The KLOE detector bows out

After twenty years of distinguished career (see http://agenda.infn.it/event/kloe2closing) and while the analyses of the data just collected by KLOE-2 are still ongoing, the KLOE detector bows out and is “parked” in the hall adjacent to the DAFNE building. It has been a complex move operation involving several researchers, engineers and technicians of the Frascati Laboratories (see video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThDEwuhE1hA).

The KLOE detector, whose overall weight exceeds 1500 tons, has been moved from the level of the colliding beams in DAFNE down to the ground floor, lowering it of around a metre and a half. Then, it has been translated on rails from the DAFNE hall to the former assembly hall, adjacent to DAFNE, having previously removed the concrete wall for radiation shielding which separated them. The whole operation has been completed – as planned – by the end of May. The interaction region occupied by KLOE/KLOE-2 is now ready to host the installation of SIDDHARTA-2, the next experiment scheduled at DAFNE.

But the future might still hold a few surprises for KLOE. Actually, its big magnet may be reused in an experiment dedicated to searching for the elusive particles called axions (KLASH proposal) or may be reused together with the electromagnet calorimeter for the “near detector” of the DUNE experiment (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) for the study of neutrinos, which is under construction at Fermilab in the USA.

Translation by Camilla Paola Maglione, Communications Office INFN-LNF