INPA

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR
2021-11-26 12:00 - 13:00, 2021-11-12 12:00 - 13:00, 2021-11-05 12:00 - 13:00, 2021-06-25 12:00 - 13:00, 2021-06-04 12:00 - 13:00, 2021-05-07 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR |Charlotte Alison Ward (Univ. of Maryland at College Park)
2021-11-19 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Charlotte Alison Ward (Univ. of Maryland at College Park)
Title: Using The Zwicky Transient Facility and Vera C. Rubin Observatory To Study Black Hole Seeds, Discover High-Z Quasars, and Measure Time Delays From Lensed Supernovae
Abstract:
Over the last 3 years, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has demonstrated the potential of wide-field transient surveys for the discovery of black hole populations which trace the formation of the first BH seeds and their merger-driven growth. For instance, our search for off-nuclear AGN in ZTF revealed 9 supermassive black holes (SMBHs) which may have been ejected from their host galaxy by gravitational wave recoil from SMBH mergers with misaligned spins. Likewise, our search for faintly variable intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) in dwarf galaxies with ZTF and WISE found 200 new IMBH candidates, most of which could not have been found via their spectroscopic or multi-wavelength signatures. We found these rare BH populations by using the latest techniques in forward modeling to improve photometric sensitivity, resolve blended sources and measure the separations between variable objects and their host galaxies. Our work is an exciting precursor to the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which we expect to detect large populations of recoiling SMBHs, IMBH candidates, and high-z quasars—especially when combined with large spectroscopic surveys. LSST is also predicted to find thousands of strongly gravitationally lensed, multiply-imaged supernovae, and application of the forward modeling techniques we previously demonstrated for ZTF will enable improved measurements of the Hubble constant.

Join Zoom Meeting https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/98918084629?pwd=[REDACTED] Meeting ID: 989 1808 4629
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Luca Pagani (UC Davis )
2021-10-29 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Luca Pagani (UC Davis)
Title: First Results From The ARTIE Experiment
Abstract:
A measurement of the transmission coefficient for neutrons through a thick (~3 atoms/b) liquid natural argon target in the energy range 30-70 keV was performed by the Argon Resonance Transmission Interaction Experiment (ARTIE) using a time of flight neutron beam at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In this energy range theory predicts an anti-resonance in the 40-Ar cross section near 57 keV, but the existing data, coming from an experiment performed in the 90s (Winters. et al.), does not support this. This discrepancy gives rise to significant uncertainty in the penetration depth of neutrons through liquid argon, an important parameter for next generation neutrino and dark matter experiments.In this talk, the first results from the ARTIE experiment will be presented. The ARTIE measurement of the total cross section as a function of energy confirms the existence of the anti-resonance near 57 keV, but not as deep as the theory prediction.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/96839979915pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 968 3997 9915
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Noah Kurinsky (SLAC )
2021-10-22 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Noah Kurinsky (SLAC)
Title: Quantum Sensors for Direct Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter
Abstract:
Over the last 20 years, searches for dark matter above the proton mass have advanced significantly across direct and indirect searches, but sub-GeV dark matter has until recently been comparatively unprobed. In this talk, I will discuss the state of the Sub-GeV direct detection field, and prospects for applying quantum measurement techniques to lowering mass thresholds for new searches with event thresholds at the eV-scale. I will then discuss the outlook for the field in the next 5-10 years, in the context of synergy with ongoing research in materials science and quantum information science. The goal over the next decade is to run background-free dark matter searches at gram-year exposures with meV-scale thresholds, an exciting challenge that requires a broad range of expertise, and comes with enormous scientific discovery potential.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/98007893520?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 980 0789 3520
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Peter Taylor (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory )
2021-10-15 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Peter Taylor (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory )
Title: The RSD Sorting Hat
Abstract:
Redshift-space distortions (RSD) and weak lensing (WL) studies yield some of the tightest cosmological constraints. Large overlapping data sets from Euclid, the Rubin Observatory, the Roman Space Science Telescope and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instruments will enable a joint RSD/WL analysis. Such an analysis could significantly outperform WL and RSD analyses performed in isolation. In this talk I show how to optimally extract information from the RSD signal using angular statistics. This is a first step towards combing WL and RSD.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/91769253333?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 917 6925 3333
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Kevin Thieme (Univ. of Zurich)
2021-10-08 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Kevin Thieme (University of Zurich)
Title: A Measurement of the Mean Electronic Excitation Energy of Liquid Xenon

