UM hosts researchers from CERN, INFN and IFIC at joint TWOCRYST/ALADDIN workshop

A joint TWOCRYST-ALADDIN workshop was held at the University of Malta Valletta Campus from 21 to 23 January 2026, gathering together several researchers from CERN, INFN, IFIC and several other institutes.

TWOCRYST is a proof-of-principle experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) designed to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel experimental concept: using two bent crystals in conjunction with a fixed target to investigate the fundamental properties of short-lived charm baryons—such as the Λc+—with particular focus on their electric and magnetic dipole moments (EDM/MDM).

Because charm baryons decay extremely rapidly - on the order of 10⁻¹³ seconds - traditional techniques employing magnetic fields are inadequate to induce measurable spin precession. The ALADDIN proposal explores an alternative strategy: it leverages the intense electromagnetic fields inside bent silicon crystals to steer Λc+ particles, producing a strong deflection that generates observable spin precession even within their ultra-short lifetimes.

To determine whether this concept can be scaled to a full experiment, TWOCRYST was developed as a dedicated proof-of-principle setup. The experiment is designed to validate the operational feasibility, crystal performance, and alignment strategies necessary for a double-crystal fixed-target experiment at the LHC. It provides a fully functional test stand, incorporating all essential components, to gather critical data and practical experience supporting the potential implementation of the ALADDIN experiment at the LHC.

The University of Malta is a member of the international TWOCRYST collaboration. Through the AICRYSCON project, funded through the Xjenza Malta Research Excellence Programme, the UM research team, consisting of Prof. Inġ. Gianluca Valentino and Dr Leander Grech, has contributed to the development of detector readout as well as crystal control software which was used in the LHC beam tests held throughout 2025, which successfully confirmed the feasibility of the double-crystal setup. The team has also developed a novel RL-based approach to ensure that the crystal remain continuously in channeling mode, which will be crucial for the eventual ALADDIN data-taking.

During the workshop, the results from the beam tests were reviewed, and several preparatory studies for the installation of the ALADDIN experiment in the LHC were presented. The University of Malta was also welcomed as a new member institute of the ALADDIN collaboration.

Contributions can be viewed online.

More information can be found online.