Descripción del proyecto
THE PRESENT PROJECT AIMS AT SUPPORTING THE ONGOING ACTIVITIES OF THE GROUP OF THE LABORATORY OF NUCLEAR AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS OF THE ZARAGOZA UNIVERSITY IN THE FIELDS OF NEUTRINO PHYSICS (DOUBLE BETA DECAY) AND AXION PHYSICS, AS WELL AS GENERIC DEVELOPMENT TASKS ON LOW BACKGROUND TECHNIQUES. THEY INCLUDE ESPECIALLY THE CURRENT PARTICIPATION IN THE NEUTRINO XENON EXPERIMENT (NEXT) AT THE UNDERGROUND CANFRANC LABORATORY (LSC), AND THE PARTICIPATION IN THE CERN AXION SOLAR TELESCOPE (CAST) AT CERN. THE NEUTRINOLESS DOUBLE BETA DECAY, ββ(0ν), IS THE MOST SENSITIVE PROCESS TO LEPTONIC NUMBER VIOLATION AND ITS DISCOVERY WOULD PROVE IN PARTICULAR THAT THE NEUTRINO IS A MAJORANA PARTICLE. NEXT AIMS AT BUILDING A 100 KG GASEOUS XE TPC, ENRICHED IN 136XE, TO BE INSTALLED AND OPERATED IN THE LSC, WITH AN EXPECTED SENSITIVITY FOR THE NEUTRINO EFFECTIVE MASS OF THE ORDER OF 50-100 MEV. OUR PARTICIPATION IN NEXT CAN BE DEFINED IN THE FOLLOWING MAIN POINTS: LEADING THE WORKING GROUP RELATED TO THE RADIO-PURITY STUDIES AND MEASUREMENTS (SPECTROSCOPY WITH GE DETECTORS, RADON MEASUREMENT AND RADON EMANATION) COORDINATION OF THE UPCOMING ACTIVITIES OF THE COLLABORATION IN THE LSC, TO INSTALL THE GAS SYSTEM AND OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE (AND POSSIBLY A FIRST OPERATING PROTOTYPE) UNDERGROUND (NEXT-10 PROJECT) ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AND COORDINATION IN ALL THE OTHER WORKING GROUPS OF THE COLLABORATION, BUT MOST ESPECIALLY IN THOSE OF SHIELDING, VESSEL AND GAS SYSTEM. DEVELOPMENT AND PROTOTYPING WITH MICROMEGAS TECHNOLOGY. OPERATION OF THE NEXT-1-MM TESTING THE OPTION OF MICROMEGAS READOUTS FOR .IN ADDITION, IN THE FIELD OF AXION SEARCHES, THE GROUP HAS BEEN DEEPLY INVOLVED IN THE CAST EXPERIMENT SINCE ITS CONCEPTION, BOTH IN ITS INSTALLATION AT CERN AND IN THE DATA TAKING CARRIED OUT DURING PHASE I (2003 AND 2004) AND PHASE II (4HE IN 2006 AND 3HE IN 2008-2011). NOW THE EXPERIMENT IS FINISHING THE 3HE DATA TAKING, WHICH IS EXTENDING THE SENSITIVITY OF THE EXPERIMENT TO AXION MASSES UP TO 1 EV. FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS THE EXPERIMENT FACES TWO IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES IN WHICH THE ZARAGOZA GROUP HAS IMPORTANT RESPONSIBILITIES. FIRST, A NEW DATA TAKING PROGRAM WHICH INCLUDES, AMONG OTHERS, REVISITING PHASE I WITH IMPROVED SENSITIVITY, MOTIVATED BY THE AVAILABILITY OF BETTER, LOW BACKGROUND, DETECTORS, DEVELOPED WITHIN CAST. AND SECOND, THE FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A NEW GENERATION AXION HELIOSCOPE WHICH WOULD IMPLY THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW MAGNET FOR AXION PHSYICS, OPTICS AND DETECTORS. THE ZARAGOZA GROUP WILL CONTRIBUTE BY CONTINUING THE WORK LINES PERFORMED UP TO NOW, ESSENTIALLY: CONTRIBUTION TO THE OPERATION OF THE CURRENT SETUP AT CERN, ECONOMICALLY TO THE COMMON FUND, AND PARTICIPATION IN THE EXPERIMENT SHIFTS AT CERN, FOLLOWING THE ESTABLISHED QUOTAS. CONTINUATION OF THE TASKS RELATED WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY THE GROUP HAS IN THE SUNSET DETECTOR SYSTEM, BASED IN TWO MICROMEGAS DETECTORS INSIDE A LARGE LOW BACKGROUND SHIELDING (MAINTENANCE, OPERATION, DATA ANALYSIS). COORDINATION OF FEASIBILITY STUDY OF NEW GENERATION AXION HELIOSCOPE. DEVELOPMENT, TOGETHER WITH CEA/SACLAY OF A DEMONSTRATING NEW DETECTOR SYSTEM BASED ON MICROMEGAS, WITH IMPROVED BACKGROUND LEVELS (POSSIBLY DOWN TO 10-7 C/KEV/CM2/S) EUTRINOS\SUCESOS POCO PROBABLES\CAMARAS DE PROYECCION TEMPORAL\DOBLE BETA\AXIONES