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Gamma-ray spectroscopy and dosimetry are complementary techniques used to locate and identify radioactive sources containing gamma-ray-emitting radioisotopes. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is extensively studied for various applications across multiple fields, including homeland security, environmental radioactivity monitoring, tackling illegal trade of radioiso-topes, and medical sciences. Introducing our newly established startup, Flying DEMon s.r.l., comprised of young researchers, academic professors, and backed by university support. Our venture aims to advance project development, leveraging the grant awarded through the E-TEC2 contest initiated by ENAC. The team will showcase their comprehensive work plan, highlighting the project’s competitiveness and self-sustaining potential. The objective of our startup is to harness cutting-edge technologies in the field of gamma spectroscopy and dosimetry, adaptable for deployment via Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). This innovation holds significant promise for environmental monitoring, facilitating tasks such as pinpointing widespread radioactive sources or identifying concealed and hard-to-reach nuclear waste. Additionally, this advancement holds potential for applications in military, security, and industrial oversight. Our research focus primarily revolves around real-time and rapid gamma-ray analysis in open-field environments. Our group not only supports the core project objectives but also enables its applicability in diverse and non-traditional sectors, such as Agritech.

Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consists of materials enriched with radioactive elements, found in the environment, with concentrations over the ambient natural radioactivity average, such as industrial wastes and extraction byproducts. We designed a camera for gamma-ray imaging and radionuclide identification based on the coded mask technique. The camera proposed is a compact, lightweight instrument, ideal for real-time analysis, with a low power consumption, suitable for industrial process and ambient monitoring. We built a prototype consisting in 16 CsI(Tl) scintillators coupled to photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) with a digital readout. We used a 7 × 7 mask composed by transparent and opaque tiles to encode radioactive gamma-rays sources image and use a reconstruction algorithm for decoding. The system was first tested using free gamma-ray radioactive sources placed at a fixed distance from the mask and than, the same sources, was placed inside an industrial nuclear waste drum to test shielding and detection limit. We will also show the results with a NORM igneous rock sample and we will try to identify the radioactive sources after a estimation of the count rate over the background, the test was carried out in lead chamber to shield the natural laboratory background. The performance of the prototype camera in terms of energy and spatial resolution with respect the detection time will be shown.

Current gamma-ray and cosmic-ray satellite experiments employ plastic scintillators to discriminate charged and neutral particles and to identify nuclei. Scintillators are commonly read out using the classical photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Recent measurements and R& D projects are demonstrating that Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are suitable for the detection of fast light signals with resolution up to the single photoelectron, with a lower power consumption. For these reasons, next generation missions are planning to replace PMTs with SiPMs. We tested a prototype plastic scintillator tile, equipped with a set of SiPMs and studied its response to a beam of electrons and pions at CERN. We used Near Ultraviolet (NUV) SiPMs of 1x1 mm2 and 4x4 mm2 area, placed along the edges of the tile. The tile was irradiated in different positions in order to study the dependence of the collected light on the impact point of the beam particles. We also varied the energy of the beam in order to study how this parameter affects the amount of collected light.

The Antarctic Demonstrator for the Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (ADAPT) is a suborbital mission designed to detect MeV to GeV gamma rays. The instrument consists of four layers of a scintillating fiber tracker plus an active converter tracker made of CsI scintillating crystals read out by wavelength shifting (WLS) fibers. Both scintillating and WLS fiber signals will be detected with Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM). Fast and low power front-end electronics are being developed based on the SMART ASIC for SiPM signal amplification before the successive digitization stage. The ADAPT project will serve as technology demonstrator for the larger Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (APT) mission, which will have a much larger area of 3×3 m 2 . The ADAPT instrument will feature a 30-day balloon flight, with the possibility of detecting prompt signals from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with degree-scale localization and polarization constraints. In this contribution, we will present the ADAPT project and its current status, with a particular focus on the frontend electronics development.

