Today when we woke up, we were all especially excited because we were going to go underground in the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy! When we walked outside to wait for our bus, we realized that it finally wasn’t raining! It appeared as though that day couldn’t get any more perfect.
A few hours after we arrived at the Gran Sasso Lab, we were greeted by Chiara Ghiano, a Postdoc at Gran Sasso who lives in Assergi, Italy. She got us into the shuttles when they arrived and we embarked on our epic journey to the underground lab. On our way to the lab, we drove through a magnificent 10km long tunnel that was around 20 feet high. We exited that tunnel, took a tight hairpin curve, and headed straight into a second 10km long tunnel. About halfway through it, we turned off into a side tunnel that contained the entrance to the Gran Sasso Underground Lab.
Once we parked and got out of the shuttles, we were immediately exposed to the icy-cold air of the underground tunnel. Unlike the Sanford Underground Lab, they have absolutely no need for air-conditioning here – we could see our breath it was so cold!
After being issued our high tech safety equipment from safety checkpoint #1 – a plastic yellow hardhat, we took a quick group picture. Then Chiara led us deeper into the tunnel. We learned that we were under 1,400 meters of rock, which is about 78 meters shallower than Homestake Mine. We also learned that Gran Sasso ran its first experiment in 1989.
After walking for a little while and passing through a door, we entered the lab. The ceilings of the main drifts are about 20 feet high but, when we entered one of the lab rooms, we looked straight up in awe at the over 4 story high ceiling!
The first experiment we saw was OPERA. OPERA is a large detector that detects tau neutrinos that have morphed from the muon neutrino beam that is sent from CERN’s SPS accelerator at a distance of about 730 km. OPERA’s function is similar to the new lab South Dakota will get at Sanford (DUSEL), only Sanford will be receiving the muon beam from Fermi Lab.
We moved farther down the lab room and saw the Dark Side–10 Experiment and Borexino Tank. Dark Side–10 is a prototype to Dark Side–50. Dark Side is almost identical to Homestake’s LUX Detector except it uses liquid Argon as its medium instead of liquid Xenon. Once the Borexino Experiment is complete, the instruments used in that experiment will be removed, reused where possible, and then the tank will be reconstructed to accommodate Dark Side–50.
After learning about these experiments, we moved on to another lab room. In our next room, there were a few more experiments. The largest one we saw was ICARUS, which detects Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos using liquid Argon.
In the third and final lab room, we saw the large Double Beta Decay Detector, which had been recently installed. This experiment is very similar to the Majorana experiment at Sanford Lab.
Behind this detector we saw the LVD, which was constructed in 1992. It was built to detect Neutrinos from Super Nova explosions. The last Super Nova occurred in 1987 and was called SN-1987-A. Thus, the LVD has never actually witnessed a Super Nova yet. While it has already been running for nearly 20 years, the LVD will continue running for a few more since the newly installed Double-Beta Decay Detector is located right in front of the LVD. This is mainly due to the fact that it would be more expensive to dismantle and remove the LVD than it would be to keep it running for a few more years. Hopefully a Super Nova will occur in the near future and data can finally be collected.
As we neared the lab’s exit, I asked how the lab was affected by the 2009 earthquake. Chiara told us that there wasn’t any major damage in the lab. Any minor damage that did occur was easily fixed.
We turned in our hard hats and then boarded our shuttles. It was interesting to see how part of the exit drift was used as a parking lot for the lab. We made the remainder of the journey out of the tunnel and then headed back to the Gran Sasso Surface lab. Once we arrived. We headed up to the Admin Building and then waited for lunch to start.
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