| National Scientific Committee II
INTRODUCTION

The National Scientific Committee II (N.S.C. II) deals with a very broad spectrum of scientific problems, all of them of a fundamental and advanced character.

Some of the themes are unique, some are complementary to the ones tackled by accelerator experiments. One can roughly subdivide the different initiatives into: big experiments at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS), studies of low energy rare processes, study of the cosmic rays by ground based, underwater or space experiments, accelerator and reactor neutrino physics, search for gravitational waves, experiments dealing with precise tests of quantum electrodynamics and quantum mechanics. Some of these experiments imply long term measurements and act as observatories, searching for very rare phenomena, often unobserved yet.The measurement of very rare events requires sensitivities and signal/noise ratios not achievable with detectors exposed to the normal cosmic ray flux; the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS), providing an adequate cosmic ray shield, is the best site for them. LNGS houses very different experiments; some need very large sensitive areas and volumes and occupy, nearly completely, the big experimental halls with detectors equipped with thousands of electronics channels; others, smaller, use cryogenic techniques or, like GNO, radiochemical techniques, obtaining remarkable results in the measurement of solar neutrinos. The absence of radioactive contamination, both in the detectors and in the nearby materials, is mandatory in many of these activities.

Technological efforts to achieve the needed purity and to measure the very low levels of contamination were particularly intense in recent years and will continue in the future, also in collaboration with other institutions.Many experiments are being carried out in other laboratories: searches for gravitational waves at LNF and LNL, neutrino experiments at CERN and at French nuclear reactors; cosmic ray experiments in Argentina, in Tibet, in Bolivia and at the Canaries. Some other experiments are carried out at INFN Sections, located in the leading Italian universities. The Scientific Committee II has always taken care that the research activity and the experiments were carried out at suitable locations to effectively reach precise scientific goals; at the same time, it has always encouraged activities able to strengthen the scientific and technological INFN structures; for instance the ROG experiment at LNF, AURIGA and PVLAS experiments at LNL, are dedicated to develop cryogenic and superconductive technologies in those laboratories.

The preparation of important experiments like PAMELA, AMS2, AGILE and GLAST to be placed on satellites and on a space station, goes on . The use of these new "labs" implies important technological developments and organization models different from the usual ones. The Committee recommended these initiatives as they concern INFN fundamental scientific problems and use detectors originally developed for particle physics.Most of the experiments correspond to large international collaborations, in which the INFN participation and contribution play a primary role, both scientifically and technologically.About 725 italian physicists are engaged in this complex scientific activity (75 more units if compared with 2001); 240 people are involved in experiments at the LNGS.During the year 2002 about 40 experiments, of different complexity and size, will be under way, some still in a R&D phase. Their experimental programs will be shortly described later on; among them it is worth pointing out:

- the continuation of the building phase of the big LNGS experiment BOREX;the project completion and the start of the construction of the OPERA experiment for studying neutrino oscillations with the long base beam (CNGS) from CERN to Gran Sasso; the satisfactory behaviour of the first ICARUS semi-module and the preparation for the installation of the first module at the LNGS;the continuation of the GNO experiment and the preparation for its new calibration;the preparation of the space experiments AMS2 and PAMELA and the start of the new experiments AGILE and GLAST;the inauguration of the ARGO-YBG experiment and the continuation of its construction; the advanced preparation for the AUGER experiment;the continuation of the data taking of the three gravitational wave antennas and the systematic search for coincidences; the dedicated search for gravitational waves from the SN1987A associated pulsar by the NAUTILUS antenna;the continuation of the VIRGO experiment construction and the successful locking of the central-area interferometer;the promising developments of the MANU2 experiment and the near completion of the MUNU experiment;
- the new activities in view of more intense neutrino beams (HARP and NEUTRINO-FACTORIES)

The recent and beautiful results of the SNO experiment give an additional confirmation both of the neutrino oscillation hypothesis and of the standard solar model.The continuation of the study of the neutrino oscillation phenomenon, with its deep implications for particle physics, requires a high priority given to experiments with artificial and long base-line neutrino beams. The CNGS program (beam from CERN to Gran Sasso) was developed and the OPERA proposal, utilizing nuclear emulsions to detect t decays, was approved. Groups from INFN and other countries are involved. Present indications favour a region in the (sin22q,Dm2 ) parameter space which requires detectors of very high sensitivity.The Committee attaches great importance to the studies relative to muon accumulators for the production of intense neutrino beams of known characteristics. The full understanding of the neutrino oscillation phenomenology and the precise determination of the mixing matrix requires such intense beams.The Committee supports these activities and hopes for a more incisive INFN action to first study and then to contribute to the preparation of the new facilities, in view of a new generation of neutrino physics experiments. The available budget for 2002 was preliminarly divided up into the different scientific lines pertaining to the Committee:

BUDGET FOR THE YEAR 2002

(Millions of Euro)

Big experiments at the LNGS | 10,85
Rare low energy processes | 0,80
Surface, space, underwater cosmic radiation studies | 10,90
Neutrino physics | 0,50
Search for gravitational waves | 1,80
General physics | 0,25
General purpose funds | 1,40
26,50
Reserve funds for financing new experiments | 1,50
Total | 28,00

The detail relative to the budget for any single experiment can be found in the information file of the experiment.