Conveners
Poster Session
- Wick Haxton
Mr
Eric Flumerfelt
(University of Tennessee)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Neutrino Oscillations/ Neutrino Beam Physics
Poster
The NOvA Experiment at Fermilab is a large, segmented liquid scintillator detector. As nu_e interactions are of primary interest to the experiment, the detector must be very sensitive to electromagnetic showers. Because the quenching and Cherenkov response characteristics of the detector are different for muons and electrons, a separate calibration must be done in order to establish an...
Dr
Daniel Nieto
(Columbia University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
We present a search for potential dark matter subhalos in our Galaxy
exploiting the high (100 MeV - 100 GeV) and very high energy (>100
GeV) gamma-ray band. We assume the dark matter to be formed of
annihilating weakly interacting massive particles of mass over 100
GeV. In such a scenario, most of the photons from the dark matter
annihilation spectrum are expected in the high energy...
Dr
Mark Kos
(Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The CoGeNT dark matter detector has been taking data at the Soudan mine since December 2009. Recently, over 3 years of CoGeNT data have been released. The data has been analyzed for a possible WIMP signal using multi-dimensional PDFs in energy, time, and pulse rise-time. The bulk event (fast rise-time pulses) and surface (slow rise-time) event fractions are determined through this analysis....
Matteo Palermo
(Max Plank Institut fur Physik, Munich)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
Underground cavities are the location of choice for low background experiments. Nevertheless, the hadronic showers created by muons or neutrinos, which penetrate deep into the earth,cause radiation, even inside the deepest cavity. The showers do not have to originate inside the cavity. The minimum distance from the shower vertex, up to which muons have to be considered as "dangerous", is...
Dr
Wenqin Xu
(LANL)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
High purity germanium (HPGe) crystals will be used for the Majorana Demonstrator, where they serve as both the source and the detector for neutrinoless double beta decays. It is crucial for the experiment to understand the performances of the HPGe crystals. A variety of crystal properties are being investigated, including both basic properties such as energy resolution, efficiency, uniformity,...
Anneli Schulz
(DESY)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
Bow shocks of runaway stars were suggested as possible sources of high-energy gamma-ray emission. In addition to the detection at infrared wavelengths, there have recently been claims for detection in X-rays and radio, indicating a spectrally wide non-thermal component. For the first time we systematically analyzed nearly five years of Fermi-LAT data from the regions of 28 bow shock...
Barbara Wang
(University of California, Berkeley)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an experiment that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of 130Te. The CUORE detector, currently being constructed underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, is an array of 988 high-resolution, low-background cryogenic bolometers. Each bolometer is comprised of a thermal sensor and a TeO2...
Mr
Anthony Fradette
(University of Victoria)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Cosmology
Poster
Extensions of the Standard Model (SM) may include relatively light neutral states with tiny couplings to the ordinary particles. A new U(1) vector particle has recently received considerable experimental and theoretical attention, linking the SM with a dark sector through kinetic mixing with the photon. We explore a new regime of coupling for the dark photon, with effective electromagnetic...
Dr
Riccardo Catena
(University of Goettingen)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The dark matter direct detection technique has recently played a major role in the dark matter quest. Different experiments have currently reached the sensitivity to probe in depth the dark matter properties, assuming that the dark matter component of the Universe is made of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The interpretation of a direct detection signal in terms of WIMP...
Dr
Keishi Hosokawa
(Kobe univ.)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
XMASS experiment is ongoing at Kamioka observatory in Japan, and purposes mainly for dark matter search using 835kg liquid xenon as target.
Energy spectrum of nuclear recoil signal is expected to decrease exponentially.
As lower energy threshold as possible is strongly needed for dark matter search to check stability of detector in low energy region.
There is a prior study on low energy...
Dr
Carla Cattadori
(Gran Sasso)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
"Thanks to their high light yields liquid argon and liquid xenon (LAr, and LXe) are adopted as targets and/or shield in present and future double beta decay and dark matter experiments.
