December 2024
The LSC wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
The LSC wraps up another year filled with neutrinos, dark matter, and microorganisms competing for survival in low-radiation environments. We’re gearing up for a 2025 full of new challenges and exciting discoveries. Before we go, here’s a challenge for you: Could you guess what our Christmas tree is made of? Hint: In 2025, we'll continue safeguarding the 20,000 eyes of Hyper-Kamiokande.
New hydrostatic tests of the PMTs covers of the Hyper-Kamiokande telescope in collaboration with ITP
Last week, a new campaign of hydrostatic tests was completed to validate the protective covers of the sensors for the future HK neutrino telescope. A team from the LSC traveled to the ITP facilities in Mòra d’Ebre (Tarragona) to carry out this campaign. In total, six covers were tested to evaluate their resistance to hydrostatic pressure based on the contact surface and the morphology of the steel cover and the acrylic dome.
November 2024
LSC Seminars: “N-body simulations and their application to Cosmology”
Carmelita Carbone, a researcher at IASF-Milano and a member of the EUCLID collaboration, presented the high-resolution DEMNUni cosmological simulations she developed, integrating massive neutrinos into the cosmological model. Cosmological simulations are essential tools for unraveling the mysteries of the Universe, providing key insights into its origin, evolution, and composition.
Successful celebration of the 1st Radon R&D&I Workshop
From November 11 to 13, the LSC hosted the first workshop dedicated to Radon R&D&I, with a wide participation of experts and scientists. The objective of this meeting was to bring together the different groups working on research projects related to the Radon problem in Spain. The conferences promoted scientific exchange and underlined the importance of fostering new projects that generate knowledge and solutions for the benefit of society as a whole.
Inauguration of the LSC’s New Center at Walqa
On November 7th, the director of Walqa and the mayor of Huesca welcomed the LSC to the Walqa ecosystem, Huesca’s technology park, where the LSC has established a new logistics center. At this center, the PMT covers of the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment will be stored and undergo quality control before being shipped and installed in Japan in 2026.
35th meeting of the LSC Scientific Advisory Committee
On November 5th and 6th, the 35th meeting of the LSC Scientific Advisory Committee took place. The Committee heard presentations from the DArT, BabyIAXO, TREX-DM, and NEXT experiments and reviewed written reports from the other experiments. In addition, researcher Juan José Gómez Cadenas (DIPC) shared the future plan for the NEXT experiment, which includes the development of NEXT-HD: a TPC with 1 ton of enriched xenon, designed for the search for neutrinoless double beta decay.