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Neutrinoless double beta decay with the NEXT experiment

Job Summary

The Donostia International Physics Center is looking for a PhD student to work in the NEXT collaboration. The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT) is an experiment located at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) whose goal is to search for an ultra-rare nuclear process called neutrinoless double beta decay.

Job Description

The eventual observation of this process could help to answer some of the fundamental questions still open in particle physics. It would demonstrate that neutrinos are their own antiparticles, which would make them the only Majorana particles in the Standard Model. It would also provide a potential explanation for the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe through the leptogenesis mechanism.

The experimental apparatus of NEXT consists of a time projection chamber filled with high-pressure gaseous xenon (HPXe-TPC), with the goal of observing the 0??? decay of the Xe-136 isotope. The collaboration is in the process of deploying NEXT-100, a detector filled with around 100 kg of Xenon, and is actively developing its ton-scale successor, NEXT-HD.
DIPC is one of the leading institutions of the collaboration and is looking for a PhD student to join the experiment at this crucial time. The student will directly work on the commissioning, calibration, and data analysis of the NEXT-100 detector and will contribute to the development of the optical barrel-fiber detector for the NEXT-HD experiment. The PhD program will be conducted in partnership between DIPC and UPV/EHU, under the co-supervision of Dr. S.R. Soleti and Dr. F. Monrabal.

Mobility between LSC and Donostia is expected during the program. The student will have the
opportunity to travel internationally to visit partner institutions and present their work at international conferences in the field.

The candidate should hold a Master’s Degree in Physics. A good level of written and spoken English is also required. Programming skills are a preferred qualification.

Benefits

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