Abstract: Haloscopes are resonant cavities that serve as detectors of dark matter axions when they are immersed in a strong static magnetic field. In order to increase the volume and improve space compatibility with dipole or solenoid magnets for axion searches, various haloscope design techniques for rectangular geometries are discussed in this study. The volume limits of two types of haloscopes are explored: those based on single cavities and those based on multicavities. In both cases, possibilities for increasing the volume of long and/or tall structures are presented. For multicavities, 1D geometries are explored to optimise the space in the magnets. Also, 2D and 3D geometries are introduced as a first step in laying the foundations for the development of these kinds of topologies. The results prove the usefulness of the developed methods, evidencing the ample room for improvement in rectangular haloscope designs nowadays. A factor of three orders of magnitude improvement in volume compared with a single cavity based on the WR-90 standard waveguide is obtained with the design of a long and tall single cavity. Similar procedures have been applied for long and tall multicavities. Experimental measurements are shown for prototypes based on tall multicavities and 2D structures, demonstrating the feasibility of using these types of geometries to increase the volume of real haloscopes.

Abstract: Charged particle therapy, or so-called hadrontherapy, is developing very rapidly. There is large pressure on the scientific community to deliver dedicated accelerators, providing the best possible treatment modalities at the lowest cost. In this context, the Italian research Foundation TERA is developing fast-cycling accelerators, dubbed 'cyclinacs'. These are a combination of a cyclotron (accelerating ions to a fixed initial energy) followed by a high gradient linac boosting the ions energy up to the maximum needed for medical therapy. The linac is powered by many independently controlled klystrons to vary the beam energy from one pulse to the next. This accelerator is best suited to treat moving organs with a 4D multipainting spot scanning technique. A dual proton/carbon ion cyclinac is here presented. It consists of an Electron Beam Ion Source, a superconducting isochronous cyclotron and a high-gradient linac. All these machines are pulsed at high repetition rate (100-400 Hz). The source should deliver both C6+ and H-2(+) ions in short pulses (1.5 μs flat-top) and with sufficient intensity (at least 10(8) fully stripped carbon ions per pulse at 300 Hz). The cyclotron accelerates the ions to 120 MeV/u. It features a compact design (with superconducting coils) and a low power consumption. The linac has a novel C-band high-gradient structure and accelerates the ions to variable energies up to 400 MeV/u. High RF frequencies lead to power consumptions which are much lower than the ones of synchrotrons for the same ion extraction energy. This work is part of a collaboration with the CLIC group, which is working at CERN on high-gradient electron-positron colliders.

Abstract: Axion like particles (ALPs) and right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) are two well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates. However, these two particles have a completely different origin. Axion was proposed to solve the strong CP problem, whereas RHNs were introduced to explain light neutrino masses through seesaw mechanisms. We study the case of ALP portal RHN DM (Majorana DM) taking into account existing constraints on ALPs. We consider the leading effective operators mediating interactions between the ALP and Standard Model (SM) particles and three RHNs to generate light neutrino masses through type-I seesaw. Further, ALP-RHN neutrino coupling is introduced to generalize the model which is restricted by the relic density and indirect detection constraint.

Abstract: The objective of this work is the evaluation of the risk of suffering a multipactor discharge in an S-band dielectric-assist accelerating (DAA) structure for a compact low-energy linear particle accelerator dedicated to hadrontherapy treatments. A DAA structure consists of ultra-low loss dielectric cylinders and disks with irises which are periodically arranged in a metallic enclosure, with the advantage of having an extremely high quality factor and very high shunt impedance at room temperature, and it is therefore proposed as a potential alternative to conventional disk-loaded copper structures. However, it has been observed that these structures suffer from multipactor discharges. In fact, multipactor is one of the main problems of these devices, as it limits the maximum accelerating gradient. Because of this, the analysis of multipactor risk in the early design steps of DAA cavities is crucial to ensure the correct performance of the device after fabrication. In this paper, we present a comprehensive and detailed study of multipactor in our DAA design through numerical simulations performed with an in-house developed code based on the Monte-Carlo method. The phenomenology of the multipactor (resonant electron trajectories, electron flight time between impacts, etc.) is described in detail for different values of the accelerating gradient. It has been found that in these structures an ultra-fast non-resonant multipactor appears, which is different from the types of multipactor theoretically studied in the scientific literature. In addition, the effect of several low electron emission coatings on the multipactor threshold is investigated. Furthermore, a novel design based on the modification of the DAA cell geometry for multipactor mitigation is introduced, which shows a significant increase in the accelerating gradient handling capabilities of our prototype.

Abstract: We revisit the generation of a matter-antimatter asymmetry in the minimal extension of the Standard Model with two singlet heavy neutral leptons (HNL) that can explain neutrino masses. We derive an accurate analytical approximation to the solution of the complete linearized set of kinetic equations, which exposes the non-trivial parameter dependencies in the form of parameterization-independent CP invariants. The identification of various washout regimes relevant in different regions of parameter space sheds light on the relevance of the mass corrections in the interaction rates and clarifies the correlations of baryogenesis with other observables. In particular, by requiring that the measured baryon asymmetry is reproduced, we derive robust upper or lower bounds on the HNL mixings depending on their masses, and constraints on their flavour structure, as well as on the CP-violating phases of the PMNS mixing matrix, and the amplitude of neutrinoless double-beta decay. We also find certain correlations between low and high scale CP phases. Especially emphasizing the testable part of the parameter space we demonstrate that our findings are in very good agreement with numerical results. The methods developed in this work can help in exploring more complex scenarios.