Nuclear and subnuclear physics
This section of the website is maintained by Enrico Vigezzi. Please contact him in case updates are needed.
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
Research in nuclear physics aims at the understanding of the rich variety of phenomena exhibited by the atomic nucleus. The Milano group performs experiments with radioactive nuclear beams at various laboratories. It has a strong expertise on gamma spectroscopy, and is involved in the development of innovative detectors and detection techniques; it has played an important role in the construction of the European detector AGATA based on gamma tracking. It is also active in the field of nuclear astrophysics, contributing to the measurement of cross sections of thermonuclear fusion reactions at astrophysically relevant energies, with the unique underground accelerator LUNA. The group participates in the AEGIS experiment at CERN, for the study of fundamental laws (Weak Equivalence Principle, CPT) with antimatter. ( Read more )
SUBNUCLEAR PHYSICS
Research in subnuclear physics aims at the understanding of the elementary constituents of the Universe and of their interactions. The Milano group is engaged both in experiments in particle physics performed with the use of accelerators and in astroparticle physics.
PARTICLE PHYSICS AT ACCELERATORS
The Milano group is active in two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN: ATLAS and LHCb.
The group had and is having an important role in the construction, commissioning and operation of the calorimeter and of the pixel detector of the ATLAS experiment. The group is presently involved in the exciting search for the Higgs boson, as well as for supersymmetric particles, a possible solution to Dark Matter enigma. The group and the INFN Computing center have contributed in an important way to the development of GRID computing and middleware software, and Milano host a TIER2 facility for the analysis of data from LHC.
The group has recently started a new activity within the LHCb experiment, contributing to the upgrade of the Upstream Tracker detector, based on silicon strip sensors, and to the R&D for a novel tracking system for fast trigger decisions. The group is also very active in data analysis, in particular for the study of CP violation in heavy flavor meson decays. (Read more)
ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS
The Milano Astroparticle group is involved in Neutrino Physics, Cosmic Rays physics and direct Dark Matter searches.
The activity concentrates on the BOREXINO experiment, performing low energy solar neutrino spectroscopy at Gran Sasso National Laboratory, on the SOX experiment which will search for neutrino oscillation into sterile neutrinos exploiting an artificial neutrino source in close proximity to the Borexino detector and on the JUNO experiment which will investigate the neutrino mass hierarchy problem using anti-neutrinos from reactor power plants in China. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are studied with large array of detectors of the AUGER observatory in Argentina. The group is involved in direct Dark Matter searches with liquid argon in the DARKSIDE project also in Gran Sasso.
Finally the group is starting a new project for the ultimate verification of the controversial claims of Dark Matter interaction on NaI crystals in Gran Sasso and in Australia. (Read more)