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The SND@LHC experiment and the group of Bologna

Logo di SND@LHC

SND@LHC is a new kind of experiment in Particle Physics. Because of its remarkable features, it has been approved by CERN for fast construction and exploitation. Green-lighted in March 2021, to be installed in the Large Hadron Collider tunnel within the year, it will collect data  in 2022 until 2025.

SND@LHC, for the first time ever, will directly detect very high energy (TeV) neutrinos originated in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. All three species (electron-, muon-, tau-neutrinos) will be studied.

At today, neutrinos stand as a striking real anomaly  in Particle Physics. In contrast to the Standard Model theory, otherwise very successful, their masses are non-zero. And they do not acquire mass via the Higgs mechanism. Something else, so far hidden to us, must exist. However,  the data on neutrino interactions with matter are nowadays incomplete. Studies with electron neutrinos are rare. Those with tau neutrinos very rare.

The SND@LHC detector is compact (0.6×0.8×2.5 cubic meters). It is placed in the LHC tunnel at 480 m from ATLAS and intercepts the intense flux of neutrinos emitted at a very small angle in p-p collisions. By interacting with the SND@LHC material (0.8 tons of tungsten), the neutrinos produce particles that cross planes of nuclear emulsions and scintillating fibers, whose signals make it possible to reconstruct and visualise the event. Downstream of the target, planes of plastic scintillators read by silicon photodiodes (SiPM), inserted between iron blocks, identify the neutrino species and measure the energy released in the interaction.

Location of the SND detector in the LHC tunnel

The Bologna group is involved both in the construction of the electronic detector and in the scan and analysis of the emulsionscons. A few pictures taken during the construction and test of the cambers made of matrices of thin scintillators follow.

Topics for possible Master or Bachelor degree theses can be accessed at this link

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