To readout the scintillation light emitted by particles releasing energy in the liquid noble gases, high quantum efficiency, cryogenics photomultipliers (PMTs) are usually adopted.
In the last couple of...
Dr
Evan O'Connor
(CITA)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Low-Energy Neutrinos (solar, reactor, supernova, and geo neutrinos and also nuclear astrophysics associated with these sources)
Poster
Not all core-collapse supernovae are the same. This statement is especially true when considering the neutrino signal observed at Earth. This intrinsic diversity in the neutrino signal can tell us a great deal regarding the details of what is happening in the cores of massive stars. I will show predictions of variations in the early neutrino signal due to variations in the input physics. ...
Mr
Shawn Westerdale
(Princeton University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
In direct WIMP dark matter detection experiments, neutrons from cosmogenic sources and nuclear reactions in detector materials can provide backgrounds indistinguishable from WIMP signals. To reduce this background, an active neutron veto filled with a boron-loaded liquid scintillator is being developed. The scintillator will be pseudocumene, with trimethyl borate as a boron source, and PPO as...
Dr
Carlos Oliveira
(LBNL)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
Trimethylamine (TMA) may improve the energy resolution of gaseous xenon based detectors. This molecule may also be the key for sensing directionality of nuclear recoils induced by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) without the need of track imaging in monolithic massive (ton-scale) detectors. Nuclear recoil directionality may be the venue for a definite discovery of the WIMP nature...
Dr
Daniel Nieto
(Columbia University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The standard model of cosmology requires dark matter (DM) to account
for the 83% of the total mass density of the Universe. Assuming that
the DM is composed of self-annihilating weakly interacting massive
particles (WIMPs), its nature could be unraveled through the detection
of the annihilation products, including photons with energies up to
the WIMP mass. Annihilation of WIMPs with...
Dr
Viviana Gammaldi
(University of Atlantico Barranquilla)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
We have studied the spectral features of the HESS J1745-290 gamma ray source as possible dark matter signal. The early model independent study of this source has also been extended to the particular case of branon dark matter, where $W^+W^-$ and $Z^+Z^-$ appear as preferred DM annihilation channel into Standard Model particles. Next works will be addressed to test such dark matter origin, both...
Mr
Fabio Bellini
(University of Roma Sapienza and INFN)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
Large-mass arrays of bolometers proved to be good detectors for Neutrinoless Beta Decay (0vDBD) and Dark Matter (DM) searches. The CUORE and LUCIFER 0vDBD experiments at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso will start to take data in 2015. The potential of CUORE
could be increased by removing the background due to alpha particles, by detecting the small amount of Cherenkov light (100 eV)...
Keenan Thomas
11/09/2013, 19:30
Underground Laboratories/Large Detectors (incl. Nucleon Decay)
Poster
The Low Background Facility (LBF) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California operates within two unique facilities—locally within a carefully-constructed, low background cave; and remotely at an underground location (over 500 m.w.e) nearby in Oroville, CA. These facilities provide a variety of gamma spectroscopy services to low background experiments primarily in the form...
Margherita Tenconi
(CSNSM and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
The Luminescent Underground Molybdenum Investigation for NEUtrino mass and nature (LUMINEU) aims at preparing the ground for a next-generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiment employing scintillating bolometers: these devices are in fact very promising tools in rare events search, in terms of efficiency, energy resolution and background control. In particular, they can tag alpha...
Samuele Sangiorgio
(LLNL)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The sensitivity of noble liquids detectors to light WIMPs and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering is a result of detector threshold and low-energy ionization yield for nuclear recoils. We measured for the first time sub-keV electron recoils in a dual-phase argon ionization chamber by observing the peaks peaks in the energy spectrum at 2.82 keV and 0.27 keV, following the K- and L-shell...
Timo Enqvist
(University of Oulu)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
EMMA (Experiment with MultiMuon Array), located at the depth of 75 meters (210 m.w.e.) in the shallow section of the Pyhäsalmi mine in Finland, is dedicated to the composition analysis of cosmic rays in the knee region. The array is designed to measure in event-by-event mode the muon multiplicity, the lateral density distribution, and the arrival angle of an air shower. It will ultimately...
