New Study on the Hadronic Vacuum Polarization Contribution to the Muon g-2 to Resolve Standard Model Tensions

The University of Padua, in collaboration with ten other universities, with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and National Insitute for Astrophysics, proposes a national PhD Programme in Technologies for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics, a study track with strong multidisciplinary features, aiming to develop technological and engineering expertise and skills that are essential for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics.
The training programme is based on the development of a research project, original and relevant for the progress of knowledge in the field of Technologies for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics. The research project will be based on one of the five available curricula of the PhD course.
It will also provide the PhD students with a set of tools and skills that will allow them to play a leading role in the field of cutting-edge technologies used in both public and private research and in the transfer of these technologies towards the national production chain.
The PhD course is divided into five curricula, spanning all thematic aspects of Technologies for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics:
32 scholarships are available.
Deadline
July 25th 2024
INFN scholarships
INFN – Sezione di Padova
CURRICULUM: Electronics
TOPIC: Study of Methods for Low Phase Noise Timing Distribution in Astrophysics Experiments
INFN – Sezione di Torino
CURRICULUM: Detectors, Lasers and Optics
TOPIC: Development and Characterisation of the Small-Sized Telescope camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA)
INFN – Sezione di Ferrara
CURRICULUM: Electronics
TOPIC: Upgrade of the DAQ system of the LHCb Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors for operation at High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) conditions
INFN – Sezione di Cagliari
CURRICULUM: Detectors, Lasers and Optics
TOPIC: Development of an innovative phase-camera for the Einstein Telescope Interferometer
INFN- Sezione di Cagliari
CURRICULUM: Detectors, Lasers and Optics
TOPIC: Development of innovative techniques for background reduction in cryogenic liquid noble-gases detectors
INFN – Sezione di Napoli
CURRICULUM: Mechanics
TOPIC: Development of mechanical technologies for vibration insulation in gravitational wave detectors and other fundamental physics experiments
INFN – Sezione di Perugia
CURRICULUM: Detectors, Lasers and Optics
TOPIC: Development of solid-state detectors for clinical beam dosimetry, both conventional and FLASH
INFN – Sezione di Lecce
CURRICULUM: Computing and information technology
TOPIC: Optimizing Machine Learning Architectures for Enhanced Event Reconstruction and Calibration in Fundamental Physics Experiments
INFN – Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro
CURRICULUM: Mechanics
TOPIC: Development, design and testing of metallic components for high-temperature nuclear physics applications produced using additive manufacturing technologies
INFN – Sezione di Bari
CURRICULUM: Electronics
TOPIC: Development and test of a readout system for a pixel detector with multi- Gbps interface
INFN – Sezione di Roma Tor
Vergata
CURRICULUM: Computing and information technology
TOPIC: Development of databases and archiving systems for real-time monitoring of scientific data for astroparticle physics missions
INFN – Sezione di Roma Tre
CURRICULUM: Electronics
TOPIC: Advanced acquisition system for hadrontherapy
A few moments after the Big Bang, matter and antimatter coexisted and annihilated each other, but surprisingly, a tiny amount of matter survived. However, why did matter prevail?
This is one of the questions scientists have not yet found an answer to, and in fact, even the model describing all particles and their interactions, the Standard Model, does not justify this difference. The asymmetry between matter and antimatter is proportional to the area of a triangle, whose angles and sides are obtained from measurements that can be made in particle physics.
The LHCb collaboration, with the crucial contribution of the Padova group, has recently measured the angle 𝛄 of this triangle, using a sample of Bs→DsK decays collected during the LHC accelerator collisions between 2015 and 2018. This measurement is important firstly because it is performed using neutral B mesons, allowing a clear comparison with theoretical data. Additionally, it can be compared with measurements of 𝛄 that exploit decays that may occur through the contribution of yet undiscovered particles. For this measurement, the number of decays as a function of time was specifically studied, and the comparison with theoretical data allowed the extraction of the sought-after angle.
The obtained value, 𝛄 = (74 ± 11) degrees, is compatible with theoretical predictions and turns out to be the most precise value ever obtained using neutral mesons.
All the details on this measurement can be found in the latest issue of the CERN COURIER (Jan/Feb 23).
