Cooperation with INFN on the DarkSide-20k experiment

On 2 October 2021 our colleague Dr Marek Walczak (research group 1) returned from a scientific trip to the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Genoa, Italy. He spent three intensive weeks there working on testing the veto Photo Detector Modules and developing software for analyzing data from the tested setups. All this time he collaborated with other INFN scientists from Gemma Testera’s group: Bianca Bottino, Alessio Caminata, Simone Copello and Stefano Davini.

This work was carried out as part of the DarkSide-20k experiment. Its scientific goal is the direct detection of dark matter by observing its interaction with argon nuclei, which would produce a specific light signal.

INFN is one of AstroCeNT’s scientific partners and a close collaborator on the DarkSide-20k experiment. In general, INFN is active in all research fields, both theoretical and experimental, related to nuclear and subnuclear physics, particle astrophysics, and gravitational waves. INFN collaborates with universities and national and international research bodies, among with CERN and PSI in Switzerland, Fermilab and JLab in the United States, and the VIRGO-LIGO consortium between Italy and the United States.

The cooperation between AstroCeNT and INFN is already yielding first results. In the future, we are planning more scientific visits to exchange experience, which will allow us to move forward in our current projects.