The section was founded on the occasion of the foundation of the new department to bring together and coordinate all research activities in the field of astroparticle physics. The primary objectives are the verification of theories that predict the complete unification of the fundamental interactions between the constituents of matter in a single fundamental force and the search for new types of components of the matter and energy of the Universe, exploiting the natural laboratory offered by the Cosmos.

 

Astroparticle physics experiments study the radiation and particles of the cosmos with experiments that find a natural setting in surface, underground, underwater, high-altitude or space laboratories. The research lines present in the department are:

 

 

The current commitments and future programs are based on a long tradition of experimental activities conducted in the department, mainly in the context of research funded by the CSN2 of the INFN, and on the development of technologies common to the various scientific lines. These programs are perfectly in line with what was outlined in the final days of the INFN What Next meetings.

 

All the activities are carried out in full collaboration and synergy with the researchers of the INFN section of Naples belonging to commission 2 and with the contribution of researchers belonging to different sections and bodies. A large part of the research described in the attached activity sheets is in great expansion at national and international level and adequate support from the Department is desirable to allow the groups to remain competitive in a rapidly developing panorama.

 

The ongoing activities find a natural continuation in large international projects of great scope that will characterize the scientific activities of the next decade and beyond.

 

The very recent detection of gravitational waves will certainly give a boost to the panorama of ongoing activities that see the group strongly engaged in VIRGO with a natural evolution towards the activities in LISA with the application of interferometry techniques in space. Neutrino physics has large projects on the horizon such as DUNE and HyperKamiokande. Cosmic ray physics involves various groups with consolidated activities on the ground, in space and in the deep sea and is considering with great interest future initiatives in space in the post AMS panorama, including the HERD experiment on the Chinese space station. Finally, the search for dark matter is one of the cornerstones of the INFN investment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories and is well rooted in the local reality, which boasts the national responsibility of the DarkSide experiment.

 

Detailed sheets of Astroparticle Physics research activities

 

The section contributes lively to the scientific activities of the department: in the three-year period VQR 2011 – 2014, 242 works with 4145 citations were produced, over ten PhD theses and about twenty Master's theses were supervised.