Abstract:
Detectors using liquid xenon as target are widely deployed in rare event searches. Conclusions on the interacting particle rely on a precise reconstruction of the deposited energy which requires calibrations of the energy scale of the detector by means of radioactive sources. However, a microscopic calibration, i.e. the translation from the number of excitation quanta into deposited energy, also necessitates good knowledge of the energy required to produce single scintillation photons or ionisation electrons in liquid xenon. The sum of these excitation quanta is directly proportional to the deposited energy in the target. The proportionality constant is the mean excitation energy and is commonly known as W-value. Here we present a measurement of the W-value with electronic recoil interactions in a small dual-phase xenon time projection chamber with a hybrid (photomultiplier tube and silicon photomultipliers) photosensor configuration. Our result is based on calibrations at O(1–10 keV) with internal 37-Ar and 83m-Kr sources and single electron events. We obtain a value of W=(11.5 +0.2 -0.3 (syst.)) eV, with negligible statistical uncertainty, which is lower than previously measured at these energies. If further confirmed, our result will be relevant for modelling the absolute response of liquid xenon detectors to particle interactions.

Join Zoom Meeting https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/93376704948?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 933 7670 4948
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Andreas Biekert (UC Berkeley)
2021-10-01 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Andreas Biekert (UC Berkeley)
Title: Scintillation Yield From Electronic and Nuclear Recoils In Superfluid 4He
Abstract:
HeRALD is a proposed sub-GeV scale dark matter detector based on a superfluid 4He target and transition edge sensor readout, supported as part of the TESSERACT project. Possible signal channels available for readout include prompt photons, triplet excimers, and roton and phonon quasiparticles, but the relative strength of these signals for low energy nuclear recoils requires experimental verification. We have measured the superfluid 4He scintillation yield at 1.75 K from nuclear recoils in the range of 50-1100 keV using a 16 cm3 target volume read out by six superfluid-immersed PMTs. Elastic scattering of 2.8 MeV neutrons produced by a deuterium-deuterium neutron generator and Compton scattering of 662 keV 137Cs gamma rays were used to determine the relative scintillation yield. Yields of both prompt and delayed scintillation components were measured and compared to a semi-empirical response model based on helium-helium and electron-helium scattering cross sections. We also discuss the development of a 24 keV neutron source to extend our measurements to smaller nuclear recoil energies.
Join Zoom Meeting https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/91625792208?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 916 2579 2208
Passcode: [REDACTED]

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, September 24, 2021
2021-09-24 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, September 17, 2021
2021-09-17 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, September 10, 2021
2021-09-10 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, September 3, 2021
2021-09-03 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, August 27, 2021
2021-08-27 12:00 - 13:00

CANCELLED VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Nikolay Markov (JLab)
2021-08-20 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, August 13, 2021
2021-08-13 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, August 6, 2021
2021-08-06 12:00 - 13:00

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR| Friday, July 23, 2021
2021-07-23 12:00 - 13:00

SPECIAL VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Jingkai Xia (Shanghai Tech)
2021-07-21 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Jingkai Xia (Shanghai Tech)
Title: Detector Study For New Generation Of Neutrino And Dark Matter Experiments In China
Abstract:
Non-zero neutrino mass and the existence of dark matter are two important observations beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Research on neutrino properties and dark matter detection will help to promote the discovery of new physics. New generation of neutrino and dark matter experiments are under construction or in commissioning in China, where advanced detectors are the key to meet the scientific goals. In this talk, I will introduce my work in detector research efforts in JUNO and PandaX-4T experiments, as well as study on detector technique which may be utilized in future experiments in China.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/96324647091?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 963 2464 7091
Passcode: [REDACTED]

NO VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Friday, July 16, 2021
2021-07-16 12:00 - 13:00

