trajectory reconstructiontechnique, implemented in MAGNEX, allows to reach the experimental resolutionand sensitivity required for the accurate measurement of the DCE cross sectionsat forward angles. However, the tiny values of such cross sections and theresolution requirements demand beam intensities much larger than manageablewith the present facility. The on-going upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities inthis perspective is part of the NUMEN project and will be discussed in thearticle

Recent results on Heavy-Ion induced reactions of interest for 0νββ decay

An updated overview of recent results on Heavy-Ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay is reported in the framework of the NUMEN project. The NUMEN idea is to study heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions with the aim to get information on the nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. Moreover, to infer the neutrino average masses from the possible measurement of the half- life of 0νββ decay, the knowledge of the nuclear matrix elements is a crucial aspec

Recent results on heavy-ion direct reactions of interest for 0νββ decay at INFN LNS

Neutrinoless double beta decay of nuclei, if observed, would have important implications on fundamental physics. In particular it would give access to the effective neutrino mass. In order to extract such information from 0νββ decay half-life measurements, the knowledge of the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) is of utmost importance. In this context the NUMEN and the NURE projects aim to extract information on the NME by measuring cross sections of Double Charge Exchange reactions in selected systems which are expected to spontaneously decay via 0νββ. In this work an overview of the experimental challenges that NUMEN is facing in order to perform the experiments with accelerated beams and the research and development activity for the planned upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities is reported

Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS

Abstract. The possibility to use a special class of heavy-ion induced direct reactions, such as double charge exchange reactions, is discussed in view of their application to extract information that may be helpful to determinate the nuclear matrix elements entering in the expression of neutrinoless double beta decay halflife. The methodology of the experimental campaign presently running at INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud is reported and the experimental challenges characterizing such activity are describe

New results from the NUMEN project

NUMEN aims at accessing experimentally driven information on Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) involved in the half-life of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), by high-accuracy measurements of the cross sections of Heavy Ion (HI) induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. First evidence about the possibility to get quantitative information about NME from experiments is found for the (18O,18Ne) and (20Ne,20O) reactions. Moreover, to infer the neutrino average masses from the possible measurement of the half-life of 0νββ decay, the knowledge of the NME is a crucial aspect. The key tools for this project are the high resolution Superconducting Cyclotron beams and the MAGNEX magnetic spectrometer at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania (Italy). The measured cross sections are extremely low, limiting the present exploration to few selected isotopes of interest in the context of typically low-yield experimental runs. A major upgrade of the LNS facility is foreseen in order to increase the experimental yield of at least two orders of magnitude, thus making feasible a systematic study of all the cases of interest. peerReviewe

The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector at the CERN LHC which focuses on QCD, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model. It is designed to address the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma at extreme values of energy density and temperature in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Besides running with Pb ions, the physics programme includes collisions with lighter ions, lower energy running and dedicated proton-nucleus runs. ALICE will also take data with proton beams at the top LHC energy to collect reference data for the heavy-ion programme and to address several QCD topics for which ALICE is complementary to the other LHC detectors. The ALICE detector has been built by a collaboration including currently over 1000 physicists and engineers from 105 Institutes in 30 countries. Its overall dimensions are 161626 m3 with a total weight of approximately 10 000 t. The experiment consists of 18 different detector systems each with its own specific technology choice and design constraints, driven both by the physics requirements and the experimental conditions expected at LHC. The most stringent design constraint is to cope with the extreme particle multiplicity anticipated in central Pb-Pb collisions. The different subsystems were optimized to provide high-momentum resolution as well as excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a broad range in momentum, up to the highest multiplicities predicted for LHC. This will allow for comprehensive studies of hadrons, electrons, muons, and photons produced in the collision of heavy nuclei. Most detector systems are scheduled to be installed and ready for data taking by mid-2008 when the LHC is scheduled to start operation, with the exception of parts of the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). These detectors will be completed for the high-luminosity ion run expected in 2010. This paper describes in detail the detector components as installed for the first data taking in the summer of 2008

Tests of a Cooling System for Thin Targets Submitted to Intense Ion Beams for the NUMEN Experiment

International audienceThe NUMEN experiment, hosted at LNS (Catania, Italy), aims to determine the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) involved in 0νββ decay via heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. High intensity beams of about 50 µA and of energies ranging from 15 to 60 MeV/u are necessary, due to the low DCE cross sections and the use of very thin targets (several hundreds of nm) needed to reach the required energy resolution. These intense beams produce a considerable amount of heat inside the target, which can be dissipated by depositing the targets on a highly thermally conductive substrate, HOPG (Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite), and coupling it with a suitable designed target-cooler system. The heat transfer from the beam spot to the cold region has been studied by solving numerically the heat equation to determine the evolution in space and time of the temperature inside the target. According to calculations, the temperatures of most of the target isotopes remain under the melting points. Experimental tests with a laser were initiated to validate the whole cooling system and the calculation