An abundance of evidence from a wide range of astrophysical and cosmological observations suggests the existence of nonluminous cold dark matter, which makes up about 83% of the matter and 27% of the mass-energy of the Universe. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) have been one of the most promising dark matter candidates. Various detection techniques have been used to directly search for the interaction in terrestrial detectors where WIMP particles are expected to scatter off target nuclei. Over the last fifteen years, dual-phase time projection chambers (TPCs) with liquid xenon (LXe) as target and detection medium have led the WIMP dark matter search. The XENON dark matter search project is a phased program focused on the direct detection of WIMPs through a series of experiments employing dual-phase xenon TPCs with increasing target mass operated at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) in Italy. The XENON1T experiment is the most recent generation, completed at the end of 2018. The XENON1T dark matter search results from the one ton-year exposure have set the most stringent limit on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent elastic scatter cross-section over a wide range of masses, with a minimum upper limit of 4.1 x 10⁻⁴⁷ cm² at 30 GeV · c⁻² and a 90% confidence level. XENON1T is the first WIMP dark matter experiment which has deployed a dual-phase xenon TPC at the multi-ton scale, with 3.2 t of LXe used. The large xenon mass posed new challenges in reliable and stable xenon cooling, in achieving and maintaining ultra-high purity as well as in efficient and safe xenon storage, transfer and recovery. The Cryogenic Infrastructure was designed and constructed to solve these challenges. It consists of four highly interconnected systems --- the Cryogenic System, the Purification System, the Cryostat and Cryogenic Pipe, and the ReStoX System. The XENON1T Cryogenic Infrastructure has performed successfully and will continue to serve the next generation experiment, called XENONnT, with a new Cryostat containing a total of 8.4 tons of xenon. I first give an instrument overview of the systems in XENON1T. I then review the cooling methods in LXe detectors which led to the design of the cooling system implemented in the XENON1T experiment, and suggest a design of the cooling system for future LXe dark matter experiments at the 50 tons scale. I describe and discuss in detail the design and the performance of the XENON1T Cryogenic Infrastructure. Finally, I describe the detector stability and the corresponding data selection in all three XENON1T science runs, and describe the dark matter search results from the one ton-year exposure.

The evidence supporting the presence of Dark Matter in the universe ranges over many length scales: from the rotational curves within galaxies that cannot be explained only by the dust and other visible component to the anisotropies in the cosmological microwave background that sets the most precise quantification for the DM content in the universe at 26.8% of the energy density. One of the candidates for DM with the most theoretical support is a family of particles that appear in extensions of the Standard Model of Particles. These new particles, known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), provide a natural solution to the missing mass in the universe that interact only via weak interaction and whose origin dates back from the very early universe. The XENON Dark Matter search experiments aim to the direct detection of WIMPs via scattering off xenon nuclei. Following the success of the first prototype, XENON10, the XENON100 detector has been, up to late 2013, the most sensitive DM detector setting an upper bound limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section of 2. × 10 −45 cm 2 and the spin-dependent equivalent of 3.5 × 10 −44 cm 2 . The detector consists of a dual-phase xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with an inner target of 62 kg, located at the un- derground facility at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. XENON100 is still in operation, currently testing new calibration sources of potential use for the next generation XENON1T experiment, under commissioning in Hall B of LNGS, aims to im- prove the XENON100 sensitivity by two orders of magnitude by increasing the xenon target mass in the detector to the tonne scale and by reducing the intrinsic background rate and consequently, increase the expected number of WIMP events per year. The scale-up of a liquid xenon TPC imposes many technical challenges that needed to be addressed prior to the realization of the XENON1T phase of the project. The focus of my thesis work has been the research and development of Dark Matter detectors operated with a xenon mass at the tonne scale. In particular, the topic of purification of a large amount of Xe gas to reduce the concentration of electronegative impurities to levels below afew parts per billion in a reasonable amount of time has been a driver in my work with the XENON1T Demonstrator facility at the Columbia Nevis laboratories. Two complementary approaches were followed in order to address this problem: i) a study of the performance of XENON100 concerning the electron lifetime (eLT) among other parameters that depend on the purity and ii) the construction of a full-size Xe TPC prototype to test multiple technologies with the goal of an optimized XENON1T TPC, with several tonnes of Xe. In addition to my work on the XENON1T Demonstrator, I have also contributed to the operation and analysis of data from XENON100. In particular, I developed a cut based on the information theory concept of entropy to reduce the electronic noise in the data. A detailed description of the motivation and implementation of the entropy cut is presented in Chapter 3. The experience gained from the successful performance of XENON100 and the information from variety of measurements with the XENON1T Demonstrator have influenced the design of XENON1T and will impact other next-generation Dark Matter detectors using LXe in a TPC. More specifically, the design of the XENON1T cryogenic system which is at the heart of the experiment, has been guided by this experience. The testing of the system was performed at Nevis where the various components were assembled and leak checked before being shipped to LNGS. The XENON1T detector’s cryostat and its cryogenics system, designed by the Columbia University XENON group were installed underground in the Hall B of the LNGS laboratory in Summer/Fall 2014. Their commissioning represent a major milestone in the realization of XENON1T. The last chapter of the thesis summarizes the status of XENON1T, with particular focus on the design of the cryogenic, purification and cryostat system influenced by the R & D with the Demonstrator.

