The E2PN platform (standing for Experimental Education in Particles and Nuclei) is a platform dedicated to maintenance of the material, development of the activities and coordination of the teachings for experimental particle and nuclear physics of the Masters degree for the Sciences department (UFR) of the Paris-Saclay University.
Presentation
The platform merges several master degree teaching programs from 1st year of master (M1) : General Physics, Physique et Applications, Physique Fondamentale, Nuclear Energy, ENS , to second year (M2) : NPAC.This gathers about 300 students spread over the full academic year. These laboratory works are at the overlap of different department and specialties and all benefit from the unique environment and special materials available only at IJCLab namely in nuclear and particle physics (radioactive sources, scintillating detectors, acquisition chains devices, etc).
Thematics
Physics covered during lab work in the platform is very broad: from nuclear physics (β, γ spectroscopy), electronic cloud structure (conversion electrons), to particle physics (muon lifetime, positronium decay) and even cosmic rays studies.
Depending on the degree program, students, working in pair, are more or less guided toward the realisation of the experiment and the interpretation of the data. They have access to industry standard or custom made laboratory detection devices such as scintillating plastic, PN junctions, Photomultiplier tubes, etc. The acquisition chain can be modulated and the digitalization step moved before or after basic logic selections. On top of investigating fundamental properties of matter, this enables student to be trained on signal treatment chain and acquisition logic (threshold, amplification, trigger, coincidence, veto, delay, etc).
Organisation
The management of the platform like database resuming the material available or estimated time schedule can be found here : https://e2pn.ijclab.in2p3.fr
The teaching program takes place from September to May in the 100A corridor of the building 100, IJCLab, Orsay. Each teaching unit is managed by staff of the Université Paris-Saclay who are also collaborators of the laboratory (“enseignant-chercheur” status).
