INFN has four National research Laboratories that host large equipment and infrastructure provided to the national and international scientific community. These are the National Laboratories of Frascati (LNF) in Lazio, the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Abruzzo, the National Laboratories of Legnaro (LNL) in the Veneto, and the National Laboratories of the South (LNS) in Sicily.
To visit the websites of the laboratories click on the images at the side.
Established in 1955, the National Laboratories of Frascati are the top Italian research facility for studying nuclear and subnuclear physics with accelerators. This work began in 1957 with the 1.1 GeV Electron Synchrotron, the most powerful machine of the time, and continued with AdA, the first matter-antimatter collider in the world. The study of the physics of electron-positron collisions started in 1969 with the ADONE accelerator. In 1999, DAFNE started operating. This is a ring accelerator designed to produce collisions between electrons and positrons and to study the Φ (phi) particle, which decays into K, kaons, and investigate the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. The innovative “crab-waist” collision scheme, created at DAFNE to increase luminosity, was adopted in various successive accelerators and at CERN in Hi-Lumi LHC.
SIDDHARTA2, the experiment now operating at DAFNE, studies the features of exotic atoms. In the DAFNE complex, there is the Beam Test Facility (BTF) line, which provides positron/electron beams for fundamental and applied research. The PADME experiment explores the existence of a fifth force mediated by the so-called dark photon and connected with dark matter.
At the LNF, there is the SPARC_LAB infrastructure, composed of a linear accelerator (SPARC) anda powerful laser (FLAME), where innovative radiation sources are produced and new acceleration techniques are experimented with. In addition, there are various laboratories dedicated to technological and applied research.
EUPRAXIA is the future project for developing new, ultra-compact accelerators based on plasma acceleration for industrial and medical applications, and for fundamental research. In 2021, the project was included in the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure) roadmap, and the Italian government guaranteed funding of more than € 100 million for its creation.
Located near Rome in the municipality of Frascati, which welcomes research centres of excellence, including ENEA, ESA-Esrin and CNR, the LNF participate in national and international projects with other research bodies, universities, and companies. The LNF, which now include approximately 500 staff members, have always promoted the dissemination of scientific culture with activities for schools and the wider public.
Founded in 1976, in Catania, the national Laboratories of the South constitute an advanced hub that is well recognised internationally. The activities are mainly directed at nuclear physics, nuclear and particle astrophysics, applications of nuclear physics in medicine and cultural heritage, environmental and energy research, the development of ion sources and accelerators. In collaboration with other INFN facilities and bodies, the LNS have a front-line role in building KM3NeT. This is a European submarine research facility for detecting neutrinos, which is being installed in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, off Capo Passero.
The focus of the LNS is on nuclear physics. In recent years, this field has witnessed increased interest in nuclear astrophysics, in particular in evolution and primordial or stellar nucleosynthesis, as well as the study of rare decays. The following projects are dedicated to these latter activities: the POTLNS project, which involves upgrading the superconductor cyclotron (formerly operating from 1994 to 2020); the implementation of the FRAISE project for producing beams of radioactive particle in flight; and the upgrading of the MAGNEX equipment in the NUMEN experiment. The latter will study so-called neutrinoless double beta decay, a rare process that, if observed, would have significant implications for the possible extensions of physics beyond the Standard Model.
The CHIMERA multi-detector will, instead, study neutron-rich nuclei, and issues linked to the structure of neutron stars and the merging of compact stars. An additional promising line of research in nuclear physics is that of the PANDORA experiment, based on a magnetic trapfor plasma in similar conditions to those present in stars. At the LNS, there is also a centrefor treating ocular melanoma (since 2002) and an analysis laboratory for archaeological finds with non-destructive techniques (LANDIS). The I-LUCE equipment is also being built. This will be dedicated to producing and accelerating particles (protons, ions, electrons, neutrons) and electromagnetic radiation, with possible interests in industrial applications, for example in the energy field, and applications in the field of nuclear physics.
The Gran Sasso National Laboratories are the biggest operating underground research centre (more than 180,000 m3) where particle physics and astrophysics, and nuclear astrophysics, experiments take place. They are located below the rocky Gran Sasso massif, 1400 m down, accessed by a special entrance constructed on the A24, in the tunnel between L’Aquila and Teramo. Proposed at the start of the 1980s, based on Antonino Zichichi’s ingenious idea, the LNGS attract hundreds of researchers from the most important European and international universities and research institutions every year. The overlying mountain acts as a shield for the majority of cosmic rays coming from the atmosphere, which continuously strike the Earth’s surface. These are a disturbance for studying extremely rare phenomena. By reducing the background noise, it is possible to study neutrinos and other particles in the cosmic silence. Such particles interact weakly with matter and, for this reason, can reach as far as the laboratories.
The LNGS are an international reference centre for the physics of neutrinos and dark matter, and are currently involved in a new generation of experiments for researching extremely rare events. These include research into dark matter (XENONnT, DarkSide 20k), nuclear astrophysics (Bellotti Ion Beam Facility), and for studying Majorana neutrinos (LEGEND, CUPID). They are also directly engaged in developing quantum computing systems and infrastructure thanks to the unique characteristics offered by the underground environments. The technologies developed by LNGS have generated important repercussions beyond the context of research into astroparticle physics. Collaborations with highly technological companies are underway to transfer the technologies originating from fundamental physics studies beyond the research laboratories.
The National Laboratories of Legnaro are an international research centre approximately 10 km from Padua. Founded in 1961, as Nuclear Research Centre of the Veneto Region, in 1968 they became the second INFN National Laboratory. The strong points of the laboratories are development and innovation in the field of particle accelerators and radiation detectors, as well as technologies associated with them. The physics of materials, nanodosimetry, research into dark matter and technology transfer activities, such as the treatment of surfaces and the deposition of thin films, as well as scientific computing are also especially important. Five accelerators for nuclear and interdisciplinary physics operate at the LNL. The union between fundamental researchand applications is a typical feature that is also part of the SPES project, being completed. With the SPES cyclotron (sixth LNL accelerator) and the targets devised and produced within the laboratories, significant nuclei in nuclear astrophysics will be studied and radioisotopes of interest for medical diagnostics and therapies.
Currently, the AGATA detector, installed in one of the three experimental rooms of the large accelerator complex, operates for approximately 90% of the available machine time. AGATA is a gamma-ray spectrometer and the product of a European collaboration, consisting of segmented, hyperpure germanium crystals. It is a sophisticated detector for gamma rays that makes it possible to track the path of the individual photon inside the germanium crystal with a resolution of a few millimetres. AGATA is a genuine “eye” capable of looking inside atomic nuclei produced in collisions between accelerated ions and targets carried out at the LNL. The research groups usethese measurements for in-depth studies of useful features for understanding the structureof the nucleus and forces that bind protons and neutrons inside them, forming ordinary matter. AGATA is paired with the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA for reconstructing the trajectory of ions.
In the large machine complex, the time-of-flight spectrometer PISOLO and the GARFIELD apparatus for studying the dynamics of reactions are operational. The experimental room of the accelerator AN2000 houses an experimental station for studying the hypothetical X17 particle resonance, elemental analysis with micro-beam, and the physics of materials with the Rutherford Back Scattering technique. At the CN accelerator, there are, in particular, the lines dedicated to irradiation with neutrons and dosimetry. Every day, approximately 250 people access the Laboratories and there are approximately 700 external users per year.