Gamma-ray spectroscopy and gamma-ray imaging are two complementary techniques used for the localization and the identification of radioactive sources containing gamma-ray emitting radioisotopes. The radioactivity monitoring is focused on the detection of both artificial and environmental radioactive sources like Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM). This kind of contamination becomes dangerous when the detection of the unwanted substances exhibits a concentration significantly above the environmental radioactive background radiation levels. For this purpose, we have developed, tested and shown a High Efficiency fast-Response GAmma (HERGA) detector useful for the identification of radionuclides and for gamma-ray imaging. A first version of the gamma detector prototype was composed of 16 CsI(Tl) scintillating crystals of 3x3x10 cm3 size, arranged in 4x4 matrix coupled with standard Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). An image reconstruction of a radioactive gamma emitter source is possible using the coded mask technique, in which a 7x7 mask, made of Plastic and Tungsten tiles, is placed in front of the detector and a pattern recognition algorithm based on classical statistical methods (Kolmogorov Smirnov) is used to reconstruct the source position. The measurements carried out showed a point spread function (PSF) of a few mrad for pointlike sources. The Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) was also determined in the case of pointlike radioactive sources. In this contribution we will present an update of the HERGA detector prototype in which Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are used in place of the PMTs. SiPMs provide similar or even better performance compared to the standard PMT sand provide benefits in terms of lower power consumption and reduced cost and compactness. The advantages of the SiPM technology are also characterized by the robustness of the photosensor that makes the new prototype compact, portable, ideal for in-situ and real-time. We will show a comparison between the results obtained with the newest SiPM read-out technology with respect to those obtained with the PMT one, in terms of energy and spatial resolution. The imaging performance is also in phase of testing in order to localize extended radioactive sources such as for example NORM samples or to detect inaccessible or hidden nuclear waste.

The γ -ray blazars B2 1811+31 and GB6 J1058+2817 exhibited strong flaring activity in 2020 and 2021, respectively. These high states were observed by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in the high-energy (HE; 100 MeV < E < 100 GeV) γ -ray band, triggering observations in the very-high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) γ -ray band with the MAGIC telescopes, in UV and X rays with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and in the radio and optical bands with many ground-based telescopes. MAGIC telescopes observations led to the first detection at VHE of both sources. In this contribution, we present the details of these detections and the results of an extensive study of the high-state properties of the two blazars. Fermi -LAT data were used to derive long-term γ -ray light-curves and identify the periods of enhanced activity in both sources. We investigated their spectral properties and temporal variability, with focus on how the strong spectral hardening and the variability timescale can provide information on the γ -ray emitting regions during the flare.

The Large Area Telescope (LAT), on-board the Fermi satellite, proved to be, after 8 years of data taking, an excellent instrument to detect and observe Supernova Remnants (SNRs) in a range of energies running from few hundred MeV up to few hundred GeV. It provides essential information on physical processes that occur at the source, involving both accelerated leptons and hadrons, in order to understand the mechanisms responsible for the primary Cosmic Ray (CR) acceleration. We show the latest results in the observation of Galactic SNRs by Fermi-LAT.

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are excellent devices to detect the faint and short Cherenkov light emitted in high energy atmospheric showers, and therefore suitable for use in imaging air Cherenkov Telescopes. The high density Near Ultraviolet Violet SiPMs (NUV-HD3) produced by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) in collaboration with INFN were used to equip optical modules for a possible upgrade of the Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope camera prototype, in the framework of the Cherenkov Telescope Array project. SiPMs are 6×6 mm 2 devices based on 40×40 μm 2 microcells optimized for photo-detection at the NUV wavelengths. More than 40 optical modules, each composed by a 4×4 array of SiPMs, were assembled. In this contribution we report on the development and on the assembly of the optical modules, their validation and integration in the camera.

The Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) is involved in the development of a prototype for a camera based on Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), a new generation of telescopes for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. In this framework, an R&D program within the ‘Progetto Premiale TElescopi CHErenkov made in Italy (TECHE.it)’ for the development of SiPMs suitable for Cherenkov light detection in the Near-Ultraviolet (NUV) has been carried out. The developed device is a NUV High-Density (NUV-HD) SiPM based on a micro cell of 30 μm × 30 μm and an area of 6 mm × 6 mm, produced by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK). A full characterization of the single NUV-HD SiPM will be presented. A matrix of 8 × 8 single NUV-HD SiPMs will be part of the focal plane of the Schwarzschild- Couder Telescope prototype (pSCT) for CTA. An update on recent tests on the detectors arranged in this matrix configuration and on the front-end electronics will be given.

The astrophysical community is currently focusing its efforts in the development of a new generation of gamma-ray telescopes to detect low-energy photons in the MeV-GeV energy range, operating both in the Compton and pair conversion regimes. The reconstruction of the incident photons energy and direction is not straightforward, as the range of secondary particles produced by photon interactions is usually short. We propose a detector consisting of a tracker system based on scintillating fibers and of a Compton-pair imaging calorimeter made of CsI(Na) crystals coupled to wavelength shifting (WLS) fibers read out by Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays. We have developed a dedicated simulation code to study the performance of this detector. The simulation takes into account the optical photon production and propagation inside the fibers and is used to optimize the fiber geometrical and optical properties and the design of the readout system.