Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site

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The Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site (ANDES) is a project for the construction and operation of an underground laboratory in the Agua Negra Tunnel, between Argentina and Chile. [1] Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are involved in this project and are also expected to integrate the whole international scientific community. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Possible scientific research areas

Neutrino physics: For the study of geoneutrinos, underground laboratories in the absence of close by nuclear power plants are necessary. [5] Detailed studies of the nature and mass of the neutrinos help in our understanding of Nature (geoneutrinos are related to the thermal equilibrium of the Earth). [6]

Dark Matter: Experiments in this field greatly benefit from being in very deep underground laboratories. [7] It involves usually huge detection mass, very low detection thresholds, and excellent control of the detector backgrounds. Furthermore, an indirect way to detect dark matter is to find a modulation caused by the movement of the Earth in the halo of dark matter. [8] A laboratory located in the southern hemisphere could unambiguously discriminate between atmospheric-induced backgrounds and dark matter signals.

Geoscience: The zone of the Agua Negra Pass one of the world's most seismically active regions. [9] This is ideal to place highly sensitive seismographs, able to record seismic frequencies from around 1 Hz, of local earthquakes, to very ultra-long periods of more than 100 sec of the earth normal modes vibrations excited by a large earthquake. For these measurements, low background noise is required and can be achieved at an underground laboratory.

Biology: Experiments in a deep underground laboratory could investigate the possible contribution of cosmic radiation to the basal DNA damage, as it free from this kind of radiation. [10] This damages can develop pathologies like cancer. [11]

Low radioactivity measurements: the new generation of detectors used in the dark matter and neutrino underground experiments require the ability to measure extremely low radiation levels. These measurements are also useful in multiple areas like ecology, glaciology, microelectronics and in the selection of pure materials with almost no radioactive content. Nuclear astrophysics can also be researched with dedicated equipment. [12]

International support

The ANDES deep underground project has support from different institutions and scientists, both in Latin America [13] and worldwide. [14] The governments of Argentina and Chile have expressed their support for the development of the project. [15] [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

In astronomy, dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that appears to not interact with light or the electromagnetic field. Dark matter is implied by gravitational effects which cannot be explained by general relativity unless more matter is present than can be seen, which include: formation and evolution of galaxies, gravitational lensing, observable universe's current structure, mass position in galactic collisions, motion of galaxies within galaxy clusters, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neutrino</span> Elementary particle with extremely low mass

A neutrino is a fermion that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small (-ino) that it was long thought to be zero. The rest mass of the neutrino is much smaller than that of the other known elementary particles. The weak force has a very short range, the gravitational interaction is extremely weak due to the very small mass of the neutrino, and neutrinos do not participate in the electromagnetic interaction or the strong interaction. Thus, neutrinos typically pass through normal matter unimpeded and undetected.

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are hypothetical particles that are one of the proposed candidates for dark matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector</span> Neutrino oscillation experiment in Japan

The Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) is an electron antineutrino detector at the Kamioka Observatory, an underground neutrino detection facility in Hida, Gifu, Japan. The device is situated in a drift mine shaft in the old KamiokaNDE cavity in the Japanese Alps. The site is surrounded by 53 Japanese commercial nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors produce electron antineutrinos () during the decay of radioactive fission products in the nuclear fuel. Like the intensity of light from a light bulb or a distant star, the isotropically-emitted flux decreases at 1/R2 per increasing distance R from the reactor. The device is sensitive up to an estimated 25% of antineutrinos from nuclear reactors that exceed the threshold energy of 1.8 megaelectronvolts (MeV) and thus produces a signal in the detector.

The XENON dark matter research project, operated at the Italian Gran Sasso National Laboratory, is a deep underground detector facility featuring increasingly ambitious experiments aiming to detect hypothetical dark matter particles. The experiments aim to detect particles in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by looking for rare nuclear recoil interactions in a liquid xenon target chamber. The current detector consists of a dual phase time projection chamber (TPC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neutrino detector</span> Physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos

A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground, to isolate the detector from cosmic rays and other background radiation. The field of neutrino astronomy is still very much in its infancy – the only confirmed extraterrestrial sources as of 2018 are the Sun and the supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. Another likely source is the blazar TXS 0506+056 about 3.7 billion light years away. Neutrino observatories will "give astronomers fresh eyes with which to study the universe".

