PEOPLE
THE BIGGEST DARK MATTER TRAP
Interview with Professor Elena Aprile, from Columbia University in New York, Spokesperson of the XENON1T experiment, inaugurated at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS) of INFN
A new scientific endeavour, the XENON1T experiment, is starting at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS) of INFN. The project is ambitious: understand what the universe still hides. About a quarter of what makes up the cosmos, in fact, is constituted by a type of matter, the nature of which is still unknown: dark matter. Physicists know that it exists, that it surrounds, for example, the Milky Way like a thick fog, but they do not know what it is made of. Like the explorers of the past, in search of an unknown continent, they are looking for it everywhere. First of all in space, with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), the so-called Hubble of elementary particles, anchored to the International Space Station (ISS) like a lifeboat. But also at CERN in Geneva, with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) super-accelerator. And in underground laboratories worldwide, starting with LNGS. We asked Elena Aprile, from Columbia University in New York, the spokesperson of XENON1T, why the new experiment just inaugurated at LNGS has what it takes to succeed in this difficult task.
How did the idea of XENON1T come about and how does the experiment work?
The XENON project began in December 2002 and has evolved to a phase which will make it the most sensitive for the direct search of dark matter. XENON1T - hosted in the LNGS of INFN, under 1,400 metres of rock that shield the experiments from the incessant shower of cosmic rays - is the third in a series of detectors of the XENON project, after XENON10 and XENON100. ...
NEWS
International Collaboration
ITALY-ARGENTINA ALLIANCE STRENGTHENED FOR RESEARCH IN BASIC AND APPLIED PHYSICS
Two important steps taken in recent days by Italy and Argentina intensify the existing cooperation between the two countries in the field of nuclear and astroparticle physics. ...
Research
FROM ITALY THE BENT CRYSTALS THAT "CLEAN" THE BEAMS OF THE LHC
CERN in Geneva, UA9 international cooperation. Thanks to the use of innovative crystals, partly implemented in Italy by INFN and partly in Russia, ...
International Collaboration
INFN ON A VISIT TO CHINA WITH MINISTER GIANNINI
The China-Italy Science (CAS), Technology & Innovation Week was held in November. The Minister of Education, Universities and Research, Stefania Giannini, made stops in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Chongquin, ...
Dissemination
THE GIFT OF MASS OF INFN TO THE ARTSCIENCE MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE
The Gift of Mass, the interactive installation stemming from the encounter between physics and video art, thanks to the INFN collaboration with Italian artists, will be at the ArtScience Museum of Singapore until February 14 next, ...
A SPACE EYE