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Alessio Porcelli (Ghent University)
2021-07-09 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Alessio Porcelli (Ghent University)
Title: Method To Measure The Cosmic Rays Mass Composition With IceCube/IceTop
Abstract:
There is an intrinsic difficulty in measuring the mass of Cosmic rays at Ultra-High Energy. The only possible way involves measuring the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) characteristics produced by hadronic interactions of the incoming particle (primary) with the atmosphere: it behaves as a calorimeter producing secondary particles. EAS are characterized by a longitudinal profile along the shower development and a lateral one at the ground around the shower core. In the latter distribution, because of the shower physics, the information of the mass is delivered by the muon component.
IceTop is part of the IceCube experiment, sited at the geographic South Pole. While the latter consists of 86 strings drilled inside the ice covering a kilometer cube to detect neutrinos from astrophysical origins, the former are stations on the top of such strings used to veto atmospheric neutrinos. IceTop consists of 81 stations, each with two water Cherenkov detectors with two Photomultiplier Tubes each, able to detect Cherenkov light produced by the crossing charged particles. This setup of detectors can also be used to measure the EAS lateral distribution, letting IceCube be able to measure also Cosmic Rays with energies above 1 PeV and up to 1 EeV.
Two different approaches will be presented in the seminar, using IceTop alone or together with the in-ice part of IceCube. Moreover, improvement attempts will be depicted: analysis strategies and the incoming extension IceCube-Gen2.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/93261885135?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 932 6188 5135
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | María Martínez (Universidad de Zaragoza)
2021-07-02 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: María Martínez ​(​Universidad de Zaragoza​)​
Location: via Zoom
Title: Annual ​M​odulation ​R​esults ​F​rom ​Three​ ​–​Y​ear ​E​xposure of ANAIS-112
Abstract:
For more than 20 years, the DAMA/LIBRA experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory (Italy) has claimed a positive dark matter detection: an annual modulation in the low-energy detection rate compatible with the expected signal induced by dark matter particles due to the Earth rotation around the Sun. This signal is in strong tension with the negative results of other very sensitive experiments. However, until recently a direct comparison using the same target material (NaI(Tl)) was lacking. ANAIS (annual modulation with NaI Scintillators) is a dark matter direct detection experiment located at the Canfranc Underground

Laboratory (LSC, Spain). Its main goal is to test in a model independent way the DAMA/LIBRA positive result. ANAIS-112 operates 112.5 kg of NaI(Tl) scintillators at the LSC since August 2017 and is taking data smoothly with excellent performances. Results from the first three years are compatible with the absence of modulation and incompatible with the DAMA/LIBRA measured modulation at more than 2.5 sigma C.L.

In this seminar I will briefly review the DAMA/LIBRA puzzle and the status of the experiments trying to reproduce it. Then I will introduce the ANAIS-112 experimental set-up, the detector performance and analysis methods. Finally, I will present the results of the annual modulation analysis corresponding to three years of ANAIS data, the physical implications and the prospects for the 5 years of scheduled operation time.

Join Zoom Meeting​
​https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/95105088780
Meeting ID: 951 0508 8780

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Javier Menéndez (University of Barcelona)
2021-06-18 10:00 - 11:00
Speaker: Javier Menéndez (University of Barcelona)
Title: Nuclear Theory To Reveal The Nature Of Dark Matter And Neutrinos

Location: via Zoom

Abstract:
Unveiling the nature of dark matter is one the most exciting challenges in physics. While it constitutes about a quarter of the energy-density of the universe and 80% of its mass, the composition of dark matter remains elusive. Beyond the solid evidence based on its gravitational properties, a key step would be the direct detection in the laboratory, a program led by searches of the scattering of dark matter particles off atomic nuclei. Naturally, the interpretation of these experiments depends on the nuclear physics input that describes the dark matter scattering off nuclei. Assuming a scenario where dark matter is mainly composed by WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) that couple to quarks and gluons, I will introduce nuclear theory insights needed to characterize the possible nuclear-WIMP interactions, with focus on which WIMP-nucleus interactions can receive contributions from several nucleons in the nucleus (coherence), or how experiments could distinguish between different WIMP-nucleus interactions.
Likewise, the scattering of neutrinos off nuclei and a rare proposed nuclear decay, neutrinoless double-beta decay, can determine if neutrinos are its own antiparticles, and pin down physics beyond the Standard Model. Again, these processes depend on nuclear physics input that needs to be calculated from nuclear theory and which is key to interpret experimental searches. If time allows, I will also discuss the most prominent features of the nuclear matrix elements for coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and neutrinoless double-beta decay.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/91005179177?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 910 0517 9177
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Bryan Ramson (Fermilab)
2021-06-11 12:00 - 13:00
Location: via Zoom
Speaker: ​Bryan Ramson (​Fermilab)
Title: Towards A New Generation of Bubble Chambers

