The aim is to understand better the background induced by cosmic muons. The aim is to search for oscillations in the channel muon neutrino-tau neutrino , in the mass range suggested by experiments with atmospheric neutrinos. Muon neutrinos from CERN will be directed toward the detector in the Gran-Sasso underground laboratory, at a distance of 700 km. In parallel the group pursues a development program of cryogenic detectors . Originally motivated by new experiments in the field of neutrino physics, or the search for cold dark matter, this program has been refocused on the detection of macromolecules for applications in the field of mass spectrometry, in collaboration with a company named GenSpec .
Classical detectors measure the ionization or excitation of atoms induced by impinging particles.
The efficiency however decreases with decreasing velocity. For a given energy it drops dramatically with increasing mass. Provided they can be made reliable and reasonably user-friendly, they will dramatically extend the range in which mass spectrometry can be used, becoming a powerful tool for biology.