Paving the way for the Paarl-Africa Underground Laboratory

The Southern hemisphere offers a wonderful opportunity for scientists to explore unique initiatives offered by a low level radiation facility. Establishing a deep underground physics laboratory to study, amongst others, double beta decay, geo-neutrinos, reactor neutrinos and dark matter has been discussed for more than a decade within the austral African physicists’ community. The Paarl-African Underground Laboratory (PAUL) is foreseen as an open international laboratory, a unique opportunity for Africa, devoted to the development of competitive science in the region. It has the advantage that the location, the Huguenot tunnel, exists already and the geology and the environment of the site is appropriate for an experimental facility. A report of the most recent developments in the modelling of muon flux and muon measurements which are required for the establishment of the PAUL and the envisaged research programs is presented.

南半球为科学家们提供了一个绝佳的机会，去探索由一个低水平辐射设施所提供的独特项目。在非洲南部的物理学家群体中，建立一个深层地下物理实验室来研究双β衰变、地球中微子、反应堆中微子和暗物质等问题已经讨论了十多年。帕尔 - 非洲地下实验室（PAUL）被设想为一个开放的国际实验室，这对非洲来说是一个独特的机遇，致力于该地区有竞争力的科学发展。它的优势在于地点（胡格诺派隧道）已经存在，并且该地点的地质和环境适合建立一个实验设施。本文介绍了一份关于μ子通量建模和μ子测量的最新进展报告，这些对于建立PAUL和设想的研究项目是必需的。