The 36th ICRC will be held in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, USA from July 24th – August 1st.
The International Cosmic Ray Conference, or ICRC, is a physics conference organized biennially by the Commission C4 (Astroparticle Physics) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Sciences (IUPAP) since 1947, where physicists from the world present the results of their research in Astroparticle Physics. The meeting covers cosmic-ray physics, neutrino physics, gamma-ray astonomy, dark matter, particle astrophysics, and detector techniques in these fields.
Rear-side view of a suspended mirror. Image credit: EGO/Virgo Collaboration/Perciballi.
The Virgo and LIGO detectors are ready to start the new Observing run called O3, lasting a whole year. The hunt for gravitational waves is set to start on April 1st when the European Virgo detector, based in Italy at the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), and the LIGO twin detectors, located in the state of Washington and Louisiana (USA), will start to take data becoming together the most sensitive gravitational wave observatory to date.
During a one-year period the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations will register science data continuously, and the three detectors will operate as a global observatory. Since August 2017, the end of the second observation run O2, the two collaborations have intensively worked on their interferometers to improve the sensitivity and reliability. Scientists have also improved their offline and online data analysis and developed further the procedures for releasing Open Public Alerts: these will within minutes notify the physics and astronomy community when a potential gravitational-wave event is observed.
The scientific output of observation run O3 is expected to be tremendous and it will potentially reveal new exciting signals coming from new sources.
The Helmholtz Association is funding an international graduate school for multi-messenger astronomy, which is organised by DESY, the Humboldt University Berlin, the University of Potsdam and the Israeli Weizmann Institute of Science.
Multimessenger astronomy, the exploration of the Universe using a multitude of cosmic messengers, has led to several groundbreaking discoveries during the last few years, many of which built on significant contributions from the partner institutions.
With a new generation of instruments, advanced methods of exploiting their data, as well as extensive theoretical modeling, members of this research school have unique research opportunities in this emerging field.
The partner institutions are involved in several leading observatories, e.g. the Cherenkov Telescope Array, the IceCube neutrino observatory or the Zwicky Transient Facility, to which the students will have access.
Last week the International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes took place in Venice, Italy. The focus of the workshop was Multimessenger Physics. Matching the topic of the conference the chair of the APPEC General Assembly Teresa Montaruli gave a talk on Multimessenger Physics and the APPEC strategy.
In the end a round table, moderated by T. Montaruli, with F. Halzen and C. Rubbia on Perspectives and Challenges of Multimessenger Astrophysics took place. F. Halzen discussed Multimessenger in connection to particle physics and the future of neutrino astronomy was discussed by A. Karle. The question was raised how APPEC will support the R&D: by increasing synergy of Gravitational Waves, Dark Matter and Neutrino Double Beta Decay experiments and involving CERN, Technology Fora and ECFA Panel.
The GWADW2019 – From Advanced Interferometers to Third Generation Observatories – will take place from 19-25 May 2019 at Hotel Hermitage, La Biodola, Isola d’Elba.
After the detection of a Binary Neutron Star (BNS) merger, following earlier Binary Black Hole (BBH) merger detections, Gravitational Wave Detection Astronomy is now entering a new phase with a year long observational period beginning early 2019. Multimessenger Astronomy is coming with new questions that can be only partially answered with present instruments, even taken to their limit performance.
In the medium term Gravitational wave astronomy is calling for third generation observatories, surveying with high statistics source populations while recording also fainter, remote or low rate sources. The design of third generation observatories is entering a detailed phase while the construction of the best possible instruments in the current sites is starting. All this requires detailed studies and experimentation to master the difficult challenges being faced, learning from present instruments and exploring new frontiers.
This workshop is the main place where new ideas as well as research and development for future gravitational wave detectors are discussed, covering all instrumental aspects of gravitational wave detection.
The 22nd International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation and the 13th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves will take place from July 7-12, 2019 in Valencia, Spain.
