Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PROBES (Probes of new physics and technological advancements from particle and gravitational wave physics experiments. A cooperative Europe - United States - Asia effort.)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-03-01 do 2024-02-29
PROBES will explore elusive aspects of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and the Standard Model of Cosmology (SMC) and search for new physics exploiting particle accelerators and gravitational wave (GW) interferometers. Several low- energy aspects of quark-gluon interactions still remain a challenge, like the mechanism of color confinement, which accounts for 99% of the mass of standard matter of the Universe, and the equation of state (EoS) of ultradense matter, fundamental for the study of compact stars. Astrophysical observations and particle physics anomalies point towards the existence of Dark Matter (DM). Major efforts are dedicated to the search for galactic DM or hints at particle accelerators. The observation of neutrino oscillations established a picture consistent with the mixing of three neutrino flavours in three mass eigenstates and small mass differences. Experimental anomalies suggest the existence of sterile neutrino states participating in the mixing and not coupling to the SM gauge bosons. Lepton mixings and massive neutrinos offer a gateway to deviations from the SM in the lepton sector including Charged Lepton Flavour Violation. GWs provide alternative ways to study these phenomena. They could probe the existence of primordial black-holes as a possible DM candidate, test the SMC through new measurements of the Universe expansion rate, and the neutron star EoS through the “tidal” perturbations during a binary neutron star merger. Joint EM-GW-neutrino observations could probe astrophysical sources and constrain physics under extreme conditions of electromagnetic and gravitational fields. We are leading the development, commissioning and data analysis of cutting-edge experiments to answer these questions. This requires maximum knowledge sharing and technological advancements with applications also outside fundamental physics. The collaboration with world-class laboratories in US and Asia will open new career prospects for the participants.
PROBES has moved along three complementary directions: hadron physics at JLAB (US), muon and neutrino physics at Fermilab (US), PSI and CERN (Switzerland) and J-PARC (Japan), and Gravitational Wave physics at LIGO (US), EGO (Italy) and Kagra (Japan).
During the reported period, the JLAB accelerator complex has been regularly operated and the planned data-taking in Hall-A and Hall-B have been successfully completed. Among the major achievements were the completion of the first experiment of CLAS12 (Hall-B) with a (longitudinally) polarized target and several nucleon form-factor experiments done with the SBS spectrometer (Hall-A). PROBES Researchers largely contributed to the tuning of the detector reconstruction parameters and algorithms, to the data processing, data quality assurance and high-level analysis. This led to a continuous flow of publications, with highlights from nucleon structure (tritium targets and GPD and TMD parton distributions), nuclear potentials (CREX experiment) and dark matter searches (HPS experiment and BDX-mini demonstrator).
PROBES Researchers have been provided leading contribution to the development, construction, commissioning and operation of the experiments dedicated to the search for Charged Lepton Flavour Violation. These include COMET at J-PARC, MEG-II and Mu3e at PSI, and the muon-electron-conversion (Mu2e) experiment at Fermilab. MEG-II has already published their first articles on physics data analysis, COMET, Mu3e and Mu2e are rapidly progressing towards the completion of infrastructure and detectors commissioning and physics data taking. In the field of neutrino physics, ICARUS (Fermilab) has been successfully taking data for three years and SBND (Fermilab) has completed commissioning and is beginning physics data taking in conjunction with ICARUS within the SBN program.
Following the success of the initial observational campaigns (O1, O2, and O3), the global network of Gravitational Wave detectors, comprising LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA, has continued its scientific program through a series of alternating observation periods and detector upgrades. The recent data-taking periods include O4 (started by LIGO in May 2023), and O5, expected in 2027. In the case of Virgo, the detector has undergone significant improvements to become Advanced Virgo+ and joined LIGO in O4 as of May 2024.
In parallel with the ongoing operation of Virgo, PROBES Researchers are deeply involved in the design of the Einstein Telescope (ET) which represents the next generation of Gravitational Wave observatories, designed to enhance the sensitivity of current detectors by an order of magnitude and extend the frequency range towards lower frequencies. Progress has been also made in the localization strategy of Gravitational Waves events to perform multi-messenger studies including electromagnetic and other cosmic-messenger counterparts.
