All I can say is - you lucky beggars :-)
Dave
On 16 February 2013 21:27, Fons Adriaensen <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Yesterday (friday 15/02/2013) David Monacchi and I visited LNGS, the
> Gran Sasso nuclear physics laboratory [1] and recorded some acoustic
> impulse responses of the spaces in which the Darkside50 experiment is
> currently being installed.
>
> We will prepare a webpage with the results, pictures, etc., but in the
> meantime here are some first impressions.
>
> To be honest, very similar IRs could probably be obtained at many
> industrial sites using spaces of similar size and shape, but the ones
> we recorded are unique because the place is unique - and absolutely
> fascinating in all respects.
>
> LNGS is largest underground physics laboratory in the world, covered
> by 1400m meters of solid rock shielding it from most but not all cosmic
> radiation. It consists of three large halls each of them packed with
> experiments - there are normally 20 to 30 of those going on or being
> installed at any time. The most famous of those is probably OPERA,
> which last year seemed to have measured neutrinos travelling from
> CERN to Gran Sasso at a speed exceeding the speed of light - a result
> that later turned out to be due to an error in the extremely complex
> equipment used. OPERA is situated next to Darkside and has officially
> ended, but they are still processing the tens of thousands of photographic
> films packed in slabs of lead. All the mechanical handling this requires
> is done be dedicated robots which seem to be working round the clock.
>
> The scale of things at LNGS is really beyond imagination. There's one
> experiment that is monitoring 1600 channels of data with nanosecond
> resolution - that amounts to 1.6 Terasamples per second - for years
> and years. Not all data is stored of course (most is background noise)
> but still, that makes recording 64 channels of audio seem like child's
> play. There's another one that has been waiting for the next supernova
> explosion for almost 30 years (there are 2 or 3 of those per century).
>
> The Darkside experiment is meant to detect particle interactions that
> will (hopefully) confirm the existence of 'dark matter', the large
> proportion of matter that according to current theories of cosmology
> should exist but has evaded detection so far. Darkside50 consists of
> a cylindrical vessel, estimated size 9m diameter and some 12m high,
> which will be filled with water. At the center of this is a 'bathroom
> sized' sphere wich will be filled with argon at room temperature, and
> inside the sphere there will be a smaller container containing liquid
> argon (around -190 degrees C) [2]. All three of those spaces will have
> scintillation detectors (photomultipliers, able to detect a single photon),
> and judging by the big bundles of cables already installed there will be
> several hundreds of those. The two outer layers will act as an active
> shield for the core experiment using the liquid argon, not by blocking
> particles that would interfere with it, but by detecting them.
>
> The whole environment, including the outer shell, is a cleanroom so we
> had to wear the white plastic suits you know from crime investigation
> movies, including special shoes, nose and mouth mask, hair cover and
> gloves. This gets quite hot after some time. Also all equipment we used
> had to be cleaned before it could enter the space. All in all it was a
> rather unique experience.
>
> Many thanks to Richard Dobson who made this visit possible in the first
> place, and to all the people at LNGS who accomodated and helped us in
> every way they could.
>
> Ciao,
>
> [1] <http://www.lngs.infn.it>
> [2] <darkside.lngs.infn.it/ds-50>
>
>
> --
> FA
>
> A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia.
> It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris
> and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow)
>
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--
As of 1st October 2012, I have retired from the University, so this
disclaimer is redundant....
These are my own views and may or may not be shared by my employer
Dave Malham
Ex-Music Research Centre
Department of Music
The University of York
Heslington
York YO10 5DD
UK
'Ambisonics - Component Imaging for Audio'
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