Laboratoire de physique subatomique et des technologies associées

Science festival

The 33rd Science Festival (Fête de la Science) took place on October 5 and 6 at the Planétarium de Nantes. This event brings scientists together with the general public. Its aim? To increase understanding and awareness of the world around us, by discovering science and its challenges from a different angle, through fun experiments.
Once again, Subatech's scientists and technicians were able to share their passion for science with curious visitors of all ages, introducing a new feature: the spherical detector, which joins the fog chamber, the lego nuclei map and radioactivity. This year's event was a resounding success, with over 1,300 participants over the weekend.

Laurine Puren - best oral presentation award at WTTC19

Laurine Puren was awarded the prize for best oral presentation at the 19th International Workshop on Targetry and Target Chemistry (WTTC19), held August 25-30, 2024 in Heidelberg, Germany.
The prize was awarded for her oral presentation entitled "Production Cross Section Measurements of the ^natNi(d,x)⁶¹Cu Reaction".
Laurine is a 1st year PhD student in the Prisma team at Subatech, working on the production of isotopes of medical interest. More specifically, she is measuring production cross sections using the "Stacked foils" technique. These effective reaction cross-sections are essential for determining the irradiation parameters needed to optimize production of the isotope of interest, while limiting production of contaminating isotopes.
Since the start of her thesis, Laurine has carried out effective cross-section measurements of the ^natNi(d,x)⁶¹Cu and ^natPd(α,x)¹¹¹Ag reactions at GIP Arronax. The interest in these isotopes is that ⁶¹Cu could be used for PET imaging (it's a β+ emitter) and ¹¹¹Ag could be used for therapy (β- emitter).

First measurement of a nuclear recoil signal from solar neutrinos with XENONnT

The XENONnT collaboration announced today the first measurement of low-energy nuclear recoils from solar neutrinos, at the IDM conference in L'Aquila. These recoils are caused by neutrinos produced by nuclear reactions in the Sun, particularly from Bore-8.
XENONnT uses a time-projection chamber containing 5.9 tonnes of liquid xenon to detect rare interactions. Installed at the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, it tracks dark matter with an ultra-low background. Detection of solar neutrinos via coherent elastic scattering on xenon nuclei (CEvNS) was carried out over a two-year period, with a total exposure of 3.5 ton-years. The results showed an excess of events consistent with a Bore-8 solar neutrino signal, with a statistical significance of 2.7 sigma, or a 0.35% probability that this signal was due to background noise.
This measurement is significant as it represents the first CEvNS observation with solar neutrinos and marks a new chapter in the direct detection of dark matter. XENONnT anticipates future discoveries as it continues to accumulate data. For more information, please visit https://xenonexperiment.org/

Informations about the Xenon team research at Subatech involved in the collaboration : http://www-subatech.in2p3.fr/fr/recherche/equipes/xenon/presentation

Solar neutrino experiments