Staff

A. Garfagnini, R. Brugnera, A. Giaz, C. Sirignano

PhD

D. Pedretti, F. Sawi

External collaborators (INFN)

M. Bellato, F. Dal Corso, S. Dusini, I. Lippi,M. Mezzetto, L. Stanco

Research Activity

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory is a large detector for neutrino physics under costruction in the South of China. Thanks to the large active mass (20kton of liquid scintillator) and to the expected high energy resolution (3% at 1 MeV) it will allow to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to measure neutrino oscillations with unprecedent precisions: θ₁₂, Δm₂₁² e Δm_ee², will be measured with lower than 1% errors. Indeed wheather the ν₃ neutrino mass eigenstate is heavier or lighter than the ν₁ e ν₂ mass eigenstates is one of the remaining undetermined fundamental aspects of the Standard Model in the lepton sector. Mass hierarchy determination would have an impact in the quest of the neutrino nature (Dirac or Majorana mass terms) towards the formulation of a theory of flavour. Moreover, besides measuring the anti-neutrinos produced from the near Yangjiang and Taishan Power Plant, JUNO will allow to study atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, geo-neutrinos and neutrinos produced in case of supernova explosions. The central detector (a 40 meters shpere) will be filled with about 20 kton of liquid scintillator. The scintillation light produced after neutrino interactions will be detected by a high number of large size photomultipliers. Thanks to the high energy resolution (3% at 1 MeV), the experiment will have performances superior to the present state of the art liquid scintillator based neutrino detectors: BOREXINO (at Gran Sasso in Italy) and KamLand (in Japan). Moreover, high scintillator transparency and a very low environmental radioactive contamination are key ingredients for the success of the experiment.
JUNO is an international Collaboration made of more than fivehundred scientists coming form seventy institutions based in China, Europe and in North and South America. In Italy, beside the Padova group, INFN participates to the expriment with Catania, Ferrara, Milano and Milano Bicocca, Roma 3 and Frascati National Laboratories. The principal activity of the Padova group is the design and construction of the readout electronics for the JUNO photomultipliers with the Global Control Unit, the digital acquisition and signal processing of the signal; a unique characteristics of the eperiment is that the readout electronics will be integrated very close to the photomultipliers, minimizing the number and lenght of analogue cables, thus optimizing the signal over noise ratio.

Other information:
link to the experiment Web Page: http://juno.ihep.cas.cn/
Recent publications:
Fengpeng An et al, Neutrino Physics with JUNO, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 43 (2016) 03040 doi:10.1088/0954-3899/43/3/030401