The University of Padua, in partneship with 10 Italian Universities, INFN and INAF, is launching a national PhD Programme in Technologies for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics, a study track with strong multidisciplinary features, aiming to develop technological and engineering expertise and skills that are essential for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics.
The training programme is based on the development of a research project, original and relevant for the progress of knowledge in the field of Technologies for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics. The research project will be based on one of the five available curricula of the PhD course.
It will also provide the PhD students with a set of tools and skills that will allow them to play a leading role in the field of cutting-edge technologies used in both public and private research and in the transfer of these technologies towards the national production chain.
30 scholarships are available.
The PhD course is divided into five curricula, spanning all thematic aspects of Technologies for fundamental research in Physics and Astrophysics:
INFN scholarships
INFN – Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
CURRICULUM: Mechanics
TOPIC: Study, realization and optimization of cryogenic components for Kelvin (K) and milliKelvin (mK) applications
INFN – Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro
CURRICULUM: Electrotechnics and electrotechnics for accelerators
TOPIC: Development of innovative robotic systems for remote inspections and interventions in experimental areas
INFN – Sezione di Bari
CURRICULUM: Elecronics
TOPIC: Design of read-out electronics in 28 nm CMOS technology for next generation pixel detectors
INFN – Sezione di Bari
CURRICULUM: Computing and information technology
TOPIC: Addressing large-scale data processing challenges with solutions tailored for AI-oriented scientific use-cases
INFN – Sezione di Cagliari
CURRICULUM: Detectors, Lasers and Optics
TOPIC: High spatial and temporal resolution pixelated radiation sensors for next generation experiments in fundamental physics
INFN – Sezione di Roma 1
CURRICULUM: Computing and information technology
TOPIC: Development and porting of artificial intelligence algorithms on FPGA for nanosecond inference in real-time systems of high energy physics experiments
INFN – Sezione di Roma 2
CURRICULUM: Computing and information technology
TOPIC: Machine Learning techniques for Big Data analysis in space-borne astroparticle physics experiments
INFN – Sezione di Roma 3
CURRICULUM: Elecronics
TOPIC: Image recognition development on FPGA through AI in harsh environment
INFN – Sezione di Napoli
TOPIC: free topic
INFN – Sezione di Padova
CURRICULUM: Elecronics
TOPIC: CAP – CMOS Advanced Pixels
INFN- Sezione di Perugia
CURRICULUM: Detectors, Lasers and Optics
TOPIC: Integrated sensors and read-out electronics technologies development for High Energy Physics experiments
TOPIC – Sezione di Torino
CURRICULUM: Computing and information technology
SUBJECT: Advanced computing systems for Gravitational-wave research
Info and call
https://www.unipd.it/en/national-phd-programme-technologies-fundamental-research-physics-astrophysics
Deadline
September 4th 2023
The Muon4Future Workshop (https://agenda.infn.it/event/33270/), held in Venice in the beautiful venue of Palazzo Franchetti-Istituto Veneto di Science, Letters and Arts, from May 29 to 31st, has ended with positive results.
The workshop, the first of its series in Italy, organized by INFN-Sezione di Padova with the support of the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Padova, has had 76 participants in person and many other from remote. Researchers from Japan, USA, many European countries, Laboratories and Academic Institutes, have gathered to compare the results of the muon-based experiments, involving both the experimental and theoretical communities. Such a comparison is indispensable today since several discrepancies between the Standard Model and the measurements are concentrated in the muon sector.
But the workshop has not just examined the experiments currently carried out in data taking or already approved and/or under construction, but it also has given the possibility to discuss possible future proposals.
During the workshop researchers have exchanged ideas on how to identify the most promising physics experiments and measurements that will allow further tests on the Standard Model and make possible the search for new physics, comparing new ideas, relevant issues, and related challenges.
The workshop focused to several topics, such as muon anomalous magnetic moment, hadronic vacuum polarization, charged lepton flavor violation, muon beams technologies and cooling at different energies, muon collider (physics possibilities and required technology developments), present and future muon facilities and muons in other fields, such as muography and mSR.
All topics were divided in dedicated sessions where 35 talks were presented. Each session was followed by a very participated discussion. At the end of the three days long workshop there was made a sum up of the event during which and all participants agreed on the opportunity to further investigate these cut-edge field of research and the relevant challenging perspectives. It’s very likely that a second edition will be organized as the path for further collaborations among this transversal community has already been traced.
