It will therefore be a race no longer between two, but between three, to become the site of the construction of the Einstein Telescope gravitational wave observatory.
Yesterday the official announcement arrived: in addition to Sardinia – with the former Sos Enattos mine in Lula – and the Meuse-Rhine region between the Netherlands and Belgium , Lusatia , in eastern Germany, will also be in the running.
Lusatia – Lausitz in German – is a historic region of Saxony, located on the border with Poland. Leading the German ET team will be Christian Stegmann , head of astroparticle physics at the DESY research center. The German group, it is explained, will proceed with preparatory activities for the project's implementation, namely "studies of the subsurface, economic impact and general feasibility, the formation of a host consortium, and the search for funding and support at the local, regional, and national levels."
As with the other candidate sites, the Lusatia team will also examine "both geometries currently under consideration for the detector: the triangular one and the L-shaped one (Italy is also aiming for the latter, ed.)".
The official website of the German ET project lists the strengths of Lusatia's candidacy.
Among the advantages, it is highlighted that "Germany is geographically connected to the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion to the west and Lusatia to the east. This unique location offers a natural bridging role between (potential) candidate sites and underscores Germany's responsibility to contribute constructively and inclusively to the ongoing site selection process."
A "bridge" that could somehow penalize Sardinia's candidacy? "Quite the opposite: it's an enrichment," Marco Pallavicini, vice president of the INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics), explains to UnioneSarda.it.
"From a scientific standpoint," Pallavicini continues, "greater competition, especially if the entry is from Germany, a large and highly advanced nation, can only have positive repercussions for everyone . Furthermore, having two candidates in Northern Europe will not have negative side effects on the candidacy of the southern site, namely the one in Sardinia, but rather will open up important new scenarios."
"We," concludes the INFN vice president, "are moving forward with our project, but there's obviously great collaboration. Therefore, expanding the range of competitors who could potentially become partners is certainly a positive development that we can only welcome."