[en] We present an overview of the future projects concerning the neutrino oscillation physics in Europe. Recently a joint CERN-LNGS scientific committee has reviewed several proposals both for the study of atmospheric neutrinos and for long (LBL) and short baseline (SBL) neutrino oscillation experiments. The committee has indicated the priority that the European high energy physics community should follows in the field of neutrino physics, namely a new massive, atmospheric neutrino detector and a ν_τ appearance campaign exploiting the new CERN-LNGS Neutrino Facility (NGS), freshly approved by CERN and INFN. The sensitivity and the discovery potential of the whole experimental program in the Super-Kamiokande allowed region are discussed

[en] It is studied the motion of a test particle provided with spin in a gravitational field with a nonvanishing torsion with the aim of clarifying the relationship between the approach based on the balance equations for energy, momentum and angular momentum and the approach based directly on a semiclassical approximation of the Dirac equation. The balance equations in the pole-dipole approximation are applied to a Dirac wave packet minimally coupled to the gravitational field and it is shown that, in this particular case, it is possible to compute the dipole moments of energy current, which are essential for a correct calculation of the motion of the centre of the particle and of the precession of its spin

[en] The ICARUS project aims at the realisation of a large liquid argon TPC to be run at the underground Laboratories of Gran Sasso in Italy. An intense R and D activity has put on firm grounds this novel detector technology and experimentally confirmed, on a few ton scale, its feasibility. Based on these solid achievements, the collaboration is now confident of being capable to build and safely operate a multi-kton detector. The research program of the experiment involves the systematic study of a large spectrum of physical phenomena that covers many orders of magnitude in the energy deposited in the detector: from the few MeV of solar neutrino interactions, to the about one GeV of the proton decay and atmospheric neutrinos, up to the higher energies of long baseline neutrinos from accelerators. (author)

[en] The ICARUS T600 detector, a ∼760 t liquid Argon TPC able to combine 'bubble chamber' quality imaging capabilities with excellent calorimetric measurements, is presently operational at the LNGS underground laboratory for a rich physics programme, covering cosmic neutrinos, nucleon decay search and neutrino oscillations with the CNGS neutrino beam. The successful detector commissioning and the ongoing data taking and analysis of the recorded events demonstrate the excellent performance of this LAr-TPC, which marks also a major milestone towards the practical realization of large-scale LAr detectors.

[en] The detection of primary scintillation light in combination with the charge or secondary scintillation signals is an efficient technique in determining the events ''t=0'' as well as particle/photon separation in large mass TPC detectors filled with noble gases and/or condensed noble gases. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that costly photo-multipliers could be replaced by cheap novel photosensitive gaseous detectors: wire counters, GEMs or glass capillary plates coupled with CsI photocathodes. We have performed systematic measurements with Ar, Kr and Xe gases at pressures in the range of 1-50 atm as well as some preliminary measurements with liquid Xe and liquid Ar. With the gaseous detectors we have succeeded in detecting a scintillation light produced by 22 keV X-rays with an efficiency close to 100%. We also detected the scintillation light produced by β's (5 keV deposit energy) with an efficiency close to 25%. Successful detection of scintillation from 22 keV X-rays open new experimental possibilities not only for nTOF and ICARUS experiments, but also in others, such as WIMP's search through nuclear recoil emission

[en] Noble gases and liquids are excellent scintillators and this opens a unique opportunity to directly detect the primary scintillation light produced in these media by photons or particles. This signal can be used for several purposes, for example as a start signal for TPCs or for particle's identification. Usually photomultipliers (PMs) are used for the detection of the scintillation light. In our previous work we have demonstrated that costly PMs could be replaced by gaseous detectors with CsI photocathodes. Such detectors have the same quantum efficiency as the best PMs but at the same time are cheap, simple and have high position and time resolutions. The aim of this work is to evaluate various planar type gaseous detectors with CsI photocathodes in order to choose the best one for the detection of the primary scintillation light from noble gases and liquids

[en] The European Strategy for Particle Physics of 2013 classified the short and long baseline neutrino program as one of the four highest-priority scientific objectives with required international infrastructure. In this framework, CERN has created a 'Neutrino Platform” for detector R and D and support to future international neutrino experiments, as well as to provide a basis for European neutrino communities towards contributing to the US and Japanese projects. In particular, significant R and D effort is made on the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber technologies. As a part of the Neutrino Platform facilities, CERN is constructing a large test area (EHN1 extension of the SPS North Area) with charged beams capabilities devoted to neutrino detectors. An overview will be given of the main Liquid Argon neutrino detector projects presently under development in the framework of the CERN Neutrino platform. (paper)

[en] We have developed a new design of a GEM-like detector with electrodes made of a resistive kapton. This detector can operate at gains close to 10⁵ even in pure noble gases (Ar and Ne) and if transited to discharges at higher gains, due to the high resistivity of electrodes, they do not damage either the detector or the front-end electronics. Gains ∼10⁶ can be achieved in a cascaded mode of operation. The detector can operate without gain degradation at counting rates of at least up to 10⁴Hz/cm² and it could thus be very useful in many applications requiring safe high-gain operation, for example, in RICH, TPCs, and calorimetry

[en] Analytical formulae for the calculation of secondary particle yields in p-A interactions are given. These formulae can be of great practical importance for fast calculations of neutrino fluxes and for designing new neutrino beam-lines. The formulae are based on a parameterization of the inclusive invariant cross sections for secondary particle production measured in p-Be interactions. Data collected in different energy ranges and kinematic regions are used. The accuracy of the fit to the data with the empirical formulae adopted is within the experimental uncertainties. Prescriptions to extrapolate this parameterization to finite targets and to targets of different materials are given. The results obtained are then used as an input for the simulation of neutrino beams. We show that our approach describes well the main characteristics of measured neutrino spectra at CERN. Thus it may be used in fast simulations aiming at the optimisation of the long-baseline neutrino beams at CERN and FNAL. In particular we will show our predictions for the CNGS beam from CERN to Gran Sasso. (orig.)

[en] Icarus detector is a liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber that requires continuous signal recording for each channel to provide three dimensional images of any ionizing event. A complete drift volume imaging of the next 600 ton module will result in 1.15 Gbit, with a data rate of 1.15 Tbit/s. The collected data can be highly reduced by recognizing Regions Of Interest (ROI) of the signal by means of a custom hit finding unit (DAEDALUS) working pipelined in the data acquisition path. DAEDALUS is an ASIC that implements an algorithm developed for hit detection and proven to be very efficient both on real and on simulated data. Since only ROI's are saved in memory and contiguous regions can be correlated to enhance detector self triggering capability, a high efficiency zero skipping is obtained in real time. A VME board hosting 16 Icarus digital channels has been designed and built as a demonstrator for functionality and performance test. The board, named ARIANNA, and DAEDALUS chip are here presented in detail