Category archives: Particle physics

First neutrinoless double beta decay search with a NEXT detector

First neutrinoless double beta decay search with a NEXT detector

DIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

Deep below the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, we find the LSC (Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc – Canfranc Underground Laboratory), where the NEXT experiment is taking place. Its goal is one of the remaining holy grails of particle physics: the proof that the neutrino is its own antiparticle, a result with profound meaning not only […]

European Spallation Source, at the forefront of particle physics with neutrons and neutrinos

European Spallation Source, at the forefront of particle physics with neutrons and neutrinos

DIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

spallation Progress in particle physics has traditionally been achieved by a symbiosis of experiments at the energy and intensity frontiers and model-building. This has led to the current situation of the Standard Model (SM) representing our best knowledge of particle physics, but which leaves a number of open questions to be resolved. These include the […]

Unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup for dark photons

Unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup for dark photons

CosmologyParticle physicsPhysics

By César Tomé

Scientists working on the Dark SRF experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have demonstrated unprecedented sensitivity in an experimental setup used to search for theorized particles called dark photons. Researchers trapped ordinary, massless photons in devices called superconducting radio frequency cavities to look for the transition of those photons into […]

Development of a barium detector for a neutrinoless double beta decay

Development of a barium detector for a neutrinoless double beta decay

ChemistryDIPC BiochemistryDIPC InterfacesDIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

The observation of the neutrinoless double beta decay is the only practical way to establish that neutrinos are their own antiparticles. But, because of the small masses of neutrinos, the lifetime of neutrinoless double beta decay is expected to be at least ten orders of magnitude greater than the typical lifetimes of natural radioactive chains […]

Two-neutrino double-β-decay half-life via direct background subtraction

Two-neutrino double-β-decay half-life via direct background subtraction

DIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

Concluding that the neutrino is a Majorana particle would be really a turning point in our understanding of the universe. It would mean the non-conservation of a magnitude called the leptonic number, one of the key characteristics in a fermion, meaning that there would be an explanation to the matter-anti matter asymmetry: the creation of […]

Evidence of brand new physics at Cern? Why we’re cautiously optimistic about our new findings

Evidence of brand new physics at Cern? Why we’re cautiously optimistic about our new findings

Particle physicsPhysics

By Invited Researcher

When Cern’s gargantuan accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), fired up ten years ago, hopes abounded that new particles would soon be discovered that could help us unravel physics’ deepest mysteries. Dark matter, microscopic black holes and hidden dimensions were just some of the possibilities. But aside from the spectacular discovery of the Higgs boson […]

How to detect the daughter atom of a neutrinoless double beta decay

How to detect the daughter atom of a neutrinoless double beta decay

ChemistryDIPC BiochemistryDIPC InterfacesDIPC Particle PhysicsMaterialsParticle physics

By DIPC

A new fluorescent bicolour indicator, an organic molecule, could help detect the daughter atom of a neutrinoless double beta decay. If this is achieved, there would be an explanation to the matter-anti matter asymmetry in the universe. Experiments performed in 1909 by Geiger and Marsden, also called Rutherford gold foil experiment because Rutherford was their […]

Exploring new physics at the European Spallation Source using neutrinos

Exploring new physics at the European Spallation Source using neutrinos

DIPC Particle PhysicsParticle physics

By DIPC

Spallation is a type of nuclear reaction in which the interacting nuclei disintegrate into a large number of protons, neutrons and other light particles, rather than exchanging nucleons between them. It is thought that most of the nuclei of light elements, such as boron, are made in this way. Spallation reactions of this type are […]