The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is a model-independent measurement of the neutrino mass from the tritium $\beta$ decay spectrum, aiming for a sensitivity of $0.2 \frac{\mathrm{eV}}{\mathrm{c}^2}$ (90% C.L.). Electrons from the decay in the high-intensity windowless gaseous tritium source are analyzed in a high-resolution...
Many astrophysical observations indicate that the major part of matter in the universe is dark. The hypothetical Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP), predicted by many BSM theories, is one of the most promising candidates. Liquid Xenon (LXe)-filled dual-phase time projection chambers (TPC) as a dark matter detectors are well established and set the most stringent limits for...
The XENON Dark Matter Project uses a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) for a direct detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The current operating step, XENON1T, is the most sensitive direct detection dark matter experiment in the world.
Therefore, the TPC is build to detect low intensity light signals, generated either directly by the recoil produced by the...
The $\mbox{EXO-200}$ experiment searches for the neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay in $^{136}$Xe with an ultra-low background single-phase time projection chamber$~$(TPC) filled with 175$\,$kg isotopically enriched liquid xenon$~$(LXe). The detector has demonstrated good energy resolution and background rejection capabilities by simultaneously collecting scintillation light and...
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects Cherenkov photons emitted by charged particles passing through the antarctic ice. The properties of light propagation in and around the detector must be well understood, to be able to learn about the interacting particles and their origin. This talk gives an overview of how to use in-situ light sources to derive ice parameters by performing gradient...
The IceCube neutrino observatory is searching for point sources in the astrophysical neutrino flux. Relativistic muons created by muon-neutrinos offer a good angular resolution and are thus an ideal channel for the detection of points sources.
Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a class of artificial neural networks that capture the dynamics of sequential data by recurrently applying the...
An important open question in neutrino physics is the unitarity of the PMNS matrix. Currently, the uncertainties on several matrix elements are too large in order to draw significant conclusions on the unitarity. This is mostly due to the low experimental statistics in the tau neutrino sector.
KM3NeT-ORCA is a water Cherenkov detector under construction with several megatons of instrumented...
An important prerequisite for performing a joint analysis of data from different experiments is a search for ways to integrate these data. This process includes mapping, i.e. finding a correspondence of observables between each other, establishing similarities and differences, and normalization, i.e. shifting measurement scales to allow comparison of corresponding normalized values for...
PeVatrons are astrophysical sources which are supposed to accelerate charged
particles up to PeV energies. Studying PeVatrons would help us to understand acceleration processes of cosmic rays and fundamental physics of the compact sources. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) has a broad energy range from 30 GeV to 300 TeV, which arise the possibility to detect Pevatron candidates through pion...
The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina aims to survey properties of cosmic rays. The signal of the surface detector array is used to determine the energy of a cosmic ray. It is described by an NKG-type lateral distribution function. A global fit of the parameters on all data of the SD-array shall improve our empirical parameters.
In coming years, an upgrade of the surface array IceTop with scintillators is foreseen. An additional installation of radio antennas integrated into the scintillation detector system would significantly improve the task of cosmic ray physics at the South Pole. In particular, it would allow the search for PeV gammas coming from the center of our Galaxy.
A reasonable option for this array are...
In recent years the observation of ultra high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) with coherent radio emission has become increasingly active in astroparticle physics.
The detection of radio emission provides an independent measurement of the cosmic ray energy and mass. A precise reconstruction of these properties requires an accurate unfolding of the recorded signals.
In this talk a two-part approach...
Luminescence is the emission of photons from a medium via the deexitation of atomic orbitals following an external excitation. It can be characterized using the parameters: light yield, emission spectrum, and decay time.
It has been proposed that luminescence of water and ice can be used as a new detection channel by particle detectors that use water or ice as their target medium. These...
In 2005 the Cassini spacecraft discovered that Enceladus, one of Saturn‘s icy moons, not only exhibits liquid water under it‘s ice shell, but also is a geologically active body. Since then enceladus became one of the most interesting scientific targets in our solar system, especially for the search of extraterrestrial life.
Geysers at Enceladus‘ south pole region proves that a salty ocean...
Enceladus Explorer (EnEx) is a proposed DLR space probe to explore Saturn's moon Enceladus for signs of extraterrestrial life. Geyser eruptions at the south pole indicate the presence of a salt water ocean with hydrothermal vents below the moon’s ice shell, a possible home for extraterrestrial life. The envisioned EnEx probe would land at a safe distance to one of Enceladus' active geysers...
The multi-PMT Digital Optical Module is chosen to be the baseline concept for the future upgrade to the IceCube detector. It offers, amongst other properties, superior directional sensitivity and larger effective volume when compared to the current sensors. Due to tight energy budget restrictions in a multi-PMT design a power-efficient multi-level time-over-threshold (ToT) readout is the...
With the new instrumentation of the batch test facility at the University of Wuppertal for the characterization of photomultipliers for the SSD-Upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory we will measure the relevant quantities to ensure the required operation in the field. We will have the possibility to determine the homogeneity, dark current, linearity and pulse rise time of the first batch of...
The MAGIC telescopes on La Palma detect Cherenkov radiation induced by particle showers. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are currently used as photodetectors. In order to extend the duty cycle of such telescopes and improve their general robustness the use of silicon based photodetectors (SiPMs) is tested.
As part of achieving a better understanding of operation of SiPMs in Imaging Atmospheric...
Following the success of the IceCube detector, an upgrade is planned for the upcoming years. To get a sufficiently large volume for this upgrade, the optical modules must be separated by larger distances. Due to the optical properties of ice, light signals are expected to deteriorate faster than acoustic signals. Hence, the importance of developing an acoustic device which could be integrated...
Since the detection of high-energy cosmic neutrinos at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in 2013, there has been an on-going search to find suitable transient or variable source candidates. Previous analyses testing core-collapse supernovae, GRBs and time-integrated blazar emission have lead to constraints disfavouring these sources as dominant contributors to the observed neutrino flux....
