What is the vertical depth of 2,400 meters? If you build a lab here, what do you think of doing research?
China’s first and deepest underground laboratory in China, the Jinping Underground Laboratory in China, is located 2,400 meters underground and mainly studies dark matter. Deep underground, the laboratory has almost no cosmic ray interference. Perhaps in the near future, new discoveries here are likely to trigger a revolution in physics.
China Jinping Underground Laboratory is located in the middle of the Jinpingshan Tunnel in Yalong River, Sichuan Province. On July 20th, China Jinping Underground Laboratory officially started the construction of a new stage. The project of “very deep underground low-radiation background frontal physical experiment facility” officially entered the underground and began to install experimental equipment.
“1:100000000” thick rock “filtered” cosmic ray particles
Why is the laboratory located 2,400 meters underground?
Yue Yu, director of the Center for Science and Technology Infrastructure Science, said that major breakthroughs in modern physics require extreme experimental conditions. The advantage of this lab is that it minimizes the interference of cosmic rays, and thick rocks can shield most cosmic rays. For example, if there are 100 million cosmic ray particles on the top of the mountain that will be shot at the lab, only one of them will be able to enter here.
Almost no cosmic ray interference makes the project capable of future new particle detection and new physics research, providing platform support for major fundamental frontier experimental research in the fields of particle physics and nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
Compared with other underground laboratories in the world, China Jinping Underground Laboratory has the deepest rock coverage, the smallest cosmic flux, the largest available space, and the advantages of convenient transportation and complete infrastructure.
At present, the second phase of China Jinping Underground Laboratory is under construction. In the future, 8 experimental halls will be built. The experimental space for underground use will be increased from 4,000 cubic meters to 300,000 cubic meters. It can accommodate multiple large-scale deep ground scientific experimental projects. . The international scientific community is highly concerned about this and has been applied for by a number of domestic and foreign research teams.
Li Yuanjing, deputy chief commander and chief engineer of major science and technology infrastructure, said that China Jinping Underground Laboratory is not only serving Chinese scientists, but also open to scientists and laboratories all over the world, promoting China’s international scientific cooperation and attracting top domestic and foreign scientists. Scholars traveled to the frontier physics experiment to provide infrastructure support for major physical breakthroughs.
What is dark matter?
According to the results of the Planck satellite study, the common substances we know are only about 4.9% of the total mass of the universe! These common substances make up visible universes such as stars and galaxies. Dark matter not visible in the universe accounts for 26.8%, and the remaining 68.3% is dark energy.
Dark matter is a kind of “invisible” substance. The “invisible” mentioned here is not just that we can’t see it in the visible light band with our naked eyes, but we can’t see it in any wave of electromagnetic waves, such as radio, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray. That is to say, dark matter emits almost no electromagnetic radiation in any band.
Why study dark matter?
Dark matter theory and experimental research work will greatly expand human understanding of the cosmic world besides ordinary matter, and provide a research basis for human beings to understand the dark energy problem that accounts for a larger mass share of the universe, thus becoming the current particle physics and cosmology. Research topics at the forefront of disciplines such as astrophysics. It will be a major leap in human understanding of the universe and could lead to a new physics revolution.
How can I find dark matter?
It is generally believed that there are three methods: the first is to use the accelerator collision to see whether it can produce dark matter in the experiment; the second is to indirectly detect in space; the third is to measure the collision between the dark matter particles and the detector target nucleus. Signals are generally carried out in underground laboratories.
China’s Jinping Underground Laboratory is taking a third method to detect dark matter. Therefore, the underground 2400 meters is an excellent experimental environment. During the detection process, dark matter may be affected by cosmic rays, and in the depths of the earth’s surface, the amount of cosmic rays is only about one billionth of the surface. Experimenting in this relatively “clean” place can avoid many disturbing factors to “disturb” the experiment.