My work on the flow and thermal analysis of the argon in the DarkSide-20k TPC is on the arXiv today: arXiv:2503.08468

Performing computational fluid dynamics simulations and heat transfer calculations, the paper assesses the prospects for argon purification and the reach of internal calibration sources within the massive underground argon volume of DS-20k. It also analyses the thermal conditions required for dual-phase operation and informs the optimal placement of liquid inlets and outlets in the TPC.

I’m so excited to finally share this with the community after nearly three years of on-and-off work on this topic!

We (a small group of scientists from various LAr experiments) have measured the longterm stability of a Poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate)-based wavelength-shifting reflector as a potential candidate to substitute TPB in large LAr detectors in a 2 tonne-cryostat at CERN. The preprint is on the arXiv today: arXiv:2411.17934 and will be published as proceedings of the LIDINE 2024 conference.

Our paper Benchmarking the design of the cryogenics system for the underground argon in DarkSide-20k is on the arXiv today: http://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14071. The paper discusses the current design status of the system in view of the DarkSide-20k requirements, shows the benchmarking and testing efforts of its integral system components in a dedicated testing platform at CERN and LNGS, outlines implications of the results for the final system design and provides an outlook to ongoing activities. I am very proud that I was part of the team who pushed this project through, leading the benchmarking at LNGS and the paper writing. Congratulations to the entire team involved and thanks to those colleagues who spent their time reviewing the manuscript internally or who were involved in the editorial process. EDIT 18.02.2025: Now published in JINST 20 P02016 (2025).

New paper on the arXiv! In arXiv:2303.13963 my former group at UZH presents first electron drift measurements in liquid xenon with a 53 cm purity monitor in Xenoscope, a vertical DARWIN demonstrator. We present drift speed and diffusion measurements from a several-months run at 25–75 V/cm drift field. The highest electron lifetime reached was (664±23) µs. It also contains a description and the commissioning performance of the liquid recovery system BoX which was part of my PhD work. In the next phase, the purity monitor will be replaced by a 2.6 m TPC, built to directly demonstrate a drift over the full DARWIN height.

Edit 21 August 2023: The article is now published: Eur. Phys. J. C 83 717 (2023).