Twitter bird

APPEC Logo
  • APPEC Roadmap Advert

International School on Astroparticle Physics

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

4 May 2015

International School on Astroparticle Physics

ISAPP School on Cosmology. June 15-25, 2015, Paris, France

Every year, the ISAPP European network* organises schools in astroparticle physics at the doctoral level for experimentalists, observers and theorists. The present school will be held in Paris, 15- 25 June 2015, and is dedicated to Cosmology. Time is ripe for an in-depth look at the field in light of the new results from the Planck satellite mission and the beginning of an era of large surveys dedicated to dark energy research. No prior experience in cosmology is required as introductory courses will present the standard cosmological model and observational techniques. Topics to be covered include the cosmic microwave background, the early universe, large-scale structure, dark energy observations and theory, modified gravity, instrumental techniques. It will finish with a look to future prospects in major research areas.

The School is open to PhD students and post-docs working in the fields of cosmology, high energy astrophysics and particle physics. Lectures will take place close to the APC laboratory in Paris. Pre-registration will be open from March 5th to April 26th. Please send a CV and have your adviser send an email in support of your application. For more details, please consult the School’s website.

ISAPP is a network of 33 European doctorate schools and institutes from nine European Union countries plus Russia and Israel. ISAPP’s main goal is to create a real astroparticle community amalgamating the elementary particle and astrophysics communities. To this purpose exchanges between students and lecturers are promoted as far as common doctorate theses; in addition every year two to three events are organized, normally two schools and sometimes also a summer institute. More information can be found on the ISAPP web site.

Towards the realization of a global neutrino infrastructure

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

30 April 2015

2nd International Meeting on Large Neutrino Infrastructures

Press Release
Date Issued: April 30, 2015

The agency(1) representatives and laboratory directors(2) gathered at the 2nd International Meeting on Large Neutrino Infrastructures(3) hosted at Fermilab on 20-21 April 2015, reiterated their firm belief that neutrino physics is a worldwide research priority in fundamental physics.

As was stated by the Nobel Prize winner Carlo Rubbia at the meeting: “The neutrino together with the Higgs, are so far the only elementary particles whose basic properties are still largely unknown”. The complexity of the questions concerning the nature of the neutrino and its impact on the knowledge and understanding of our universe, demands a coherent programme, ranging from large infrastructure deployment to small scale projects. This complexity continues to be a constant source of innovation in accelerator, particle detection and underground technologies, with significant societal applications. Furthermore, the parallel increase in precision of the terrestrial neutrino program and of cosmological surveys, measuring the impact of neutrinos in cosmic structure formation, is a major avenue to probe new physics beyond the Standard Models of Fundamental Interactions and/or Cosmology.

During the first meeting of last year the agencies had invited the neutrino scientific community to develop urgently a coherent international programme in the long-baseline oscillation accelerator field, consistent with the recommendations of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and the HEPAP/P5(4) report. In the second meeting, organized by Fermilab and APPEC(5) , the agency representatives were impressed by the rapidity, quality of convergence and momentum of the efforts of the community working on liquid argon Time Protection Chambers (LAr TPCs), to develop a credible scientific program based on:

    1. an ambitious large infrastructure effort, consisting of a long-baseline beam and detector project (LBNF/DUNE(6)) hosted at Fermilab and SURF(7), based on previous design studies, but largely upgrading them, proposed by an international collaboration, very rapidly setting up its governance structure and preparing answers to an aggressive schedule of DOE critical design reviews in July and November 2015;
    2. a medium-scale programme of short-baseline oscillation experiments at Fermilab (Short-Baseline Near Detector, MicroBoone(8) and ICARUS(9)) aiming to test the sterile neutrino hypothesis with unprecedented accuracy;
    3. a rich R&D and prototyping programme in the CERN North Area, related to the above programme along with other long-baseline efforts in the world (e.g. Hyper-Kamiokande(10)).

