On 21-29 November, Dr Masayuki Wada, Dr Masato Kimura, and Dr Azam Zabihi visited the Italian island of Sardinia. Their scientific trip was connected with the ARIA project.
ARIA is a scientific laboratory for distillation of Argon-40, an isotope fundamental for use the medium in dark matter detectors. The project is realized thanks to the collaboration between INFN, National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Regione Sardegna.
The goal of the project is to build a cryogenic distillation column for the separation of the air into its fundamental components and for chemical and isotopic purification of argon. Purified Argon-40, in particular, will allow the development of an innovative technique for a direct dark matter search at the National Laboratory of Gran Sasso (LNGS) of INFN, designed and realized by the scientific collaboration on the DarkSide-20k experiment.
A 350 m high cryogenic distillation column will be installed in the Seruci-1 well, within the Mining Concession “Monte Sinni”. Currently, at the same mine, a test column has been already installed. It is called Seruci-0 and it is about 27 m high. The operation of this column is used to collect data on the physics of the process, and in order to train shifters from the entire collaboration.
In May 2023, ASTRONET, a consortium of European funding agencies and research organisations, presented a new report to transform our understanding of the Universe in the next decade. The ASTRONET Strategic Plan for European Astronomy (Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap 2022-2035) is the latest comprehensive roadmap produced by the ASTRONET network of European funding agencies communities and research organisations. ASTRONET is an independent consortium whose aim is to create a common science vision for all European astronomy by convening diverse groups to describe the challenges facing some of the biggest questions in science.
AstroCeNT group leader Prof. Tomasz Bulik is Polish representative in Astronet (as a member of the Polish Astronomical Society).
