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The suppression of spurious events in the region of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay will play a major role in next generation experiments. The background of detectors based on the technology of cryogenic calorimeters is expected to be dominated by \\[\\alpha \\] particles, that could be disentangled from double beta decay signals by exploiting the difference in the emission of the scintillation light. CUPID-0, an array of enriched Zn\\[^{82}\\]Se scintillating calorimeters, is the first large mass demonstrator of this technology. The detector started data-taking in 2017 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso with the aim of proving that dual read-out of light and heat allows for an efficient suppression of the \\[\\alpha \\] background. In this paper we describe the software tools we developed for the analysis of scintillating calorimeters and we demonstrate that this technology allows to reach an unprecedented background for cryogenic calorimeters.

The Monument experiment measures ordinary muon capture (OMC) on isotopes relevant for neutrinoless double-beta ( [Formula omitted]) decay and nuclear astrophysics. OMC is a particularly attractive tool for improving the theoretical description of [Formula omitted] decay. It involves similar momentum transfers and allows testing the virtual transitions involved in [Formula omitted] decay against experimental data. During the 2021 campaign, Monument studied OMC on [Formula omitted]Se and [Formula omitted]Ba, the isotopes relevant for next-generation [Formula omitted] decay searches, like Legend and nEXO. The experimental setup has been designed to accurately extract the total and partial muon capture rates, which requires precise reconstruction of energies and time-dependent intensities of the OMC-related [Formula omitted] rays. The setup also includes a veto counter system to allow selecting a clean sample of OMC events. This work provides a detailed description of the Monument setup operated during the 2021 campaign, its two DAQ systems, calibration and analysis approaches, and summarises the achieved detector performance. Future improvements are also discussed.

The Crab (Calibrated nuclear Recoils for Accurate Bolometry) project aims to precisely characterize the response of cryogenic detectors to sub-keV nuclear recoils of direct interest for coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and dark matter search experiments. The Crab method relies on the radiative capture of thermal neutrons in the target detector, resulting in a nuclear recoil with a well-defined energy. We present a new experimental setup installed at the TRIGA Mark-II reactor at Atominstitut (Vienna), providing a low intensity beam of thermal neutrons sent to the target cryogenic detector mounted inside a wet dilution refrigerator Kelvinox 100. After the presentation of all components of the setup we report the analysis of first commissioning data with CaWO 4 detectors of the Nucleus experiment. They show stable operation of the cryostat and detectors on a week-scale. Due to an energy resolution currently limited to 20 eV we use neutron beam induced events at high energy, in the 10 to 100 keV range, to demonstrate the excellent agreement between the data and simulation and the accurate understanding of external background. Thanks to these data we also propose an updated decay scheme of the low-lying excited states of 187 W. Finally, we present the first evidence of neutron-capture induced coincidences between BaF 2 γ -detectors installed around the dewar and the inner cryogenic detector. These promising results pave the way for an extensive physics program with various detector materials, like CaWO 4 , Al 2 O 3 , Ge and Si.

Water deficit is one of the main abiotic stresses that affect wheat production worldwide. Plants exhibit phenotypic variations to mitigate the negative effects of water stress on grain yield. The objective of the work was to evaluate whether wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plants showed transgenerational inheritance of environmental adaptation when exposed to water deficit around flowering (i.e. the critical phenological stage for the definition of grain yield). During the first experimental year, plants from three genotypes PIF: commercial cultivar; TR1 and TR4: transgenic genotypes derived from PIF containing the transcription unit PSARK::IPT (associated with the cytokinin-induced enhanced drought tolerance) were cultivated under well-watered (WWm) or water deficit from Z3.2 to Z6.9 + 5 days (WDm). Offspring of this first year were then grown under well-watered (WWo) or water deficit from Z3.2 to Z6.9 + 5 days (WDo) during the next two years, following a crop arrangement. Plants from seeds exposed to WDm tended to have a poor grain yield for both water regimes of the progeny (i.e. WWo and WDo) in both years. The number of grains per unit area was the numerical component that best explained grain yield (r2 = 0.98; p < 0.05), due to variations in the number of grains per ear. Grain weight was a highly conservative trait. Aboveground biomass and harvest index reduced in response to WDo compared to WWo and followed similar responses to grain yield. In conclusion, a restrictive maternal water environment worsened yield response in the following generation, independent of the water condition to which the offspring were exposed, due to reductions in the number of grains per spike, in total aboveground biomass at maturity, and in its partitioning to the grain.

NUCLEUS is a cryogenic detection experiment which aims to measure Coherent Elastic Neutrino–Nucleus Scattering (CE ν νNS) and to search for new physics at the Chooz nuclear power plant in France. This article reports on the prediction of particle-induced backgrounds, especially focusing on the sub-keV energy range, which is a poorly known region where most of the CE ν νNS signal from reactor antineutrinos is expected. Together with measurements of the environmental background radiations at the experimental site, extensive Monte Carlo simulations based on the Geant4 package were run both to optimize the experimental setup for background reduction and to estimate the residual rates arising from different contributions such as cosmic ray-induced radiations, environmental gammas and material radioactivity. The NUCLEUS experimental setup is predicted to achieve a total rejection power of more than two orders of magnitude, leaving a residual background component which is strongly dominated by cosmic ray-induced neutrons. In the CE ν νNS signal region of interest between 10 and 100 eV, a total particle background rate of ∼ ∼ 250 d−1 kg−1 keV−1 is expected in the CaWO4 target detectors. This corresponds to a signal-to-background ratio ≳ ≳ 1, and therefore meets the required specifications in terms of particle background rejection for the detection of reactor antineutrinos through CE ν νNS.

