CERN’s Next Dark Matter Tool Has a Portuguese Hand | engineering
3 min read
There is not yet much information about the next main structure of the European Laboratory of Particle Physics (CERN), but what we can develop from the Darkside-20k is that it will have a Portuguese hand. From Braga will appear a metal structure designed to hold a cube 12 meters high with a storage capacity of 730 tons of liquid argon. All this to “capture” dark matter, which is a big ambition for CERN.
Between the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Braga Bysteel, which belongs to the DST group, was challenged by the National Innovation Agency for a prequalification project with the aim of this contract, says Rodrigo Araujo, the official. by Bysteel. It was a process that took about six months. The pre-qualification project was a requirement, but after a very short time they called us [CERN] to study this superstructure that is Darkside-20k,” he told PÚBLICO.
There is still a lot to discover about this project – in the form of dark matter. In addition to the confidentiality of most of the details of this detector that will be installed at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, the values of the contract signed with Braga have also not been disclosed.
The plan is for the Darkside-20k to be operational in 2023, making it the most sensitive dark matter detector we’ve ever been able to develop. Buried 1,400 meters above the surface, this new one CERN Tool It will contain 730 tons of liquid argon that will be useful, scientists hope, to test the hypothesis that dark matter particles interact with the nuclei of atoms of argon – a chemical element with a large nucleus, which could easily allow dark matter collisions with atoms, in the image of what was tested Already using xenon.
Find a way to discover dark matter It’s been going on since the 1970s, and we don’t quite know what dark matter is. Conventional and visible matter, which makes up what we know, makes up only 5% of the universe – the remaining composition of the universe is divided between dark energy and dark matter (the latter with more than 26%).
Dark matter does not absorb, reflect, or emit light, which makes its existence more difficult to watch. However, although it was never discovered, we know that dark matter exists through its influence on the motion of stars in galaxies – a discovery by American astrophysicists. Vera Robin (1928-2016). As for dark energy, the nature of which is also unknown, we see its effects in an ever-expanding universe that is increasingly accelerating, and resisting the effects of gravity.
Bestel now has four months to build this liquid argon tank structure. Everything will be pre-tested and assembled to ensure it works as per contract.
And while it was the company’s first business from Braga with CERN, it may not be the last. “We have already been challenged to study a second decade, and that is what we are doing. For another structure it will be four times the size of the structure we are building now,” says Rodrigo Araujo.
“Entrepreneur. Music enthusiast. Lifelong communicator. General coffee aficionado. Internet scholar.”
:strip_icc()/s04.video.glbimg.com/x720/11792055.jpg)
:strip_icc()/s03.video.glbimg.com/x720/11786998.jpg)
