International Journal of Modern Physics A

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a tonne-scale cryogenic experiment located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso that exploits bolometric technique to search for neutrinoless double beta decay $(0\nu \beta \beta )$ of ${}^{130}$Te. The detector consists of a segmented array of 988 natural ${\mathrm{\text{TeO}}}_2$ cubic crystals arranged in a cylindrical compact structure of 19 towers. The detector construction was completed in August 2016 and data taking started in Spring 2017. In this work, we present a brief description of the bolometric technique for rare events search and the CUORE detector, then we concentrate on the data analysis results. In this respect, we focus on the procedure for data processing and on the first $0\nu \beta \beta$ results we obtained from a total ${\mathrm{\text{TeO}}}_2$ exposure of $86.3\mathrm{\text{kg}}\cdot \mathrm{\text{yr}}$. Next, we illustrate the main background sources and the CUORE background model, from which we obtain the most precise measurement of ${}^{130}$Te $2\nu \beta \beta$ half-life to date. Finally, we discuss the improvements achieved with 2018 and 2019 detector optimization campaigns and the current perspectives of our experiment.

The NA48/2 experiment at CERN reports the first observation of the $K^{\pm }\to {\pi }^{\pm }{\pi }^0{e}^{+}{e}^{-}$ decay from an exposure of $1.7\times 10^{11}$ charged kaon decays recorded in 2003–2004. A sample of 4919 candidates with 4.9% background contamination allows the determination of the branching ratio in the full kinematic region. The study of the kinematic space shows evidence for a structure-dependent contribution in agreement with predictions based on chiral perturbation theory. Several $P$- and $CP$-violating asymmetries are also evaluated. The most precise measurement of the charged kaon semi-leptonic form factors obtained by NA48/2 with 4.4 million $K_{e3}$ and 2.3 million $K_{\mu 3}$ events collected in 2004 will also be presented.

The first DAMA/LIBRA–phase2 model-independent results (exposure: $1.13\mathrm{\text{ton}}\times \mathrm{\text{yr}}$, and software energy threshold at 1 keV). They further confirm — with high confidence level — the evidence already observed by DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA–phase1 on the basis of the exploited model-independent dark matter (DM) annual modulation signature. The total exposure of the three experiments above the 2 keV software energy threshold is $2.46\mathrm{\text{ton}}\times \mathrm{\text{yr}}$. Here, several DM candidate particles and related scenarios are analyzed including the latest results. Thanks to the increased exposure and to the lower software energy threshold, corollary model-dependent analyses permit to significantly restrict the allowed regions for the parameters spaces of various dark matter candidates and astrophysical, particle and nuclear physics scenarios.

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a high-performance space particle detector launched in orbit in 2015 by a collaboration of Chinese, Italian and Swiss scientific institutions, coordinated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It consists of a high-resolution segmented BGO electromagnetic calorimeter with a depth of 32 radiation lengths, a silicon-tungsten tracker-converter with an angular resolution below $0.2^{\circ }$, an anti-coincidence shield and ion detector, and a neutron detector. The detector characteristics and performance, and the latest observations of cosmic electrons up to 5 TeV, protons and nuclei up to 100 TeV and gamma-rays up to 10 TeV are presented.

The framework of nonrelativistic effective field theory (NREFT) aims to generalize the standard analysis of direct detection experiments in terms of spin-dependent (SD) and spin-independent (SI) interactions. Here we performed EFT analysis and obtained sensitivity curves for liquid argon detectors to scattering of dark matter (DM) particles in case of different interaction models. DM velocity distribution and experimental dependencies are also described.

The cosmological history of the universe in the $R+R^2$ gravity is studied starting from the “very beginning” up to the present time. The primordial inflationary expansion of the universe is considered and it is shown that the gravitational particle production by the oscillating curvature, $R(t)$, led to a consistent transition to the Friedmann cosmology, but the cosmological evolution in the early universe strongly differed from the standard one. It is shown that the effects of gravitational production of particles had a significant influence on the evolution of the universe.

Gravitational equations of motion in modified theories of gravity have oscillating solutions, both in the early and in the present day universe. Particle production by such oscillations is analyzed and possible observational consequences are considered. This phenomenon has impact on energy spectrum of cosmic rays and abundance of dark matter particles.

Among particle theory candidates for the dark matter constituents. Axions and WIMPs are the most popular. In this paper, we discuss these then focus on our preferred astrophysical candidate, the Primordial Intermediate Mass Black Holes in the acronym DM=PIMBHs. The earliest experimental confirmation may come from microlensing of the Magellanic Clouds at the LSST 8 m telescope in the mid-2020s, or possibly a few years earlier in 2021 from work being pursued, using DECam data from the smaller Blanco 4 m telescope, at LLNL.

We point out the peculiar form of the gravitational wave signal expected from a gas of particles carry spin-3/2 produced during preheating. Given the very few ways that gravitinos can manifest themselves in an experimentally observable way, we stress the importance of improving the sensitivity of ultrahigh frequency detectors in the future. This review is based on work that appeared in Ref. 1.