On the one hand, the abandoned mine of Sos Enattos, in Lula, in a sparsely populated area of Sardinia with minimal seismic activity;
on the other Limburg, in the Netherlands, on the border with Belgium and Germany and not far from Maastricht: these are the two candidate areas to host one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever, namely the 1.8 billion euro Einstein Telescope, capable to listen to the vibrations of the entire universe chasing gravitational waves.
It is an open tender, the one underway between Italy and the Netherlands, and destined to continue until 2025, when the site should be selected.
Bernini, an international mobilization to bring the Einstein telescope to Italy
"We are mobilizing to bring the Einstein Telescope to Barbagia: we are also seeking support and consensus at an international level, from Serbia to Egypt", said the Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, inaugurating the academic year in Cagliari.
"We are innovators - she added - and the Nobel prize winner Parisi tells us that there is only one place for the telescope: Sos Enattos. Yes, a scientific community can be created around Lula as happened for CERN in Geneva", she added. reiterated Bernini.
The feasibility study, with 50 million resources from the Pnrr and called Etic, the feasibility study was assigned by the government to the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn), Bernini said again during his visit to the Sos Enattos site.
As part of the project,
"Physics experts tell me that, precisely because the area is not anthropized and there are still no physical infrastructures, this site of Sos Enattos is favored as a site compared to its competitor in the Netherlands. So not only are we not behind but we are favourites, precisely because it needs silence", said Minister Bernini on a visit to the former mine.
"Those universities, railways, wind turbines and links that are already physically present in Maastricht-she added-could represent a deterrent".
Pallavicini (Infn), the Italian and Dutch sites compared
Between 2007 and 2009, Italy was the first to propose the idea of building an instrument like the Einstein Telescope, Marco Pallavicini, vice president of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), told ANSA .
"We think we have objective scientific elements to prefer Lula", he observes referring to the fact that "Sardinia is among the 30 least seismic areas in the world: a fundamental characteristic because research on gravitational waves requires instruments that cannot be disturbed even by vibrations of dimensions of an atomic nucleus".
In this respect, the Lula offers a natural shielding from Limburg, "where seismicity is higher, typical of central Europe, and the area is heavily populated, with railways and highways".
However, Pallavicini continues, it is true that the "choice is not only scientific, but also based on economic, political and social considerations".
There are two years to decide and it is not certain that in the end we will have to choose in a single direction: "there is also the scientific hypothesis of building two detectors, one in Lula and one in Limburg", on the model of the observatory American Lego.
In the meantime, Italy is preparing, strengthened by the funding of 50 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr), intended both for the preliminary project, cost estimates and engineering feasibility studies, and for developing the new technologies necessary for an instrument so innovative.
Italy's other strong element is a solid scientific committee, chaired by Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi and which includes physicists such as Fernando Ferroni, Marica Branchesi, the president of Infn Antonio Zoccoli and the ambassador Ettore Sequi, who had the task of starting the political discussion in Europe.
The dream of physicists is to start building the Einstein Telescope in 2026: "it is a desire, it will depend on resources.
Finding them in three years - concludes Pallavicini - is very ambitious, but not impossible".
On the other hand, time is running out also because, on the other side of the Atlantic, the United States are thinking about a similar project.
