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The article describes the main achievements of the NUMEN project together with an updated and detailed overview of the related R&D activities and theoretical developments. NUMEN proposes an ...innovative technique to access the nuclear matrix elements entering the expression of the lifetime of the double beta decay by cross section measurements of heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. Despite the fact that the two processes, namely neutrinoless double beta decay and DCE reactions, are triggered by the weak and strong interaction respectively, important analogies are suggested. The basic point is the coincidence of the initial and final state many-body wave functions in the two types of processes and the formal similarity of the transition operators. First experimental results obtained at the INFN-LNS laboratory for the
40
Ca(
18
O,
18
Ne)
40
Ar reaction at 270MeV give an encouraging indication on the capability of the proposed technique to access relevant quantitative information. The main experimental tools for this project are the K800 Superconducting Cyclotron and MAGNEX spectrometer. The former is used for the acceleration of the required high resolution and low emittance heavy-ion beams and the latter is the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer for the detection of the ejectiles. The use of the high-order trajectory reconstruction technique, implemented in MAGNEX, allows to reach the experimental resolution and sensitivity required for the accurate measurement of the DCE cross sections at forward angles. However, the tiny values of such cross sections and the resolution requirements demand beam intensities much larger than those manageable with the present facility. The on-going upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities in this perspective is part of the NUMEN project and will be discussed in the article.
The MEV project aims at developing a muon telescope expressly designed for the muography of Etna Volcano. In particular, one of the active craters in the summit area of the volcano would be a ...suitable target for this experiment. A muon tracking telescope with high imaging resolution was built and tested during 2017. The telescope is a tracker based on extruded scintillating bars with WLS fibers and featuring an innovative read-out architecture. It is composed of 3×1m2 XY planes; the angular resolution does not exceeds 0.4msr and the total angular aperture is about ±45∘. A special effort concerned the design of mechanics and electronics in order to meet the requirements of a detector capable to work in a hostile environment such as the top of a tall volcano, at a far distance from any facility. The test phase started in January 2017 and ended successfully at the end of July 2017. An extinct volcanic crater (the Monti Rossi, in the village of Nicolosi, about 15 km from Catania) was the target of the measurement. The detector acquired data for about 120 days and the preliminary results are reported in this work.
The Muon Portal Project has built a prototype of a real size detector (6m×3m×7 m) for the inspection of containers by muon tomography. This technique may provide 2D and 3D images of the interior of a ...container, to identify the presence of high-Z materials. In the present Project, 4800 extruded scintillator strips were arranged such as to cover four X–Y detection planes (6m×3 m), two placed above and two below the container to be inspected. Silicon photomultipliers were used as photosensors, to collect the light transported by Wave Length Shifter (WLS) fibres embedded in the scintillator strips. First tomographic images are here presented.
An experimental investigation of cosmic muons has been carried out with the Muography of Etna Volcano (MEV) tracking telescope, installed at an altitude of about 3100 m a.s.l. in front of the ...North-East Etna crater. The analysis of a statistically significant data sample (
∼
10
7
events), taken during a period of approximately 2 months, has been carried out to investigate the angular distribution of cosmic muons originating both from the open sky side and from a large solid rock thickness (Etna side). Due to the geographical orientation of the MEV telescope, anisotropies caused by the East–West effect could also be observed, extracting the asymmetry factor in small steps of the zenithal angle.
The main task of the read-out electronics for the new NUMEN focal plane detector (FPD) is the real-time data collection from the front-end ASICs and the high bandwidth transmission to data ...acquisition, in addition to the slow control of the front-end electronics and the synchronization of the whole detector. The read-out electronics architecture, designed to be modular and expandable to the final size of the detectors, is based on System On Module (SOM). This very versatile device couples high performance FPGA to powerful processor architecture and allows a graphical approach to the programming and interfacing. A detailed description of the architecture and the specifications of the read-out electronics are presented.
In this contribution, we will illustrate the main results of the R&D activities related to the Silicon Carbide detectors associated with NUMEN project.
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An experimental investigation of multiple muon tracks detected by the MEV (Muography of Etna Volcano) cosmic ray telescope has been carried out during a commissioning phase of the project. The MEV ...telescope, which is based on three 1×1 m
2
tracking planes segmented into scintillation strips with wavelength fibers and PMT readout, has been installed at an altitude of about 3100m a.s.l. in front of the North-East Etna crater since the summer of 2017. The main aim of this facility is to provide a detailed muography of the interior of the target object. An additional analysis of a first sample of data, taken during a period of approximately two months in 2017 has been undertaken to measure the abundance and topology of nearly horizontal multiple cosmic muons.
Cosmic ray tomography is a technique which exploits the multiple Coulomb scattering of highly penetrating cosmic ray-produced muons to perform non-destructive inspection of high-Z materials without ...the use of artificial radiation. A muon tomography detection system can be used as a portal monitor at border crossing points for detecting illegal targeted objects. The Muon Portal Project is a joint initiative between Italian research and industrial partners, aimed at the construction of a real size detector prototype (6×3×7m3) for the inspection of cargo containers by the muon scattering technique. The detector consists of four XY tracking planes, two placed above and two below the container to be inspected. After a research and development phase, which led to the choice and test of the individual components, the construction and installation of the detection modules is almost completed. In this paper the present status of the Project is reported, focusing on the design and construction phase, as well as on the preliminary results obtained with the first detection planes.
The objective of the research and development activities, regarding the upgrade of the MAGNEX focal plane detector (FPD) and the development of the γ detector array for the NUMEN project, is the ...construction of new detectors capable to fulfil the requirements of high event rate, radiation tolerance and data acquisition and transmission bandwidth deriving from the upgrade of the Superconducting Cyclotron at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud. The design of the front-end (FE) and read-out (RO) electronics has been performed in parallel with that of the new tracker. The design of the new segmented anode and the architecture of the front-end and read-out electronics are presented.
The design of the front-end electronics for the new tracker of the MAGNEX Focal Plane Detector (FPD) for the NUMEN project is presented. The front-end is based on the VMM chip, developed for ATLAS ...experiment at CERN. The architecture of the front-end (FE) electronics is designed to be modular and scalable to the final detector. The segmented anode board is designed in order to take advantage of the unique performances of the VMM chip, allowing a digital reconstruction of the track at high event rate. This anode board is connected to front-end by mean of Micro Coax Cable Assembly and does not make use of vacuum connectors. The front-end boards will be placed in air, facilitating in this way the heat dissipation and the connection to the read-out (RO) electronics. An innovative anode read-out strategy allows the reduction of the total number of channels to about 1400 and the measurement of the track at different depth in the detector with 750 µm spatial resolution.
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