GR22 is the latest in the series of triennial international conferences held under the auspices of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. This conference series constitutes the principal international meetings for scientists working in all areas of relativity and gravitation. The Amaldi conferences are held under the auspices of the Gravitational Wave International Committee. Since 1997, they have been held every two years and are regarded as the most important international conferences for the gravitational-wave detection community. In Valencia, GR22 and Amaldi13 are organized as a joint event. The organization is coordinated by Drs. José Antonio Font and José Navarro-Salas, from the University of Valencia (UV) / Instituto de Física Corpuscular (UV-CSIC), on behalf of a large national committee. Organisational support is provided by the Fundación Universidad Empresa UV – ADEIT.
The ESA/ESO SCIOPS workshop 2019 on “Cross Facilities Collaboration in the Multi Messenger Era” will be held from 19-22 November 2019 at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), ESA, Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.
With the observations of electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events and to high-energy neutrinos, astrophysics has entered the multi-messenger era. New powerful survey facilities at different wavelengths are becoming reality and will hugely increase the number of potentially interesting targets in the next few years. A growing network of observatories is being made ready to follow up on exciting events. But the sheer number of expected follow-up targets and the complexities of collaboration and coordination among wide groups of researchers and different observatories poses many challenges to the existing means and ways of working.
At the same time, technology continues to make rapid advances, allowing for unprecedented interconnectivity, fast and interactive visualisation and new methods of machine-supported analysis for huge data sets. As the everyday experience of dealing with technology and information evolves, so do requirements on the organisations providing data to the scientific community and the general public.
This 4th ESA-ESO collaborative workshop will focus on the experiences gained in the last years in multi-mission, multi-wavelength and multi-messenger collaboration, on the challenges for the coming years and on ideas and approaches to tackle these challenges.
The 10th ET Symposium will be held from 11-12 April 2019 at Orosei, Sardinia, Italy, 30km away from the Sos Enattos Mine, one of the candidate sites of Einstein Telescope.
2019 is a crucial year for the ET. The 10th annual symposium will mark the official beginning of the ET international collaboration, with voting the statute of the collaboration and the public kick-off of the preparation of the ET proposal for the ESFRI roadmap update. At the meeting the science case of the future 3G network and the update of the ET conceptual design will be discussed.
A limited number of talks and posters will be accepted at the symposium. Young researchers are kindly and strongly invited to submit their proposal for a talk or a poster. Submission is expected to close the 15th of March 2019
On February, 11-12 2019 the European Alliance for Earth Sciences – GEO.8, the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium – APPEC and the Academia Europaea organized the Workshop on Observatory Synergies for Astroparticle Physics and Geoscience at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) ( https://indico.in2p3.fr/event/18287/ )
More than 60 scientists and representatives of funding agencies and companies from 11 European countries gathered together. The aim was to discuss the scientific and technical overlapping topics of the two communities and to promote a common strategy for the future.
It is also important to note that in the framework of the EU-funded ASPERA ERANET, precursor of APPEC, three workshops in the period 2011-2012 had been organized and a brochure had been prepared in order to address and develop synergies between astroparticle physicists and geoscientists.
At IPGP, many overlapping aspects concerning science, technology/methodology and societal impacts have been identified. Some of the highlights are mentioned in the following.
Neutrinos covering a broad energy spectrum and detected by different astroparticle underground, underwater and under-ice observatories have the potential to additionally give precious information about the Earth’s mantle and core.
Cosmic ray muons, are a very promising tool to complement to geophysical imaging techniques such as gravimetry to investigate underground structures, with many applications ranging from volcano monitoring to archaeology and underground structure prospection.
Methodologies developed in the context of gravitational wave research, e.g. for the monitoring of micro-seismic noise and/or stronger seismic incidents can have applications ranging from Earthquake Early Warning systems to the monitoring and risk evaluation of large civil infrastructures. Inversely, geoscientific techniques and algorithms realized for subsoil mapping and assessment of the seismic noise have a return to gravitational wave environmental noise hunting issues. Ocean imaging is another example of measurements that geoscientists and deep ocean neutrino observatories commonly perform, e.g. through the deployment of acoustic sensors. They can give precious information on seismic activity as well as hints about biological formations and the behavior of deep ocean life.