The agencies and national laboratory directors welcomed the proposed measures to complement the establishment of the international collaboration for LBNF/DUNE with appropriate agency oversight bodies: the Long-baseline Neutrino Committee (LBNC), the Resource Review Board (RRB) and an International Advisory Committee (IAC).

In addition they appreciated the progress towards the realization of the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment. An international proto-collaboration encompassing the cosmic ray and particle physics communities has been formed with large international participation and largely complementary to the LBNF/DUNE US-based program. A Memorandum of Understanding between IPNS/KEK and ICRR, University of Tokyo regarding cooperation in promoting Hyper-Kamiokande was recently signed. The Hyper-Kamiokande detector design, based on the well-established water Cherenkov detection technique, is being optimized by the international collaboration and a design report will be prepared in 2015 in view of the next immediate milestone of an international review under IPNS/ICRR.

The agencies noted the complementarity of the large detectors using different detection techniques (water, liquid argon, and liquid scintillator) in the program of neutrino parameter measurements but also, and above all, in the domain of proton decay and neutrino astrophysics. Furthermore, the complexity of the neutrino sector is such that the larger programmes need to be complemented by small and medium scale programs. The overall coherence between these programmes will guarantee an understanding of whether the Standard Model with three neutrino flavours is the one realised in Nature or, conversely, establish a ground-breaking discovery. In this context, one should consider the importance of the reactor and source neutrino experiments attempting to clarify the “reactor anomaly”, possibly due to sterile neutrinos, or the proposed measurements of the neutrino mass hierarchy by atmospheric (PINGU(11), ORCA(12), INO(13)) and reactor neutrinos (JUNO(14),RENO-50(15)). The agencies also took note of the good progress in the evaluation of systematics affecting the measurements of the neutrino mass-hierarchy by PINGU and ORCA and encouraged their further coordination actions.

Finally, there is a rich and diverse physics program in the development of single beta and neutrino-less double beta decay experiments exploring the degenerate neutrino mass region till the end of this decade. The ambitious goal for neutrino-less double-beta decay in the next decade will be the coverage in sensitivity of the inverted mass-hierarchy region. Achieving this goal will require ton-scale detectors and may require large-scale enrichment of isotopes, boosting the scale of the infrastructures and, hence, demanding large international collaborations for their construction. This coordination would involve an effort similar to the one performed for the long-baseline program, but still requires the continuation of the current measurements and R&D work for the next two or three years. It further implies the coordination with agencies not currently present at the 2nd International Neutrino Meeting. In view of the above, the agencies will deploy the necessary efforts so that all major stakeholders coordinate in the next years in the effort to identify the most promising technologies for ton-scale detector(s) whose construction could start towards the end of this decade.

The agencies and the laboratory directors thanked the Neutrino ICFA panel(16) as well as the IUPAP working group of APPIC(17) for accompanying the process and providing key advice and insight on the program.

The 3rd International Neutrino Meeting on Large Neutrino Infrastructures, to review progress towards these aims, will take place in Japan in early 2016 at a venue to be decided later this year.