This thesis develops novel analytic models of scalar-tensor theories with quadratic coupling. In this framework, the coupling strength between scalar and matter is regulated in a way that allows the vacuum expectation value to vanish for low matter densities while becoming non-vanishingly large in the high-density regime. This results in significant deviations from the predictions of General Relativity in the strong-gravity regime. In astrophysics, we addressed the core-collapse supernova problem to account for the apparently missing energy required to explain the observed powerful explosions. We assumed a small, massless scalar gravitational field, thus allowing General Relativity to be recovered in the weak-gravity asymptotic limit. The non-trivial effects coming from the coupling function in the presence of a high-density field were analyzed at the instant of neutron star formation. Our results show that the scalar gravitational field evolves from a cosmological value to a new equilibrium via a Higgs-like mechanism. Additionally, the calculations associated with the gravitational binding energy shift and relevant relaxation timescale are explicitly shown. The full theory space of the model was also investigated for positive values of the coupling parameter. We studied a mechanism to address the stalled shock issue in core-collapse scenarios, which involved the application of sufficiently large positive values to the coupling parameter. Our results show that pulsating neutron stars act like optical cavities in which resonant scalar waves are parametrically amplified. It implies that the surface of a neutron star acts like an anti-phase reflector, releasing traveling scalar gravitational waves similar to an optical laser. In cosmology, the same framework was applied to a generic Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe involving general metric coupling and scalar potential functions. In cosmology, the same framework was applied to a generic Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe involving general metric coupling and scalar potential functions. We developed a mechanism which allowed the scalar field to be dynamically trapped, thus generating a potential capable of driving primordial inflation. Our results show that a trapped scalar field produces non-trivial dynamical consequences when applied to standard cosmology. Additionally, our analytic solutions for the generic inflationary behaviour, produce acceptable duration and e-foldings, thus recovering the Hubble parameter which is consistent with the present-day value. A feature of our cosmological model is that the universe can undergo several accelerating or decelerating phases, even though the scalar potential and metric coupling are monotonic functions overall. As this is important for the current dark energy problem, the quasi-static motion of the gravitational field induced by the scalar potential in the early universe, is investigated for a small value of the scalar field with normalized metric at the present time. Our results show that a variable Lambda Cold Dark Matter universe emerges naturally from the quadratic model.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-79). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Physics and Astronomy." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1992. / Summary in Dutch. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-163).

Orientador: Patricio Anibal Letelier Sotomayor / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Matematica, Estatistica e Computação Cientifica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T21:55:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vieira_RonaldoSavioliSume_M.pdf: 1240816 bytes, checksum: e8e9b8fff63d6b5f41f1556f2c3e8e57 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Neste trabalho fazemos um estudo de métricas lorentzianas e da teoria de conexões lineares em variedades diferenciáveis, focando em variedades de Weyl com métricas lorentzianas e conexões de Weyl. Também analisamos algumas teorias físicas baseadas nessa geometria, estendendo a essas teorias o modelo de Kuzmin para um disco fino de matéria. A partir desse estudo e do limite newtoniano das teorias, investigamos se esses resultados suprem a necessidade da presença de matéria escura em galáxias espirais para explicar as curvas de rotação observadas / Abstract: In this work we study Lorentzian metrics and the theory of linear connections on smooth manifolds, focusing on Weyl manifolds with lorentzian metrics and Weyl connections. We also analyze some physical theories based on this geometry, extending to these theories the Kuzmin model for a thin disk of matter. From this study and from the newtonian limit of the theories, we examine if these results supply the necessity of the presence of dark matter in spiral galaxies to explain the observed rotation curves / Mestrado / Geometria Diferencial/Gravitação / Mestre em Matemática

