An Interview with new APPEC Chair Frank Linde
9 February 2015
Frank Linde
On January 9, 2015 the General Assembly of the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium, APPEC, elected Frank Linde (director of Nikhef from 2004 to 2014) as its new Chair. He is taking over from Stavros Katsanevas (director of APC), who was chairing APPEC since November 2012. Linde’s appointment will be effective for the coming two years.
Q. Given the latest results from Planck, AMS, IceCube, and the upcoming second run of LHC, it is exciting times for astroparticle physics and cosmology.
F.L. For me astroparticle physics addresses incredibly tantalizing and fundamental scientific questions such as: What is the nature of dark matter & dark energy? What is the true nature of the neutrino? Can we, in addition to the cosmic microwave background, observe other signals from our infant Universe e.g. primordial gravitational waves and/or neutrinos? Moreover, astroparticle physics promises to open entirely new windows on our Universe complementing “traditional” electromagnetic dominated astronomy, by measurements of high-energy cosmic-rays and neutrinos, photons and gravitational waves. Examples of hot issues for me are: the indirect observation, albeit disputed, of primordial gravitational waves by BICEP2 and the high-energy (PeV) neutrinos observed by ICECUBE. More excitement I expect from the imminent release of the full Planck dataset; the eagerly expected first direct observation of gravitational waves by LIGO/Virgo; and the forthcoming results of next generation direct dark matter searches such as XENON1T as well as the results of LHC data-taking at 13-14 TeV. And on a slightly longer time schedule I look forward to the numerous facilities addressing neutrino properties. So: indeed astroparticle physics finds itself in very exciting times!
Q. What are the top priorities for APPEC in the near future and how do you expect to influence national and European policies in this direction?
F.L. A constant future challenge will be the development of ever more creative and performant detection technologies which can, where appropriate, be scaled-up to the required quantities at affordable costs. A top priority for me will be to get the large observatories in particular for multi-messenger studies really on track ie funded with a realistic spending profile taking into account exploitation costs. This will require in-depth project scrutiny notably in view of possible cost reductions and possibly some re-alignment of the ambitions of some projects in order to maintain the overall scope of the research field. Of course intense negotiations with the various funding agencies will be a sine-qua-non. I am convinced that with realistic proposals with an appealing discovery potential and by delivering upon our promises we will gain the support of our funding agencies.
Q. During the past couple of years APPEC has seen great achievements, continuing what ASPERA started: building the feeling of a European community in astroparticle physics. How do you think this can be strengthened in the future?
F.L. Like many of today’s astroparticle physicists, also my own background is in accelerator-based particle physics. It is also a well-known secret that I am a proponent of an expansion of CERN’s involvement in astroparticle physics. This not only because of its huge discovery potential and the many synergies between both fields but also because I deem it crucial that CERN continuous to “serve” its home base, that is the physicists at institutes and universities in Europe of which many have already a decade ago fully embraced astroparticle physics as a mature and important endeavour. From APPEC’s perspective we would benefit from a stronger CERN involvement by tapping into CERN’s very professional project review mechanisms as well as by hopefully attracting some of CERN’s resources to astroparticle physics. A difficulty will of course be that CERN itself has already more ambitions than it can presently fund. The best strategy to address all of this is by cooperation and I conclude with a quote from the latest release of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (2013) which I plan to take up from APPEC’s side:
“In the coming years, CERN should seek a closer collaboration with ApPEC on detector R&D with a view to maintaining the community’s capability for unique projects in this field.”
The APPEC consortium currently comprises funding agencies from 14 European countries and ESO as an observer. Since the launch of APPEC in June 2012, the consortium coordinates towards the next generation of research infrastructures defined in its roadmap, including high energy multi-messenger observatories, gravitational wave interferometers, experiments to derive neutrino properties and direct dark matter searches as well as dark energy surveys. In the first half of 2015 APPEC is organizing a second global neutrino conference at Fermilab, a Technology Forum on low-level light detection in Munich, and a cosmology workshop in Florence.
Submitted by Eleni Chatzichristou
APPEC Communications Office