Physics Beyond Colliders Annual Workshop

Europe/Zurich
500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

CERN

400
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Claude Vallee (Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille), Joerg Jaeckel (ITP Heidelberg), Mike Lamont (CERN)
Description

The aim of the Physics Beyond Colliders study group is to explore the opportunities offered by the CERN accelerator complex and infrastructure to gain new insights into some of today's outstanding questions in particle physics through projects complementary to high-energy colliders and other initiatives in the world. The focus is on fundamental physics questions that are similar in spirit to those addressed by high-energy colliders, but that may require different types of experiments.

This follow-up workshop is intended to review the status of the projects proposed at the kick-off workshop of September 2016, and to stimulate further new ideas for which we encourage the submission of abstracts.

The workshop will be webcast.

Organizing Committee: Joerg Jaeckel, Mike Lamont, Connie Potter, Claude Vallée

Registration
Registration form
Participants
Webcast
There is a live webcast for this event
  • Tuesday 21 November
  • Wednesday 22 November
    • Accelerator 500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      CERN

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    • New ideas: Abstracts received 500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      CERN

      400
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      • 32
        Light Dark Matter Searches with Carbon Nanotubes

        Directional detection of Dark Matter particles in the MeV mass range could be accomplished by studying electron recoils in large arrays of parallel carbon nanotubes. In a scattering process with a lattice electron, a DM particle might transfer sufficient energy to eject it from the nanotube surface. An external electric field is added to drive the electron towards the open ends of the array, where it is eventually detected. The anisotropic response of this detection scheme, as a function of the orientation of the target with respect to the DM wind, is calculated, and it is concluded that no direct measurement of the electron ejection angle is needed to explore significant regions of the light DM exclusion plot. A standard compact photomultiplier, in which the photocathode element is substituted with a dense array of parallel carbon nanotubes, could serve as the basic detection unit. For DM particles in the GeV mass range, ion channeling phenomena in carbon nanotubes can be exploited.

        Speaker: Antonio Polosa (Sapienza Universita` di Roma)
      • 33
        A new experiment for axion-like particle search

        In Particle Physics, axions appear in very well motivated extensions of the Standard Model including the Peccei-Quinn mechanism proposed to solve the long-standing strong-CP problem. Together with the weakly interacting massive particles of supersymmetric theories, axions are also a favored candidate for resolving the Dark Matter issue.
        I propose a new detection scheme for the search of axion-like particles based on a Light-Shining- Through-Wall (LSW) experiment in a photon frequency domain never explored before, at very low energy and with extremely intense photon sources.
        The aim of the project is the design of a different and innovative experiment, based on the implementation of a new single-photon detector working in the sub-THz region, and exploiting nano-technology devices at energy and temperature ranges never used in Particle Physics before.
        The ultimate goal is to answer one of the most pressing questions in Particle Physics with an unusual approach, based on state-of-the-art, and beyond, nano- and quantum-technology: using leading edge nano- tech detectors to investigate fundamental issues of Particle Physics.
        With radiation sources below the THz, thanks to the use of high luminosity klystrons or gyrations, present laboratory exclusion limits on axion-like particles might be improved by few orders of magnitude.The underlying idea of this proposal has been recently published in a paper in the Physics of the Dark Universe journal (see pays. Dark Univ. 12, 37 (2016) for details).

        Speaker: Paolo Spagnolo (INFN Sezione di Pisa, Universita' e Scuola Normale Superiore, P)
      • 34
        Measuring vacuum magnetic birefringence with static high-field superconducting magnets

        For many years the PVLAS collaboration has been working on trying to measure vacuum magnetic birefringence using optical techniques. That electrodynamics in vacuum is non-linear was predicted in 1935 [H. Euler and B. Kockel, Naturwiss, 23, 246 (1935)] and the first experimental proposal to detect the leading nonlinear effect, namely vacuum magnetic birefringence closely related to light-by-light elastic scattering, dates back to the early eighties at CERN following an idea by E. Iacopini and E. Zavattini [Phys. Lett. B, 85, 151 (1979)]. A lot of progress has been made since but the goal still needs to be reached. Recently Turolla et al. [Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 465, Issue 1, 11 February 2017, Pages 492–500] have indirectly inferred evidence of vacuum magnetic birefringence from the observation of a neutron star and ATLAS has directly observed $\gamma-\gamma$ interactions at high energies [Nature Physics 13, 852–858 (2017)]. A direct observation at low energies is still lacking.

