The Dutch government is evaluating the double L configuration for the gravitational wave detector, opening the door to the Italian candidacy in Sardinia.
The Netherlands is back in the race in the European competition to host the Einstein Telescope, the ambitious future gravitational wave detector. Dutch Minister of Education, Culture, and Science Rianne Letschert has tasked the project office with evaluating a possible collaboration with Italy, opening the door to a double-L configuration with detectors in two different countries.
This move sets aside the initial hypothesis of a single triangular detector that would have excluded Italy. The President of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde, expressed satisfaction with the growing support for the double-L solution, hoping for "the broadest possible agreement" that confirms the path undertaken months ago with Saxony.
The Einstein Telescope is the most ambitious gravitational wave detector project conceived in Europe after CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein over a century ago and first observed only in 2015. This underground telescope could revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
The project was born with two possible configurations: a triangle with 10-kilometer sides or a double L with 15-kilometer arms in two different countries. Italy officially applied in 2023 to host one of the detectors in the former Sos Enattos mine in Sardinia, recognized as an ideal site due to its extremely low seismic noise. Germany had already shown interest, signing an agreement with Sardinia in 2026, while the Netherlands initially aimed for the triangular configuration in the Euregio region on the border with Germany.
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