A center for studying gravitational waves will be established

A research laboratory will be opened in Rovigo to study the techniques and materials needed to detect gravitational waves. The announcement was made at the Urban Digital Centre, during the “RoRegeneration – Renewable Urban Arts Festival” meeting organized by the municipal administration to explore urban regeneration themes through different languages ​​of art.

Comet lab (Coating materials for the Einstein Telescope) will be opened in Censer, and – in terms of urban renewal – this place will take on a role more closely linked to scientific research. It is financed with Pnrr funds at a total cost of €3 million, and will be operational, “if all goes well, by mid-2025.”

It was announced by Giacomo Ciani and Marco Bazán, Professors at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Padua, who explained the genesis of the project and the opportunities that this project could bring to Rovigo, with its inclusion within the network of infrastructures of this type in Italy and given the strategic value that the detection of gravitational waves would have at a European level.

Gravitational waves are oscillations in space-time that travel at the speed of light: through them, the researchers explain, we can try to understand more about the universe.

Italy has applied to host the Einstein Telescope, that’s the name, and “there are strong reasons why it could actually be built in Sardinia.”. To support this nomination, the Ministry of Universities and Scientific Research launched the Etic project, funded by Pnrr funds. Therefore, Rovigo will be included in the network of laboratories supporting this nomination, and in any case it will be included in the infrastructure network dedicated to the development of the Einstein Telescope, whatever the final location.

Censor’s comet lab will be busy “In the study of new glasses, new optical coatings that will be used in the mirrors of new generation interferometers. The laboratory will host a whole series of environments designed to carry out this research, in particular a very clean room – called a “clean room” – where the machines that will produce these coatings will be operated; There will also be a chemistry laboratory and a laboratory to study these coatings. “It will serve as an open laboratory, meaning that access will be given to scientists who want to try new ideas to build materials useful for this project, with our support and the support of the entire infrastructure network.”