INO Fact Sheet

1. The India based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a basic sciences project to study neutrinos and is supported by the Government of India through DAE and DST. It is a result of a national collaborative effort by about 100 scientists from about 26 institutions (research institutes, IITs and universities) in India including Calicut University, Kerala. Its main goal is to study neutrinos. The detector that will be built at INO will study atmospheric neutrinos produced by naturally occurring cosmic rays interacting with the earths upper atmosphere. These studies will answer some important outstanding questions in particle physics and astrophysics. The detector will observe neutrinos produced in the atmosphere, much as we peer into the universe through optical telescopes.

2. Neutrinos are elementary particles like the electrons but are not part of the atoms. Unlike electrons they do not carry any electric charge and are almost massless. They are the most abundant particles in our universe other than photons (the quanta of light). There are about 300 neutrinos in every cubic centimeter of our universe. They were created in large numbers along with other elementary particles during the creation of our universe, i.e. during the Big Bang. They are also being created continuously inside all the main sequence stars like our Sun, in radioactive decays and by cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere. We can also create neutrinos using particle accelerators or in nuclear reactors. In fact our body also emits neutrinos. An average human body contains about 20 milligram of Potassium-40 which is radioactive and continuously emits neutrinos. 3. About 100 trillion neutrinos from the sun and other such objects are going through our body every second without doing any harm. In fact, neutrinos can even penetrate the earth without being stopped. This is because unlike other elementary particles, neutrinos hardly interact. This is also the reason why neutrinos are difficult to detect. We need to build huge detectors to even detect a handful of these neutrinos. In addition the neutrino detector needs to be placed underground as on the surface the detector will be overwhelmed with other cosmic ray events and it will be difficult to identify a handful of neutrino events from a huge background of cosmic ray events. Once you go deep underground, say a kilometer or so, most of the cosmic ray particles gets absorbed while the neutrinos can reach such a depth unhindered. 4. The proposed location of the laboratory is in the Bodi-West Hills region in Pottipuram Panchayat near Bodinayakanur in Theni district of Tamil Nadu. Though the location is close to the Kerala border, the tunnel and laboratory are entirely located below the mountain inside the state of Tamil Nadu. The location has been chosen and approved taking into account environmental and ecological factors, geological stability, and physics requirements. The Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) prepared the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for this project. The project has been discussed in detail at various levels with experts from the Tamil Nadu State Environment and Forest Department and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), Government of India. A formal presentation was made to the Experts Committee of MOEF in January 2011. Based on these, the project has now been given both environmental and forest clearances. 5. The laboratory will be located at a remote place in Bodi West Hills and there is no nearby building. In addition the tunnel and laboratory will be built using well-known engineering methods used in building road tunnels or metro rails that are coming up in many cities. The extracted rock debris, a

useful construction material, will be stored and then disposed by the Tamil Nadu government. Since most part of the tunnel and the underground laboratory will be deep inside the rock, there will be no effect on any dams located in the Idukki, Mullaperiyar or any other water body. The FAQ about the project is freely available on the INO website www.ino.tifr.res.in and has all the necessary information on the effect of rock vibration due to controlled blasting. 6. The INO project was entirely conceived and conceptualized by Indian scientists. An MoU signed by seven Indian institutes as early as August 2002 started this project. In 2005 a project report detailing the project was submitted by INO collaboration to DAE and DST requesting R & D funds. Over the next 6-7 years the collaboration was involved in various R & D efforts and was also looking for a suitable site with the help from Geological Survey of India. Till today INO is an entirely Indian effort. Foreign participation in INO collaboration will be considered if necessary at an appropriate time, in the spirit of international collaborations such as CERN. 7. At present there is no plan to send neutrinos beams from any other part of the world to this lab through the earth. Only some international studies are going on and are unlikely to take shape even in the next ten years. Even if this becomes a reality, the neutrinos that may be sent are the same as naturally occurring neutrinos in our own atmosphere and by their very nature they are harmless (since they are very weakly interacting particles). 8. INO is devoted basically to a study of nature and in doing so has no intention of harming nature. Scientists and Engineers working on the project are extremely conscious of this and all efforts will made to minimise any disturbance that may occur during construction time. During its operation, there is expected to be no disturbance to the environment. Most importantly, it has nothing to do with radioactivity or any other such hazardous operations. It has no strategic or defence implications. Scientists involved in this project are clarifying this to the local population by organising interaction meetings with local people as well as through public outreach programs. A meeting was also organised by the district collector of Theni District, Tamil Nadu on 25th January 2010, where the INO scientists explained the salient features of this project to the local MLA, Panchayat presidents, representative of farmers etc and obtained their consent for the project. In addition the project was again presented to the local people in a meeting conducted by the collector of Theni District at a local school in the Pottipuram Panchayat area on 8th July, 2010. More than 1000 local residents participated in this meeting where INO scientists explained the project details to them. At the end of the meeting the Collector of Theni district, after taking collective view of the people, announced that the project can go ahead. 9. The INO project is transparent and all information and relevant documents regarding the project details are available in the INO public web page www.ino.tifr.res.in including those for general public. 10. What does one expect from a mega science project like INO? Certainly excitement for carrying out front ranking research in the area of neutrino physics is the prime motivation. The detector that we are going to setup will address one of the key questions in the field of neutrino physics today. This in turn will guide us to pick up the correct theory beyond our current knowledge in particle physics. We will also learn about how matter behaved at extremely high energies as it existed at the early stage of our universe. Equally importantly, in the process of building this massive detector, we will develop various cutting edge technologies for state of the art particle detectors, the massive 50 kton magnet, sophisticated electronics, online monitoring and data acquisition system. Science students from all

over the country including those from Tamil Nadu and Kerala will have the opportunity to participate in building each of these components from scratch. In fact some of them are already doing that. Industries will be involved in a big way in developing many of these tools. So the benefits will go beyond just doing front ranking basic research. It will create an ambience of developing technology with ones own hands, a culture that is lacking in India. 11. Another important aspect of such a mega science project is that no single institute in the country has the ability or resources to do it alone. It has to be a collaborative enterprise. In fact already about 25 research institutes, IITs, universities from all over India have joined hands to make INO a success. Everybody is pitching in with the resources and expertise they have. Some are developing detectors, some electronics, some are working on various engineering aspects and some are optimising the detector through computer simulation. This culture of collaboration and co-operation is another benefit that will emerge out of such large mega-science project. We do hope when we complete the INO project, we will have a scientifically richer nation. 12. In summary, we reiterate that while it is true that the project is geographically in close proximity to the Kerala border in Idukki district, all the project components including the underground and overground facilities are located entirely in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu state. This is simply a geographical fact, but more importantly we hope the location, vis a vis the two major states in South India, will bring in students, scientists and institutions in these two states to work along with this allIndia collaboration to make this basic science project a resounding success. We also hope that in addition to Calicut University other institutions in Kerala also come forward and join INO to make it a success.