| has gloss | eng: OPERA experiment (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) has been designed to perform the most straightforward test of the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations. This experiment exploits the CNGS high-intensity and high-energy beam of muon neutrinos produced at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron in Geneva pointing towards the LNGS underground laboratory at Gran Sasso, 730 km away in central Italy. OPERA is located in the Hall C of LNGS and it is aimed at detecting for the first time the appearance of tauon neutrinos from the transmutation (oscillation) of muon neutrinos during their 3 millisecond travel from Geneva to Gran Sasso. In OPERA, tauons resulting from the interaction of tauon neutrinos will be observed in "bricks" of photographic emulsion films interleaved with lead plates. The apparatus contains about 150000 of such bricks for a total mass of 1300 tons and is complemented by electronic detectors (trackers and spectrometers) and ancillary infrastructure. Its construction has been completed in spring 2008 and the experiment is currently collecting data. |