Orientador: Pedro Cunha de Holanda / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T10:44:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Boriero_DanielFrancisco_M.pdf: 4969339 bytes, checksum: 948e129914cf07a208b25eb26a168a96 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Necessário na maioria das teorias para atribuir massa aos neutrinos e explicar o fenômeno de oscilação de sabores, o neutrino de mão direita, estéril em SU(2)L U(1)Y, é um candidato natural a matéria escura não bariônica. Cosmologicamente produzido via oscilação não ressonante de quiralidade do neutrino de mão esquerda e situado na categoria "Warm" de matéria escura, está atualmente desfavorecido como candidato a formar a totalidade da matéria escura. Apresentamos um cenário subdominante, no qual o neutrino estéril formaria apenas uma fração fs do total da matéria escura. Através da análise do sinal negativo do decaimento radiativo em raios-x difusos e ausência de supressão em estruturas de Lyman-a aplicadas na previsão de abundância gerada pelo modelo de massa n MSM, obtemos o limite de fs £ 0,65(2 s) em modelo cosmológico composto L (Ws +C)DM. Com esse resultado mostramos que o neutrino estéril ainda é um candidato viável para uma componente relativística da matéria escura, possível solução para o excesso de potência em pequena escala do modelo puramente "Cold". / Abstract: Needed in the most theories to confer mass to neutrinos and explain avour oscillations, the right-handed neutrino, sterile in SU(2)L U(1) Y , is a natural non-baryonic dark matter candidate. Cosmologicaly produced by non-resonant oscillattion with left-handed neutrinos and situated in the Warm regime, it's currently disfavored as composing the total dark matter. We present subdominant scenario where the sterile neutrino would compose only a fraction fs of the total dark matter, to constrain the model are utilized negative signals from diffuse X-Ray background and suppression from Lyman- a large scale structure applied to nMSM sterile neutrino theoretical production. We found the limit fs £ 0.65 (2 s) for a composed cosmological model L (Ws + C)DM. This result shows that the sterile neutrino is still a viable candidate for a relativistic component of dark matter and a possible solution to solve the excess power problem of the standard LCDM model in small scales. / Mestrado / Fisica das Particulas Elementares e Campos ; Cosmologia / Mestre em Física

Orientador: Pedro Cunha de Holanda / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T06:10:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Motta_MarieleKatherineFaria_D.pdf: 1550492 bytes, checksum: f768e755d887ba2e47b72fc56b22c14f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Gostaríamos de explorar as consequências da ausência de conhecimento prévio sobre o modelo correto para energia escura que permita interpretar as observações cosmológicas. A magnitude das distorções no espaço de redshift e da lente gravitacional fraca é determinada pela métrica na quais galáxias e luzes se propagam. Mostramos que, com observações precisas o suficiente, é possível utilizar estes dados para reconstruir a métrica no nosso cone de luz passado e portanto, o stress-anisotrópico e os potenciais gravitacionais podem ser medidos independentemente de modelo. Exploramos a degenerescência escura, ou o fato de que matéria e energia escura são indistinguíveis pois afetam o setor visível apenas através dos potenciais gravitacionais que produzem. Esta degenerescência permanece a menos que se suponha um modelo para energia escura: o bias entre galáxias e perturbações de matéria escura não pode ser determinado; e apenas quando o princípio da equivalência é assegurado, pode-se identificar a velocidade da matéria escura com a das galáxias. Mesmo com estas limitações, é possível construir testes para classes de modelos de energia escura que se baseiam em medidas em diferentes escalas e redshifts e não dependem de parametrizações ou condições iniciais. Demonstramos como se pode descartar a classe mais geral de modelos escalares-tensoriais sem precisar supor a validade do regime quasi-estático. Finalmente, discutimos como a degenerência escura se manifesta em uma análise dependente de modelo / Abstract: We would like to explore the consequences of having no prior knowledge about the correct model for dark energy that would allow us to interpret observations. The magnitude of redshift-space distortions and weak gravitational lensing is determined by the metric on which galaxies and light propagate. With precise enough observations it is then possible to use this data to reconstruct the metric on our past lightcone, therefore anisotropic stress and gravitational potentials can be measured in a model-independent way. We explore the dark degeneracy, or the fact that dark matter and dark energy are indistinguishable, for they affect the visible sector only through the gravitational potential they produce. This degeneracy remains unless a dark energy model is provided: the bias between dark matter and galaxies cannot be determined; and only when the Equivalence Principle is valid, one can identify the velocities of dark matter with that of the galaxies. In spite of these limitations, it is possible to construct tests for classes of dark energy models that are based on measurements at different scales and redshifts and do not depend on parametrizations or initial conditions. We demonstrate how one can rule out the most general class of scalar-tensor models without having to assume quasi-staticity. Finally, we discuss how the dark degeneracy manifests itself in a model-dependent analysis / Doutorado / Física / Doutora em Ciências