Neutrinos

The IFAE neutrino group is involved in two aspects of the neutrino physics. On one side, the group is contributing to the new neutrino oscillation experiment, T2K, being constructed in Japan. The experiment is its phase of construction and it is expected to start operation at the end of 2009. The contributions of the IFAE group to the T2K experiment focus on the near detector, specifically in the construction of the time projection chamber and the refurbishing of the old magnet that was donated by CERN to the European members in T2K.

The activities in the TPC project include the production and testing of the readout detectors, MicroMegas, done in collaboration with University of Geneva, INFN Bari, IFIC, Saclay in Paris and CERN. IFAE members also provide the test bench for the front-end electronic modules produced in Saclay and the development of the data acquisition code for the test beams carried out at TRIUMF (Canada) during the last quarter of 2008.

Other activities include the development of the TPC reconstruction software and the coordination the reconstruction group of the T2K near detector. One of us is also coordinating the physics analysis group for the neutrino charged current interactions. In this sense, one of the members of the group is performing an analysis of the charged current quasielastic interactions in SciBoone. This experiment has a neutrino spectrum similar to T2K and it is built by a subgroup of T2K members to anticipate the physic studies there.

The contribution to the magnet refurbishing complies two areas. The manifolds distributing the cooling water to the magnet coils have been designed and constructed at the IFAE. The IFAE is also in charge of the slow control of the magnet that was implemented based on industrial hardware. The slow control is in charge of monitoring the running conditions of the magnet: temperature, cooling water temperature, coils voltage drop, etc… It is also in charge of detecting anomalies and switching off the magnet current and generates alarms.

The other activity corresponds to the search of the elusive neutrino-less double beta decay. The IFAE has contributed to the understanding of the SuperNemo physics potential and it has been one of the leading proponents of the new experiment NEXT. This novel experiment consists on a big pressurized TPC filled with enriched Xenon, an isotope that is a double beta emitter. The project was presented last year to the Laboratorio Subetrraneo de Canfranc and it was approved at the level of the Expression of Interests. The Spanish groups, including the IFAE members, applied to the Consollider Ingenio 2010 program and got a grant of 6 million euros for the construction of a 100 kg detector to be placed in Canfranc. The activities of the IFAE in NEXT included the building of a prototype able to hold up to half a kilogram od Xenon for laboratory R&D.