2023-05-03 00:02:19
The Archimedes experiment and the temporary premises of the SAR-Grav laboratory are installed in a former hangar dedicated to the maintenance and upkeep of the Sos Enattos mining site. Le Figaro/Tristan Vey
REPORTAGE – The abandoned mine of Sos Enattos, in Sardinia, has since 2021 housed a very high precision “scale” which seeks to establish whether quantum fluctuations in the vacuum are sensitive to the gravity field.
It’s quite a surprising place for a science lab. The Sos Enattos mine, lost in the middle of the Sardinian mountains, an hour’s drive from the east coast, was closed in 1996. The lead and zinc veins, already exploited 2,000 years ago by the Romans, were no longer profitable enough. The site was then converted into an open-air museum for twenty-five years. The exterior installations (access shafts, workshops, etc.) and part of the galleries have thus been maintained as they were. A few old machines and wagons full of rust are exposed here and there, in situation in the depths of the mine, or at the edge of the road which winds on the hillside in the maquis. The natural aridity of the landscape and the raw wooden planks that serve as signposts end up giving a Far West side to the whole.
These places now house, since 2019, a research laboratory, called SAR-Grav. Do not look for a brand new building or a room…
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