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The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest detector devoted to ultra-high energy cosmic rays (E> 10^18 eV). It is located in Argentina and covers a surface of 3000 Km^2. Auger is running since 2004. It is currently being upgraded with the main goal to improve its capability to study primary cosmic ray mass composition (i.e., if they are mainly light or heavy nuclei or a mixture of them). The upgraded detector will be named AugerPrime.
The Auger collaboration is composed of scientists coming from 15 countries.
The Milano group is involved both in data analysis and in preparatory work for the upgrade.
Possible subjects for a bachelor or a master thesis are:
- Study of the arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays to search for correlations with astrophysics catalogues and other types of ''astrophysical messangers'' (neutrinos, gravitational waves).
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-Development of advanced analysis packages (such as multi-variate tools) to perform mass composition studies of primary cosmic rays.
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-Characterization and test of prototypes of plastic scintillators to be used in AugerPrime. These scitillators are produced at the INFN laboratory in Lecce. This work will imply to spend some time in the production facility in Lecce (only master thesis).
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The Borexino experiment is located under the Gran Sasso mountain and is dedicated to the study of solar neutrinos.
Solar neutrinos are produced in the core of the Sun by nuclear reactions mainly belonging to the so-called ``proton-proton cycle''.
Borexino has been taking data since 2007 and has observed solar neutrinos coming from most of the proton-proton cycle reactions, measuring their flux and spectrum. In 2010, the Borexino radiopurity has been increased (thanks to a dedicated purification campaign), thus improving the quality of data and giving start to the Phase-II of the experiment.
The Milano group is involved in the analysis of Borexino data.
Possible subjects for bachelor or master thesis are:
-Analysis of Borexino Phase-II data to improve the flux measurement of solar neutrinos coming from the proton-proton cycle reactions.
Detailed study of systematic errors associated to this analysis.
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-Analysis of Borexino Phase-II data to study the sensitivity to neutrinos belonging to the so-called ``CNO cycle''. This cycle is expected to contribute less than 1% to the total Sun luminosity, but is expected to be important for more massive stars.
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The problem of the missing mass in the universe is one of the most fascinating misteries of modern science; there is experimental evidence that Dark Matter exists and makes up 30% of our universe, but its nature is not clear yet.
Darkside is an experiment devoted to search for Dark Matter in the hypothesis that it is due to WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Particles). It exploits large amounts of argon in double phase (liquid and gaseous) to detect the nucleus recoil after scattering with a WIMP. Darkside-50 is a prototype of the detector wich uses 50 Kg of Argon and is currently running at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The full-scale project, Dakside-20k (20 tons of Argon) is under study and will beone of the main actor in the search for WIMPS in the next decade.
The Milano group is involved both in Darkside-50 data analysis and in the design of Darkside-20k.
Possible subjects for bachelor or master thesis are:
-Data analysis: analysis of the Darkside-50 data to study the light emission properties of Argon. Study of the scintillator veto efficiency to neutrons with source runs.
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-Hardware: development of the read-out electronics for the photo-sensors (SiPM) which will be used in Darkside-20k.
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JUNO is under construction in China with the main goal to determine the ''neutrino mass hierarchy'',i.e., the relative ordering ofthe three active neutrino masses. The detector will consists of 20,000 tons of liquid scintillator and will observe anti-neutrinos produced by two nuclear reactors located in the South of China. It will study with unprecedented precision the ``oscillation phenomenon'', that is, the probability that these neutrinos, starting as electron neutrinos, will transform into neutrinos of other flavours (muonic or tauonic) as they travel from the reactors to the detector (60 Km apart).
The experiment will be able of measuring the parameters which regulate oscillations with a precision better than 1%. JUNO is expected to start taking data by 2020.
The Milano group is involved in the design and realization of the purification plants which will be used to treat JUNO's liquid scintillator. The Milano group is also involved in the study and characterization of the scintillator properties andin MonteCarlo simulations.
Possible subjects for bachelor or master thesis are:
- Characterization of small scintillator samples (transparency, light yield, etc..).
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- Development of MonteCarlo simulations to describe the JUNO detector; MonteCarlo studies of the detector performances.
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The experiment LSPE (Large Scale Polarization Explorer) is devoted to the detection of the so-called ``B-modes'' of the Cosmic Microwave Background polarization, a challenging frontier in observative cosmology.
