Particle Physics at INFN Padova
The main focus of the research coordinated by the National Scientific Committee 1 on a national level and by Group 1 on a local level is to study the interactions of the fundamental constituents of matter with experiments using particle accelerators.
These studies have the purpose to gain a deep understanding of aspects like the mechanism that gives mass to particles, or the one responsible for the matter-antimatter asymmetry. In general, one is looking for any new possible scenario where the unsolved problems of the Standard Model could be explained by New Physics.
Generally, subnuclear physics requires very large and complex apparatuses, with leading edge technologies in the fields of detectors, electronics, data acquisition, computing and data analysis. The collaborations are formed by hundreds (or thousands) of physicists, from institutions and laboratories all over the world, an important example of international cooperation. The INFN groups participate with excellent contributions and in positions of responsibility at the highest levels in these experiments.
Belle II
In the big bang, matter and antimatter should have been created in equal amounts. But wherever we look today in the Universe we see only matter while antimatter seems to have disappeared. It also seems that most of the matter present in the Universe is actually invisible, known also as dark matter. What is the nature of the invisible mass? Is our knowledge of the microscopic world complete?
The Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB accelerator in Japan aims to answer these and similar questions by colliding electrons and their antiparticles, the positrons, to make extremely precise measurements of the particles resulting from the reaction. More info
Local coordinator: Roberto Stroili
CMS Compact Muon Solenoid
The CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment is one of the four large particle detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the highest energy particle collider in the world, located at CERN. The CMS experiment records the signals of the particles produced during these collisions, allowing to explore many aspects of particle physics: the properties of the Higgs boson, the famous particle discovered in 2012 at CMS and Atlas, and other particles, and also the search for signs of so far unknown physics phenomena. The Padova group played a leading role in the design and construction of parts of the experiment and is heavily involved in the data analysis, in maintaining and operating the detector. More info
Local coordinators: Roberto Rossin, Sandro Ventura
LHCb
LHCb is one of the four big experiments at the LHC, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. The collaboration working on the detector consists of more than a thousand physicists from all over the world. The main purpose of the LHCb experiment is to explore what happened after the Big Bang when antimatter disappeared and only matter survived to build the universe we inhabit today. LHCb records, like a very expensive camera, the LHC collisions in a complementary way with respect to CMS and ATLAS. LHCb has already observed many processes that prefer matter over anti-matter, has discovered exotic particles composed of four and five quarks bound together, has performed precision measurements hinting at deviations from the established theories and many more results. More info
Local coordinator: Gabriele Simi
MUonE
Very high precision measurements are a severe test of the theories of the particle world. Nowadays hints show that the muon, an unstable elementary particle, is not completely described by the framework of confirmed theories, the Standard Model, which in case has to be modified to include “new physics”. MUONE is a difficult and ambitious experiment which aims to measure, with high precision, a basic parameter of the muon which characterizes its interaction with an electron. The experiment will take place at the SPS accelerator at CERN in Geneve. In Padova we are developing the apparatus dedicated to the measurement of the electron, the electromagnetic calorimeter, exploiting the light emitted by crystals containing lead and tungsten. More info
Local coordinator: Enrico Conti
RD_FCC
The RD_FCC research group of the INFN studies the options for the future physics of detectors and electron-positron circular colliders, FCC-ee at CERN or CEPC in China. FCC-ee will be able to produce directly the heaviest particles of the Standard Model and measure with unprecedented precision the properties of the Higgs boson and other important parameters of the Standard Model. It will also offer very favourable conditions for the search for dark matter particles. Our studies are focused on an original proposal for a detector concept, called IDEA, optimised to realise the physics measurements with the needed precision. We develop computer simulations to study the most interesting physics processes, and we explore new technologies to be used in our detector design. More info
Local coordinator: Patrizia Azzi
RD_Mucol
The Muon Collider is a new groundbreaking project that proposes to accelerate muons to multi-TeV energies, never reached at a lepton collider, to open the door to the investigation of the so called New Physics. Several technological challenges have to be overcome to realize the collider and the detector, which can represent a boost for the research and development in accelerators and detector physics. The Padova team is working on the study of the Machine-Detector Interface, the optimization of the detector design to reduce the effects of the muon beam-induced background and on the determination of the experiment sensitivity on the most relevant physics processes. More info
Local coordinator: Donatella Lucchesi