Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso

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Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, INFN (TQB1) 2014-02.jpg
Overview of overground laboratories of LNGS
Established1985
Research typeParticle physics, nuclear physics
Director Ezio Previtali (since October 2020)
Location L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy
42°25′16″N13°30′59″E / 42.42111°N 13.51639°E / 42.42111; 13.51639
Operating agency
 INFN
Website www.lngs.infn.it

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.

Contents

The primary mission of the laboratory is to host experiments that require a low background environment in the fields of astroparticle physics and nuclear astrophysics and other disciplines that can profit of its characteristics and of its infrastructures. The LNGS is, like the three other European underground astroparticle laboratories (Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, Laboratorio subterráneo de Canfranc, and Boulby Underground Laboratory), a member of the coordinating group ILIAS.

Facilities

The laboratory consists of a surface facility, located within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, and extensive underground facilities located next to the 10 km long Traforo del Gran Sasso freeway tunnel.

The first large experiments at LNGS ran in 1989; the facilities were later expanded, and it is now the largest underground laboratory in the world. [1]

There are three main barrel vaulted experimental halls, each approximately 20 m wide, 18 m tall, and 100 m long. [1] These provide roughly 3×20×100=6,000 m2 (65,000 sq ft) of floor space and 3×20×(8+10×π/4)×100=95,100 m3 (3,360,000 cu ft) of volume. Including smaller spaces and various connecting tunnels, the facility totals 17,800 m2 (192,000 sq ft) and 180,000 m3 (6,400,000 cu ft). [2] [1]

The experimental halls are covered by about 1400 m of rock, protecting the experiments from cosmic rays. Providing about 3400 metres of water equivalent (mwe) shielding, it is not the deepest underground laboratory, but the fact that it can be driven to without using mine elevators makes it very popular.

Research projects

Neutrino research

Since late August 2006, CERN has directed a beam of muon neutrinos from the CERN SPS accelerator to the Gran Sasso lab, 730 km away, where they are detected by the OPERA and ICARUS detectors, in a study of neutrino oscillations that will improve on the results of the Fermilab to MINOS experiment.

In May 2010, Lucia Votano, Director of the Gran Sasso laboratories, announced, "The OPERA experiment has reached its first goal: the detection of a tau neutrino obtained from the transformation of a muon neutrino, which occurred during the journey from Geneva to the Gran Sasso Laboratory." [3] This was the first observed tau neutrino candidate event in a muon neutrino beam, providing further evidence that neutrinos have mass. [4] (Research first determined that neutrinos have mass in 1998 at the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector. [5] [6] ) Neutrinos must have mass for this transformation to occur; this is a deviation from the classic Standard Model of particle physics, which assumed that neutrinos are massless. [6] [7]

An effort to determine the Majorana/Dirac nature of the neutrino, called CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events), is operating in the laboratory (as of 2018). The detector is shielded with lead recovered from an ancient Roman shipwreck, due to the ancient lead's lower radioactivity than recently minted lead. The artifacts were given to CUORE from the National Archaeological Museum in Cagliari. [8]

In September 2011, Dario Autiero, a researcher of Institute of Nuclear Physics in Lyons, France, presented preliminary findings that indicated neutrinos produced at CERN were arriving at OPERA detector about 60 ns earlier than they would if they were travelling at the speed of light. [9] This faster-than-light neutrino anomaly was not immediately explained. [10] The results were subsequently investigated and confirmed to be wrong. They were caused by a flawed optic fiber cable in OPERA receiver of the laboratory, [11] resulting in late arrival of the clock signal to which the neutrinos' arrivals were compared. Although the official statement published by OPERA does not declare any anomaly in the velocity of the neutrinos, [12] and therefore the case is completely solved, the development of the story has given the community pause for thought.

In 2014 Borexino measured directly, for the first time, the neutrinos from the primary proton-proton fusion process in the Sun. This result is published on Nature. This measurement is consistent with the expectations derived from the standard solar model of J. Bahcall along with the theory of solar neutrino oscillations as described by MSW theory. In 2020 Borexino measured also solar neutrinos originated from CNO cycle, a fusion process common in giant stars but uncommon in the Sun (only 1% of Sun's energy output). [13] With this outcome Borexino has unraveled both the two processes powering the Sun and many main sequence stars.

