Bedretto Physics

The Bedretto Underground Laboratory aims to provide Swiss researchers with a dedicated facility for conducting leading fundamental physics research, taking advantage of the low-background environment to enable new discoveries.

In early 2025 the UZH Particle Physics team began their measurement campaign of radioactivity backgrounds of the underground space. These involved measurements of cosmic muons, gamma rays and neutrons from the rock and radon in the air at the underground location where physics experiments could one day be hosted. We hope this is the first step to a lot of cutting edge R&D and research. 

• 5.2 km long, connecting the Furka train tunnel to the Bedretto valley 1’000 - 1’500 m overburden (comprable to LNGS underground lab in Italy)

• Underground laboratories provide crucial shielding for rare event detection experiments.

• The Bedretto Underground Laboratory is a new facility in Switzerland that provides a well-shielded environment for fundamental physics research.

• The Bedretto Laboratory project has three phases of increasing complexity, from initial radiation measurements to developing advanced detectors for dark matter, neutrinos, and gravitational waves.

Underground laboratories are essential for fundamental science due to their unique shielding from cosmic rays and natural radioactivity, enabling the detection of rare events that are at the surface not distinguishable against the overwhelming background of cosmic radiation. Underground shielding against cosmic rays is crucial for particle and astroparticle physics such as neutrino measurements and dark matter searches, nuclear astrophysics, and low-background experiments. Furthermore, the stable, low-noise and low-vibration environment offered by underground locations can be highly beneficial for gravitational wave searches and quantum sensors that are susceptible to vibrations and even quantum computing where decoherence of the quantum states can be caused by both, cosmic rays and vibrations.

We aim to establish a Swiss underground laboratory suitable for fundamental physics R\&D. The Bedretto Laboratory was established in 2019 in a side tunnel of the Furka Tunnel for geological research. It offers a unique opportunity for UZH researchers to conduct leading research in a well-shielded underground environment.

Stage 1: Developing clean lab space, operating High Purity Germanium counters for material screening for state of the art rare event search experiments

Stage 2: Liquid Xenon test setup and diluation refridgerator operating underground, performing precision science and detector R&D

Stage 3: Gravitation wave setup