Seminar

Seminar

Updates from the fourth release of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-4) and latest results from the search for an Isotropic Gravitational-Wave Background from the first part of LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA’s fourth Observing Run (O4a), A. ROMERO-RODRIGUEZ (LAPP) – January 23rd 2026 @2pm

GWTC-4 adds 128 new compact binary detections (total: 218), with some SNR > 30. The O4a GWB search sets 1.7×–2.1× tighter limits on energy density and polarizations. A+ sensitivity may detect the CBC background.

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Seminar

Detecting the undetectable: technologies and challenges in rare-event searches, C. Girard-Carillo (LPSC) – November 28th 2025 @2pm

The talk explores the hunt for neutrino properties and dark matter—both requiring detection of ultra-rare events buried in background noise. It highlights strategies, background reduction, and advanced detectors like scintillators and cryogenic bolometers, focusing on the upcoming TESSERACT experiment at Modane (first data: 2028).

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Seminar

Polarised weak-bosons pairs at the LHC: a view on the electroweak sector from every angle, G. PELLICCIOLI (Uni Milano-Bicocca) – September 19th 2025 @2pm

Probing the polarisation of W and Z bosons helps explain how electroweak symmetry is broken and tests the Standard Model (SM) and new physics. A new method calculates polarised cross-sections with high precision, including QCD and electroweak corrections. Recent results cover SM predictions for ZZ and WZ production, and beyond-SM studies in the SMEFT framework. These advances improve LHC data analysis and the search for new physics.

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Seminar

R2D2: a high pressure xenon TPC for neutrinoless double beta decay search, F. PICQUEMAL (LP2I – Bordeaux) – July 11th 2025 @2pm

The R2D2 collaboration is developing a radial time projection chamber with a fiducial mass of half a tonne of 136Xe at high pressure. This experiment aims to detect neutrinoless double beta decay, which would confirm neutrinos as Majorana particles. The goal is to achieve a tonne-scale, zero-background experiment. Simulations suggest it could set a half-life limit exceeding 10^27 years and constrain neutrino mass, potentially excluding the inverted mass hierarchy region.

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