| National Institute for Nuclear Physics |
The National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) is the Italian research agency dedicated to the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the laws that govern them, under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR). It conducts theoretical and experimental research in the fields of subnuclear, nuclear and astroparticle physics. All of the INFN’s research activities are undertaken within a framework of international competition, in close collaboration with Italian universities on the basis of solid academic partnerships spanning decades. Fundamental research in these areas requires the use of cutting-edge technology and instruments, developed by the INFN at its own laboratories and in collaboration with industries. Groups from the Universities of Rome, Padua, Turin, and Milan founded the INFN on 8thAugust 1951 to uphold and develop the scientific tradition established during the 1930s by Enrico Fermi and his school, with their theoretical and experimental research in nuclear physics. In the latter half of the 1950s the INFN designed and built the first Italian accelerator, the electron synchrotron developed in Frascati, where its first national laboratory, LNF, was set up. During the same period, the INFN began to participate in research into the construction and use of ever-more powerful accelerators being conducted by CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, in Geneva. Today the INFN employs some 5,000 scientists whose work is recognised internationally not only for their contribution to various European laboratories, but also to numerous research centres worldwide.
Website of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics: www.infn.it
Website of the National Laboratory of Frascati (LNF): www.lnf.infn.it
Website of the Cryogenic Laboratory for Detectors (COLD lab): http://coldlab.lnf.infn.it
Researches involved in the SUPERGALAX project
Dr. Claudio Gatti (gender male)
Claudio Gatti obtained his degree in Physics at Rome University “La Sapienza” and the Ph.D. in Physics at Pisa University in 2003. He is staff researcher at Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) of INFN the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics. His background is in experimental Particle Physics. He collaborated with the KLOE and ATLAS experiments. In ATLAS he was the Analysis Coordinator of the Italian Community. He is now Local Coordinator of the LNF unit of QUAX, an INFN funded experiment searching for galactic axions. Recently, he proposed a new experiment, KLASH, a large haloscope for galactic-axion searches in the mass range 0.3-1 meV. He is main proposer and National Coordinator of SIMP, an INFN funded project aiming at detecting single microwave photons in experiments for axion searches. He has been supervisor of several students for their Laurea thesis, signed more than 700 referred papers and has h-index 74.
Dr. Carlo Ligi (gender male)
Physicist, cryogenic engineer – Master degree in astrophysics (Univ. of Roma Tre, Rome, 1999). Staff member of the cryogenic service of the Accelerator Division at the Frascati Laboratories (INFN) since 2001. Expert on ultralow temperatures and cooling with dilution refrigerators. He has been the cryogenic responsible of the RAP experiment (INFN-LNF), head of the cryogenic group of the Super-B factory and responsible of the wiring task in the cryogenic group of CUORE (INFN-LNGS), where he also worked at the commissioning of the Dilution Refrigerator. Beside this activity, he also worked on magnetic design of the steering magnets for the SPARC accelerator and for the preliminary design of the main dipoles of the DAFNE-2 projects. He participate to QUAX and SIMP projects and is one of the proposer of KLASH. He published about 140 papers on international journals and conference proceedings.
Dr Daniele Di Gioacchino (gender male)
Physicist in Condensed Matter Physics (Univ.‘Sapienza’of Roma, 1984). Permanent position as a staff scientist at the INFN-LNF in Research Division since 1989. Expert in superconductivity, magnetism. He uses ‘He liquid’ cryostats with superconducting magnets technique. Performed researches devoted to realize superconducting accelerating bulk/thin film cavities in Nb, NbZr and Nb3Sn, studied RF losses of superconducting materials and realized Josephson junctions. He has produced different gradiometers to measure the multi-harmonic A.C. magnetic susceptibility as a function of the temperature, DC magnetic field, AC frequencies using flux liquid helium cryostats to evaluate flux dynamics (flux pinning states, flux flow) of superconducting phases, moreover, it has also developed inserts for the electric transport characterization of materials and devices in function of the electric current and temperature in the high magnetic field. It has been a ’national responsible’ of some INFN projects approved by the National Commission V of the INFN named ‘PRESS-MAG-O’ (2005-2008), ‘MUEXC’ (2009-2012) and ‘SQUARE-1’ (2014-2015). Since 2007, he has been responsible of a cryogenic laboratory for magnetic characterization named ‘LAMPS’ in 2012 now merged into a new cryogenic laboratory (COLD, cryogenic laboratory for detectors).
He studied the possibility of producing a micro-magnetic SQUID gradiometer with x-y-z-θ movement to mapping magnetic microstructures in SNS superconducting arrays between Nb micrometric islands, for future particle new detectors. He has some publications on high IF magazines. He collaborates to QUAX and SIMP and is one of the proposer of KLASH.
He published about 150 papers on international journals and conference proceedings.
Dr David Alesini (gender male)
David Alesini got is PhD in “Applied Electromagnetism and Electro-physical science” at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2003 with a dissertation on “Beam Control and Manipulation with Microwave Devices in Particle Accelerators”.
He his staff of the Accelerator Division at LNF-INFN in Frascati where his is head of the “Vacuum group” since 2009. Since 18 years he is working on physics and technology of particle accelerators and, in particular, on beam dynamics, beam coupling impedances, accelerators operation, RF structures design, realization and test such as injection/extraction kickers, RF deflectors and accelerating structures.
He proposed and designed several new devices now in operation in different particle accelerators (CTF3 at CERN, DAFNE and SPARC at LNF-INFN, FERMI in Trieste, PSI in Switzerland, Pegasus Lab at UCLA in Los Angeles).
