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Abstract The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare—Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is one of the largest underground physics laboratory, a very peculiar environment suited for experiments in Astroparticle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Fundamental Symmetries. The newly established Bellotti Ion Beam facility represents a major advance in the possibilities of studying nuclear processes in an underground environment. A workshop was organized at LNGS in the framework of the Nuclear Physics Mid Term Plan in Italy, an initiative of the Nuclear Physics Division of the Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare to discuss the opportunities that will be possible to study in the near future by employing state-of-the-art detection systems. In this report, a detailed discussion of the outcome of the workshop is presented. 

Abstract DarkSide-20k is a novel liquid argon dark matter detector currently under construction at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) that will push the sensitivity for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) detection into the neutrino fog. The core of the apparatus is a dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC), filled with 50 tonnes of low radioactivity underground argon (UAr) acting as the WIMP target. NUV-HD-cryo Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM)s designed by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) (Trento, Italy) were selected as the photon sensors covering two$$10.5~\text {m}^2$$ $10.5{\text{m}}^2$Optical Planes, one at each end of the TPC, and a total of$$5~\text {m}^2$$ $5{\text{m}}^2$photosensitive surface for the liquid argon veto detectors. This paper describes the Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) plan and procedures accompanying the production of FBK NUV-HD-cryo SiPM wafers manufactured by LFoundry s.r.l. (Avezzano, AQ, Italy). SiPM characteristics are measured at 77 K at the wafer level with a custom-designed probe station. As of March 2025, 1314 of the 1400 production wafers (94% of the total) for DarkSide-20k were tested. The wafer yield is$$93.2\pm 2.5$$ $93.2\pm 2.5$%, which exceeds the 80% specification defined in the original DarkSide-20k production plan. 

DarkSide-20k (DS-20k) is a dark matter detection experiment under construction at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. It utilises ∼ 100 t of low radioactivity argon from an underground source (UAr) in its inner detector, with half serving as target in a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC). The UAr cryogenics system must maintain stable thermodynamic conditions throughout the experiment's lifetime of over 10 years. Continuous removal of impurities and radon from the UAr is essential for maximising signal yield and mitigating background. We are developing an efficient and powerful cryogenics system with a gas purification loop with a target circulation rate of 1000 slpm. Central to its design is a condenser operated with liquid nitrogen which is paired with a gas heat exchanger cascade, delivering a combined cooling power of more than 8 kW. Here we present the design choices in view of the DS-20k requirements, in particular the condenser's working principle and the cooling control, and we show test results obtained with a dedicated benchmarking platform at CERN and LNGS. We find that the thermal efficiency of the recirculation loop, defined in terms of nitrogen consumption per argon flow rate, is 95 % and the pressure in the test cryostat can be maintained within ±(0.1–0.2) mbar. We further detail a 5-day cool-down procedure of the test cryostat, maintaining a cooling rate typically within -2 K/h, as required for the DS-20k inner detector. Additionally, we assess the circuit's flow resistance, and the heat transfer capabilities of two heat exchanger geometries for argon phase change, used to provide gas for recirculation. We conclude by discussing how our findings influence the finalisation of the system design, including necessary modifications to meet requirements and ongoing testing activities. 

The dual-phase liquid argon time projection chamber is presently one of the leading technologies to search for dark matter particles with masses below 10 GeV c−2. This was demonstrated by the DarkSide-50 experiment with approximately 50 kg of low-radioactivity liquid argon as target material. The next generation experiment DarkSide-20k, currently under construction, will use 1,000 times more argon and is expected to start operation in 2027. Based on the DarkSide-50 experience, here we assess the DarkSide-20k sensitivity to models predicting light dark matter particles, including Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) and sub-GeV c−2 particles interacting with electrons in argon atoms. With one year of data, a sensitivity improvement to dark matter interaction cross-sections by at least one order of magnitude with respect to DarkSide-50 is expected for all these models. A sensitivity to WIMP–nucleon interaction cross-sections below 1 × 10−42 cm2 is achievable for WIMP masses above 800 MeV c−2. With 10 years exposure, the neutrino fog can be reached for WIMP masses around 5 GeV c−2. 