Some participants of the workshop were interviewed. Each researcher, representing various Institute and Laboratory around the world, reported original ideas on how this branch of research can find practical applications in different fields of studies with interesting impact on the present everyday life urgency such as solutions for the energy saver problems and similar. All agreed on the importance to enhance synergies between various Institutes and Laboratories for better and more fruitful results useful for the entire society, as that’s the real scope of science: bring people together to work along with no boundaries for the progress of societies.
The link to the interview:
Interviewed Researchers: (from right to left in the photo):
Dr. Robert Bernstein, Scientist at Fermi National Laboratory
Prof. Angela Papa, INFN-University of Pisa and PSI
Senior Physicist, Daniel Schulte, CERN
Prof. Takayuki Yamazaki, KEK
For further information:
Prof. Donatella Lucchesi – donatella.lucchesi@infn.it
The ALICE Collaboration has submitted for publication a review article “The ALICE experiment – a journey through QCD”, which summarizes the results achieved in the last 13 years of measurements, from the start of LHC activities at the end of 2009.
The ALICE experiment mainly studies the results of the interactions between heavy nuclei accelerated to high energies at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The extreme conditions of the collision mimic those of the primordial universe up to few microseconds after the Big Bang, when the matter-constituent quarks and gluons were free, in a quark-gluon plasma state, rather than confined in protons and neutrons as they are nowadays.
The measurements based on Run 1 and Run 2 data-taking (the first two LHC periods, covering the years 2009-2018) allowed for a significant advancement in our understanding of quark-gluon plasma physics, and of other aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) studied in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC.
“This review article marks an important milestone in the lifetime of the ALICE experiment,” says Andrea Dainese (Padua INFN), current ALICE physics coordinator. “We have taken stock of a decade of physics studies, which range from the characterization of the quark-gluon plasma with a multitude of probes in lead-lead collisions, to the surprising observation of QCD collectivity even in proton-proton collisions, and to unique contributions in areas of high-energy QCD and hadronic physics.”
“Our local ALICE team had a leading role in measurements of charm and beauty quark production in proton-proton, proton-lead, and lead-lead collisions. Some of these were pillar measurements for understanding how quarks interact in the QGP. Other results, as the discovery that charm-quark fragmentation changes significantly already in proton-proton collisions with respect to e+e– collisions, came really unexpected and defined new goals and directions for understanding hadron formation in all collision systems” says Andrea Rossi, coordinator of the Padua ALICE team, which includes several researchers from the local INFN division and the Physics and Astronomy Department.
A summary of the main highlights reported in this review article, advertised also in the CERN homepage, can be found in the link.
This work represents an important achievement at half of the ALICE journey in QCD. After a major detector upgrade, ALICE entered a new phase in 2022, taking data at a 500 times larger interaction rate in proton-proton collisions. For Pb-Pb collisions, the goal is to collect in next 10 years, during Run 3 and Run 4 at the LHC, a data sample that for most physics analyses will be larger by a factor of 50 with respect to that available from Run 1 and Run 2. Furthermore, the improved spatial resolution on the particle trajectories provided by the new Inner Tracking System will allow new and high-precision measurements for charm and beauty probes of the QGP. A first test of the upgraded detector with lead-lead collisions has recently been carried out.
This new phase will conclude in 2032, with the beginning of the LHC Long Shutdown 4. After that, the ALICE Collaboration aims at a real quantum leap. This week, the Letter Of Intent of ALICE 3, has been submitted to arXiv. The letter, recently endorsed by the LHC Committee, proposes a completely new apparatus, largely based on frontier silicon sensor technologies, which will enable novel studies of the quark-gluon plasma and of the formation and interactions of hadrons starting from 2035.
“ALICE 3 will be a game changer for the investigation of the properties of QCD matter”, says Federico Antinori (INFN Padua), chair of the editorial committee of the Letter of Intent and previous ALICE spokesperson. “We shall be able to measure the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the quark-gluon plasma throughout its expansion, to observe the evolution of quarks as they propagate through the dense QCD medium and to study with an unprecedented precision the way they freeze into hadrons at the end of the deconfined phase” .
Contacts
The Department of Physics and Astronomy G. Galilei and INFN-Padova division have taken a step further in the application of Quantum Algorithms to the analysis of particle physics data.
