DOE/INFN Summer Exchange Program for 2024

The US Department of Energy (DoE) and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics – Italy (INFN) announce the 2025 edition of the Summer Exchange Program, dedicated to the exchange of US and Italian students in science and engineering.

Students are offered the possibility to work on projects which will further their experience in the areas of science and technology that are relevant for their academic training.

Research activities in Genoa are pursued in all major INFN areas of interest: Particle Physics, Astroparticle Physics, Nuclear Physics, Theoretical Physics and Detector Physics.
Several groups are participating in experimental programs in collaboration with US institutions.

Candidates must be enrolled as students at a US university and they must have begun, at the time of application, at least the third year of a US University curriculum in physics, engineering or computing science.

They can join a team at Genoa for approximately 8 weeks between June 1st and November 31th, 2023.

Opportunities include partecipation in physics analysis activities of running exsperiments as well as involvement in detector developments.

Announcement n. 27536. Expiry date: 07/03/2025

The avaible positions in Genoa are the following:

  • ATLAS experiment

Title: Pixel Detector for the ATLAS Upgrade at HL-LHC

Description:

The program for LHC foresees an upgrade of the accelerator complex in the next long shutdown starting in 2026 that will allow to increase the integrated luminosity by a factor of 10 (High Luminosity LHC – HL-LHC). The present detectors of ATLAS have been designed according to the rates and radiation dose expected at the nominal LHC luminosity and the Inner Tracker system will be completely replaced for the HL-LHC by a fully Silicon tracker, with a Pixel detector in the innermost part and Strip detector in the outermost part. After several years of R&D’s to develop a detector able to fit the even more demanding conditions than the actual ones, the Pixel detector collaboration is now stepping into the preproduction: the first parts produced need to be validated with several tests, to be sure that everything is ready before launching the massive production of the 13 mq large detector.

The Genova group has been involved in the last 20 years in the ATLAS pixel detector, and is now playing a key role in the construction of the new one for the high luminosity program. In particular, we are responsible for the 3D modules, the technology chosen for the innermost layer thanks to their intrinsic radiation tolerance, the production of the forward support structures and their electrical services, the loading of the modules on these structures. All these activities are shared with other institutes of the ITk collaboration, in particular from US laboratories and universities

Activities: The student will have a chance to participate to the assembly and test of the 3D modules, analyze laboratory and test beam data to evaluate sensor and module performance. For the latter, over the Summer we will have the first data taking of irradiated 3D modules and the student may be able to focus on this data analysis.

Recommend period: June – July or September – October

Tutor: Claudia Gemme (claudia.gemme@ge.infn.it)

Other information: cheap accomodation is available in town

 

  • ePIC-EIC-SRO

Title: Streaming DAQ for the future ePIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider

Description:

Thanks to recent developments in computing and networking, the particle physics experiment trigger scheme based on FPGA is being replaced by streaming readout approaches, in which every detector channel is read out independently, and all data above a minimum threshold are transferred to a CPU farm for further processing. This scheme simplifies the trigger implementation since it can be developed using high-level programming languages (C++, JAVA, Python, …) and increases the system’s versatility in adapting to diverse experimental conditions.

Activities: During this stage, the student will participate in the validation tests of a prototype of a triggerless readout system designed for the readout of an electromagnetic calorimeter for the future Electron-Ion Collider in the US. The experimental activity will include the optimization of the setup consisting of a matrix of scintillating glasses, the streaming readout with commercial and custom digitizers, the data recording, and the implementation of different trigger conditions

 Tutors: Marco Battaglieri, Marco Spreafico, Simone Vallarino

 Activity period: June – July 2025

Local Secretariat: Agnese Cresta (agnese.cresta@ge.infn.it)

Other information: cheap accomodation is available in town

  • ePIC-EIC-TAG

Title: Interaction tagger detector for dRICH at the future ePIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider

Description:

