Neutrino Programme
Programme Leader
Paul de Jong
Main points: scientific
ANTARES
- Multi-messenger searches for sources of gravitational waves and high energy neutrinos, with LIGO/VIRGO, ANTARES, IceCube and PAO.
- Search for neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the galactic center.
- All-flavour search for a diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos with eleven years of ANTARES data.
- Combined constraints on galactic diffuse neutrino emission and on point sources in the Southern Sky from ANTARES and IceCube.
- Measurement of oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos and limits on sterile neutrinos.
KM3NeT
- In-situ calibration of the first ORCA lines, determination of the depth dependence of atmospheric muon background in sea water.
DUNE
- Analysis of ProtoDUNE test beam data.
Main points: technical
KM3NeT
- Deployment of 4 ORCA DUs and start of data taking, with 2 more ORCA DUs ready to be deployed.
- Further improvements in KM3NeT design, sea floor network and optical system.
- Procurement and preparation for phase 2 mass production.
- Reconstruction and event classification software, general software and oscillation analysis software frameworks.
DUNE
- Design of the FELIX-based DAQ for DUNE, based on experience with ProtoDUNE.
Awards/Fellowships
- ESCAPE (European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle physics ESFRI research infrastructures) H2020 project to boost the European Open Science Cloud.
Key positions in collaborations
KM3NeT
- Deputy spokesperson: Aart Heijboer
- Detection Unit integration coordinator: Daan van Eijk
- Optical systems coordinator: Antonio D’Amico
- Mechanics coordinator: Edward Berbee
- Cosmic ray physics group convener: Ronald Bruijn
ANTARES
- Point sources group convener: Dorothea Samtleben
Main papers in 2019
ANTARES
- Search for multimessenger sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos with advanced LIGO during its first observing run, ANTARES, and IceCube, Astrophys. J.B 870 (2019) 134
KM3NeT
- Sensitivity of the KM3NeT/ARCA neutrino telescope to point-like neutrino sources, Astropart. Phys. 111 (2019) 100
DUNE
- The DAQ for the Single-Phase DUNE Prototype at CERN, IEEE Trans.Nucl.Sci. 66 (2019) no.7, 1210-1216
Cosmic Rays (Pierre Auger Observatory & GRAND)
Programme Leader
Sijbrand de Jong
Main points: scientific
- Radio Detector Upgrade approved as part of AugerPrime
- Clear hints of a significant proton composition part for the highest-energy cosmic rays
Main points: technical
- Completed production of AugerPrime upgrade SSD modules (180 completed at Nikhef)
- Site selection for GRAND Proto300 and GRAND Proto300 completed
- Prototype Array Auger Radio in the field, design being finished
Awards, fellowships etc.
Key positions in collaborations
- Auger Engineering Radio Array group leader: Jörg Hörandel
- Auger outreach convenor: Charles Timmermans
- Auger Conference Committee chair: Charles Timmermans
- GRAND technical coordinator: Charles Timmermans
Main paper in 2019
- Limits on point-like sources of ultra-high-energy neutrinos with the Pierre Auger Observatory, The Pierre Auger Collaboration, JCAP11 (2019) 004
Dark Matter
Programme Leader
Patrick Decowski
Main points: scientific
- The main experimental focus was on constructing XENONnT, an upgrade of XENON1T. This phase will increase the liquid xenon mass from 3.2 tons to 8.4 tons, with an order of magnitude lower radioactive backgrounds.
- The XENON1T cryostat and TPC were disassembled in January 2019 to allow for the upgrade. All XENONnT TPC parts were delivered to LNGS, cleaned, and the assembly of the TPC begun. The modified cryostat vessels, “bell” and the new XENONnT liquid xenon purification system were delivered and installed.
- A PRL reporting on the XENON1T analysis of the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon coupling.
- A paper describing the first detection of two neutrino double electron capture in Xe-124 was published. This is the longest half-life ever observed directly.
- Two analyses were published in two PRLs describing searches for sub-GeV WIMPs and other dark matter particles. The papers use the ionization signal only to lower the detection threshold with a technique developed by former Nikhef PhD’er J. Aalbers.
- Two papers described the analysis, and signal and background modeling used in the XENON1T data analysis.
- The Nikhef-based liquid xenon XAMS R&D setup was used to investigate SiPMs in liquid xenon.
- Detailed physics studies for DARWIN, a future fifty-ton liquid xenon detector, are ongoing.
