Joint DLNP Seminar

On Wednesday, 21 September 2016, at 3.00 pm in the Conference Hall of the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems a seminar “The Canfranc Underground Laboratory” will be held.

Speaker: Aldo Ianni (NFN Gran Sasso Laboratory)

Abstract:

The Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) is located under the mount Tobazo in the Spanish Pyrenees at the border between Spain and France. LSC is at about 1200 meters above the sea level and under 850 meters of rock overburden.

LSC is run by a Consortium between the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, the Gobierno de Aragón and the Universidad de Zaragoza. Research activities at international level started at LSC in 1994.

However, a large extension of the underground research area was started in 2004 and completed in 2010. At LSC about 1600 square meters of underground surface is available for research activities. LSC is also equipped with two surface buildings, which offer offices, meeting rooms, a workshop, a chemistry laboratory and other facilities to users. In the underground area LSC is equipped with a low counting HpGe detectors facility, with a workshop, a clean room and a radon abatement system, which can deliver 220 cubic meters of radon-free air per hour. LSC is a multidisciplinary infrastructure where research is carried out on direct dark matter detection, neutrinos double beta decay, nuclear astrophysics, low counting detectors, geophysics and life in extreme environment.

At LSC the largest liquid argon two-phase dark matter detector is in operation, named ArDM. On direct dark matter detection LSC is planning a 100 kg array of NaI(Tl) detector, ANAIS, to search for the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation. A new TPC in argon or neon at high pressure with micromegas is being installed, T-REX. In the framework of neutrinos double beta decay the NEXT demonstrator is under commissioning. NEXT is a unique detector based on enriched 136Xe to search for neutrinos double beta decay. A two 70 meters laser interferometers are running underground at LSC to search for seismic events at local and planetary scale. A new research program on the study of the DNA in microorganisms living inside the rock underground is underway.

At LSC space is available for new projects and the LSC welcomes new proposals, which will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee two times per year.

In the talk a review of the LSC and of the research programs at LSC will be given.