The Experimental Neutrino Physics group at IFIC is one of the funding and leading groups of the NEXT international collaboration. We are deeply involved in the data analysis, the mechanics and electronics of the NEXT detectors.
Physics
We coordinate the Physics & Analysis group of the NEXT collaboration, leading the background and the double beta decay analyses. We are responsible for the physics exploitation of the NEXT-100 detector, planning the data taking in the different phases of the experiment.
Detector R&D
We develop R&D lines on high-pressure gas-Xenon TPCs towards future upgrades of the NEXT technology. These comprise low-diffusion gas mixtures and different solutions for tracking. The R&D lines are mostly conducted by the operation of the NEXT-DEMO++ detector, located in the clean room of the NEXT laboratory at IFIC.
Engineering
We are responsible for the gas systems of the NEXT detectors, as well as for the slow controls of the different subsystems. We are also in charge of the mechanics and electronics of the experiment, in collaboration with the NEXT groups at DIPC and UPV. We are also leading the construction, characterization and operation of the muon veto for the NEXT-100 detector.
Software & Computing
We are deeply involved in the development of Machine Learning techniques meant to discriminate between signal and background events in NEXT. We also develop tools for statistical analysis, focusing on the measurement of the backgrounds and the double beta decay searches. We are in charge of the data processing in NEXT-100, as well as of the data quality of the experiment. We also exploit the IFIC computing facilities in order to produce Monte Carlo simulations of the NEXT backgrounds.
