The research performed by Stefano Zucchelli are both in
the contest of high energy physics. The first one is the study of
the proton antiproton collisions at high energy. The secon
one is a research of rare decays thast is to say
the search for the neutrinoless double beta decay.
First Research line-
In 1990 Stefano Zucchelli joined the CDF
collaboration, an experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider .
CDF is an international collaboration of many institutions, among
which the University of Bologna and the INFN section of
Bologna. Of great
importance was the discovery made by the experiment in 1994 of the
existence of the “top” quark and the precise measurement of its
mass and production cross section . The CDF detector was an
all-purpose apparatus allowing one to move in all the fields of
study of the hadronic
interactions.
The Bologna group gave its contribution in analyzing the large
amount of data collected at low four momentum
transfer (low Pt), the so called
Minimum Bias and Zero Bias
triggers,
undertaking starting on
2006 the full reponsability of the low Pt data reduction into
standard n-tuples.
The analysis of the Minimum Bias trigger gave an essential
contribution, in terms of calibration and control of the several
detectors of the CDF experimental apparatus. The specific studies carried out by the Bologna group on
Minimum Bias data have lead to important observations of invariance
behavior of the low Pt component ( soft interactions) of the hadronic multibodies
production, as function
of center of mass energy.
These results have been already published for the great part, but
some analysis is still under way, with a view of a next
publication.
Stefano Zucchelli actively participated to the Bologna group data
analysis, in particular the one centered on the systematic study of
the low Pt interactions. In addition the Bologna group, directly
coordinated by the undersigned, collaborated to the construction of
an electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeter of new design.
The instrument, that innovatively matched the use of wave length
shifter fibres with scintillator
tiles, was part of the CDF
upgrade (Plug and End Cap calorimeters). Finally the Bologna group
contributed to the planning and realization of the ISL
(Intermediate Silicon Layer), the detector's mechanic
support, modernization of the VTX of CDFII. As a whole the
detectors upgrade have lead to the renovation and substitution of
about two thirds of the CDF apparatus and have given birth to a
second phase of data collection, called run II, that finally ended
in 2011.
--Second Research Line
Since 2008 he is also member of the Cuore experiment. This
experiment, which will take place at the INFN Underground Gran
Sasso Laboratory, has the aim to measure or set limits on the
neutrino mass and to determine the nature, either Majorana or Dirac, of the
neutrino, by studying
the neutrinoless double beta decay. The detector will be a
cryogenic detector, a bolometer, made of tellurium oxide crystals.
The Bologna group, coordinated by the undersigned, has up to now
actively contributed to the construction of the detector. In
particular the group took care of the preparation at the Gran Sasso
laboratories of a storage room free of radon for the storage of
more than a thousand tellurium oxide crystals and to realize the
database for the management of the same crystals. For what concerns
the commissioning activities, the group is responsible for the
delicate movement of the cryogenic vessels of the Cuore cryostat.
It also contributes to the set up of the experiment's Slow Control
software.
