Condensed Matter, Vol. 9, Pages 22: Optimization of a BEGe Detector Setup for Testing Quantum Foundations in the Underground LNGS Laboratory

Condensed Matter, Vol. 9, Pages 22: Optimization of a BEGe Detector Setup for Testing Quantum Foundations in the Underground LNGS Laboratory

Condensed Matter doi: 10.3390/condmat9020022

Authors: Kristian Piscicchia Alberto Clozza Diana Laura Sirghi Massimiliano Bazzi Nicola Bortolotti Mario Bragadireanu Michael Cargnelli Luca De Paolis Raffaele Del Grande Carlo Guaraldo Mihail Iliescu Matthias Laubenstein Simone Manti Johann Marton Marco Miliucci Fabrizio Napolitano Alessio Porcelli Alessandro Scordo Francesco Sgaramella Florin Sirghi Sandro Tomassini Oton Vazquez Doce Johann Zmeskal Catalina Curceanu

In this work, we report on tests performed with an experimental apparatus prototype based on a broad-energy germanium detector aimed at investigating topical, foundational issues in quantum mechanics: i.e., possible violations of the spin-statistics connection and models of dynamical wave function collapse. Our recent phenomenological analyses demonstrated the importance of pushing the research of new physics signal, predicted in these fields, to an energy range below 10 keV. We describe the development of the dedicated data acquisition system and of the pulse shape discrimination algorithm, which have already allowed us to get a factor two improvement in the lower energy threshold. Future plans are discussed to further improve the lower energy threshold to the level of a few keV.