Footnotes

(1) In the meeting the agencies were represented by (in agency alphabetical order): J. Siegrist (associate director Department Of Energy, DOE), R. Pain (deputy director Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et Physique des Particules, IN2P3/CNRS), A. Masiero (deputy director Insituto Nationale de Fisica Nucleare, INFN), H. Tanaka (representing the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, NSERC), J. Seed (Associate Director of Science and Technology Facilities Council, STFC, UK), A. Ereditato (representing SNFS and SERI, Switzerland). H. J Donath from PT-DESY representing BMBF Germany. R. Davidson and G. Leveque (Vice-president and Director of programs respectively of the Canada Foundation of Innovation, CFI) participated as observers. APPEC was represented by its chair F. Linde.
(2) In the meeting the directors of laboratory present were (in laboratory alphabetical order): F. Gianotti director-general elect and S. Bertolucci director of research at CERN, N. Lockyer director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, N. Roe director of Physics Division of LBL, J. Cao deputy director of Institute of High Energy Physics, IHEP of Beijing, N. Mondal Project Director of the India-Based Neutrino Observatory INO, P. Chomaz director of the Institut de Recherche sur les lois Fondamentales de l’Univers, IRFU/DSM/CEA, T. Kobayashi Deputy Director of the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies (IPNS) High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Japan, N. Smith director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, SNOLAB, Dr. Kim SB director of RENO laboratory, Korea. The ICFA neutrino panel and APPIC were represented by K. Long and M. Spiro, respectively.
(3) Second International Meeting for Large Neutrino Infrastructures
(4) HEPAP/P5: The Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel report was delivered and approved by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel in May 2014
(5) APPEC (Astroparticle Physics European Consortium)
(6) LBNF/DUNE : Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility/ Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
(7) Sanford Underground Research Facility
(8) MicroBoone
(9) ICARUS : Imaging Cosmic And Rare Underground Signals
(10) Hyper-Kamiokande
(11) PINGU : Precision IceCube Next Generation Upgrade
(12) ORCA : Oscillations Research with Cosmics in the Abyss
(13) INO : India-based Neutrino Observatory
(14) JUNO : Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory
(15) RENO-50 : Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillation
(16) ICFA : International Committee for Future Accelerators neutrino panel
(17) APPIC: Astroparticle Physics International Committee

Public Awareness of Research Infrastructures – Call for Abstracts

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

28 April 2015

Public Awareness of Research Infrastructures

Workshop on “Public awareness of Research Infrastructures: – Expectations – Experiences – Examples”
Venue: European Southern Observatory, Garching (near Munich), Germany, 18-19th June 2015

The workshop is co-organised by the Association of European-level Research Infrastructure Facilities (ERF-AISBL), the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Scope of the workshop:

A common task of large scale, European Research Infrastructures is to disseminate their achievements and capabilities to funding bodies as well as to the general public. Similar expectations on Public Relations (PR) concern large public funded projects like Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives (EU) or other big consortia (national projects). The aim of this workshop is to bring together representatives from funding agencies with facility and project managers to discuss the needs and expectations of dissemination activities. It should act as a forum for information officers to share experience of their work.

Topics:

  • What do science organisations expect from PR?
  • How is PR organised at large scale Research Infrastructures?

Sessions:

  • Communicating the socio-economic return of large scale facilities
  • Using social media for science communication
  • Communication to target groups
  • Addressing the media and journalists
  • PR of a facility under construction
  • Public engagement with large scale facilities
  • Risk communication
  • PR of European projects

Deadline for abstract submission: 1st of March 2015

Forefront science with IceCube and beyond

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

28 April 2015

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (Credit: IceCube Collaboration).

An interview with Marek Kowalski and Olga Botner

IceCube, the South Pole neutrino observatory, is a large scientific facility – the only cubic-kilometre detector constructed so far using natural ice as a Cherenkov medium. An array of more than 5000 digital optical modules records the very rare collisions of neutrinos to probe distant astrophysical sources, search for dark matter and study the properties of these elusive particles themselves. The IceCube construction was completed in late 2010 and the facility has been providing scientists with large amounts of data ever since.

More than ten thousand high-energy neutrinos pass the detector surface per second, but only a few hundreds can be detected per day by the cubic kilometre detector, most of them originating in the Earth’s atmosphere. Far rarer are neutrinos with cosmic origin from our galaxy or beyond, which have long been theorized to probe the most violent astrophysical sources (supernovas, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, black holes, and other extreme phenomena of extragalactic origin).

