Studentship for SuperNEMO design study
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles that make up the universe and they are one of the least understood. They are similar in some ways to electrons but they don't have any electric charge. It was recently found that neutrinos are not massless but have a very small mass. Super-NEMO is one of several planned future experiments to investigate the nature of the neutrino and in particular whether a neutrino is the same as its antiparticle or not.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ruben Saakyan (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Argyriades J
(2010)
Measurement of the two neutrino double beta decay half-life of Zr-96 with the NEMO-3 detector
in Nuclear Physics A
Arnold R
(2011)
Measurement of the ßß decay half-life of 130Te with the NEMO-3 detector.
in Physical review letters
Arnold R
(2010)
Probing new physics models of neutrinoless double beta decay with SuperNEMO
in The European Physical Journal C
Argyriades J
(2010)
Results of the BiPo-1 prototype for radiopurity measurements for the SuperNEMO double beta decay source foils
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Argyriades J
(2011)
Spectral modeling of scintillator for the NEMO-3 and SuperNEMO detectors
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Saakyan R
(2013)
Two-Neutrino Double-Beta Decay
in Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science
| Description | The most accurate measurement to date of the two-neutrino (2v) double beta decay (DBD) half-life for the isotope of Zr96 was made. The most stringent limit on the neutrinoless DBD (NDBD) half-life of Zr96 was obtained. These measurements are important to understand the fundamental properties of neutrinos and the structure of the matter in the universe. A calorimeter detector was developed for the SuperNEMO DBD experiment with an unprecedented energy resolution. In addition, this detector can now be used outside academia in cancer treatment for quality assurance of proton therapy beams. |
| Exploitation Route | The measurements of Zr96 DBD can be used to inform future DBD experiments using this isotope. As only one of 3 isotopes with a transition energy well above 3 MeV it remains one of the most promising candidates. Precision measurements of the 2v DBD half-life help constrain nuclear models which are needed to extract new physics from NDBD measurements. Achieving the challenging goals of the calorimeter RnD allowed us to proceed with SuperNEMO, which is now one of the flagship DBD projects. In addition, the calorimeter inspired the current development of a QA tool for proton cancer therapy. |
| Sectors | Healthcare,Other |
| URL | http://nemo.in2p3.fr/nemow3/ |
| Description | One of the key outcomes of this award was a development of a high energy resolution, fast calorimeter for the SuperNEMO experiment. The student was in a fact a key developer. This technology is now being used to develop a detector for daily quality assurance of clinical proton beams which are used to treat cancer. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | ELJEN |
| Organisation | Eljen Corporation |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Providing a test bench for scintillator samples manufactured by ELJEN |
| Collaborator Contribution | Manufacturing scinitillator samples of required shapes and composition. |
| Impact | Calorimeter on R&D resulted in SuperNEMO experiment being approved as one of the flagship neutrinoless double beta decay experiments worldwide. Technology developed for SuperNEMO calorimeter can be deployed in proton cancer therapy for quality assurance purposes and potentially in proton CT. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | ENVINET |
| Organisation | Novalia |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Measurements of energy and time resolution of scintillator samples with different chemical compositions and polymerisation regimes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Development and manufacturing scintillator samples with different chemical compositions and polymerisation regimes. |
| Impact | Meeting the challenging goal of SuperNEMO calorimeter performance Technology transfer to proton cancer therapy underway |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Hamamatsu |
| Organisation | PMT Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. |
| Country | Japan |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We carried out a comprehensive characterisation of 8" PMTs and provided the feedback which resulted in significant improvement of the performance of these PMTs |
| Collaborator Contribution | Hamamatsu produced an 8" PMT with unprecedented energy and time resolution characteristics |
| Impact | A new type of an 8" PMT has been developed which offers superior energy and time resolution characteristics. With improved performance it will now find its use in many other cutting edge physics experiments: especially in neutrino physics and applications where a good resolution or a low light level detection is necessary. |
| Start Year | 2006 |