Abstract
Underground physics plays a leading role in current-day physics research and the experimentalists and theoreticians are showing a growing interest in the possibilities and availability of underground laboratories. The importance of this branch of physics and the relevant laboratories can be attributed to two main aspects:
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1)
Neutrino astronomy, i.e., the study of the universe using neutrinos as probes instead of the more traditional e.m. radiation in the form of visible radiation, X-rays, etc., is a new method of exploring the sky and represents a grand opportunity for physicists to further their knowledge of the universe, its origin and evolution, as well as the evolution of the stars.
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2)
The second aspect is connected to the study of elementary particles: physicists have long sought the unification of the forces of nature that are supposed generated by a unique force. The next objective is to unify electroweak with strong interaction, i.e., quarks with leptons. However, the energy scale for this to happen (>l014 GeV) is not accessible to the particle accelerators either in operation or foreseeable in the near future. On the other hand, some of the predictions of the Grand Unification Theory regarding the stability of matter, the neutrino mass and the magnetic monopoles can be addressed in experiments carried out in underground laboratories which could, therefore, greatly contribute to the unification of the fundamental forces.
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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York
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Votano, L. (1990). Gran Sasso Physics. In: Zichichi, A. (eds) The Superworld III. The Subnuclear Series, vol 26. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8869-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8869-2_9
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