Jeremy Mock
(UC Davis)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
A comprehensive model for explaining the light and charge yields, and pulse shapes, in liquid and gaseous noble elements will be presented which informs an exhaustive simulation code called NEST. All available xenon data on electron and nuclear recoils have been incorporated, and significant progress has been made on extending NEST's applicability to argon. The quasi-empirical NEST approach...
Dr
Raphael Schroeter
(Harvard University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Neutrino Oscillations/ Neutrino Beam Physics
Poster
The NOνA experiment is a next generation long-baseline, accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiment, currently under construction at Fermilab and northern Minnesota. NOνA will improve the existing constraints on electron neutrino appearance by more than an order of magnitude by comparing electron neutrino rates observed by two totally active liquid scintillator detectors, located 14 mrad...
Dr
Tina Lund
(North Carolina State University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Low-Energy Neutrinos (solar, reactor, supernova, and geo neutrinos and also nuclear astrophysics associated with these sources)
Poster
The flavor evolution of neutrinos propagating through a turbulent medium is a highly interesting and complicated problem. Depending upon the hierarchy and the properties of the turbulence, the neutrino spectral signatures of collective effects and/or shock waves in the supernova may be smothered to the point where they are unobservable in the “golden” channels (ν_e → ν_μ transitions) of the...
Mr
Kiseki Nakamura
(Kyoto University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
NEWAGE is a direction sensitive WIMP search experiment using micro pixel chamber. After our first underground measurement at Kamioka (PLB686(2010)11), we constructed new detector. The size of new detector is twice than older one. And its drift-cage is made by PEEK material to reduce radon emanation. Also we constructed the gas circulation system using cooled charcoal to reduce radon gas. We...
Ke Fang
(University of Chicago)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
Neutron stars are among the few possible astrophysical sources that can confine ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. Meanwhile, they offer plausible sites for heavy nuclei injection. The heavy nuclei can be accelerated to ultrahigh energy by the wind of a fast-spinning newborn pulsar. They then traverse the expanding supernova ejecta surrounding the star. We found that the escape process softens the...
David Girardelli
(Universidade Estadual de Campinas)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Neutrino Oscillations/ Neutrino Beam Physics
Poster
"This work aims to propose a possible solution to the Gallium and Reactor Neutrino Problem, which verifies a difference between predictions and observations of neutrino flux originated from nuclear reactors. Based on non-standard neutrino interactions we could promote an instantaneous neutrino flavor changing at the moment of neutrino creation. The approach used is based on weak leptonic...
Dr
Valeriy V. Dvoeglazov
(Univ. Autonoma de Zacateacs, Escuela de Fisica)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
"We present the full theory which contains photon, notoph (the Kalb-Ramond field)
and the graviton. The relations of this theory with the higher spins theories
are established. In fact, we deduced the gravitational field equations from
relativistic quantum mechanics [1]. The relations of this theory with scalar-tensor theories
of gravitation and f(R) are discussed. Finally, we estimate...
Dr
Javier Tiffenberg
(Fermilab)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
Published DAMIC limits based on 107 g-days of data taken in a 350' underground site yielded the world's best cross-section limits on WIMPs with masses less than 4 GeV. This was possible due to the CCD's low electronic readout noise (R.M.S. ~10 eVee), which allows the instrument to reach a detection threshold below 0.5 keV for nuclear recoils in the Si target. The superb energy response and...
Carla Cattadori
(Gran Sasso)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
GERDA experiment is a new generation experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge operating at INFN Gran Sasso Laboratories since 2010.
Coaxial and Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) Detectors have been operated in LAr in GERDA Phase I.
In the framework of the second GERDA experimental phase, both the contacting technique, the connection to and the location of the front end...
227.
