The neutrino mass is one of the missing ingredients in modern physics. At the intersection of particle physics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology the neutrino mass influences fundamental physics models and the evolution of the universe. The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) investigates the endpoint spectrum of tritium beta decay to determine the neutrino mass. KATRIN is world...
The Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) was established in the early 1990s as a technical research facility and today operates under a licence to handle up to 40 g of tritium. With its unique infrastructure, TLK supports a broad range of experiments relevant to both the fusion fuel cycle and precision particle physics, most notably the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN)...
Coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEvNS) is a powerful probe of fundamental neutrino properties and a sensitive tool to search for physics beyond the Standard Model at low energies. The NUCLEUS experiment aims to observe CEvNS using CaWO₄ cryogenic calorimeters based on transition-edge sensors (TES) with nuclear-recoil energy thresholds in the few–10 eV regime. The complex...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) foreseen to be installed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, SD, USA, involves Time Projection Chambers housed in four liquid argon cryostats with a total liquid argon volume of about 50,000 m3, installed in underground caverns at about 1.5 km below the surface.
Largest of its kind, DUNE involves several challenges for...
LEGEND-1000 searches for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Ge-76 by operating germanium detectors in a liquid argon cryostat. The argon surrounding the detectors is from an underground gas source extracted by a method developed by the DarkSide experiment. The talk discusses special features of the cryostat design and the cryogenic infrastructure.
DarkSide-20k is a next-generation detector for the direct search for dark matter, currently under construction at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (Italy). The experiment employs a dual-phase liquid-argon time projection chamber (TPC) and relies on two distinct types of liquid argon: atmospheric argon, used as a thermal bath and for the muon veto, and ultra-pure underground argon, which...
In recent years, millikelvin (mK) technologies have undergone remarkable progress, driven both by scientific applications and by rapid developments in quantum-computing industries. Rare-event searches - such as the hunt for the dark-matter content of the universe and investigations into the Majorana nature of the neutrino - continue to push the performance of cryogenic instrumentation to new...
The 3Dpi scanner is a Total-Body, Time of Flight, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging device with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) and a xenon-doped Liquid Argon (LAr) scintillator with the aim of ultra-low-dose imaging for pediatric and pregnant patients. The scanner has an axial field-of-view of 200 cm and consists of nine double-sided concentric rings of SiPM panels. The xenon doping...
Project 8 is a next-generation experiment aiming to directly measure the neutrino mass using the tritium endpoint method with a targeted sensitivity of 40 meV. The development of new technology and methods are required to reach this unprecedented sensitivity. Having established a new measuring technique, Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES), we are now focusing on the scaling of...
Next generation liquid nobel gas detectors for the search of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), such as XLZD, aim to increase their sensitivity down to the neutrino fog. This ambitious goal can only be achieved by further reducing the detector backgrounds dominated by LXe intrinsic isotopes of 85Kr and 222Rn to a factor ten below the unshieldable solar and atmospheric neutrino...
The FCC-ee or Future Circular Collider for electrons and positrons is a key study in CERN’s long-term programme, aiming to advance precision physics through unprecedented energies and luminosities. Achieving these goals requires an ultra-high vacuum system maintaining pressures below $10^{-10}$ bar along a 90km ring. Two vacuum chambers (VCs) form a 180km long system, that must combine...
The Einstein Telescope (ET) will be a third generation gravitational wave detector consisting of a set of low frequency and a high frequency interferometers. In order to mitigate thermal noise, the mirrors for the low frequency interferometer are required to be cooled down to cryo temperatures. This leads to freezing of residual gas from the vacuum chamber onto the mirror surface. This will...
The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment was designed to measure the absolute neutrino mass scale based on a high-precision measurement of the tritium β-decay spectrum, close to its endpoint.
Its unprecedented tritium source luminosity and spectroscopic quality makes it a unique instrument to also search for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). Most notably, a keV-scale sterile...
Detectors for direct dark matter searches based on noble liquids require highly stable cryogenic systems capable of liquefying, purifying, and continuously recirculating the target medium. The Proto-0 setup, developed within the DarkSide experiment, is a compact dual-phase liquid argon TPC aimed at studying the spatial distribution of scintillation and ionization signals with large SiPM...
The ET cryogenic tower will operate at 10–20 K, featuring exceptionally low vacuum level and implementing ultra-low noise technologies. Beyond cryostat development, a number of elements and GW instrumentation remain to be adapted or validated. Here we present an existing cryostat located at Virgo site, known as the ‘1500W’ facility, recently refurbished and operated with cryocoolers...
The XENONnT experiment is aiming for the direct detection of dark matter
in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using a
liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber. The detector, operated at
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy, features a total
LXe mass of 8.6 tonnes of which 5.9 tonnes are active.
In order to reach world-leading sensitivities for...
With the installation of rare event search experiments in underground laboratories, passive and active shielding measures, careful material selection and surface treatments, radioactive isotopes in the xenon of xenon-based detectors have become the most important background source in the search for rare events besides solar and atmospheric neutrinos. Particularly important are radioactive...
The large axion experiments ALPS II, (Baby)IAXO and MADMAX are either already in operation or planned for installation at DESY. This type of experiment requires the use of vertical fields, which are typically created using superconducting dipole magnets. In addition, all of these experiments have specific requirements for the experimental setups used in cryogenic and vacuum environments. This...
The QUBIC instrument (Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) is a novel experiment dedicated to measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and, in particular, the elusive B-modes that would provide evidence of primordial gravitational waves. Detecting such faint signals requires highly sensitive cryogenic detectors operating at sub-Kelvin temperatures and an...
LiteBIRD (Lite satellite for the study of B-mode polarisation and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection) is a JAXA Space Mission that aims to detect faint polarised signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, the so-called primordial B-modes, whose discovery would represent a milestone in Cosmology. To achieve this goal, LiteBIRD will observe the full sky for 3...
Virgo is currently operating in the O4b data-taking phase, ongoing for over one year and regularly detecting gravitational-wave signals. In parallel, several hardware upgrades are being prepared to enhance the detector sensitivity for the next data-taking phase O5. Among these, significant upgrades are planned for the vacuum system. Here we give a quick overview of the overall vacuum system...
Building upon the success of the LIGO and Virgo experiments in gravitational wave (GW) detection, the GW community is now setting its sights on new laser interferometers capable of detecting GWs from cosmological events spanning a much larger volume of the universe and occurring in its early phases. In pursuit of this objective, the European community has proposed the construction of the...
The Vacuum Solutions group at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory has a unique position in that it has the capability to operate and design the vacuum systems for new accelerators whilst maintaining a very active research laboratory looking at many new facets of vacuum design for accelerators. This gives the group the opportunity to develop ideas in the laboratory before implementing them on the...
INFICON stands ready to advance Astrophysics, Cosmology and Fundamental Physics by delivering cutting-edge technologies in vacuum sensing and control, ultra-sensitive leak detection, residual gas analysis, and sub-nanometer surface engineering via Atomic Layer Deposition.
With a long-standing history of providing high-end measurement instruments to a broad spectrum of Research applications...
