KNAW Agenda contains research facilities for gravitational waves, a free-electron laser and the world's strongest magnet
Yesterday, the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences (KNAW) announced which future research facilities have been included in the KNAW Agenda for large-scale research facilities. FOM plays a major role in four of the facilities. The KNAW Agenda is a collection of dream projects; ideas which in a few years' time could be included in national or European roadmaps. The KNAW Agenda thus supplements NWO's National Roadmap Large-Scale Research facilities that will be published later this year. The Agenda contains a total of 13 proposals for large-scale research facilities that will be desirable for innovative scientific work around or after 2025.
KNAW Agenda for large-scale research facilities
Large-scale research facilities are vital for progress in science and contribute to innovation and the solving of grand societal challenges. However, such facilities are expensive, and the proper planning and construction of the facilities costs a lot of time. KNAW wants to encourage scientists to 'dream and to jointly develop ideas for large-scale research facilities that could lead to new scientific breakthroughs in the future. The publication of the KNAW Agenda is the tangible product of a process in which scientists were called to submit their 'dreams' and to subsequently further elaborate these in several steps.
Einstein Telescope: measuring gravitational waves from Earth
The Einstein Telescope is to be an observatory for gravitational waves that can be realised in the Netherlands. This international facility, which Nikhef is involved in, would be largely located underground and would have various cryogenic interferometers with 10 km long arms. The design sensitivity would be at least a factor of 10 higher than could ever be achieved with the LIGO and Virgo detectors. This would make revolutionary physics and astronomy research possible with hundreds of thousands of detections of gravitational waves from astrophysical and cosmological sources per year. It would be possible to detect collisions of black holes in the entire universe, and that would make entirely new and innovative cosmological studies possible. Furthermore, it would be possible to test Einstein's theory of relativity with exceptional precision under conditions of the most extreme and dynamic curvatures of space-time.
eLISA: measuring gravitational waves from space
eLISA, a detector to measure gravitational waves in space, has also been included as a project on the KNAW Agenda. eLISA works with much longer base lines between the telescopes, making it particularly suitable for measuring the merging of supermassive black holes (typically a million solar masses). The space probe LISA Pathfinder, launched in 2015, was recently able to demonstrate that the key technology for eLISA is successful. The launch of eLISA is planned for 2034. eLISA will see the joint scientific forces of Nikhef, Radboud University, University of Amsterdam, Leiden University, University of Groningen, University of Twente, VU University and SRON. Nikhef, TNO, NOVA and SRON are working together on the technological developments for eLISA.
FEL-NL: a free-electron laser to film the nanoworld
The free-electron laser FEL-NL will produce ultrashort, ultrabright laser pulses. This will make it possible to study structures of nanometre dimensions at any timescale from several femtoseconds upwards. That will enable FEL-NL to show 'live' images of how ionising radiation damages biological structures, how catalysis works at the atomic level, or how incident sunlight reacts with the material of a solar cell. Furthermore, the laser could be used to study how the emitted radiation interacts with matter, which could help develop technologies such as new nanolithography techniques. FEL-NL will explore the boundaries of quantum electrodynamics that describe the interactions between light and matter at the smallest scale. The facility will be developed by the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL), the University of Groningen and Eindhoven University of Technology. The intention is for FEL-NL to be fully operational from 2024 onwards.
60 Tesla DC: the world's strongest magnet
The 60 Tesla DC facility will be able to maintain its maximum field strength of 60 teslas for many hours and as such, it will be thirty percent stronger than the strongest continuous magnets that currently exist. With high magnetic fields, we can look into matter without damaging it. In addition, with such strong magnets, it is possible to allow objects to levitate. That would allow us to study the influence of gravity on matter and living organisms. The 60 Tesla DC facility is a dream of the High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML, Radboud University). Together with the free-electron laser FELIX in Nijmegen, the facility would provide a worldwide unique combination of an extremely high magnetic field with an intense, adjustable terahertz radiation source. The total development of the facility would take about twenty years.
Further information
For further information, please consult the websites listed below. You can download or order the Research Agenda on the KNAW website.
KNAW
FOM Institute Nikhef
Einstein Telescope
LISA