News

neutrinos

Launch of the “Double Chooz” Experiment

In order to obtain a precise measurement of the oscillation of neutrinos, CEA / Dapnia¹ and CNRS/IN2P3² are launching the construction of the Double Chooz experiment. Neutrinos are elementary particles, produced in stars and in the Earth's atmosphere, crust, and mantle, as well as in the human body. The biggest source of neutrinos is the Big Bang. The biggest source nearby is the Sun. They interact with matter only very weakly. At most, just one neutrino in ten billion is halted as it travels through our planet. There are three distinct types of neutrinos, and they are able to change type through a peculiar quantum property called “oscillation.” Double Chooz is specifically designed to examine this property. It follows on from the Chooz experiment, conducted from 1993 to 1999 on the site of the nuclear power station³ of the same name in the French Ardennes region. This new experiment will reuse the underground laboratory constructed by French electricity provider EDF for the first experiment conducted at Chooz, located 1.05 km from the cores of the power plant. Installation will begin in 2007 with an initial “far” detector at the site of the previous experimental set-up. Then, in 2009, an identical “near” detector will be built 280 m from the power plant cores in a new neutrino laboratory at the bottom of a 45 m-deep shaft that will be excavated. Precise comparison of neutrino flux at these two distances from the power plant cores will substantially reduce measurement uncertainty. The experiment will last at least ten years and will offer the highest performance worldwide in this research field. The vehicle for the project is an international collaborative organization4 formed at the instigation of French groups CEA/Dapnia and CNRS/IN2P3. It will carry out the studies for the new experiment. The French contribution concerns the mechanics of the detector, signal acquisition, infrastructure construction, and technical coordination of the project as a whole.

1. Laboratoire de recherche sur les lois fondamentales de l'Univers: Laboratory for Research on the Fundamental Laws of the Universe.

2. Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules: National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics.

3. Neutrinos are also produced in nuclear beta-decay reactions.

4. Thirty or so institutes based in Germany, Spain, the US, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Russia.

Contacts:

> Hervé de Kerret (CNRS), hdekerret@ccimap.in2p3.fr

> Thierry Lasserre (CEA), thierry.lasserre@cea.fr

> http://doublechooz.in2p3.fr/

The site of Chooz, in the French Ardennes region.

© CNRS Photothèque/EDF/IN2P3

Digiteo labs

Forward to the Future

Digiteo Labs, a research park in the Paris region focusing on information and communication sciences and technologies, was launched on October 4, 2006. Digiteo Labs merges the core competencies of the six research institutes¹ that signed the Digiteo Labs framework agreement, including CNRS. In close cooperation with industry partners, Digiteo's research concentrates on the design and development of intelligent systems (hardware and software), from “system-on-chip” to “system-of-systems.” Some of the numerous challenges in this domain include perfecting software and hardware, controlling the design phase of modeling and simulation, developing advanced interfaces and new forms of interaction, managing large volumes of data, and making progress in the area of supercomputing.

Local authorities have provided generous financial backing (€24.5 million from the Ile-de-France region, €13.8 million from the Essonne General Council, and €1 million from CAPS²). With their help, three new buildings will be constructed on the Saclay site. Between now and 2010, the number of researchers involved should also increase, from 1200 to 1800. Combined with the contributions of the six founding research institutions, this local mobilization will help Digiteo Labs' cutting-edge research park gain international visibility and attractiveness in a domain with important social implications.  

1. CNRS, CEA, Ecole Polytechnique, INRIA, Supélec, Université Paris-sud.

2. Communauté d'agglomération du Plateau de Saclay: the French science and technology zone grouping businesses, higher education, and research establishments.

a new SPIRAL for Exotic Ions

GANIL¹ has just begun construction of the new particle accelerator required for the SPIRAL² project. This new facility is designed to produce vast amounts of “exotic nuclei” that do not naturally exist on Earth. State and regional authorities will contribute to the financing of SPIRAL2 for a six-year period, with the total cost of construction estimated at €129 million. SPIRAL2 is one of the 35 prestigious ESFRI2 roadmap projects. It will double Ganil's research potential by 2012 and will be the only one of its kind in the world. At the core of the future instrument is a superconductor linear accelerator delivering some of the most intense ion beams in the world, which are used to bombard a matter target. The resulting reactions (fission, transfers, fusions) generate hundreds of exotic nuclei. Once extracted, sorted, and accelerated, the most useful nuclei are assembled into beams, allowing for groundbreaking experiments and paving the way for new prospects in nuclear physics, astrophysics, and applied sciences.

1. Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (Large National Collider for Heavy Ions). Major European infrastructure located in Caen, Normandy, and run jointly by the CEA and CNRS.

2.European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures.

Contact: Philippe Chomaz, chomaz@ganil.fr

> www.ganil.fr