Experiments

See also

Related Research Articles

The muon neutrino is an elementary particle which has the symbol
ν
μ and zero electric charge. Together with the muon it forms the second generation of leptons, hence the name muon neutrino. It was discovered in 1962 by Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger. The discovery was rewarded with the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar neutrino</span> Extremely light particle produced by the Sun

A solar neutrino is a neutrino originating from nuclear fusion in the Sun's core, and is the most common type of neutrino passing through any source observed on Earth at any particular moment. Neutrinos are elementary particles with extremely small rest mass and a neutral electric charge. They only interact with matter via weak interaction and gravity, making their detection very difficult. This has led to the now-resolved solar neutrino problem. Much is now known about solar neutrinos, but research in this field is ongoing.

The Large Volume Detector (LVD) is a particle physics experiment situated in the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy and is operated by the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). It has been in operation since June 1992, and is a member of the Supernova Early Warning System. Among other work, the detector should be able to detect neutrinos from our galaxy and possibly nearby galaxies. The LVD uses 840 scintillator counters around a large tank of hydrocarbons. The detector can detect both charged current and neutral current interactions.

Astroparticle physics, also called particle astrophysics, is a branch of particle physics that studies elementary particles of astrophysical origin and their relation to astrophysics and cosmology. It is a relatively new field of research emerging at the intersection of particle physics, astronomy, astrophysics, detector physics, relativity, solid state physics, and cosmology. Partly motivated by the discovery of neutrino oscillation, the field has undergone rapid development, both theoretically and experimentally, since the early 2000s.

GALLEX or Gallium Experiment was a radiochemical neutrino detection experiment that ran between 1991 and 1997 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). This project was performed by an international collaboration of French, German, Italian, Israeli, Polish and American scientists led by the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik Heidelberg. After brief interruption, the experiment was continued under a new name GNO from May 1998 to April 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur B. McDonald</span> Canadian astrophysicist

Arthur Bruce McDonald, P.Eng is a Canadian astrophysicist. McDonald is the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration and held the Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario from 2006 to 2013. He was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita.

The Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) was an instrument used in a scientific experiment for detecting tau neutrinos from muon neutrino oscillations. The experiment is a collaboration between CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Gran Sasso, Italy and uses the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) neutrino beam.

<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.

The DarkSide collaboration is an international affiliation of universities and labs seeking to directly detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The collaboration is planning, building and operating a series of liquid argon time projection chambers (TPCs) that are employed at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy. The detectors are filled with liquid argon from underground sources in order to exclude the radioactive isotope 39
Ar, which makes up one in every 1015 (quadrillion) atoms in atmospheric argon. The Darkside-10 (DS-10) prototype was tested in 2012, and the Darkside-50 (DS-50) experiment has been operating since 2013. Darkside-20k (DS-20k) with 20 tonnes of liquid argon is being planned as of 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Ereditato</span> Italian physicist

Antonio Ereditato is an Italian physicist, currently Research Professor at the University of Chicago, associate researcher at Fermilab, Batavia, USA, and Emeritus professor at the University of Bern, Switzerland, where he has been Director of the Laboratory for High Energy Physics from 2006 to 2020. From 2021 to 2022 Ereditato has been Visiting Professor at the Yale University, USA. He carried out research activities in the field of experimental neutrino physics, of weak interactions and strong interactions with experiments conducted at CERN, in Japan, at Fermilab in United States and at the LNGS in Italy. Ereditato has accomplished several R&D studies on particle detectors: wire chambers, calorimeters, time projection chambers, nuclear emulsions, detectors for medical applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso</span>

The CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) project was a physics project of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The aim of the project was to analyse the hypothesis of neutrino oscillation by directing a beam of neutrinos from CERN's facilities to the detector of the OPERA experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), located in the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy. The CNGS facility was housed in a tunnel which diverged from one of the SPS–LHC transfer tunnels, at the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It used the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator as a source of high-energy protons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 OPERA faster-than-light neutrino anomaly</span> 2011 experiment which mistakenly seemed to show faster-than-light travel

In 2011, the OPERA experiment mistakenly observed neutrinos appearing to travel faster than light. Even before the source of the error was discovered, the result was considered anomalous because speeds higher than that of light in vacuum are generally thought to violate special relativity, a cornerstone of the modern understanding of physics for over a century.

