Canfranc Underground Laboratory

The Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spanish: Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc or LSC) is an underground scientific facility located in the former railway tunnel of Somport under Monte Tobazo (Pyrenees) in Canfranc. The laboratory, 850 m deep and protected from cosmic radiation, is mainly devoted to study rarely occurring natural phenomena such as the interactions of neutrinos of cosmic origin or dark matter with atomic nuclei.[2][1][3]

Canfranc Underground Laboratory - LSC
Established2006[1]
Research typeLow-background physics
LocationCanfranc, Aragón (Spain)
Operating agency
University of Zaragoza
Websitewww.lsc-canfranc.es
Entrance of the laboratory

Access to the tunnel containing the laboratory is at the Estación Internacional de Canfranc, a former international railway station in the village of Canfranc.[4][3][5]

Experiments

As of 2018, the following experiments are ongoing in Canfranc:[6]

  • ANAIS WIMP dark matter search experiment
  • ArDM WIMP dark matter search experiment
  • TREX-DM WIMP dark matter search experiment
  • BiPo radio-purity of materials experiment
  • NEXT neutrinoless double beta decay experiment
  • SuperKGd (also known as SUPERK-GD or under similar names) experiment for mapping of background noise signal for the Super-Kamiokande neutrino telescope in Japan. There is a plan to operate the Super-Kamiokande detector with Gadolinium salt dissolved into the water-mass of the detector. This operation would introduce unknown backgrounds in the neutrino-detection process of Super-Kamiokande, and SuperK-Gd is mapping those backgrounds.
  • GEODYN underground geology experiment

As of 2018, two further experiments were in proposal stage: CUNA, an underground nuclear astrophysics facility, and GOLLUM underground biology experiment.

As of 2018, the following experiments have completed their activities in Canfranc:

  • ROSEBUD dark matter experiment
  • LAGUNA neutrino observatory study (just a study, no real experiment hardware built and no measurements of any sort took place).

References
  1. "Canfranc Underground Laboratory is ready to go". 212.71.251.65/aspera. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  2. "The Canfranc Underground Laboratory" (PDF). lsm.in2p3.fr. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  3. Iliana Mier (July 15, 2019). "The secret lab where Nazis hid gold". BBC Reel. BBC Travel. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  4. Obscura, Atlas. "The Abandoned Nazi Train Station Turned Underground Astroparticle Laboratory". slate.com. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  5. Povinec, Pavel (28 July 2011). Analysis of Environmental Radionuclides. ISBN 9780080553375. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  6. "Current Experiments Canfranc Underground Laboratory". LSC Canfranc.


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