        At present the PVLAS collaboration has reached an experimental value for the relevant parameter $\frac{\Delta n}{3B^2}$ to be compared with $A_e$ describing the non linear behaviour of electrodynamics in vacuum of $\frac{\Delta n^{\rm (PVLAS)}}{3B^2} = (6 \pm 9) \times 10^{-24}$ T$^{-2}$ to be compared with the theoretical predicted value of $A_e = 1.32\times 10^{-24}$ T$^{-2}$. Although the measured value is approaching the goal it was obtained with an integration of $5\times 10^6$ s and is at present limited by wideband noise and not systematic effects. Further integration does not seem to be the best approach.

        The sensitivity of the PVLAS apparatus is far from being shot-noise limited with a wideband contribution which still needs to be understood and is under investigation. Past and present experiments using the same, or a similar, approach also suffer from a similar problem. As can be seen in the attached figure the birefringence noise of our and other experiments seems to lay on a power curve and diminishes with frequency.

        So the two main ingredients are for an experiment aiming at measuring directly vacuum magnetic birefringence using light are: high modulation frequency of the signal and a high value for the integral $\int{B^2 dl}$. Typical values today are $\int{B^2 dl}\approx 10-20$ T$^{2}$m at frequencies of the order of tens of Hertz.

        Very high values of $\int{B^2 dl}\approx 1000 - 5000$ T$^{2}$m can be obtained with accelerator superconducting magnets like the HERA magnets and the ones in LHC. The problem is to modulate the effect at a reasonably high frequency. In the past, rotating the polarisation of the light entering the polarimeter has been proposed by OSQAR but difficulties have been encountered, e.g. mirror birefringence. A new possible technique, published in 2016 [Eur. Phys. J. C (2016) 76:294] and still to be tested, proposes the insertion of two synchronously rotating half-wave plates inside the Fabry-Perot cavity (with therefore a relatively low finesse of $\approx 10^3$) each one on either side of the magnetic field so as to have a rotating polarisation $only$ in the static magnetic field but $not$ on the mirrors of the cavity.

        This idea, with its possible drawbacks, will be presented thinking on the lines of using an LHC magnet at CERN.
        [Experimental birefringence sensitivities of experiments designed to measure vacuum magnetic birefringence. The continuous line is a fit resulting in a power law $S_{\Delta n}=f^k$ with $k=-0.78$]. 1

        Speaker: Guido Zavattini (Università di Ferrara)
      • 35
        Precision measurements in nuclear beta decay at ISOLDE
        Speakers: Martin Gonzalez-Alonso (CERN), Stephan Malbrunot (CERN)
      • 36
        Search for new physics via EDM of heavy and strange baryons at the LHC
        Speaker: Fernando Martinez Vidal (IFIC - University of Valencia and CSIC (ES))
    • 15:30
      Coffee 500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      CERN

      400
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    • New ideas II: Other new ideas 500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      CERN

      400
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      • 37
        Probing QED in the strong-field limit with the XFEL at DESY
        Speaker: Matthew Wing (University College London)
      • 38
        A possible implementation of an electron beam facility at CERN
        Speaker: Steinar Stapnes (CERN)
      • 39
        REDTOP: Rare Eta Decays with a TPC for Optical Photons
        Speaker: Roberto Carosi (INFN - National Institute for Nuclear Physics)
    • Closeout 500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

      CERN

      400
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