Astroparticle Physics in Europe
30 November 2014
Interview with Stavros Katsanevas Chairman of the General Assembly of APPEC
INFN Newsletter November 2014
Stavros Katsanevas
Astroparticle physics was born at the intersection of astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. It had multiple origins: the movement towards underground laboratories to study the decay of the proton and neutrino properties, the first detection of high energy photons using particle physics methods, the large surveys searching for astronomical dark matter. Today it addresses the physics of primordial Universe, the nature of dark matter and dark energy; the eventual unification of fundamental interactions; the properties of neutrinos and their role in cosmic evolution; the origin of cosmic rays; the Universe at extreme energies studied using multi-messenger probes including high energy cosmic rays, photons, neutrinos and gravitational waves.
After the Higgs discovery, with the measurement of neutrinos oscillations and the precision results the PLANCK satellite, we have for the first time the theoretical and experimental possibility to formulate a coherent picture of the Universe covering a multitude of energy scales: from the electroweak symmetry breaking scale, or Higgs scale if you wish, to this of inflation.