LSPE will observe the cosmic microwave radiation coming from 25% of the Northern sky at a frequency between 40 and 240 GHZ by means of two instruments, SWIPE (frequencies between 140 and 240 GHz) and STRIP (frequencies at 40 and 95 GHz). SWIPE will fly on a stratosferic baloon, while STRIP will be located at ground at the Izana observatory (Tenerife, 2400 m).
The Milano group plays a leading role in STRIP, both for what concerns hardware development and preparation of the data analysis pipeline.
Possible subjects for a bachelor or a master thesis are:
Bachelor thesis
-Modellization of the polarimeters for LSPE/STRIP.
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-Optimization of the scanning strategy for STRIP
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Master thesis
- Development of methods to separate the CMB signal from the foreground.
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- Estimate of the CMB power spectrum in large angular scales.
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- Calibrations of CMB measurements by means of polarized astronomical sources
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-Testing and calibration of the STRIP detector
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The NU_AT_FNAL project is devoted to neutrino physics and consists of two experiments, SBN and DUNE.
It exploits neutrinos produced at the Fermi accelerator center (Fermilab) near Chicago (USA). SBN is a short-baseline experiment which aims at definitely proving or disproving the existence of sterile neutrinos. It is currently under preparation and includes three large liquid argon detectors, located at different distances from the neutrino beam (between 100 meters and 600 meters).
The Milano group in NU_AT_FNAL is involved in the design and construction of the veto detector for SBN to reject cosmic ray background. It is also involved in developing software for the analysis.
DUNE will study in detail the neutrino oscillation phenomenon, that is, the probability that a neutrino with a given flavor could transform into a neutrino of a different flavour during its propagation.
It will employ a 40 kton liquid Argon detector located at 1300 km from the neutrino beam. Its main goal will be to search for CP violation in the leptonic sector.
The Milano group is involved in the realization of a large prototype of DUNE at CERN. It is also involved in MonteCarlo simulations and development of analysis tools.
Possible subjects for bachelor or master thesis are:
-SBN: evaluation of the cosmic ray veto efficiency with MonteCarlo simulations and study of its effects on the experiment sensitivity.
The student could also partecipate to laboratory tests at CERN and, after the beginning of the experiment in 2018, to data-taking (master thesis only).
-DUNE: MonteCarlo simulations of the DUNE and DUNE prototype performances; simulations of the beam line and instrumentation to calibrate the prototype at CERN; possible involvement in tests at CERN (only master thesis).
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One of the strongest signature of the Dark Matter signal would be its periodical modulation along the year, due to the annual variation of the Earth velocity with respect to the Galactic Dark Matter Halo.
So far, the only experimental result which could be interpreted as Dark Matter evidence shows this signature, but has never been confirmed and its interpretation is controversial. The experiment SABRE is designed to use NaI scintillating cristals of
unprecedented radiopurity to confirm or disproof this signal and bring the detection of annual modulation to an improved sensitivity level.
The project foresees to have two twin detectors, one located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, the other at the antipodes, in a laboratory currently under construction in Australia, to prove that the modulation is not due to local seasonal effects.
The Milano group is involved in different aspects of the project: the realization of a first prototype of the detector and the R&D work devoted to design and realize the full scale detector.
Possible subjects for bachelor or master thesis are:
-MonteCarlo studies of the contributions to the total background budget coming from different parts of the detector;
-Laboratory studies on different parts of the hardware (photomultipliers, daq modules..) and partecipation to the installation and start-up of the prototype in Gran Sasso (master thesis only).
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Several long-standing experimental anomalies point towards the existence of the so-called sterile neutrinos. These hypothetical particles would not have standard interactions and would therefore be very difficult to detect.
SOX has been designed to prove or definitely disprove the sterile neutrino hypothesis, using the Borexino detector (in Gran Sasso). The idea is to place an anti-neutrino source underneath the Borexino detector at ~ 8 meters from its center and to measure the a-priori known neutrino flux with the Borexino liquid scintillator: a deficit in the number of detected neutrinos with a characteristic distance and energy dependence would be a strong signature of oscillations of standard anti-neutrinos into non observable sterile neutrinos.
The experiment will start in 2018. The Milano groups is involved in preparatory studies focusing on the following aspects which could be subject of bachelor or master thesis:
-Studies of the SOX sensitivity to sterile neutrinos, including realistic experimental details of the detector with MonteCarlo simulations.
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-Preparation and partecipation to the calibration campaign with radioactive source foreseen for SOX in 2017 and subsequent interpretation of the calibration data.
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