India-based Neutrino Observatory
INO is a multi-institutional collaboration which aims to build an underground laboratory for pure Science research, especially in Neutrino Physics. The project includes construction of an iron calorimeter detector, called ICAL, that will be the world's most massive detector when completed. ICAL at INO holds the key to understanding several fundamental issues regarding the nature and interactions of neutrinos.The world's biggest electro-magnet could come up at the proposed Rs.900-crore India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Project in Theni district, if the project is implemented expeditiously, according to G. Rajasekaran, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai,The institute, which is involved in research of neutrinos, is working in site-related activities of the INO.
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| INO Diagram |
Addressing a National Science Mela on ‘Science and philosophy of biodiversity' organised at Arul Anandar College in Karumathur, near here, on Wednesday, he said that the 50,000-tonne magnetic detector would be constructed inside a cavern that would be located in a one to three-km tunnel dug from the peak of the hill. The proposed project could also become the first to detect both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos separately.
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| Kerala- Tamilnadu border Village-Theni-Pottipuram- Ambarasan Hill |
Larger than LHC
The project, expected to be completed in 2015 at an estimated cost of $250 million, has been cleared by the Ministry of Environment (India) for construction in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu. When completed, the INO will house the world's most massive magnet, four times larger than the 12,500-tonne magnet in the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.When completing INO it will help answer some of the fundamental open questions in physics.
The project includes
(a) construction of an underground laboratory and associated surface facilities at Pottipuram in Bodi West hills of Theni District of Tamil Nadu,
(b) construction of a Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studding neutrinos, consisting of 50000 tons of magnetized iron plates arranged in stacks with gaps in between where Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) would be inserted as active detectors, the total number of 2m X 2m RPCs being around 29000, and
(c) setting up of National Centre for High Energy Physics at Madurai, for the operation and maintenance of the underground laboratory, human resource development and detector R&D along with its applications. The underground laboratory, consisting of a large cavern of size 132m X 26m X 20m and several smaller caverns, will be accessed by a 2100 m long and 7.5 m wide tunnel.
The initial goal of INO is to study neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles belonging to the lepton family. They come in three flavours, one associated with electrons and the others with their heavier cousins the muon and the Tau. According to standard model of particle physics, they are mass less. However recent experiments indicate that these charge-neutral fundamental particles, have finite but small mass which is unknown. They oscillate between flavours as they propagate. Determination of neutrino masses and mixing parameters is one of the most important open problems in physics today. The ICAL detector is designed to address some of these key open problems in a unique way. Over the years this underground facility is expected to develop into a full-fledged underground science laboratory for other studies in physics, biology, geology, hydrology etc.
Participating Institutes
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) spelling out the operational aspects of the project and the mode of utilisation of available funds was signed by seven primary project partners:Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, Harish Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad and Institute of Physics (IOP), Bhubaneswar.[1]
Thirteen other project participants include: Aligarh University, Aligarh, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Calcutta University (CU), Kolkata, Delhi University (DU), Delhi, University of Hawaii (UHW), Hawaii, Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), Shimla, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB), Mumbai, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, North Bengal University (NBU), Siliguri, Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, Physical Research Laboratory(PRL), Ahmedabad, Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Tamil Nadu and Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim.
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