In November 2013 the IceCube Collaboration announced the discovery of the first high energy neutrinos, providing solid evidence for astrophysical neutrinos originating outside our solar system. The importance of this discovery has been acknowledged by the scientific community (awarded the “breakthrough of the year” by the British magazine Physics World), revealing their potential to explore our universe at energies at the PeV scale (1 Peta-electron-volt equals 1 million GeV) and above, where most of the universe is opaque to high-energy photons.

The highest-energy neutrino event observed by IceCube, with an estimated energy of 2 PeV. It was dubbed “Big Bird” (Credit: IceCube Collaboration).

Recently, the collaboration announced that the DeepCore array (designed to lower the IceCube neutrino energy threshold to energies as low as about 10 GeV) measured neutrino oscillations with high precision, providing further evidence that neutrinos change their identity as they travel through the Earth and its atmosphere. The observation of these neutrino oscillations results in significantly improved constraints on the neutrino oscillation parameters.

The latest results from Deep Core indicate that IceCube, originally designed to detect neutrinos from astrophysical sources, is actually turned into a multipurpose detector that can also deliver frontier particle physics results. This is very timely, in view of the planned upgraded detector called PINGU (Precision IceCube Next Generation Upgrade), a multinational effort run by the IceCube Collaboration to measure neutrino properties with high precision. And even more importantly, in view of the recently formed IceCube-Gen2 Collaboration, planning a full extension of the IceCube detector (including the PINGU sub-array).

In the interview below Prof. Marek Kowalski, from the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin and DESY Zeuthen, and Prof. Olga Botner, from Upsala University and IceCube Spokesperson, talk about the importance of the latest Deep Core results, the planned PINGU detector and IceCube-Gen2.

Prof. Marek Kowalski

Q: What are the so-called neutrino oscillations and how can IceCube pin them down?
MK: Neutrinos transform during propagation through vacuum or matter from one flavour of neutrino to another. This phenomenon is known as neutrino oscillation and is only possible if neutrinos have mass. The detection of neutrino mixing in atmospheric neutrinos observed as the disappearance of muon neutrinos was first announced by Super-Kamiokande in 1998. Now we have shown that with three years of data, the IceCube detector with its DeepCore infill-array can be used to observe neutrino oscillations with a precision matching that of Super-Kamiokande after 15 years of data taking. With the analysis currently being improved and more data being taken, we are working towards becoming competitive with accelerator experiments.

Prof. Marek Kowalski.

Q: Why is it important to understand neutrino oscillations and what are the implications of the recent findings for astroparticle physics and cosmology?
MK: Neutrinos are the least understood elementary particles. A fundamental question concerns the origin of the neutrino masses. The fact that neutrinos have a non-zero mass is already first evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, perhaps providing a window to the GUT (Grand Unified Theory) scale. Understanding the neutrino mass ordering allows narrowing down the possible phenomenological models. Finally, massive neutrinos influence how the Universe evolves, since they initially move with relativistic velocities suppressing the formation of structure, but as the Universe cools down, due to their rest mass, they start to act as cold dark matter eventually. A future measurement of the neutrino mass ordering would be important for upcoming cosmological surveys, such as planned for EUCLID and LSST. The current results provide an important experimental confirmation that the very cost-effective concept of building giant atmospheric neutrino detectors in the open ice/water is working, allowing to plan ahead for a new generation of detectors to address the fundamental question of neutrino mass ordering.

Q: What’s covered by PINGU’s upgraded design (hardware and software) and capabilities? Why do we need even higher precision measurements?
MK: The most important aspect of PINGU (and ORCA for that matter) is that it will have an order-of-magnitude reduced energy threshold of roughly a GeV, while retaining a several megaton large detector. The low energy threshold is achieved through a denser spacing of light sensors. The default is to use an upgraded version of the Digital Optical Module of which 5160 were deployed within IceCube. These light sensors operate with vanishingly small failure rate in the ice of the South Pole since a decade already. At the same time alternative sensor technologies are also being explored. The measurement of the neutrino mass ordering is challenging since its signature amounts to only a few percent change in flux. Hence the project is designed to provide not only a large statistics of neutrinos but also very good control of systematic uncertainties.

