History
ITeDA, research and technology for Universe sciences
The Institute of Detection and Astroparticle Technologies (ITeDA) was created in 2009, following an agreement signed on November 24 of that year between the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the National University of San Martín (UNSAM), with the aim of promoting R&D projects and training of human capital in the area of universe sciences and the study of astroparticles, based on the demands and opportunities generated by the installation of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina and other related projects.
This is the first institute established by two of the most important organizations in the country that develop scientific and technological research, where UNSAM provided the required academic framework, thanks to its active policy of linking with entities in these fields.
ITeDA positions Argentina internationally in its contribution to the study and detection of radiation from outer space throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum and especially astroparticles (atomic nuclei, gamma rays and neutrinos). It also conducts research in observational cosmology (dark matter and dark energy) and innovative technological developments in electronics, telecommunications, data acquisition systems and atmospheric monitoring.
Since 2012, ITeDA is a member of the Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP) where it shares with prestigious organizations such as the Institute of Astroparticles and Cosmology in Paris and KAVLI, the Institute of Cosmological Physics in Chicago.
Likewise, the Institute coordinates the training of human resources at the postgraduate level in the areas of engineering and astrophysics, thanks to the academic support of UNSAM. It has also reached an agreement with the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) of Germany (an institution that plays a leading role in the Pierre Auger Project), for the exchange of students, both from Germany to Argentina and vice versa, which allows them to achieve a high level of specialization.
Background
It could be said that the study of cosmic rays in Argentina began in 1950, in parallel with the creation of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). At that time, a shelter was built on the slopes of Cerro Laguna, bordering the Maipo Volcano, in the Andes mountain range in the province of Mendoza. The original plan was to build an observatory, consisting of 30,000 Geiger detectors, which would be placed over 2 km2, but this project never materialized.
However, the shelter was later used for advanced studies with nuclear plates that were exposed to cosmic radiation by groups not linked to the original project. Among others, the renowned Italian-Argentine physicist Juan G. Roederer participated in these experiences during the summer of 1950/51, when he was still a student at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences at the UBA.
The 1950s were a golden age for the development of cosmic ray studies in Argentina. There were valuable contributions from the scientific concerns of CNEA researchers such as Juana María Cardoso, Adulio Cichini, Beatriz Cougnet, Horacio Ghielmetti, Emma Pérez Ferreira, Juan G. Roederer and Pedro Waloschek, who made important contributions from the Nuclear Plate Laboratory and later the Cosmic Radiation Laboratory, both of the CNEA.
Scientific expeditions were also carried out to Puente del Inca, Aconcagua, the Nevados del Aconquija, Cueva de Indios and Lanin and other experiments in the Province of Mendoza at different latitudes and heights to study the effect of both on cosmic radiation, for which data was collected from Villa Eva Perón, at 3,150 m above sea level; in Uspallata, at 1,800 m and in the city of Mendoza, at 747 m. These data were published in 1954 in the magazine Mundo Atómico by Juana María Cardoso, from the CNEA.
Later, in 1964, based on an agreement with the CNEA, the National Center for Cosmic Radiation was created, one of the first institutes of CONICET, established in the FCEyN of the UBA, and whose first director was Dr. Roederer. In 1969, this Center became the current Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics (IAFE).
Auger Project: new partnerships for the study of astroparticles
In 1995, a group of 140 physicists and engineers met at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in the United States, where they completed the design of the detector for the Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory, named after the French physicist. After securing support from the Universities Research Association (URA) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), UNESCO and the Grainger Foundation, a six-month workshop was held that same year, resulting in a report explaining the scientific motivation for the project, a vision of possible sites and a cost estimate.
This design report was the basis for a proposal to request funding from the participating countries, which at that time came from Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
It was thus that the Argentine astrophysicist Alberto Etchegoyen, who later became the first director of ITeDA, together with James Cronin, Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1980, began to think that an observatory of such characteristics could have its “base” in Argentina, a country that was already a candidate to host the great project thanks to the background in the study of cosmic radiation at the CNEA and the wide, clear sky and the surface of the yellow pampas south of the province of Mendoza, which generated the perfect conditions for the Observatory to become a reality.
The multidisciplinary work of physicists, astrophysicists, astronomers and engineers from around the world was able to materialize in the design of a complex detection system, consisting of the placement of 1,660 surface detectors – tanks containing ultra-pure water – covering a total area of 3,000 square kilometers, together with four buildings with high-sensitivity detectors to observe the faint fluorescence light generated by cosmic rays when passing through and interacting with the air.
