Silicon carbide (SiC) is a compound semiconductor, which is considered as a possible alternative to silicon for particles and photons detection. Its characteristics make it very promising for the next generation of nuclear and particle physics experiments at high beam luminosity. Silicon Carbide detectors for Intense Luminosity Investigations and Applications (SiCILIA) is a project starting as a collaboration between the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and IMM-CNR, aiming at the realization of innovative detection systems based on SiC. In this paper, we discuss the main features of silicon carbide as a material and its potential application in the field of particles and photons detectors, the project structure and the strategies used for the prototype realization, and the first results concerning prototype production and their performance.

Results of fission fragment mass-energy distributions of the compound ${}^{226}\mathrm{Th}$ nucleus formed in the sub-barrier fusion reaction ${}^{18}\mathrm{O}{+}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ at an energy of ${}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ ions $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=78\mathrm{}$ MeV are reported. The reaction has been studied twice using two different accelerators, and both sets of experimental data agree quite well. Performed analysis of the experimental data with the use of a new multicomponent method has shown that alongside the well-known modes, i.e., the symmetric (S) and two asymmetric modes standard-one and standard-two, a high-energy mode standard-three has manifested itself. The last named mode appears due to the influence of the close-to-sphere neutron shell with $N\approx 50$ in the light fission fragment group. Theoretical calculations of the prescission shapes of the fissioning nuclei ${}^{224,226}\mathrm{Th}$ confirm this conclusion.

Double charge exchange (DCE) reactions could provide experimentally driven information about nuclear matrix elements of interest in the context of neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay. To achieve this goal, a detailed description of the reaction mechanism is mandatory. This requires the full characterization of the initial and final-state interactions, which are poorly known for many of the projectile-target systems involved in future DCE studies. Among these, we intend to study the ${}^{20}$Ne + ${}^{130}$Te and ${}^{18}$O + ${}^{116}$Sn systems at 15.3 AMeV, which are particularly relevant due to their connection with the ${}^{130}$Te${\to }^{130}$Xe and ${}^{116}$Cd${\to }^{116}$Sn double-$\beta$ decays. We measure the elastic and inelastic scattering cross-section angular distributions and compare them with theoretical calculations performed in the optical model, one-step distorted wave Born approximation, and coupled-channel approaches using the São Paulo double-folding optical potential. A good description of the experimental data in the whole explored range of transferred momenta is obtained provided that couplings with the 2${}_1^{+}$ states of the projectile and target are explicitly included within the coupled-channel approach. These results are relevant also in the analysis of other quasi-elastic reaction channels in these systems, in which the same couplings should be included.

Neutrinos are so far the most elusive known particles, and in the last decades many sophisticated experiments have been set up in order to clarify several questions about their intrinsic nature, in particular their masses, mass hierarchy, intrinsic nature of Majorana or Dirac particles. Evidence of the Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (NDBD) would prove that neutrinos are Majorana particles, thus improving the understanding of the universe itself. Besides the search for several large underground experiments for the direct experimental detection of NDBD, the NUMEN experiment proposes the investigation of a nuclear mechanism strongly linked to this decay: the Double Charge Exchange reactions (DCE). As such reactions share with the NDBD the same initial and final nuclear states, they could shed light on the determination of the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs), which play a relevant role in the decay. The physics of DCE is described elsewhere in this issue, while the focus of this paper will be on the challenging experimental apparatus currently under construction in order to fulfil the requirements of the NUMEN experiment. The overall structure of the technological improvement to the cyclotron, along with the newly developed detection systems required for tracking and identifying the reaction products and their final excitation level are described.

The search for neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay is currently a key topic in physics, due to its possible wide implications for nuclear physics, particle physics, and cosmology. The NUMEN project aims to provide experimental information on the nuclear matrix elements (NMEs) that are involved in the expression of 0νββ decay half-life by measuring the cross section of nuclear double-charge exchange (DCE) reactions. NUMEN has already demonstrated the feasibility of measuring these tiny cross sections for some nuclei of interest for the 0νββ using the superconducting cyclotron (CS) and the MAGNEX spectrometer at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS.) Catania, Italy. However, since the DCE cross sections are very small and need to be measured with high sensitivity, the systematic exploration of all nuclei of interest requires major upgrade of the facility. R&D for technological tools has been completed. The realization of new radiation-tolerant detectors capable of sustaining high rates while preserving the requested resolution and sensitivity is underway, as well as the upgrade of the CS to deliver beams of higher intensity. Strategies to carry out DCE cross-section measurements with high-intensity beams were developed in order to achieve the challenging sensitivity requested to provide experimental constraints to 0νββ NMEs.