In fact, the LHCb collaboration at the CERN laboratory, which sees the participation of both the Department of Physics and the INFN section, has just published a forward-looking research paper exploiting, for the first time, Quantum Machine Learning techniques for the identification of the b-quark charge at the LHC. This is a complex task since b-quarks produce sprays of particles called jets, and the information on their charge is diluted in a large number of decay products. Nevertheless it is important to solve it in order to perform many important measurements.
The paper just appears on the Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP). Further information is available online on the https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP08%282022%29014
“Given the rapid progress of quantum computers and quantum technologies, it is natural to start investigating if and how quantum algorithms can be executed on such new hardware”, Donatella Lucchesi, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, said, “and whether the LHCb particle physics use-cases can benefit from the new technology and paradigm”.
“Although it has already been used to solve few particle physics problems, this is the first time that Quantum Machine Learning is used by a LHC experiment to tackle a complex task”, Lorenzo Sestini, researcher of the INFN section, comments, “LHCb applied for the first time these news algorithms to the task of the hadronic jet charge identification, by using a detailed simulation that faithfully reproduce the data. The algorithm is now ready to run on the real data collected by the experiment”.
The algorithm designed for the ‘Quantum Machine Learning for b-jet charge identification’ study has been thought for running on a quantum computer. The first tests have been conducted on realistic quantum simulators, due to the limited availability of hardware, but now the tests of the algorithm are running on real quantum computers.
As demonstrated in the paper, the Quantum Machine Learning method reaches optimal performance with a lower number of events with respect to other classical (non-quantum) and modern types of artificial intelligence like Deep Neural Networks, which helps in reducing the computing resources’ usage, which will become a key point with the huge amount of data collected at LHCb in future years. Moreover quantum computers could in principle help us in reducing the power consumption for this kind of heavy-computing tasks. “It is great to merge together two distinct research fields such as High Energy Physics and Quantum Computing to reach a common task“, says Davide Zuliani, a PhD student of Padua Physics PhD school, “and it has been definitely an exciting experience study these brand new algorithms: we started with the graduation thesis of Davide Nicotra, now PhD student in Maastricht, and in few months we discovered surprising potentialities. This new research field is very promising and, given the huge impact that this new technology might have, we are working together with a lot of people to understand how to effectively exploit Quantum Computing to improve the discovery horizon of the experiments at the LHC“.
Exploitation of Quantum Machine Learning in particle physics experiments is still in its infancy. As physicists gain experience with Quantum Computing, drastic improvements in hardware and computing technology are expected given the worldwide interest and investment in Quantum Computing.
Read more https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP08%282022%29014
Contacts
Donatella Lucchesi – Department of Physics and Astronomy – University of Padua
Lorenzo Sestini – INFN Padua Division
The world’s biggest neutrino physics experiment using liquid scintillator
INFN’s research and technology have marked a new goal, carried on in particular by the Padua Division and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Padua University.
On June 24th in fact the international collaboration JUNO (Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory), that sees also the participation of INFN, has reached an important step on the way to an underground experiment for neutrino detection in southern China: the steel structure that will support the internal acrylic sphere, with a diameter of 35.4 m, has been completed. The internal sphere will contain all the instrumentation and materials that will allow the observation of these extremely elusive particles.
The group composed by researchers of INFN Padua and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Padua University has created a crucial part of this equipment: the readout electronics of the more than 20000 large photomultipliers, that will serve as the “eyes” of the detector and will thus allow to reconstruct the energy released by the interaction of neutrinos in the liquid scintillator.
In fact, scintillator is a material that emits light pulses when the particles passing through it release energy. There are different kinds of scintillators with a variety of properties, determined by the material they are composed of. The experiment JUNO uses a liquid scintillator called alkyl-benzene (LAB).
“Despite the delays due to the pandemic, our Chinese colleagues have managed to respect the timetable established for the construction of JUNO” says Alberto Garfagnini, head of the Padua research group “it’s a very important result that opens the way to the next steps that will start in autumn, when the photomultipliers and the electronics designed by the Padua group will be installed”.
The particularity of the activity of the Padua group is that the detector readout electronics, unlike the case of the other running experiments worldwide, will be installed only a few metres away from the photomultipliers, submerged in the liquid scintillator. This will help in reducing the background electronic noise in the recorded signals, to increase the sensitivity of the detector itself, but has required some very strict building commitments that will not allow to repair or to replace any component after the installation, and for the entire 6 years of the duration of the experiment.
