arXiv subjects

Walter Bonivento

Publications and source records attributed to Walter Bonivento.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Darkside-20k Data Acquisition System

DarkSide-20k is a WIMP search experiment using liquid argon as a target, designed to perform a background-free search for dark matter with unprecedented sensitivity, and is currently under construction at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. The detector comprises a dual-phase Time Projection Chamber complemented with external veto systems and is equipped with a total of 2720 SiPM-based readout channels. This work presents the DAQ system designed for DarkSide-20k. The system is capable of continuous, triggerless digitisation of the waveforms with high single-photoelectron detection efficiency and online processing, ensuring data reduction for long-term storage. The DarkSide-20k DAQ system employs commercial CAEN VX2745 digitisers with custom FPGA firmware implementation. Timing and synchronisation across all 48 digitisers are provided by custom Global and Crate Data Manager boards distributing a phase-aligned clock derived from a disciplined rubidium standard. Waveform segments are processed in real time by Front End Processor machines. Data are organised into collections containing whole detector information and distributed across a farm of Time Slice Processors for event reconstruction, classification, and further reduction before storage and offline analysis. A full "Quadrant" of the system, corresponding to one quarter of the final DAQ, has been assembled and validated at TRIUMF laboratory in Canada. The Quadrant has been stress-tested with simultaneous pulses and demonstrated sustained digitizer readout exceeding expected physics rates and stable long-term performance.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

When gravity meets philosophy again: the Gravitas project

Gravity is, by far, one of the scientific themes that have most piqued the curiosity of scientists and philosophers over the centuries. The history of science tells us that when the creative effort of physicists and philosophers to solve the main puzzles of the understanding of our universe met, a new conceptual revolution has started. However, since Einstein's relativistic theories and the subsequent advent of quantum mechanics, physicists and philosophers have taken different paths, both kidnapped by the intrinsic conceptual and mathematical difficulties inherited by their studies. Is it possible to restore a unitary vision of knowledge, overcoming the scientific-humanistic dichotomy that has established itself over time? The answer is certainly not trivial, but we can start from school to experience a new vision of a unified knowledge. From this need, the Gravitas project has born. Gravitas is a multidisciplinary outreach and educational program devoted to high school students (17-19 years old) that mixes contemporary physics and the philosophy of science. Coordinated by the Cagliari Section of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, in Italy, Gravitas has started on December 2021 with an unconventional online format: two researchers coming from different fields of research meet a moderator and informally discuss about gravity and related phenomena. The public can chat and indirectly interact with them during the YouTube live. The project involved about 250 students from 16 high schools in Sardinia, Italy. Students should also create posts thought for social media whose content is based on the seminars they attended during the project. We present the project and discuss its possible outcomings concerning the introduction of a multidisciplinary approach in teaching physics, philosophy, and the history of contemporary physics in high schools.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2022

A Facility for Low-Radioactivity Underground Argon

The DarkSide-50 experiment demonstrated the ability to extract and purify argon from deep underground sources and showed that the concentration of $^{39}$Ar in that argon was greatly reduced from the level found in argon derived from the atmosphere. That discovery broadened the physics reach of argon-based detector and created a demand for low-radioactivity underground argon (UAr) in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and in environmental and allied sciences. The Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration (GADMC) is preparing to produce UAr for DarkSide-20k, but a general UAr supply for the community does not exist. With the proper resources, those plants could be operated as a facility to supply UAr for most of the experiments after the DarkSide 20k production. However, if the current source becomes unavailable, or UAr masses greater than what is available from the current source is needed, then a new source must be found. To find a new source will require understanding the production of the radioactive argon isotopes underground in a gas field, and the ability to measure $^{37}$Ar, $^{39}$Ar, and $^{42}$Ar to ultra-low levels. The operation of a facility creates a need for ancillary systems to monitor for $^{37}$Ar, $^{39}$Ar, or $^{42}$Ar infiltration either directly or indirectly, which can also be used to vet the $^{37}$Ar, $^{39}$Ar, and $^{42}$Ar levels in a new UAr source, but requires the ability to separate UAr from the matrix well gas. Finding methods to work with industry to find gas streams enriched in UAr, or to commercialize a UAr facility, are highly desirable.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

The Low-Radioactivity Underground Argon Workshop: A workshop synopsis

In response to the growing need for low-radioactivity argon, community experts and interested parties came together for a 2-day workshop to discuss the worldwide low-radioactivity argon needs and the challenges associated with its production and characterization. Several topics were covered: experimental needs and requirements for low-radioactivity argon, the sources of low-radioactivity argon and its production, how long-lived argon radionuclides are created in nature, measuring argon radionuclides, and other applicable topics. The Low-Radioactivity Underground Argon (LRUA) workshop took place on March 19-20, 2018 at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland Washington, USA. This paper is a synopsis of the workshop with the associated abstracts from the talks.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Dark Sectors 2016 Workshop: Community Report

This report, based on the Dark Sectors workshop at SLAC in April 2016, summarizes the scientific importance of searches for dark sector dark matter and forces at masses beneath the weak-scale, the status of this broad international field, the important milestones motivating future exploration, and promising experimental opportunities to reach these milestones over the next 5-10 years.

hep-ph↗