The CYGNO project has the goal to use a gaseous TPC with optical readout to detect dark matter and solar neutrinos with low energy threshold and directionality. The CYGNO demonstrator will consist of ...1 m3 volume filled with He:CF4 gas mixture at atmospheric pressure. Optical readout with high granularity CMOS sensors, combined with fast light detectors, will provide a detailed reconstruction of the event topology. This will allow to discriminate the nuclear recoil signal from the background, mainly represented by low energy electron recoils induced by radioactivity. Thanks to the high reconstruction efficiency, CYGNO will be sensitive to low mass dark matter, and will have the potential to overcome the neutrino floor, that ultimately limits non-directional dark matter searches.
The CYGNO collaboration is developing next generationdirectional Dark Matter (DM) detection experiments, using gaseousTime Projection Chambers (TPCs), as a robust method for identifyingWeakly ...Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) below the NeutrinoFog. SF6 is potentially ideal for this since it provides a highfluorine content, enhancing sensitivity to spin-dependentinteractions and, as a Negative Ion Drift (NID) gas, reduces chargediffusion leading to improved positional resolution. CF4,although not a NID gas, has also been identified as a favourable gastarget as it provides a scintillation signal which can be used for acomplimentary light/charge readout approach. These gases can operateat low pressures to elongate Nuclear Recoil (NR) tracks andfacilitate directional measurements. In principle, He could be addedto low pressure SF6/CF4 without significant detriment to thelength of 16S, 12C, and 19F recoils. This wouldimprove the target mass, sensitivity to lower WIMP masses, and offerthe possibility of atmospheric operation; potentially reducing thecost of a containment vessel. In this article, we present gas gainand energy resolution measurements, taken with a Multi-Mesh ThickGaseous Electron Multiplier (MMThGEM), in low pressure SF6 andCF4:SF6 mixtures following the addition of He. We find thatthe CF4:SF6:He mixtures tested were able to produce gas gainson the order of 104 up to a total pressure of 100 Torr. Theseresults demonstrate an order of magnitudeimprovement 1 in charge amplification in NID gasmixtures with a He component.
CYGNO is a project realising a cubic meter demonstrator to study the scalability of the performance of the optical approach for the readout of large-volume, GEM-equipped TPC. This is part of the ...CYGNUS proto-collaboration which aims at constructing a network of underground observatories for directional Dark Matter search. The combined use of high-granularity sCMOS and fast sensors for reading out the light produced in GEM channels during the multiplication processes was shown to allow on one hand to reconstruct 3D direction of the tracks, offering accurate energy measurements and sensitivity to the source directionality and, on the other hand, a high particle identification capability very useful to distinguish nuclear recoils. Results of the performed R&D and future steps toward a 30-100 cubic meter experiment will be presented.
Optical readout of Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) provides very interesting performance and has been proposed for different applications in particle physics. In particular, thanks to its good ...efficiency in the keV energy range, it is being developed for low-energy and rare event studies, such as Dark Matter searches. So far, the optical approach has only exploited the light produced during the avalanche processes in GEM channels. Further luminescence in the gas can be induced by electrons accelerated by a suitable electric field. The CYGNO collaboration studied this process with a combined use of a triple-GEM structure and a grid in an He/CF4 (60/40) gas mixture at atmospheric pressure. Results reported in this paper allow to conclude that with an electric field of about 11 kV/cm a photon production mean free path of about 1.0 cm was found.
The performances of an optical readout of Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) with multiple Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) amplification stages are presented. The detector is characterized by using 55Fe ...photons converting inside a 7 litre sensitive volume detector in different electric field configurations. This prototype is developed as part of the R&D for the CYGNO project for an application to direct Dark Matter search by detection of tracks of nuclear recoils in the gas within the keV energy range.