During the reported period, the JLAB accelerator complex has been regularly operated and the planned data-taking in Hall-A and Hall-B have been successfully completed. Among the major achievements were the completion of the first experiment of CLAS12 (Hall-B) with a (longitudinally) polarized target and several nucleon form-factor experiments done with the SBS spectrometer (Hall-A). PROBES Researchers largely contributed to the tuning of the detector reconstruction parameters and algorithms, to the data processing, data quality assurance and high-level analysis. This led to a continuous flow of publications, with highlights from nucleon structure (tritium targets and GPD and TMD parton distributions), nuclear potentials (CREX experiment) and dark matter searches (HPS experiment and BDX-mini demonstrator).
PROBES Researchers have been provided leading contribution to the development, construction, commissioning and operation of the experiments dedicated to the search for Charged Lepton Flavour Violation. These include COMET at J-PARC, MEG-II and Mu3e at PSI, and the muon-electron-conversion (Mu2e) experiment at Fermilab. MEG-II has already published their first articles on physics data analysis, COMET, Mu3e and Mu2e are rapidly progressing towards the completion of infrastructure and detectors commissioning and physics data taking. In the field of neutrino physics, ICARUS (Fermilab) has been successfully taking data for three years and SBND (Fermilab) has completed commissioning and is beginning physics data taking in conjunction with ICARUS within the SBN program.
Following the success of the initial observational campaigns (O1, O2, and O3), the global network of Gravitational Wave detectors, comprising LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA, has continued its scientific program through a series of alternating observation periods and detector upgrades. The recent data-taking periods include O4 (started by LIGO in May 2023), and O5, expected in 2027. In the case of Virgo, the detector has undergone significant improvements to become Advanced Virgo+ and joined LIGO in O4 as of May 2024.
In parallel with the ongoing operation of Virgo, PROBES Researchers are deeply involved in the design of the Einstein Telescope (ET) which represents the next generation of Gravitational Wave observatories, designed to enhance the sensitivity of current detectors by an order of magnitude and extend the frequency range towards lower frequencies. Progress has been also made in the localization strategy of Gravitational Waves events to perform multi-messenger studies including electromagnetic and other cosmic-messenger counterparts.
The JLAB experiments have provided large data samples which allowed PROBES Researchers to perform detailed studies of the physics of the confined state, and nuclear and hypernuclear dynamics, which also has astrophysics interest. PROBES researchers have provided leading contribution also to the recently published light dark matter searches using the data collected by the HPS experiment. New results have been published also in the field of nucleon tomography.
Concerning muon experiments, MEG-II is will continue data taking to improve the limit on the muon -> electron gamma search, and the upcoming experiments Mu2e, Mu3e and COMET will complete commissioning and begin data taking within the PROBES conclusion. The neutrino experiments at Fermilab, ICARUS and SBND, will conduct a joint data taking in 2024, 2025 and 2026 and perform searches for the sterile neutrino and joint neutrino oscillation analyses. This will include also precision measurements of the neutrino-argon cross sections, which will be important for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).
Gravitational Wave experiments will continue the ongoing O4 joint data taking, and develop improvements for the upcoming O5 planned for 2026. This will include studies for the Einstein Telescope. Data analysis will be performed with a multi-messenger approach.
The development of the new technologies necessary to pursue these experimental endeavours (accelerator infrastructures, computing infrastructures, radiation detectors, radiation tolerant electronics components, criogenic systems, precision mechanics, large optical systems, large environmental monitoring systems) will have significant impact at industrial level.
Concerning muon experiments, MEG-II is will continue data taking to improve the limit on the muon -> electron gamma search, and the upcoming experiments Mu2e, Mu3e and COMET will complete commissioning and begin data taking within the PROBES conclusion. The neutrino experiments at Fermilab, ICARUS and SBND, will conduct a joint data taking in 2024, 2025 and 2026 and perform searches for the sterile neutrino and joint neutrino oscillation analyses. This will include also precision measurements of the neutrino-argon cross sections, which will be important for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).
Gravitational Wave experiments will continue the ongoing O4 joint data taking, and develop improvements for the upcoming O5 planned for 2026. This will include studies for the Einstein Telescope. Data analysis will be performed with a multi-messenger approach.
The development of the new technologies necessary to pursue these experimental endeavours (accelerator infrastructures, computing infrastructures, radiation detectors, radiation tolerant electronics components, criogenic systems, precision mechanics, large optical systems, large environmental monitoring systems) will have significant impact at industrial level.