This is the reason why in May 2021 a very accurate test was carried on in order to confirm the efficiency and the impermeability of the electronic components, in collaboration with the Y-40 facility at Montegrotto Terme (PD): one of the deepest water pools in the world. This occasion provided the researchers with very similar conditions to the detector where the electronics will operate.
Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is an international collaboration, composed by more than 600 researchers from all over the world, for the design, building, and operation of the biggest underground liquid scintillator detector (20K tons) for neutrino physics. Besides Padua, INFN takes part in the JUNO collaboration with other Divisions and Laboratories: Ferrara, Catania, Milano, Milano Bicocca, Perugia, Roma 3 and National Laboratories of Frascati (LNF).
The JUNO Experiment will measure the energy of artificial antineutrinos produced by two large nuclear power plants, located at a distance of 53 km, to study the neutrino oscillations, the phenomenon that describes why these elusive particles, existing as three different types in nature, convert from one type to another.
In particular, JUNO will investigate the mass hierarchy, that is the order of the masses of the three known neutrino types. The experiment will also observe a variety of neutrinos of natural origin, from solar, atmospheric and terrestrial to supernova neutrinos, creating an in-depth and articulated research line in astroparticle physics.
More information
INFN-Padua, JUNO Project
Test in Y-40 pool
JUNO purification systems
Contacts
Alberto Garfagnini, head of the Padua JUNO research group
The Physics PhD School of the Padova University welcomes applications for 21 PhD positions in all areas of Physics, for the academic year 2022/23.
Interested candidates may visit the Physics PhD School home page: http://www.dfa.unipd.it/didattica/dottorati-di-ricerca/phd-physics/
The admission documents and the procedure for the application can be found at this url: https://www.unipd.it/en/phd-programmes-calls-and-admissions
Deadline: May 13th, 2022 at 1:00 PM (CEST)
Details on the 21 available positions:
– 13 open-topic positions without any restriction on the institution that awarded the M. Sc. (2 granted by INFN);
– 1 position in the area “Physics of the Universe”, reserved to candidates who obtained their Master Sc. degree from a non-Italian institution;
– 5 positions with assigned research topics (1 granted by INFN – National Laboratories of Legnaro “Reseraches activities in Physics carried on at National Laboratories of Legnaro);
– 2 ungranted positions
When not explicitly indicated, the positions are to be considered without any restriction on the institution that awarded the M. Sc. (equivalent to the Italian Laurea Magistrale) to the candidate: everyone is encouraged to apply!
For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the PhD School Secretary.
Contact:
More Information:
The muon anomalous magnetic moment (the muon “g-2”) is one of the best determined observables in nature. Its measurement at Brookhaven (USA) in the early 2000s, which reached the astonishing experimental precision of 0.5 parts per million, shows an intriguing discrepancy with the similarly precise theoretical prediction of the “Standard Model”, the theory that describes all known particles and their interactions through electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces. This is, at present, a discrepancy of 3.7 standard deviations. Wednesday April 7th, the “Muon g-2” collaboration at Fermilab (USA) will present their highly anticipated new measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic moment. If Fermilab confirms Brookhaven’s measurement, this could be clear evidence of “new physics” beyond the Standard Model.
As an introducion to the Fermilab announcement INFN Padova and the Dipartiment of Physics and Astronomy of Padova University will hold a Zoom seminar on
wednesday April 7th, from 14.30 to 16.00
Speakers: Massimo Passera, Stefano Laporta, Pierpaolo Mastrolia, Paride Paradisi
Zoom link https://unipd.zoom.us/j/89508138799?pwd=UkppN3dGOXZPZEJ4UUF6MFFxVS9ldz09
Agenda: https://agenda.infn.it/event/26408/
Abstract
In anticipation of Fermilab’s result, Massimo will review the present status of the muon g-2 SM prediction (and why we should trust it), Stefano will tell us how he managed to compute the electron and muon g-2 at four-loop in QED, and Pierpaolo will review the theory progress for MUonE, a recent proposal for a new experiment at CERN to provide a new direct determination of the leading hadronic contribution to the muon g-2. Finally, Paride will review new physics interpretations of the present muon g-2 discrepancy (of course, this might be his last talk on this topic).