The INFN Cloud project was launched at the beginning of 2020, aiming to build a distributed Cloud infrastructure and provide advanced services for the INFN scientific communities. A Platform as a ...Service (PaaS) was created inside INFN Cloud that allows the experiments to develop and access resources as a Software as a Service (SaaS), and CYGNO is the betatester of this system. The aim of the CYGNO experiment is to realize a large gaseous Time Projection Chamber based on the optical readout of the photons produced in the avalanche multiplication of ionization electrons in a GEM stack. To this extent, CYGNO exploits the progress in commercial scientific Active Pixel Sensors based on Scientific CMOS for Dark Matter search and Solar Neutrino studies. CYGNO, like many other astroparticle experiments, requires a computing model to acquire, store, simulate and analyze data typically far from High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. Indeed, astroparticle experiments are typically characterized by being less demanding of computing resources with respect to HEP ones but have to deal with unique and unrepeatable data, sometimes collected in extreme conditions, with extensive use of templates and montecarlo, and are often re-calibrated and reconstructed many times for a given data set. Moreover, the varieties and the scale of computing models and requirements are extremely large. In this scenario, the Cloud infrastructure with standardized and optimized services offered to the scientific community could be a useful solution able to match the requirements of many small/medium size experiments. In this work, we will present the CYGNO computing model based on the INFN cloud infrastructure where the experiment software, easily extendible to similar experiments to similar applications on other similar experiments, provides tools as a service to store, archive, analyze, and simulate data.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
A large area ring-imaging Cherenkov detector has been designed to provide clean hadron identification capability in the momentum range from 3 GeV/c to 8 GeV/c for the CLAS12 experiments at the ...upgraded 12 GeV continuous electron beam accelerator facility of Jefferson Lab to study the 3D nucleon structure in the yet poorly explored valence region by deep-inelastic scattering, and to perform precision measurements in hadronization and hadron spectroscopy. The adopted solution foresees a novel hybrid optics design based on an aerogel radiator, composite mirrors and densely packed and highly segmented photon detectors. Cherenkov light will either be imaged directly (forward tracks) or after two mirror reflections (large angle tracks). The preliminary results of individual detector component tests and of the prototype performance at test-beams are reported here.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The goal of the CYGNO project is to deploy at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) an high resolution Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) amplification and ...optical 3D readout of an Helium/Fluorine based gas mixture for directional Dark Matter (DM) searches at low 1-10 GeV WIMP masses. The determination of the incoming direction of WIMP particles can in fact offer not only additional handles for discrimination of the annoying backgrounds, but especially an unique key for a positive, unambiguous identification of a DM signal.
Abstract Nicotine, an alkaloid found in tobacco smoke, has been recognized as capable of inducing changes in taste functionality in conditions of chronic exposure. The mechanisms underlying these ...sensory alterations, however, are currently unknown. We addressed this issue by studying the long-term effects of nicotine on the anatomical features of taste buds, the peripheral end-organs of taste, in rat fungiform papillae. Nicotine was administered to rats via drinking water over a period of 3 weeks, which represents a standard method to achieve chronic drug exposure in laboratory animals. We found that prolonged administration of nicotine induced a significant reduction in the size of fungiform taste buds, without affecting their total number on the rat tongue. Morphometric measurements as well as evaluations of taste cell membrane capacitance suggested that the reduced size of taste organs was determined by a decrease in the number of cells per taste bud. In addition, chronic treatment with nicotine caused an increase in the relative density of cells expressing gustducin, a specific G protein α-subunit found in some taste cells and involved in bitter/sweet transduction. Interestingly, changes in the expression pattern of gustducin turned out to be more pronounced in periadolescent/adolescent than in adult rats. As a whole, our data indicate that long-term nicotine administration induces significant changes in the anatomical properties of taste buds in rat fungiform papillae. These changes could have a profound impact on the sensory information relayed to the brain; therefore, they may be responsible, at least in part, for the alterations in taste functionality observed during chronic nicotine exposure, a condition found in regular smokers.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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