Experiment Portraits

In this article we want to give an overview about the GERDA experiment and then present in more detail the liquid argon veto system in the scope of photosensor developments. We give special emphasis on the SiPM-Fiber-System produced at Technische Universität München.

The GERmanium Detector Array, GERDA, aims to measure the neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. A very good background reduction and understanding is essential due to the extremely low rate of double beta decays. To reduce the background from cosmic rays the GERDA experiment is located below a rock overburden of about 3500m water equivalent in the Gran Sasso National Institute (LNGS) of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). The detector is located within a cryostat filled with liquid argon which is used for cooling and acts as a distinguished veto system.

In this article we want to introduce the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. In a first part we focus on the input of KIT and DESY for the developments of SiPM-readout scintillation detectors for an extended surface array of IceCube and IceCube-Gen2.

IceCube is a unique detector, not only due to the discovery of very high energy cosmic neutrinos, but also as a multipurpose research facility. It also contributes to cosmic ray physics, dark matter searches and glaciology, and is therefore most suitable for multi-messenger astroparticle physics.

In this article we want to introduce the CTA experiment and in a first part focus on the input of the IASF-Palermo for the SST prototype ASTRI.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very-high energies. With more than 100 telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres, CTA will be the world’s largest and most sensitive high-energy gamma-ray observatory.