Perspective of a Glass Resistive Plate Chambers for Cosmic Ray Muons Detection, in Saudi Arabia
Dr
Ibtesam Badhrees
(Research Assistant Professor)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
Cosmic muons are elementary particles that are classified as leptons. It is a charge with
a mass of 105.7 MeV/c2. They are unstable particles with a lifetime of 2.2 ms. Around 10,000
muons per square meter hit the earth’s surface each minute, traveling tens of meters with a velocity
close to the speed of light and interacting weakly with matter.
The NCMP (National Center of Mathematics and...
Reyco Henning
(U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
This talk will discuss the other physics opportunities that might be possible with a tonne-scale enriched germanium neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment. These include direct searches for light WIMP dark matter, solar axions, coherent neutrino-nuclear scattering, electron decay, Pauli-exclusion principle violation, fractionally charged particles in cosmic-rays, and other processes. We...
Viviana Gammaldi
(University of Atlantico Barranquilla)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
We have analyzed the gamma ray spectra produced by four Monte Carlo event generator packages developed in particle physics, PYTHIA and HERWIG. These spectra have been largely used in the framework of dark matter indirect searches and the differences between them may affect the results for those investigations. Two different versions of PYTHIA and two of HERWIG are analyzed, namely PYTHIA 6.418...
Mr
Adam Bradley
(Case Western Reserve University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The LUX detector is currently in operation at the Davis Campus at the 4850 level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD to directly search for WIMP dark matter. Knowing the type and amount of backgrounds is critical in a rare, low energy event search, and LUX was designed, constructed, and deployed to mitigate backgrounds, both internal and external. An important internal...
Ms
Erin O'Sullivan
(Queen's University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Low-Energy Neutrinos (solar, reactor, supernova, and geo neutrinos and also nuclear astrophysics associated with these sources)
Poster
SNO+ is a liquid scintillator neutrino experiment which will be housed at the SNOLAB facility in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The SNO+ experiment will probe many areas of neutrino physics including neutrinoless double beta decay, geo-neutrinos, reactor neutrinos, low energy solar neutrinos, and supernova neutrinos. This poster will focus on the sensitivity of SNO+ to solar neutrinos, specifically...
Mr
Roman Hiller
(for the Tunka-Rex Collaboration)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
Tunka-Rex is a new radio detector for extensive air showers from cosmic rays, built in 2012 as an extension to Tunka-133. The latter is a non-imaging air-Cherenkov detector, located near lake Baikal, Siberia. With its 25 radio antennas, Tunka-Rex extends over 1 km^2 with a spacing of 200 m and therefore is expected to be sensitive to an primary energy range of 10^17-10^18 eV. Using Trigger and...
Stephanie Wissel
(UCLA)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
The ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) is a balloon-borne
interferometer sensitive to ultra-wideband radiation from neutrinos interacting in
ice and cosmic-ray air showers in the 200–1000 MHz range. The third flight
of ANITA will achieve improved sensitivity through an upgraded triggering
system and larger antenna array enabling the detection of an order of
magnitude more...
Hanyu Wei
(Tsinghua University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Low-Energy Neutrinos (solar, reactor, supernova, and geo neutrinos and also nuclear astrophysics associated with these sources)
Poster
On behalf of the Daya Bay Collaboration
Providing an early warning of supernova burst neutrinos is of importance in the study of both supernova dynamics and neutrino physics. The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, with multiple liquid scintillator targets, is sensitive to the full supernova burst anti-electron-neutrino spectrum and has a better energy resolution than water Cerenkov...
Ms
Danielle Speller
(UC Berkeley)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment (CDMS-II) uses ground-based germanium and silicon detectors to search for the scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are among the leading candidates for the dark matter component of the universe. Using the ionization and athermal phonons measured in particle interactions, CDMS-II is able to achieve excellent discrimination...
Matteo Palermo
(Max Plank Institut fur Physik, Munich)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
"The test-facility GALATEA and some preliminary results are presented.
GALATEA is a test-stand designed to study the properties of Germanium detectors in detail.
It is a powerful high precision tool to investigate bulk and surface effects in germanium detectors.
