SENSE: Seismology and ENvironmental background Science facility Enabler

SENSE：地震学和环境背景科学设施推动者

• 批准号: ST/Y003209/1
• 负责人: Tom Kettlety
• 金额: $ 14.9万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FY003209%2F1
• 关键词: SENSE; Seismology; ENvironmental; background; Science

A range of diverse, timely, and impactful physics and earth science research could be conducted with further investment in the Boulby Underground Laboratory (BUL). Terrestrial long-baseline atom interferometers have been proposed to measure gravitational waves and hunt for ultralight dark matter signatures with unprecedented precision. A proposed seismological and earth science laboratory could significantly improve monitoring of CO2 storage and wind farms in the North Sea, whilst simultaneously observing signals revealing the structure of Earth's interior, and facilitating coupled micro- and macro-scale processes. Before these proposed experiments, and many others, can be deployed at the BUL, a thorough measurement of background vibrations in and around the mine needs to be conducted. This study will perform the first broadband characterisation of seismo-acoustic noise at Boulby, both at the surface using a seismic array, and at-depth using novel fibre-optic acoustic sensors and a dynamic deployment of broadband seismometers. The results of this initial survey will allow for early estimations of environmental impact on the sensitivity of long-baseline quantum sensors at BUL, and to inform what continual monitoring would be needed for experiments like the Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network (AION) to operate at maximum precision. Likewise, in the earth sciences research domain, the proposed set of surface and deep seismic arrays will be an initial step into outfitting the BUL as a novel seismic and earth science laboratory with the potential to be a world leading facility for testing Earth imaging techniques and data synthesis through the varied instrument arrays.Results of this characterisation will also provide valuable datasets that can be used by other experiments wishing to move underground such as new quantum sensing technologies, quantum computers, and atomic clock networks, all of which rely on low vibrational noise and long-term stability, allowing them to make well-informed calculations of expected background noise and empower their decision-making about BUL.

通过对Boulby地下实验室（BUL）的进一步投资，可以进行一系列多样化、及时和有影响力的物理和地球科学研究。陆地上的长基线原子干涉仪被提议用来测量引力波，并以前所未有的精度寻找超轻暗物质的特征。拟议中的地震学和地球科学实验室可以显著改善对北海二氧化碳储存和风力发电场的监测，同时观测揭示地球内部结构的信号，并促进微观和宏观尺度过程的耦合。在这些拟议的实验和许多其他实验可以在BUL部署之前，需要对矿山内部和周围的背景振动进行彻底的测量。这项研究将对Boulby的地震声噪声进行首次宽带表征，包括在地面使用地震阵列，以及在深处使用新型光纤声学传感器和宽带地震仪的动态部署。这项初步调查的结果将允许早期估计环境对长基线量子传感器灵敏度的影响，并告知像原子干涉仪观测站和网络（AION）这样的实验需要什么样的持续监测才能达到最大的精度。同样，在地球科学研究领域，拟议的地面和深层地震阵列将是将BUL装备为新型地震和地球科学实验室的第一步，该实验室有可能成为通过各种仪器阵列测试地球成像技术和数据合成的世界领先设施。这一特性的结果也将提供有价值的数据集，可供其他希望转移到地下的实验使用，如新的量子传感技术、量子计算机和原子钟网络，所有这些都依赖于低振动噪声和长期稳定性，使他们能够对预期的背景噪声进行充分的计算，并赋予他们关于BUL的决策权力。