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BiCoQ & INFN Seminar: Relic neutrinos detection and neutrino mass measurement in the PTOLEMY project.
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Europe/Zurich
Description
Abstract: The Universe has expanded significantly since the early thermal epoch known as the neutrino decoupling era, one second after the start. We have evidence of this expansion in many forms: the Hubble Expansion, the dim afterglow of the hot plasma epoch (Cosmic Microwave Background) and the abundances of light elements (Big Bang Nucleosynthesis). The epoch of neutrino decoupling produced a fourth pillar of confirmation – the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB). In our current understanding, the CNB was created in the first second after elementary particles spontaneously filled the void of the early Universe. Recent experimental advances open up new opportunities to directly detect the CNB through the process of neutrino capture on tritium, an achievement which would profoundly extend the sensitivity of precision cosmology data. PTOLEMY, an experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, is a novel method of 2D target surfaces, fabricated from graphene, that forms a basis for a large-scale relic neutrino detector. Recent PTOLEMY publications [1,2] describe the underlying technique for achieving CNB sensitivity and redefines the future direction of neutrino mass measurements. The discussion of PTOLEMY focusses on experimental challenges, recent developments and the path forward to discovery sensitivity.
References:
1) M.G. Betti et al., "A Design for an Electromagnetic Filter for Precision Energy Measurements at the Tritium Endpoint”, Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, 106, (2019) 120-131
2) M.G. Betti et al., "Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project”, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 07, (2019) 047
Marcello Messina, researcher at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, has been among the proponents of the PTOLEMY project, aiming at the detection of relic neutrinos. He coordinates the Italian effort and is the project co-spokesperson. He has a long record of contribution in neutrino physics, including searches for neutrino oscillation with high-energy neutrino beams (CHORUS) and experiments with liquid argon neutrino detectors (ICARUS), and in direct searches for particle dark matter candidates (XENONnT). He is the LNGS representative in the INFN Astroparticle Phyicis National Scientific Committee (INFN CSN2).
Joint seminar: INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca and Centro Bicocca di Cosmologia Quantitativa (BiCoQ) of the University of Milano Bicocca.
Organized by: TTdF
