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Departmental Seminars
Studies of neutrinos and dark matter with the KamLAND-Zen and XENONnT experiments
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Europe/Athens
B228 (ΘΕΕ02)
B228
ΘΕΕ02
UCY Department of Physics Lecture Room 1 (Aglantzia Campus)
Description
Abstract: The search for the particle responsible for the dark matter in our galaxy requires building ultra-sensitive detectors with extraordinarily low radioactive backgrounds. Similarly, determining if the neutrino is its own antiparticle, i.e., a Majorana particle, and other neutrino properties also requires the study of extraordinarily rare events with very low backgrounds. I will describe two experiments that attempt to measure these rare processes. The XENONnT experiment uses 8.5 tons of liquid xenon to search for dark matter. It has operated since 2021 and I will discuss the results from the latest search for dark matter published earlier this year. The KamLAND-Zen experiment is a liquid-scintillator detector doped with Xe-136 that is used to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, a process that will occur if the neutrino is Majorana. KamLAND-Zen is currently the world’s most sensitive neutrinoless double beta decay experiment and I will discuss our latest results. I will conclude with an outlook for both experiments.
About the speaker: Patrick Decowski is a Professor of Physics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and affiliated with the Dutch Institute for Subatomic Physics Nikhef in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At UvA, he is one of the members of the GRAPPA Research Priority Area, a collaboration between particle physics, theory and astrophysics groups with the aim of studying astroparticle physics (APP). Prof Decowski's main scientific interests are the fundamental properties of neutrinos and dark matter, and he is currently pursuing various experiments to investigate these particles.