Inverse beta decay, commonly abbreviated to IBD, is a nuclear reaction involving an electron antineutrino scattering off a proton, creating a positron and a neutron. This process is commonly used in the detection of electron antineutrinos in neutrino detectors, such as the first detection of antineutrinos in the Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment, or in neutrino experiments such as KamLAND and Borexino. It is an essential process to experiments involving low-energy neutrinos such as those studying neutrino oscillation, reactor neutrinos, sterile neutrinos, and geoneutrinos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANTARES (telescope)</span>

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso</span> Physics laboratory in Assergi, Italy

Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the largest underground research center in the world. Situated below Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, it is well known for particle physics research by the INFN. In addition to a surface portion of the laboratory, there are extensive underground facilities beneath the mountain. The nearest towns are L'Aquila and Teramo. The facility is located about 120 km from Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SNOLAB</span> Canadian neutrino laboratory

SNOLAB is a Canadian underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in Vale's Creighton nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities constructed for the original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SNO+</span>

SNO+ is a physics experiment designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, with secondary measurements of proton–electron–proton (pep) solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos from radioactive decays in the Earth, and reactor neutrinos. It is under construction using the underground equipment already installed for the former Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment at SNOLAB. It could also observe supernovae neutrinos if a supernova occurs in our galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Large Underground Xenon experiment</span>

The Large Underground Xenon experiment (LUX) aimed to directly detect weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter interactions with ordinary matter on Earth. Despite the wealth of (gravitational) evidence supporting the existence of non-baryonic dark matter in the Universe, dark matter particles in our galaxy have never been directly detected in an experiment. LUX utilized a 370 kg liquid xenon detection mass in a time-projection chamber (TPC) to identify individual particle interactions, searching for faint dark matter interactions with unprecedented sensitivity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borexino</span> Neutrino physics experiment in Italy

Borexino is a deep underground particle physics experiment to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos. The detector is the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter and is protected by 3,800 meters of water-equivalent depth. The scintillator is pseudocumene and PPO which is held in place by a thin nylon sphere. It is placed within a stainless steel sphere which holds the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) used as signal detectors and is shielded by a water tank to protect it against external radiation. Outward pointing PMT's look for any outward facing light flashes to tag incoming cosmic muons that manage to penetrate the overburden of the mountain above. Neutrino energy can be determined through the number of photoelectrons measured in the PMT's. While the position can be determined by extrapolating the difference in arrival times of photons at PMT's throughout the chamber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EDELWEISS</span>

EDELWEISS is a dark matter search experiment located at the Modane Underground Laboratory in France. The experiment uses cryogenic detectors, measuring both the phonon and ionization signals produced by particle interactions in germanium crystals. This technique allows nuclear recoils events to be distinguished from electron recoil events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canfranc Underground Laboratory</span>

The Canfranc Underground Laboratory is an underground scientific facility located in the former railway tunnel of Somport under Monte Tobazo (Pyrenees) in Canfranc. The laboratory, 780 m deep and protected from cosmic radiation, is mainly devoted to study rarely occurring natural phenomena such as the interactions of neutrinos of cosmic origin or dark matter with atomic nuclei.

ICARUS is a physics experiment aimed at studying neutrinos. It was located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) where it started operations in 2010. After completion of its operations there, it was refurbished at CERN for re-use at Fermilab, in the same neutrino beam as the MiniBooNE, MicroBooNE and Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND) experiments. The ICARUS detector was then taken apart for transport and reassembled at Fermilab, where data collection is expected to begin in fall 2021.

A geoneutrino is a neutrino or antineutrino emitted in decay of radionuclide naturally occurring in the Earth. Neutrinos, the lightest of the known subatomic particles, lack measurable electromagnetic properties and interact only via the weak nuclear force when ignoring gravity. Matter is virtually transparent to neutrinos and consequently they travel, unimpeded, at near light speed through the Earth from their point of emission. Collectively, geoneutrinos carry integrated information about the abundances of their radioactive sources inside the Earth. A major objective of the emerging field of neutrino geophysics involves extracting geologically useful information from geoneutrino measurements. Analysts from the Borexino collaboration have been able to get to 53 events of neutrinos originating from the interior of the Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China Jinping Underground Laboratory</span>