The dual-ring imaging Cerenkov (dRICH) detector at ePIC provides hadron identification in the forward region (1.5 <η < 3.5with excellent discrimination in the momentum range 1 GeV.c to 50 GeV/c. More than 300 thousand SiPMs composing the readout are operated at a low threshold (< 1pe) in streaming mode to detect the feeble Cerenkov light. To reduce the enormous amount of data produced by the front end, the Cerenkov signals will be combined in a tight time coincidence with a bunch-crossing signal provided by a dedicated dRICH Interaction Tagger detector. The precise time information of crossing of charged hadron produced in the e-A interaction will be obtained by a segmented plastic-scintillator hodoscope readout by SiPMs. Different options are currently under study.

Activities:

During this stage, the student will participate in the design and deployment of prototypes of the dRICH Interaction Tagger. Different small-scale prototypes based on different charged particle crossing detectors (scintillating fibers, scintillating tiles, scintillation paddles) will be available for cosmic ray testing. The performance of the full system (detector, siPM-based readout, and back-end data reduction) will be assessed defining the best option for the final detector.

Tutor: Marco Battaglieri, Mikhail Osipenko, Simone Vallarino

Activity period: June-July 2025

Local Secretariat: Agnese Cresta (agnese.cresta@ge.infn.it)

Other information: cheap accomodation is available in town

 

  • JLAB12-BDX

Title: JLAB12-BDX detector assembly and commissioning

Description:

Assembly, testing, and commissioning of components of Module-I of the Beam Dump eXperiment detector. BDX is a beam-dump, Light-Dark Matter search experiment scheduled to run at Jefferson Lab (VA) in the next few years. The detector, made from a PbWO4 electromagnetic calorimeter surrounded by two plastic scintillator veto layers, will be assessed using cosmic muons to measure veto layer inefficiency as a function of the energy deposited in the calorimeter crystals.

Activities:

Commission the detector (test and equalize sipm channels), use the EEE cosmic muon test facility to measure veto and ECal absolute efficiency, and run a cosmic test with the full prototype assembled to determine the veto inefficiency as a function of the energy deposited in the ECal crystals, data analysis and comparison to simulations.

Tutor: Marco Battaglieri, Marco Spreafico, Simone Vallarino

Activity period: June-July 2025

Local Secretariat: Agnese Cresta (agnese.cresta@ge.infn.it)

Other information: cheap accomodation is available in town

 

  • JLAB12-HI-LUMI

Title: JLAB12-CLAS12 HI-LUMI upgrade

Description:

The CLAS12 is a large acceptance detector operating in the experimental Hall-B of Jefferson Lab. The detector is based on a toroidal magnetic field for precise measurement of leptons and hadrons momenta produced in the collision of the 11 GeV electron beam with fixed proton/nuclear targets. A combination of Drift Chambers, Silicon Vertex detectors, electromagnetic calorimeters, and Cerenkov and TOF counters provides excellent momentum resolution and particle identification in a wide range of kinematics. To increase the already high luminosity of the experiment, an upgrade of the tracking system is currently under study. A new tracker layer, based on the novel uRWELL
technology, will complement the DC information, reducing the low-energy particle background, increasing by a factor of 2 the current peak luminosity. A prototype of the future large-area uRWELL detector is currently under test at Jefferson Lab.

Activities:

During this stage, the student will test a small (10×10 cm2) uRWELL chamber that uses the same technology adopted by the CLAS12 HIU-LUMI upgrade. The cosmic test station is based on a plastic scintillator telescope for coarse cosmic muons tracking and DAQ triggering, Different front- end options based on the well-established APV25 and the new VMM3 chip are installed and ready to be tested. Cosmic tests will be useful to design and plan on-beam tests to assess the ultimate performance of the detector.

Tutor: Marco Battaglieri, Marco Spreafico, Simone Vallarino

Activity period: June-July 2025

Local Secretariat: Agnese Cresta (agnese.cresta@ge.infn.it)

Other information: cheap accomodation is available in town