Main points: technical
- Installation of the XENONnT DAQ almost completed
Grants
- SURFsara/Nikhef Grid resource grant
- NWO Physics Programme “The Hidden Universe of Weakly Interacting Particles”, 1.9 M€ (with KM3NeT)
Key positions in collaborations
- XENON Editorial Board: Patrick Decowski (chair)
- XENONnT Technical Coordinator: Auke-Pieter Colijn
- DARWIN Executive Board: Patrick Decowski
Main paper in 2019
Light dark matter search with ionization signals in XENON1T, XENON Collaboration (E. Aprile et al.), Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 251801 (2019).
Gravitational Waves
Programme Leader & deputy programme leader
Frank Linde & Chris Van den Broeck
Main points: scientific
- ETpathfinder official kick-off meeting in Maastricht 27 May 2019
- First ETpathfinder Industrial Advisory Board event in Antwerpen on 18 June 2019
- Start of a gravitational-wave group in Maastricht with staff researchers: Stefan Hild (groupleader), Jessica Steinlechner, Stefan Danilishin, Gideon Koekoek, Sebatstian Steinlechner & Jo van den Brand
- Approval of the E-TEST Euregio-EMR Interreg project (15 M€)
- Installation of seismic sensor at 250 meters depth in Terziet and presentation of first results in Nieuwspoort (The Hague) on 3 October 2019
- LIGO-Virgo papers with major Nikhef input:
- Paper on catalog of O1+O2 events (Caudill strongly involved in the detections): Abbott et al., Phys. Rev. X 9, 031040 (2019);
- Paper on tests of GR with O1+O2 events (Van Den Broeck + postdocs + students strongly involved): Abbott et al., Phys. Rev. D 100, 104036 (2019);
- Testing GR with the binary neutron star inspiral GW170817 (Van Den Broeck chair of the paper writing team): Abbott et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 011102 (2019);
- First measurement of Hubble constant without using electromagnetic counterpart (Archisman Ghosh chair of paper writing team, MSc student Sur strongly involved): Fishbach et al., ApJ Letters 871, L13 (2019).
- Short authorlist papers, data analysis:
- Dietrich et al., Matter imprints in waveform models for neutron star binaries: Tidal and self-spin effects, Phys. Rev. D 99, 024029 (2019);
- Kastha et al., Testing the multipole structure and conservative dynamics of compact binaries using gravitational wave observations: The spinning case, Phys. Rev. D 100, 044007 (2019);
- Tsang et al., A morphology-independent search for gravitational wave echoes in data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo, arXiv:1906.11168 (accepted by Phys. Rev. D);
- Tsang, et al., Modeling the postmerger gravitational wave signal and extracting binary properties from future gravitational binary neutron star detections, Phys. Rev. D 100, 044047 (2019);
- Maggiore et al., Science case for the Einstein Telescope, arXiv:1912.02622 (accepted by JCAP);
- Hanna et al., Fast evaluation of multidetector consistency for real-time gravitational wave searches, Phys. Rev. D 101, 022003 (2020);
- Magee et al., Sub-threshold binary neutron star search in Advanced LIGO’s first observing run, Astrophys. J. 878, L17 (2019);
- Kapadia et al., A self-consistent method to estimate the rate of compact binary coalescences with a Poisson mixture model, Class. Quantum Grav. 37, 045007 (2020).
- Chris Van Den Broeck appointed as full professor at Utrecht University
- Sarah Caudill received an NWO-Vidi and an NWO-WISE grant
- Good progress on Einstein Telescope ESFRI application to be submitted early May 2020
- Andreas Freise and Conor Mow-Lowry accepted positions at VU Amsterdam
Main points: technical
- Virgo achieved is design sensitivity for Observation Run 3 of 60 Mpc
- Frequency Dependent Squeezer realisation on-track at Nikhef
Key positions in collaborations
- Spokesperson Virgo: Jo van den Brand
- Virgo Commissioning Coordinator: Matteo Tacca
- Coordinator Suspended Optical Benches subsystem in Virgo: Henk-Jan Bulten
- Manager Filter Cavity subsystem in Virgo: Alessandro Bertolini
- Member LIGO-Virgo Collaboration Detection Committee: Alessandro Bertolini
- Co-chair, 3G Science Case Team on Extreme Gravity (GWIC): Chris Van Den Broeck
- Co-chair LIGO-Virgo Tests of GR: Chris Van Den Broeck
- Co-chair All-Sky Searches for Compact Binary Coalescences: Sarah Caudill
- Co-chair LIGO-Virgo Cosmology: Archisman Ghosh
Main paper in 2019
- Paper on catalog of O1+O2 events: Abbott et al., arXiv:1811.12907