The first measurements of proton emission accompanied by neutron emission in the electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) of ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$nuclei in the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider are presented. The EMD protons and neutrons emitted at very forward rapidities are detected by the proton and neutron zero degree calorimeters of the ALICE experiment. The emission cross sections of zero, one, two, and three protons accompanied by at least one neutron were measured in ultraperipheral ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}\text{−}{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$. The 0p and 3p cross sections are described by the RELDIS model within their measurement uncertainties, while the 1p and 2p cross sections are underestimated by the model by 17–25%. According to this model, these 0p, 1p, 2p, and 3p cross sections are associated, respectively, with the production of various isotopes of Pb, Tl, Hg, and Au in the EMD of ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$. The cross sections of the emission of a single proton accompanied by the emission of one, two, or three neutrons in EMD were also measured. The data are significantly overestimated by the RELDIS model, which predicts that the (1p,1n), (1p,2n), and (1p,3n) cross sections are very similar to the cross sections for the production of the thallium isotopes ${}^{206,205,204}\mathrm{Tl}$. ©2025 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2025CERN 

Abstract The ALICE Collaboration at the CERN LHC has measured the inclusive production cross section of isolated photons at midrapidity as a function of the photon transverse momentum ($$p_{\textrm{T}}^{\gamma }$$ $p_{\text{T}}^{\gamma }$), in Pb–Pb collisions in different centrality intervals, and in pp collisions, at centre-of-momentum energy per nucleon pair of$$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}~=~5.02$$ $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV. The photon transverse momentum range is between 10–14 and 40–140 GeV/$$c$$ $c$, depending on the collision system and on the Pb–Pb centrality class. The result extends to lower$$p_{\textrm{T}}^{\gamma }$$ $p_{\text{T}}^{\gamma }$than previously published results by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the same collision energy. The covered pseudorapidity range is$$|\eta ^{\gamma } | <0.67$$ $|{\eta }^{\gamma }|<0.67$. The isolation selection is based on a charged particle isolation momentum threshold$$p_{\textrm{T}}^\mathrm{iso,~ch} = 1.5$$ $p_{\text{T}}^{\mathrm{iso},\mathrm{ch}}=1.5$ GeV/$$c$$ $c$within a cone of radii$$R=0.2$$ $R=0.2$and 0.4. The nuclear modification factor is calculated and found to be consistent with unity in all centrality classes, and also consistent with the HG-PYTHIA model, which describes the event selection and geometry biases that affect the centrality determination in peripheral Pb–Pb collisions. The measurement is compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and to the measurements of isolated photons and Z$$^{0}$$ $_{}^0$bosons from the CMS experiment, which are all found to be in agreement. 

Abstract ALICE is a large experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Located 52 meters underground, its detectors are suitable to measure muons produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this paper, the studies of the cosmic muons registered by ALICE during Run 2 (2015–2018) are described.The analysis is limited to multimuon events defined as events with more than four detected muons (N_μ> 4) and in the zenith angle range 0° < θ < 50°. The results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations using three of the main hadronic interaction models describing the air shower development in the atmosphere: QGSJET-II-04, EPOS-LHC, and SIBYLL 2.3d.The interval of the primary cosmic-ray energy involved in the measuredmuon multiplicity distribution is about4 × 10¹⁵<E_prim< 6 × 10¹⁶eV.In this interval none of the three models is able to describe precisely the trend of the composition of cosmic rays as the energy increases. However,QGSJET-II-04 is found to be the only model capable of reproducing reasonably well the muon multiplicity distribution, assuming a heavy composition of the primary cosmic raysover the whole energy range, while SIBYLL 2.3d and EPOS-LHC underpredict thenumber of muons in a large interval of multiplicity by more than 20% and 30%, respectively.The rate of high muon multiplicity events (N_μ> 100) obtainedwith QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d is compatible with the data, while EPOS-LHC produces a significantly lower rate (55% of the measured rate). For both QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d, the rate is close to the data when the composition is assumed to be dominated by heavy elements, an outcome compatible with the average energy E_prim∼ 10¹⁷eV of these events.This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.