Q: What are the major science goals that PINGU will address?
MK: PINGU will collect an unprecedented statistics of atmospheric neutrinos in the 1-20 GeV range with improved control of systematic uncertainties. Through the oscillation patterns PINGU will be sensitive to the neutrino mass ordering, i.e. whether there are two light neutrinos and one heavy neutrino or whether it’s the other way around. But PINGU will also be very sensitive to neutrinos from low mass WIMPs annihilating in the Sun or Earth, as well as to astrophysical sources of neutrinos emitting in the multi-GeV range.

Prof. Olga Botner

Prof. Olga Botner.

Q: Improved sensitivity, statistically significant samples of high-energy neutrinos, and ultimately new astrophysical discoveries are the stated science goals of IceCube-Gen2. Could you comment on these?
OB: The IceCube-Gen2 Collaboration aims to substantially enhance the current IceCube detector and expand its science potential at both low and high energies. Exploiting the huge samples of atmospheric neutrinos with varying baselines, the proposed dense PINGU in-fill array will have an energy threshold low enough to pursue the question of the neutrino mass ordering and make competitive measurements of muon-neutrino disappearance and tau-neutrino appearance. The measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters should reach a precision competitive with that foreseen for T2K. For the high-energy array, we envisage to expand the present IceCube with roughly 100 additional strings with an inter-string spacing of 250m, i.e. will double that of IceCube. With the new order-of-10 Gigaton detector we expect a gain in sensitivity and angular resolution which will allow us to explore the high-energy universe with the goal to resolve the question of the cosmic neutrinos recently discovered by IceCube. The significantly larger numbers of detected high-energy neutrinos will entail new opportunities for multi-messenger campaigns, including gravitational waves and optical/X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes.

Q: What would be the optimal timeline for its development and how will the Next Generation Neutrino Observatory complement other projects/experiments?
OB: The IceCube-Gen2 collaboration is presently working hard on the details of a proposal which, hopefully, will ensure funding both in the US and internationally. A tentative timeline would imply deployment of the first PINGU strings in 2020, PINGU completion in 2022, and deployment of the final strings of the fully expanded array in 2027. Although many projects in the world today aim to pursue the physics of neutrino mass, this timeline would enable PINGU – and ORCA in the Mediterranean – to play a leading role in the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. Several other projects planned to come online in the next 10-15 years will have similar goals, for instance Juno in Kaiping. As for the high-energy part, IceCube-Gen2 will be complemented by KM3NeT in the Mediterranean. Together the two detectors will view the full sky, with overlapping regions allowing confirmation of specific discoveries.

Oscillation contours from IceCube and other experiments (Credit: IceCube Collaboration).

Further reading:

  1. IceCube-Gen2: A Vision for the Future of Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica
  2. Latest result from neutrino observatory IceCube opens up new possibilities for particle physics
  3. IceCube Pushes Neutrinos to the Forefront of Astronomy
  4. IceCube website

Submitted by Eleni Chatzichristou
APPEC Communications Officer

Footnote

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is the first detector of its kind, designed to observe the cosmos from deep within ice. It is comprised of 5,160 digital optical modules suspended along 86 cables, embedded within 60cm diameter holes to a depth of 2,450 metres, in a cubic kilometre of ice beneath the South Pole. It detects neutrinos through the tiny flashes of blue light, called Cherenkov light, produced when neutrinos interact in the ice. IceCube is run by an international collaboration of 300 physicists and engineers from 44 institutions in 12 countries (including Europe, USA, Canada and Asia Pacific) and is headquartered at the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC) at UW–Madison. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was built under an NSF Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction grant, with assistance from partner funding agencies around the world. The project continues with support from a maintenance and operations grant from the NSF’s Division of Polar Programs and Physics Division, along with international support from participating institutions and their funding agencies.