Abstract:
Long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments present some of the most compelling paths towards beyond the standard model physics through measurement of PMNS matrix elements and observation of leptonic CP violation. State of the art long baseline oscillation experiments, like NOvA and T2K, are currently statistically limited, however uncertainty in neutrino-nuclei scattering represent leading sources of systematic uncertainty and will fundamentally limit the precision of future experiments like DUNE and T2HK if not addressed. Neutrino cross section uncertainties can be reduced through high statistics measurement of neutrino interactions on light nuclei, but creating a detector with an appropriate light target has proved elusive since the hydrogen bubble chambers of the previous century. Modern chamber based dark matter detectors like PICO/PICASSO/COUPP and the Scintillating Bubble Chamber have demonstrated that advances in sensor technology, computing, and automation would allow a modern bubble chamber to fully utilize the megawatt scale intensity LBNF beam through the use of high resolution and high speed cameras, novel triggering, and machine-learning based event reconstruction. This talk will review the broad physics program for the construction of a bubble chamber for use with neutrinos supplied by the LBNF.

Join Zoom Meeting https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/92148547097?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 921 4854 7097
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Lu Lu (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
2021-05-28 12:00
Speaker: Lu Lu (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Title: Detection Of A Particle Shower at the Glashow Resonance with IceCube
Abstract:
First proposed in 1959 by S. L. Glashow, the resonant creation of a W− boson from the interaction of an anti-electron neutrino with an electron has never been experimentally observed. In the electron rest-frame the required neutrino energy, Eν ≈ 6.3 PeV, is orders of magnitude greater than the energies of neutrinos created in Earth-based accelerators. As such, efforts at observing the interaction have focused on large-scale high-energy neutrino observatories designed to detect neutrino interactions in a natural medium, such as the cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice instrumented by the IceCube collaboration. In the talk I will report the first Glashow resonance candidate event from IceCube and the implications for the field in the future.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/98680929840?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 986 8092 9840
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | KE HAN (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
2021-05-21 16:00 - 17:00
Speaker: Ke Han (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Title: Rare Event Searches with PandaX
Abstract:
PandaX is a staged xenon-based dark matter and rare event searching project located at the China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL). In this talk we will present the latest dark matter search results using the full exposure data of PandaX-II, a 580-kg liquid xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC). Special focus will be on the recent solar axion analysis with PandaX-II low-energy electron-recoil spectrum. We will also update the status of PandaX-4T, the next generation multi-ton-scale liquid xenon experiment currently being commissioned at CJPL, as well as PandaX-III high pressure gaseous TPC.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/94237908005?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 942 3790 8005
Passcode: [REDACTED]

VIRTUAL INPA SEMINAR | Jessica Esquivel (Fermilab) | Friday, May 14, 2021
2021-05-14 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Jessica Esquivel (Fermilab)
Title: Can Wobbling Muons Probe Physics Beyond The Standard Model? Fermilab’s Muon g-2 Run 1 results.
Abstract:
On April 7th 2021, Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment announced it’s first results of the precision measurement of the anomalous muon magnetic moment based on it’s 2018 Run-1 dataset. These results align with the Brookhaven National Laboratory experimental value and the combined values increases the tension between experiment and theory from 3.7 to 4.2 sigma. This talk will give an overview of the Fermilab Muon g-2 experiment, discuss the steps necessary to precisely measure wobbling muons, why this result has the physics community abuzz, and what’s next.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/98052159063
Meeting ID: 980 5215 9063
Passcode: [REDACTED]