More generally, astroparticle physicists and geoscientists working with underground or underwater facilities/instrumentation can reveal with unprecedented detail the characteristics and the geological role of “deep-life” in Earth or Ocean.
An overview of recent discoveries on life in the deep Earth attracted much attention and confirmed the needs of investigations in extreme environment.
On the technical front, the innovations concerning large distributed seismic and gravimetry networks based on very new technologies have an impact on both sides of the astro-geo-synergy. A common interest arose thus on the recent developments using optical fibers as distributed acoustic or strain sensors monitoring large areas as well as means of implementation of precise timing and synchronization.Last but not least, a geoscience observatory in preparation, the Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT, www.kmt.is) was presented as an example of a possible locus of development of synergies around a large infrastructure.
In the discussion that followed the presentation of the above characteristic but certainly not exhaustive list of synergies, the gathered agencies and leading scientists decided to pursue and enhance the work along the following lines:
The sustainable institution of yearly meetings on these common topics of synergy, eventually opening them to the global community. The effort to implicate ESFRI and Other World Class (OWC) infrastructures, from both fields in order to assess synergies has to be enhanced. The participants demanded therefore that next meetings could be organized close to large infrastructures of either field. The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), host of the VIRGO gravitational-wave detector close to Pisa, in Italy, will thus be the location of the next workshop in 2020. It was also recommended to involve already existing overlapping communities, such as the geoneutrino one, already engaged in the organization of conferences and summer schools on shared topics.
The common future demands concerning computing and IT technology, already the subject of COST actions (e.g. COST CA17135 on Machine Learning in Geoscience and Gravitational Waves) have not been deeply treated in the workshop in Paris but should be considered in the near future and included in a dedicated event and/or in the planned conference of 2020.
In order to realize ambitious collective projects, the APPEC and GEO.8 representatives recommended to summarize the shared demands and aims in a roadmap for the upcoming years. An ad hoc working group for the preparation of this document will be soon established. The different funding agencies and organizations involved in APPEC, GEO.8, EGU and AGU – the European and American Geoscience Unions, could be then more easily engaged in joint activities involving for instance the realization of large infrastructures such as those proposed by the KMT Consortium.
Concerning the consortia links, the Chair of the Executive Board of GEO.8 will be invited to the General Assembly meetings of APPEC as an observer and vice-versa. The Earth and Cosmic Sciences section of the Academia Europaea can provide the framework for further discussing and exploring synergies between astroparticle physicists and geoscientists.
Last but not least, the EU framework programs Horizon 2020 and the future Horizon Europe are an opportunity to finance joint activities in different categories e.g. FET, ERC synergy, MSCA- COFUND/ ITN/ RISE, without excluding possible options in the pillars Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges, and the respective successors in FP9.
This document (here as pdf) is signed by the organizing team, the representative of Academia Europaea, the chair of APPEC and the Executive Secretary of GEO.8: Michel Diament, Stavros Katsanevas, Francesca Moglia, Paolo Papale, Teresa Montaruli and Alexander Rudloff
The International School on Gravity from Earth to Space, 21-23 May, aims to bring together PhD students, Post Docs and young researchers from LISA and Earth interferometer communities who during three intense days will have the opportunity to follow a series of lectures on gravity, gravitational waves with a focus on detectors, data analysis techniques and astrophysical source science including electromagnetic and astroparticle observations. Discussions among students and lecturers will be encouraged being the location of the conference and of the social program the Hotel San Domenico just in front of the beautiful Ducal Palace in Urbino, Italy.
Neutrinos covering a broad energy spectrum and detected by different astroparticle underground, underwater and under-ice observatories have the potential to additionally give precious information about the Earth’s mantle and core.
Ocean imaging is another example of measurements that geoscientists and deep ocean neutrino observatories commonly perform, e.g. through the deployment of acoustic sensors. They can give precious information on seismic activity as well as hints about biological formations and the behavior of deep ocean life.
In the discussion that followed the presentation of the above characteristic but certainly not exhaustive list of synergies, the gathered agencies and leading scientists decided to pursue and enhance the work along the following lines: