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APPEC Elects Chair and General Secretary

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

9 January 2015

Frank Linde (Illustration by Marcel Groenen/De Ingenieur)

On January 9, 2015 the General Assembly of the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium, APPEC1, elected Frank Linde (director of Nikhef2 from 2004 to 2014) as its new Chair. He is taking over from Stavros Katsanevas (director of APC3), who was chairing APPEC since November 2012. Thomas Berghöfer (DESY4) was reappointed as General Secretary. Both appointments will be effective for the coming two years.

The new Chair Frank Linde said: “Astroparticle physics addresses incredibly tantalizing and fundamental scientific questions. A top priority for me will be to get the large observatories in particular for multi-messenger studies really on track i.e. funded with a realistic spending profile taking into account exploitation costs. From APPEC’s perspective we would also benefit from a stronger CERN involvement by learning from CERN’s very professional project review mechanisms as well as by hopefully attracting some of CERN’s resources to astroparticle physics e.g. for R&D activities”. Frank Linde thanked Stavros Katsanevas for his dedicated work in leading the APPEC consortium and his enthusiastic impact in forming the astroparticle physics community in Europe during his mandate.

Stavros Katsanevas summarized: “The first years of the APPEC Consortium taking over from the EU funded ASPERA5 ERANET have been quite active and formative. Highlights of our activity have been the effort to coordinate the community in view of Horizon 2020, the roadmap update and our policy contributions to the European Particle Physics Roadmap as well as the P5 process in the USA, the preparation of the triggering events and accompanying measures of the globalisation process in the neutrino sector and the development of closer relationships with the astrophysics and particle physics communities (ERANET ASTRONET6, ECFA7) and the international centres (ESO, CERN). I personally had great pleasure to collaborate during these last years with the heads of agencies forming APPEC, Janet Seed (STFC) the Vice-Chair of APPEC, Thomas Berghöfer the General Secretary, Antonio Masiero (INFN) the head of the APPEC Scientific Advisory Committee, and of course the members of the APPEC functional centres.”

The APPEC consortium currently comprises funding agencies from 14 European countries and ESO as an observer. Thomas Berghöfer reported that negotiations are going on to enlarge the consortium by partners from Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland and Portugal.

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.

1 APPEC is a consortium of European funding agencies and institutes responsible for the coordination and funding of astroparticle physics.
2 National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef) is a collaboration between Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Universiteit van Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and Universiteit Utrecht.
3 Laboratoire Astroparticule et Cosmologie (APC) is a mixed unit of IN2P3/CNRS, University Paris Denis-Diderot, Commisariat d’Energie Atomique and Observatoire de Paris.
4 Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) is a national research center in Germany that operates particle accelerators. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association and has sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen.
5 AStroParticle European Research Area (ASPERA), a network of national government agencies responsible for coordinating and funding national research efforts in astroparticle physics, was financed by the European Commission (2006-2012).
6 ASTRONET, a consortium gathering European funding agencies in order to establish a comprehensive long-term planning for the development of European astronomy, has been financed by the European Commission since 2005.
7 European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA).

APPEC Updates its Astroparticle Physics Roadmap

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

7 January 2015

Antonio Masiero

Goals and Challenges for APPEC’s Scientific Advisory Committee

One of the first actions undertaken by the APPEC consortium in 2013 was the appointment of its Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). The main criterion for SAC membership, as established by the APPEC General Assembly (GA), was the internationally recognised competence of the chosen experts independently from their countries of origin or the institutions/agencies that they represent. Such an independence of the SAC from the particular interests of the agencies or institutions of its members is quite relevant in view of the main scientific advisory task that the SAC is called to. A consequence of the fact that the SAC is not representative of the countries entering APPEC is the presence in the SAC of non-EU members – Francis Halzen and Henry Sobel from US and Yifang Wang from China. Their presence plays a significant role in view of the consideration of European astroparticle physics in a global context that the SAC is called to adopt in its analyses.

The 19 members of the SAC were appointed with the goal of achieving a sound expertise in the areas of interest covered by APPEC: dark matter (Laura Baudis, Jocelyn Monroe), dark energy (Ramon Miquel), neutrino properties (Mauro Mezzetto, Henry Sobel, Yifang Wang, Marco Zito), neutrino mass (Andrea Giuliani), high-energy cosmic rays (Andreas Haungs, Peter Tinyakov), high-energy photons (Felix Aharonian, Michal Ostrowski), high-energy neutrinos (Gisela Anton, Francis Halzen), gravitational waves (Jo van den Brand, Patrick Sutton) and astroparticle theory (Ignatios Antoniadis and Pierre Binetruy – covering in particular the cosmology sector, ie CMB and dark energy-, Antonio Masiero).

Since the beginning of its activities last year, the SAC has started working on the preparation of the scientific input asked by the APPEC GA for its next roadmap on EU astroparticle physics to appear by the end of 2015. The SAC members organized themselves in small working groups operating on various research lines and in strict synergy around two central issues:

  1. The evolution of the Universe, from the Big Bang or the primordial inflation up to its present structure and its future evolution. This enormous question touches upon many aspects – from theories of inflation to the riddles of dark matter and dark energy, from an understanding of the neutrino sector to a comprehension of the role of fundamental symmetries and the related possible new physical energy scales between the electroweak and inflation scales.
  2. The evolution – formation and destruction – of cosmic structures. How the particles of the Standard Model and possible new particles not contained therein can influence the genesis, formation and destruction of cosmic structures? This question is related with the multi-messenger studies of high energy photons, neutrinos, high-energy charged particles and gravitational waves.

APPEC Updates its Roadmap

The Roadmap front cover.

This appears to be a very interesting moment for a new European roadmap in astroparticle physics. LHC in its latest run at 8 TeV has made the tremendous achievement of discovering the Higgs particle, hence closing our search for the whole spectrum of particles predicted to exist in the Standard Model (SM); however, no signal of non-SM particles has appeared. Yet, we know that such new physics has to exist: the mass of neutrinos, the existence of dark matter and dark energy, the cosmic asymmetry between matter and antimatter crucial for our existence, all these observational facts are clearly witnessing that the SM physics cannot encompass the whole range of fundamental particles and interactions operating in our Universe.

The absence of new physics signals from direct high-energy searches makes it even more compelling to promote a strong synergy between cosmology, astrophysics and particle physics, hence pushing on what we call astroparticle physics. Here we have witnessed in recent years a growth of what we could define “astronomies of cosmic messengers”, namely cosmic gamma rays, neutrino, antimatter, charged particles, dark matter, gravitational searches; in some of these fields the transition between discovery to actual study (what we can more properly define “astronomy”) has already occurred, in others either we are at the infancy of such a stage (for instance for cosmic neutrinos) or we are still at the previous, discovery level (the case of gravitational waves or dark matter). In preparation for the 2015 APPEC roadmap, the SAC is working on the future “multi-messenger” approach, ie a coordinated and systematically integrated form of cooperation of the various sectors of “cosmic messengers astronomy” that will constitute the main avenue to our particle physics cosmic exploration.

We expect the international astroparticle community, in general, and the EU research agencies, in particular, to be called to take important decisions in 3-4 years from now. Indeed, by ~2018 we’ll have the results of the present generation experiments on dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay (reaching impressive sensitivities allowing to test important regions of parameter spaces of new physics beyond the SM) together with new results on the searches for gravitational waves, high-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays. At the same time, we’ll have the results of the new LHC run at 14 TeV. Depending on the outcome of all these searches for signals of physics beyond the SM, the SAC is working on scenarios to chart the future discoveries and corresponding theories that will be tested in the next decade or two:

  1. The consolidation of the recently opened high energy gamma ray astronomy and the opening of the new astronomies: gravitational waves, neutrinos and the high energy cosmic rays
  2. The understanding of the neutrino sector and its cosmological role
  3. Large theoretical and experimental progress in the dark matter quest, reaching close to the parameter limits of current theories; the precise study of the parameters of the equation of state of dark energy and, eventually, of those of the inflation potential

European Investment in Astroparticle Physics

The intense work of the SAC, in particular in the last few months, is going to produce a first draft of a “resource-aware” roadmap for the APPEC General Assembly at the APC in Paris on January 9, 2015. Indeed, in addition to scientific considerations, in its report to the APPEC GA the SAC is going to provide the financial implications of its recommendations separated in the periods 2015-2020 and 2021-2025 (obviously including elements of optional funding in case of e.g. detection of gravitational waves, big successes of the neutrino observatories, development of a long-term LBL neutrino program, etc.). The plan is to come up with recommendations for the decade in front of us, which may turn out to be realistic in view of the current spending of research agencies in the astroparticle lines under scrutiny by the General Assembly of APPEC.

From a recent survey that the SAC and APPEC conducted among the funding agencies and the spokespeople of the main EU research infrastructures, it turned out that the European investment in astroparticle physics roughly amounts to 75M euro/year; hence, leaving out of consideration the main variable represented by extra funds coming directly from ministries, regional structural funding, European programmes, etc., the SAC is converging on a 10-year roadmap with the funding from research agencies approximating 700M euro. In such a resource-aware scheme possible scenarios are envisaged, where all the nine astroparticle research lines (gravitational waves, high-energy photons, high-energy neutrinos, high-energy cosmic rays, LBL neutrino physics, double and single beta decay for neutrino masses, dark matter, dark energy and CMB) can receive adequate support to allow for significant breakthroughs in their respective fields of expertise.

After getting the APPEC feedback at the January GA, the SAC will proceed to the final document in May-June 2015 to allow for the APPEC roadmap to see the light by the end of 2015.

Submitted by Antonio Masiero (SAC Chair)
INFN, University of Padua, Italy

Further reading:

2008_ASPERA_roadmap_final
Roadmap update: European Strategy for Astroparticle Physics (2011)

Planck’s New Constraints on Dark Matter

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

6 January 2015

New Constraints on Dark Matter

New Revelations on Dark Matter

A number of astrophysical measurements on the scale of galaxies to the entirety of the visible Universe, point towards the existence of some sort of dark matter that appears to comprise roughly a quarter of the energy density of the Universe. The nature of the particles which make up this dark matter is essentially unknown, however, making the chase to understand and detect it one of the most compelling goals in astrophysics today.

Some models postulate dark matter which has significant annihilation. If this was the case, these annihilations would inject energy into the Universe. This, in turn, would change the spectrum and the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). So, rather than directly detecting dark matter particles, Planck is searching for the changes we should see in the CMB anisotropies, if they exist.

In fact, such changes are not seen. Planck observations can be well-explained without ever invoking annihilating dark matter. Thus, Planck shows that strong dark matter-anti-dark matter annihilation did not occur in the early history of the Universe.

These new results are even more interesting when compared with measurements from other experiments. The Fermi satellite, the Pamela satellite, and the AMS-02 experiment on the International Space Station have all seen an excess of cosmic rays. One way to interpret these excesses might be as a consequence of dark matter annihilation.

Given the Planck observations, it now seems that slightly more pedestrian explanations such as radiation from a sea of undetected pulsars have to be considered. It should be noted, however, that the limits on decaying, as opposed to annihilating dark matter, are not strong.

Submitted by Ken Ganga
Laboratoire APC, France

Further reading:

Planck: New Revelations on Dark Matter and Relic Neutrinos
Latest Planck Results Improve our Knowledge on Dark Matter and Primordial Neutrinos
The Planck Mission Website

Dark Matter: From XENON100 to XENON1T

Written by katrinlink on . Posted in

21 December 2014

The XENON1T dark matter detection experiment installation at the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory. Part of the experiment is the yellow water tank in the middle, positioned between the already existing ICARUS (left, now moved to CERN) and the WARP (right, now removed) experiments (Source: Nikhef)

From Nikhef’s “Updates of the Experiments”: Latest developments in 2014 and expectations for the XENON Dark Matter program in 2015”

project is soon to enter a new phase with the most sensitive experiment for dark matter detection. While the successful XENON100 detector continues to take data at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory1, the new XENON1T is in construction since 2013. Located in the Hall B of the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, XENON1T will be the first to use a massive amount of liquid xenon, more than 3000 kg filling its sophisticated time projection chamber, to hunt for dark matter particles.

In the coming years, Nikhef researchers2 and their colleagues from fifteen different international universities and research institutes hope to contribute to answering many of the questions which remain open about the nature of dark matter. The last months were marked by the delivery and installation of the various systems which make XENON1T.

In January 2014, the water tank which will host the liquid xenon detector was completed. The suspension system for the detector, developed and built by Nikhef, was installed in May.

In August, the cryostat in which the detector will be mounted was delivered and installed in the water tank. Patrick Decowski, programme leader of the Dutch contribution to the XENON collaboration, says: “All major pieces of the detector are now in place and we are currently working on installing the systems that will allow xenon to remain cool and clean. At Nikhef we are mainly very busy with the detector readout and at the moment we are writing the related software. Our aim is to develop this in such a way that we can further increase the sensitivity of the detector with an improved readout”.

The vessel for the detector inside the Water Cherenkov Veto tank

In the summer of 2015 XENON1T should be ready to receive data. Decowski says: “The heart of the detector is the smallest but of course most crucial part of the detector and this has yet to be installed. We expect that the first tests can take place in the spring of 2015”.

The scientists expect that XENON1T could surpass all existing dark matter detectors within a month, being 100 times more sensitive than any other detector. Decowski says: “I usually say that the search for dark matter is much like losing one’s keys and searching for them in the hallway, living room and kitchen, but not yet in the bedroom and bathroom. XENON1T will in no time go searching the last places in the house. Within a month we will have the first publication out to show all is working, then the second publication will come out within one year after the start. If we do find something we are of course not there yet, we will need to know what the characteristics of the detected particle are”3.

1 The experiment location, 1500 metres under the Grand Sasso mountain makes sure that as few cosmic muons as possible interfere with the experiment.

2 Nikhef’s researchers and engineers have contributed to the design of the cryostat in addition to its supporting structure. They also share the responsibility of the electronics and data-acquisition system.

The XENON Experiment underground. Credit Xenon1T

3 When dark matter collides with the nucleus of a xenon atom, tiny light flashes will be produced. This light is generated by the recoil that the xenon atom has experienced. The XENON1T experiment will measure these light signals with high precision and through involved data analysis the researchers will prove the presence of dark matter. The detector can distinguish between the WIMP and possible leftover background radiation, so researchers hope that on the basis of the measurements they will be able to prove they detected a new subatomic particle and to determine its mass and what its likelihood of interaction with ordinary matter is exactly.

Submitted by Eleni Chatzichristou
APPEC Communications Officer

Further reading:
Original story (in Dutch) on XENON1T updates
Website of the XENON Dark Matter Project
Website of the XENON1T international collaboration
Website of XENON1T at Nikhef