A vacuum tank hauses a cooled detector volume and a system of three stages which allow a complete scan of a detector.
At current,...
Dr
David Malling
(Brown University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
The LUX experiment takes advantage of the self-shielding capabilities of liquid xenon to create a nearly background-free fiducial volume. This will allow for unambiguous detection of WIMP-like nuclear recoils. LUX has been designed with the goal of $<10^{-3}$~event/kg/keV/day, corresponding to $<$1~background event in 300~livedays, and a virtually background-free month-long initial science...
Dr
Johnny Goett
(Los Alamos National Laboratory P-23)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
The Majorana Demonstrator aims to show the feasibility of reducing backgrounds in the search for 0νββ decay of 76Ge below 1 count/tonne*year in the 4keV ROI around the Q-value at 2039 keV. In pursuit of this goal, we must characterize individual detectors for both energy resolution and pulse response. We discuss the basic requirements of the Majorana calibration system as informed by...
Dr
Nicolas Abgrall
(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL))
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
The Majorana Demonstrator will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay (ββ0ν) of the isotope 76Ge with a mixed array of enriched and natural germanium detectors. In view of the next generation of tonne-scale germanium-based ββ0ν-decay searches that will probe the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region, a major goal of the Majorana Demonstrator is to demonstrate a path...
Dr
Giada Carminati
(University of California, Irvine)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Low-Energy Neutrinos (solar, reactor, supernova, and geo neutrinos and also nuclear astrophysics associated with these sources)
Poster
Super-Kamiokande (SK) observes low-energy electrons induced by the elastic scattering of ${^8}$B solar neutrinos. The current 4.5 MeV kinetic energy threshold of the recoil electrons in SK leaves the transition region between vacuum and matter oscillations (with neutrino energy near 3 MeV) still partially unexplored. To study this intermediate regime, a new software trigger, the Wide-band...
Aaron Vincent
(University Valencia)
11/09/2013, 19:30
High-Energy Astrophysics (includes all cosmic ray physics)
Poster
The 511 keV electron-positron annihilation line, most recently characterized by the INTEGRAL/SPI experiment, is highly concentrated towards the Galactic centre. Its origin remains unknown despite decades of scrutiny. We propose a novel scenario in which known extragalactic positron sources such as radio jets of active galactic nuclei (AGN) fill the intergalactic medium with MeV e+e- pairs,...
Ms
Annika Hollnagel
(Hamburg University)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Neutrino Oscillations/ Neutrino Beam Physics
Poster
The long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment OPERA has been designed for the direct observation of $\nu_\tau$ appearance in the CNGS $\nu_\mu$ beam.
The OPERA detector, located at the LNGS underground laboratory, consists of two identical Super Modules (SM): A target region composed of about 75000 Emulsion Cloud Chamber modules - providing micrometric resolution - and scintillator...
Dr
David Nygren
(LBNL)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
(On behalf of the NEXT Collaboration)
Xenon is an especially attractive candidate for both direct WIMP and 0-ν ββ decay searches; current sensitivity goals indicate the need for ton-scale active masses for both searches. Although the current experimental trend has emphasized the liquid phase, gas phase xenon displays much smaller deposited energy fluctuations between scintillation and...
Dr
Gabriele Piperno
(INFN Roma1)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Dark Matter
Poster
CUORE-0 is the prototype tower of the 19 scheduled for the CUORE detector, an experiment that will search for neutrinoless double beta decay.
Given the achievable low energy threshold, the large mass and the good energy resolution, also Dark Matter (DM) studies are feasible.
Here are presented the trigger algorithm used for the DM search and the obtained results, in terms of detection...
Brian Zhu
(UCLA)
11/09/2013, 19:30
Double Beta Decay
Poster
Background rate reduction is of utmost importance for neutrinoless double beta decay experiments like CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events). A major source of background for CUORE comes from surface contamination from inert materials, mainly degraded alphas from the supporting copper structure of the bolometer modules. We investigated a novel alpha background suppression...
