The main objective of the KATRIN experiment is the measurement of the mass of the three neutrinos of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. But the analysis of the beta decay spectrum of tritium also allows to search for the trace of a hypothetical fourth neutrino, called sterile neutrino. The collaboration has just published its first analysis in Physical Review Letters (see article) based on four weeks of data acquired in 2019. There is no trace of this fourth neutrino, but this is only the beginning as sensitivity will rapidly improve. The KATRIN spectrometer shows a strong potential to study this possible new facet of the neutrino.
On October 28, 2014, CEA signed a contract with the Israeli research center in Soreq (SNRC) for the construction of a accelerator called SARAF (SOREQ Applied Research Accelerator Facility) by IRFU teams. This agreement is materialized by preliminary and detailed study phases over a period of 18 months (2015 and 2016) opening up to a construction, testing and installation phase on the site that will last 6 years.
The aim is to build a superconducting linear accelerator capable of providing proton and deuteron beams of variable energy between 5 and 40 MeV with an intensity of up to 5mA. This facility is intended for fundamental and applied research in many fields.
The schedule, associated with this project, includes successively the delivery and installation on site and then the testing of three sub-assemblies:
The EUPRAXIA project has just completed its design study phase with the delivery of the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) at the end of 2019. The strong involvement of IRFU, particularly in the field of particle beam physics, has made it possible to show that solutions exist for the realization of a plasma wakefield accelerator, with a beam quality approaching that of conventional accelerators.
Detailed studies of the physical mechanisms involved have efficiently guided the numerical simulations, each lasting more than 10 hours on 2048 computing nodes, to demonstrate that all the objectives on the output beam can be achieved with a plasma of 30 cm long, 1.1017 cm-3 electronic density and a laser of 400 terawatts power, 50 joules energy. Innovative methods have been developed for accelerating and driving the beam through the two plasma stages to the end user without degrading the beam. A first analysis of error tolerances allowed to identify the most sensitive components to which particular care should be taken during the fabrication and implementation.
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Dernière mise à jour : Nov 19th, 2024
