EDUCATION:

"Laurea” 1977, University of Naples, Italy
Ph.D. 1982, University of Geneva, Switzerland

RESEARCH:

I am an experimental physicist. My current research is focused on understanding the nature of particle Dark Matter through a direct detection experiment. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are leading candidates, also predicted by extensions of the standard model of particle physics, such as Supersymmetry. If WIMPs constitute a major component of the Dark Matter in our own galactic halo, one promising way to detect them in the laboratory is through the nuclear recoils produced as they scatter off common matter. Cryogenic noble liquids, such as Xenon and Argon, whose properties I have been studying for years, offer excellent  prospects for dark matter detectors with large mass and effective background rejection capabilities. Since 2002 I am leading the XENON experiment, designed to observe WIMPs-nucleon scattering in liquid xenon with unprecedented sensitivity.  Using 3-D position sensitive time projection chambers  of increasing target mass and reduced background, the XENON project has quickly made it to the forefront of direct detection experiments worldwide. The XENON10 and the XENON100 (http://xenon.astro.columbia.edu/XENON100_Experiment/) detectors, operated underground at the Italian Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS),  have demonstrated the best sensitivity for WIMPs detection in recent years.

In 2011 XENON100 has placed the most stringent limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section, and continues to accrue data towards its goal of 2x10^-45 cm² . The next phase of the XENON program is a detector at the ton scale - XENON1T – currently in advanced design phase and projected to start science data taking at LNGS by 2015. Capable of probing a cross-section of ~2x10^-47 cm²  within 2 years of operation, XENON1T will be sensitive to a particularly favorable region of electroweak physics on a timescale compatible with complementary ground and satellite based indirect searches and with accelerator dark matter searches at the LHC.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

E. Aprile, C. E. Dahl, L. DeViveiros, R. Gaitskell, K. L. Giboni, J. Kwong, P. Majewski, K. Ni, T. Shutt, M. Yamashita
“Simultaneous Measurement of Ionization and Scintillation from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Xenon as Target for a Dark Matter Experiment,'' Phys. Rev. Lett, 97, 081302 (2006).

E. Aprile, P. Cushman, K. Ni, P. Shagin
“Detection of Liquid Xenon Scintillation Light with a Silicon Photomultiplier,”
Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 556 (2006) 215.

E. Aprile, K. L. Giboni, P. Majewski, K. Ni, M. Yamashita, R. Hasty, A.Manzur, D. N. McKinsey
“Response of Liquid Xenon to Low Energy Nuclear Recoils,'' Phys. Rev. D, 72, 072006 (2005).

K. Ni, E. Aprile, D. Day, K.L. Giboni, J.A.M. Lopes, P. Majewski, M. Yamashita
“Performance of a Large Area Avalanche Photodiode in a Liquid Xenon Ionization and Scintillation Chamber,'' Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A, 551 (2005) 356.

K.-L. Giboni, E. Aprile, P.Majewski, K. Ni, M. Yamashita
“Fast Timing Measurements of Gamma-Ray Events in Liquid Xenon”
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Volume 52, Issue 5 (2005) 1800.

S. E. Boggs, et al.
“The Advanced Compton Telescope Mission,”
NASA Vision Mission Concept Study Report, (2006),astro-ph/0608532; New Astronomy Reviews, 50 (2006) 604.

E. Aprile, A.E. Bolotnikov, A.I. Bolozdynya, & T. Doke
Noble Gas Detectors, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. ISBN: 3-527-40597-6 (2006)

E. Aprile, J. Angle, F. Arneodo, L. Baudis, A. Bernstein, A. Bolozdynya, P. Brusov, L. C. C. Coelho, C. E. Dahl, L. DeViveiros, A. D. Ferella, L. M. P. Fernandes, S. Fiorucci, R. J. Gaitskell, K. L. Giboni, R. Gomez,10 R. Hasty, L. Kastens, J. Kwong, J. A. M. Lopes, N. Madden, A. Manalaysay, A. Manzur, D. N. McKinsey, M. E. Monzani, K. Ni, U. Oberlack, J. Orboeck, G. Plante, R. Santorelli, J. M. F. dos Santos, P. Shagin,T. Shutt, P. Sorensen, S. Schulte, C. Winant, and M. Yamashita

"First Results from the XENON10 Dark Matter Experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory"  Physical Review Letter 100, 021303 (2008)