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.

Measurements of neutrino speed have been conducted as tests of special relativity and for the determination of the mass of neutrinos. Astronomical searches investigate whether light and neutrinos emitted simultaneously from a distant source are arriving simultaneously on Earth. Terrestrial searches include time of flight measurements using synchronized clocks, and direct comparison of neutrino speed with the speed of other particles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CUORE</span> Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) – also cuore (Italian for 'heart'; ) – is a particle physics facility located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Assergi, Italy. CUORE was designed primarily as a search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 130Te, a process that has never been observed. It uses tellurium dioxide (TeO2) crystals as both the source of the decay and as bolometers to detect the resulting electrons. CUORE searches for the characteristic signal of neutrinoless double beta decay, a small peak in the observed energy spectrum around the known decay energy; for 130Te, this is Q = 2527.518 ± 0.013 keV. CUORE can also search for signals from dark matter candidates, such as axions and WIMPs.

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

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Ettore Fiorini was an Italian experimental particle physicist. He studied the physics of the weak interaction and was a pioneer in the field of double beta decay. He served as a professor of nuclear and subnuclear physics at the University of Milano-Bicocca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David B. Cline</span> American particle physicist

]

Luisa Cifarelli FInstP is a Professor of Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Bologna. She is the Director of the La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucia Votano</span> Italian particle physicist and Director of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory

Lucia Votano is an Italian astroparticle physicist, and the first woman to direct the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, from 2009 to 2012. Her research focuses on neutrinos, and she was the coordinator of the OPERA experiment, that led to the first detection of tau neutrinos from muon neutrino oscillation.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso Annual Report 2011" (PDF). p. 4. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Miramonti, Lino (31 March 2005). "European underground laboratories: An overview". AIP Conference Proceedings. 785: 3–11. arXiv: hep-ex/0503054 . Bibcode:2005AIPC..785....3M. doi:10.1063/1.2060447. S2CID   5793486.
  3. ↑ Particle Chameleon Caught in the act of Changing, Press Release, CERN, 31 May 2010, accessed 22 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Agafonova, N.; Aleksandrov, Andrey; Altinok, Osman; Ambrosio, Michelangelo; Anokhina, Anna M.; Aoki, Shigeki; et al. (2010). "Observation of a first ντ candidate event in the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam". Physics Letters B. 691 (3): 138–145. arXiv: 1006.1623 . Bibcode:2010PhLB..691..138A. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.06.022. S2CID   119256958.
  5. ↑ Schechter, Joseph; Valle, José W.F. (1980). "Neutrino masses in SU(2) ⊗ U(1) theories". Physical Review D. 22 (9): 2227–2235. Bibcode:1980PhRvD..22.2227S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.22.2227.
  6. 1 2 New Experiment Aims to Crack Neutrino Mass Mystery, 4 November 2014, accessed 3 October 2021.
  7. ↑ Cottingham, W.N.; Greenwood, D.A. (2007). An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  8. ↑ Nosengo, Nicola (2010). "Roman ingots to shield particle detector". Nature. doi: 10.1038/news.2010.186 .
  9. ↑ Butler, Declan; Callaway, Ewen; Check Hayden, Erika; Cyranoski, David; Hand, Eric; Nosengo, Nicola; Samuel Reich, Eugenie; Tollefson, Jeff; Yahia, Mohammed (2011). "365 days: Nature's 10". Nature. 480 (7378): 437–445. Bibcode:2011Natur.480..437B. doi: 10.1038/480437a . PMID   22193082. S2CID   12834643.
  10. ↑ Brumfiel, Geoff (2011). "Particles break light-speed limit". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2011.554.
  11. ↑ Neutrinos sent from CERN to Gran Sasso respect the cosmic speed limit, 8 June 2012.
  12. ↑ Adam, T.; et al. (OPERA Collaboration) (2012). "Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam". Journal of High Energy Physics . 2012 (10): 93. arXiv: 1109.4897 . Bibcode:2012JHEP...10..093A. doi:10.1007/JHEP10(2012)093. S2CID   17652398.
  13. ↑ First detection of solar neutrinos from the CNO cycle with Borexino, Indico-FNAL, , 23 June 2020.
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