He has been involved, mainly, in the INFN projects DAΦNE and SPARC at LNF and CTF3 project at CERN. He has been Deputy Responsible of the operation of the DAΦNE collider from 2006 to 2009 and, in the framework of the ELI-NP Gamma Beam System, in construction in Magurele (Bucharest, Romania), he is now responsible of the work package on RF structures and LINAC Deputy Machine Leader.
In 2016 joined the QUAX project on axion research working in particular on radiofrequency cavities for axion detection. He participate to the SIMP project and is one of the proposer of KLASH.
In the framework of the project AMICI oriented on technology transfer and financed by the European Community (Call Horizon 2020 H2020 INFRAINNOV-2016-2017) he is the responsible of the work task on “Identify existing good practises, and barriers to effective engagement, between Industry and the Technological Infrastructures”.
He published about 200 papers on international journals and conference proceedings.
Dr. Giuseppe Ruoso (gender male)
Giuseppe Ruoso is an experimental physicist which activity in mainly dedicated to the study of the quantum vacuum and the search for axions. He got his Master Degree at the University of Trieste in 1991 with a laboratory search for axion like particles by using optical techniques. In 1995 he received his PhD from the University of Padova by devising an apparatus to study the magnetic birefringence of the vacuum as predicted by Quantum Electrodynamics. After several years of postdoc fellows with different institutions, he is a researcher of the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) since 2002. His main achievements include the first and only measurement of the Casimir effect in the plane parallel configuration, improved limits on the coupling of the axion with the photons, the best limit on the neutrality of matter (electron – proton charge asymmetry), first realization of a cryogenic optical frequency standard.
Currently he is involved with the experiment QUAX for the search of dark matter axion by exploiting the axion electron coupling, and with the experiment PVLAS for the measurement of the magnetic birefringence of the vacuum.
Dr. Giovanni Carugno (gender male)
Giovanni Carugno is an experimental physicist which activity in mainly dedicated to the study of the quantum vacuum and the search for axions. He got his Master Degree at the University of Roma “ La Sapienza” in 1986 with a laboratory search for heavy neutrino decay made at Cern and Brokhaven National lab. In 1987 he received a fellowship from CERN working on UA1 and ICARUS detectors mainly devoted to the study of room temperature and cryogenic temperature detectors based on Liquid TMP and Liquid Argon under the supervison of Prof C. Rubbia and M. Ferroluzzi. Once researcher at INFN Padova Section he spend two years at PSI as visitor scientist making an experiment on pion radiative decay and one year at Cern and ENSPC in Paris with Professor Charpak to develop a gamma camera for scintigraphic imaging purposes. Since 1990 is research at INFN Padova Section. His main achievements include the first and only measurement of the Casimir effect in the plane parallel configuration, improved limits on the coupling of the axion with the photons, the best limit on the neutrality of matter (electron – proton charge asymmetry), many detectors realization for high energy physics investigations.
Currently he is involved with the experiment QUAX for the search of dark matter axion by exploiting the axion electron coupling, and with the experiment Demiurgos for the measurement of very small energy release in matter.
Description of significant infrastructure and major items of technical equipment, relevant to theSUPERGALAX project
The research team setup up a cryogenic laboratory (COLD, CryOgenic Laboratory for Detectors) combining the experiences in supeconductivity, cryogenics, bolometers, radiofrequency and particle physics available at LNF, with the main focus on light dark matter detection such as axions. The COLD laboratory is equipped with: Vector Network Analyser up to 20 GHz (VNA up to 100 GHz are available at the radiofrequency group of LNF); signal generators; low noise amplifiers; low temperature thermomethers and gaussmeters with readout electronics. LNF acquired a dilution refrigerator-based cryogen-free cryostat, capable to cool samples down to 8 mK and with a cooling power of 0.6 mW at 100 mK. The cryostat feature also a fast-insertion tube and has an experimental space with dimensions d=500 mm and h=500 mm. It can host a SC magnet to generate a magnetic field of ~10 T. Its delivery is expected in spring 2019. In this laboratory are present other cryostats: first, with temperature control via a cold He flux from liquid helium. There are possible different set-ups with 300K-4.2K temperature range, is present a NbTi superconducting magnet with 0-8Tesla DC magnetic field amplitude, experimental cylinder volume is 600cm3; second, with manual dipping temperature control in liquid He bath in the 300K-4.2K range, the experimental cylinder volume is 2400cm3; third, a portable cryostat in 4.2K liquid He bath with 4 windows, to radiation test experiments on electron DAFNE-Beam Test Facility (BTF) line or UV-IR radiation. In particular, there are operative other cryogenic systems for magnetic characterization and transport properties to test materials and devices: 1) low frequency AC multi-harmonic magnetic susceptibility in function of f(Hz), Hac(Gauss), Hdc(Tesla), T(K); 2) AC and DC electrical resistance in function of T(K), Hdc(Tesla); 3) I-V characteristics versus of T(K), Hdc(Tesla). The group has experience in simulation of microwave systems in particular with the ASNYS HFSS code available at LNF.
The LNL Laboratory of INFN in Padova spans over different activities so it is well standard equippement as high vacuum pumping systems and vacuum chambers, two diluition refrigerator units, 5 liquid helium dewar of different sizes. We cover a large range of EM frequency from low frequency where we routinely operate a SQUID system up to Microwave range with cryogenic electronic up to 40 GHz. We have 3 optical tables where we operate 10 laser system in CW mode covering the frequency from 190 nm up to 1100 nm almost countinously with a bandwidth of 100 MHz and we have 1 laser operating at fs pulse regime with a rep. rate of 80 MHz and 2 psec laser operating at GHz rate with pulses within a psec range. To make systematic study on radiation matter interaction two electron guns at 100 Kev and milliamp current are under our control.