NUCLEUS is a cryogenic detection experiment which aims to measure Coherent Elastic Neutrino–Nucleus Scattering (CE ν NS) and to search for new physics at the Chooz nuclear power plant in France. This article reports on the prediction of particle-induced backgrounds, especially focusing on the sub-keV energy range, which is a poorly known region where most of the CE ν NS signal from reactor antineutrinos is expected. Together with measurements of the environmental background radiations at the experimental site, extensive Monte Carlo simulations based on the Geant4 package were run both to optimize the experimental setup for background reduction and to estimate the residual rates arising from different contributions such as cosmic ray-induced radiations, environmental gammas and material radioactivity. The NUCLEUS experimental setup is predicted to achieve a total rejection power of more than two orders of magnitude, leaving a residual background component which is strongly dominated by cosmic ray-induced neutrons. In the CE ν NS signal region of interest between 10 and 100 eV, a total particle background rate of ∼  250 d −1  kg −1  keV −1 is expected in the CaWO 4 target detectors. This corresponds to a signal-to-background ratio ≳ 1, and therefore meets the required specifications in terms of particle background rejection for the detection of reactor antineutrinos through CE ν NS.

The CUPID-0 experiment searches for double beta decay using cryogenic calorimeters with double (heat and light) read-out. The detector, consisting of 24 ZnSe crystals 95\\[\\%\\] enriched in \\[^{82}\\]Se and two natural ZnSe crystals, started data-taking in 2017 at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. We present the search for the neutrino-less double beta decay of \\[^{82}\\]Se into the 0\\[_1^+\\], 2\\[_1^+\\] and 2\\[_2^+\\] excited states of \\[^{82}\\]Kr with an exposure of 5.74 kg\\[\\cdot \\]yr (2.24\\[\\times \\]10\\[^{25}\\] emitters\\[\\cdot \\]yr). We found no evidence of the decays and set the most stringent limits on the widths of these processes: \\[\\varGamma \\](\\[^{82}\\]Se \\[\\rightarrow ^{82}\\]Kr\\[_{0_1^+}\\])8.55\\[\\times \\]10\\[^{-24}\\] yr\\[^{-1}\\], \\[\\varGamma \\] (\\[^{82}\\] Se \\[\\rightarrow ^{82}\\] Kr \\[_{2_1^+}\\])\\[\\,{<}\\,6.25 \\,{\\times }\\,10^{-24}\\] yr\\[^{-1}\\], \\[\\varGamma \\](\\[^{82}\\]Se \\[\\rightarrow ^{82}\\]Kr\\[_{2_2^+}\\])8.25\\[\\times \\]10\\[^{-24}\\] yr\\[^{-1}\\] (90\\[\\%\\] credible interval).

Somatic embryogenesis in scutella of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a well documented phenomenon and it has been shown through transcriptome analysis that genes involved in antioxidant responses, particularly in glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis, participate in the process. Thus, we investigated the influence of post-transcriptional silencing (PTGS) of the glutathione biosynthesis genes GSH1 and GSH2 on somatic embryogenesis in wheat. We found that PTGS of either of the target genes drastically inhibits callus regeneration and overall efficiency of transformation, in a similar manner as the GSH biosynthetic inhibitor buthionine sulfoximine. Supplementing the medium with glutathione did not overcome the observed low efficiency of wheat transformation. Furthermore, of the small number of obtained transformants, none exhibited altered GSH1 and GSH2 levels of transcription. Thus, it is concluded that GSH is essential for somatic embryogenesis and, as a consequence, it is difficult to regenerate wheat plants with silenced GSH1 and GSH2 genes.

The M onument experiment measures ordinary muon capture (OMC) on isotopes relevant for neutrinoless double-beta ( 0 ν β β ) decay and nuclear astrophysics. OMC is a particularly attractive tool for improving the theoretical description of 0 ν β β decay. It involves similar momentum transfers and allows testing the virtual transitions involved in 0 ν β β decay against experimental data. During the 2021 campaign, M onument studied OMC on 76 Se and 136 Ba, the isotopes relevant for next-generation 0 ν β β decay searches, like L egend and n EXO . The experimental setup has been designed to accurately extract the total and partial muon capture rates, which requires precise reconstruction of energies and time-dependent intensities of the OMC-related γ rays. The setup also includes a veto counter system to allow selecting a clean sample of OMC events. This work provides a detailed description of the M onument setup operated during the 2021 campaign, its two DAQ systems, calibration and analysis approaches, and summarises the achieved detector performance. Future improvements are also discussed.

The M onument experiment measures ordinary muon capture (OMC) on isotopes relevant for neutrinoless double-beta ($$0\\nu \\beta \\beta $$0 ν β β ) decay and nuclear astrophysics. OMC is a particularly attractive tool for improving the theoretical description of$$0\\nu \\beta \\beta $$0 ν β β decay. It involves similar momentum transfers and allows testing the virtual transitions involved in$$0\\nu \\beta \\beta $$0 ν β β decay against experimental data. During the 2021 campaign, M onument studied OMC on$$^{76}$$76 Se and$$^{136}$$136 Ba, the isotopes relevant for next-generation$$0\\nu \\beta \\beta $$0 ν β β decay searches, like L egend and n EXO . The experimental setup has been designed to accurately extract the total and partial muon capture rates, which requires precise reconstruction of energies and time-dependent intensities of the OMC-related$$\\gamma $$γ rays. The setup also includes a veto counter system to allow selecting a clean sample of OMC events. This work provides a detailed description of the M onument setup operated during the 2021 campaign, its two DAQ systems, calibration and analysis approaches, and summarises the achieved detector performance. Future improvements are also discussed.