Proposals

The very-long-baseline atom interferometer (VLBAI) community is currently developing prototypes towards a km-scale instrument. Building on existing 10-m vertical interferometers and 100-m horizontal gradiometers, this EoI envisions deploying a 100-m vertical VLBAI experiment, such as AION-100 (an evolution of AION-10, currently under construction at Oxford University), in the Rioseta ventilation shaft and a multi-km horizontal VLBAI experiment, such as ELGAR, in the old railroad tunnel.
Atom interferometers use lasers to place atoms into quantum superposition states that follow different space-time trajectories before being recombined into a localized state. Similar to laser interferometers, atom interferometers are extremely sensitive to any perturbation that affects the evolution of the atoms differently along each path, such as gravitational ways. AION&ELGAR planned in gradiometric configuration, i.e. operated with a common laser beam, could achieve unprecedented sensitivity at gravitational waves in the 0.1-2 Hz frequency range, thereby opening new opportunities in one of the most dynamic areas of modern physics.

The detection of dark matter axions is one of the greatest scientific and technological challenges in physics today, mainly due to the low power expected from a potential detection. Currently, experiments are limited by the SQL (Standard Quantum Limit). The DarkQuantum project, through the use of qubit-based QSPCs (Quantum Single-Photon Counters), aims to exceed this limit by up to 4 orders of magnitude, and is currently the only technology that will provide such an increase in signal-to-noise ratio. To achieve this, the experiment must be located in an appropriate environment that isolates it from surface radiation and provides the necessary radio-purity conditions, with the LSC meeting these requirements.

A world-wide consensus exists that deep geological disposal is the best option for the safe confinement of spent nuclear fuel and long-lived radioactive waste. This proposal is based on wireless transmission of geotechnical data through clay rocks. Through its works, it aims to achieve a wireless monitoring system capable of operating with the measurement instrumentation commonly used for monitoring the main geotechnical parameters that are relevant for the operation of the future nuclear waste repository.

The Canfranc Axion Detection Experiment (CADEx) collaboration is building a new experiment to detect axion particles in the mass range 330-460 μeV. CADEx is an ambitious and innovative project employing new technology to measure axion signatures with a frequency of 90 GHz. For this purpose, the experiment will employ a microwave resonant cavity haloscope in a magnetic field inside a dilution refrigerator (at K or mK temperatures). More details can be found on the presentation at the 29th LSC Scientific Committee meeting (Dec 1, 2021). Download here.

The fourth phase of the NEXT program is called NEXT-HD, for which several possible technologies are being studied, and a baseline concept has been outlined. The design goal of NEXT-HD is not only to increase the isotopic mass of 136Xe very substantially beyond that of NEXT-100, but also to achieve “Higher Definition” of the tracking technology by reducing electron diffusion using gaseous additives, or improving the granularity of the tracking system, or both. Exploration of gas mixtures involving either molecular or noble additives, and tracking technologies involving either dense SiPM planes or high-speed cameras, are ongoing for NEXT-HD within the NEXT collaboration.

This proposal aims to build and commission an underground facility to grow ultra-high radiopurity NaI(Tl) scintillators. The facility after commissioning will be used to make detectors to search for dark matter in a model-independent approach. The synergy between SABRE, ANAIS, and LSC is a unique opportunity to face the DAMA/LIBRA finding with an ultra-low background detector. As a matter of fact, it is understood that a conclusive verification of DAMA/LIBRA has to go beyond the present NaI(Tl) experiments. The goal is to deliver a facility which can make NaI(Tl) detectors with a background of the order of 0.1 dru (cpd/kg/keV) in the ROI of [2,6] keV electron-recoil.
The strategy is based on the work done at Princeton by the group of F. Calaprice [Phys.Rev.Res. 2 (2020) 1, 013223], in the framework of the SABRE experiment, which has carried out recent measurements at the Gran Sasso Laboratory.

Dark Matter in CCDs (DAMIC) has pioneered the detection of nuclear and electronic recoils induced by Dark Matter (DM) particles in charge-coupled devices (CCDs). Scientific CCDs are commonly used in the focal plane of astronomical telescopes for the digital imaging of faint astrophysical objects. Our non-standard use of CCDs was demonstrated at SNOLAB (Sudbury, Canada) where a 40-g prototype detector is currently operating. DAMIC-M is a 1 Kg detector to be installed at Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) in France which profits from this experience and, at the same time, will greatly improve in sensitivity by further innovating the detector technology. CCDs show unique properties: a) unprecedented charge resolution, b) low leakage current, c) spatial resolution and 3D reconstruction, d) background identification and rejection.