The China Jinping Underground Laboratory is a deep underground laboratory in the Jinping Mountains of Sichuan, China. The cosmic ray rate in the laboratory is under 0.2 muons/m2/day, placing the lab at a depth of 6720 m.w.e. and making it the best-shielded underground laboratory in the world. The actual depth of the laboratory is 2,400 m (7,900 ft), yet there is horizontal access so equipment may be brought in by truck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agua Negra Pass</span> Pass which connects Argentina and Chile

The Agua Negra Pass is a pass over the Andes mountains which connects Argentina and Chile. The highest point of this pass is at 4,780 m (15,680 ft) AMSL.

The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) is a laboratory 1 km deep in the Stawell Gold Mine, located in Stawell, Shire of Northern Grampians, Victoria, Australia. Together with the planned Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site (ANDES) at the Agua Negra Pass, it is one of just two underground particle physics laboratories in the Southern Hemisphere and shall conduct research into dark matter.

References

  1. ↑ Dib, Claudio O. (2015). "ANDES: An Underground Laboratory in South America". Physics Procedia. 61: 534–541. Bibcode:2015PhPro..61..534D. doi: 10.1016/j.phpro.2014.12.118 .
  2. ↑ Shivni, Rashmi. "1,000 meters below". symmetry magazine.
  3. ↑ "ANDES | ITeDA". www.iteda.cnea.gov.ar.
  4. ↑ Bertou, X. (September 20, 2012). "The ANDES underground laboratory". The European Physical Journal Plus. 127 (9): 104. Bibcode:2012EPJP..127..104B. doi:10.1140/epjp/i2012-12104-1. hdl: 11336/10984 . S2CID   121144855.
  5. ↑ Smirnov, O. (2019). "Experimental aspects of geoneutrino detection: Status and perspectives". Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics. 109: 103712. arXiv: 1910.09321 . Bibcode:2019PrPNP.10903712S. doi:10.1016/j.ppnp.2019.103712. S2CID   201256376.
  6. ↑ Jenkins, Amber (July 28, 2005). "Earthly whispers of geoneutrinos". Nature Physics. doi: 10.1038/nphys013 – via www.nature.com.
  7. ↑ Irastorza, Igor G. (2009). "Physics at Underground Laboratories: Direct Detection of Dark Matter". arXiv: 0911.2855 [astro-ph.CO].
  8. ↑ Britto, Vivian; Meyers, Joel (2015). "Monthly modulation in dark matter direct-detection experiments". Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2015 (11): 006. arXiv: 1409.2858 . Bibcode:2015JCAP...11..006B. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2015/11/006. S2CID   119274007.
  9. ↑ Dewey, J. F.; Lamb, S. H. (April 30, 1992). "Active tectonics of the Andes". Tectonophysics. 205 (1): 79–95. Bibcode:1992Tectp.205...79D. doi:10.1016/0040-1951(92)90419-7.
  10. ↑ Cucinotta, Francis A.; Cacao, Eliedonna (May 12, 2017). "Non-Targeted Effects Models Predict Significantly Higher Mars Mission Cancer Risk than Targeted Effects Models". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 1832. Bibcode:2017NatSR...7.1832C. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-02087-3. PMC   5431989 . PMID   28500351.
  11. ↑ Cucinotta, Francis A.; Durant, Marco (January 2006). "Cancer risk from exposure to galactic cosmic rays - implications for human space exploration. Francis A. Cucinotta, Marco Durante" (PDF).
  12. ↑ Laubenstein, M.; Hult, M.; Gasparro, J.; Arnold, D.; Neumaier, S.; Heusser, G.; Köhler, M.; Povinec, P.; Reyss, J.-L; Schwaiger, M.; Theodórsson, P. (2004). "Underground measurements of radioactivity". Applied Radiation and Isotopes. 61 (2–3): 167–172. doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2004.03.039. PMID   15177339.
  13. ↑ "Latin-American support letters" (PDF).
  14. ↑ "International support letters, including among others 2 Nobel prize winners" (PDF).
  15. ↑ "Laboratorio subterráneo ANDES". Argentina.gob.ar. April 26, 2018.
  16. ↑ "CONICYT apoya creación del laboratorio subterráneo ANDES | CONICYT". www.conicyt.cl.
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