News from EuCAPT
The European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory (EuCAPT) was very productive within the last month and we give a short overview here.
In May this year they held their first annual symposium. Hundreds of theoretical physicists from Europe and beyond met via Zoom to discuss the present and future of astroparticle physics and cosmology in a dense and exciting meeting that featured 29 invited presentations, 42 lightning talks by young researchers and 2 community-wide brainstorming sessions.
The participants discussed a wide array of topics at the interface between particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, with particular emphasis on the challenges and opportunities for these fields of research in the next decade. Rather than centering around experimental activities and the discoveries they might enable, the symposium’s sessions were structured around thematic areas and explored the interdisciplinary, multimessenger aspects of each of these areas.
The EuCAPT symposium was more than ‘just’ a conference. In line with EuCAPT’s mission, the local organisers and the consortium’s steering committee organised a series of community-building activities. In a brainstorming session on the future of EuCAPT, participants were asked for opinions on the best way to exchange information and suggestions on how to support our community. Among the many useful comments, participants stressed the importance of supporting diversity and inclusion, something EuCAPT definitely regards as a high priority. A second brainstorming session was devoted to the discussion of the EuCAPT white paper.
One of the most interesting and exciting aspects of the symposium was the inclusion in the plenary programme of sessions with lightning talks given by students and young scientists, which provided a snapshot of the theoretical research work carried out in Europe. A jury composed of the symposium organisers and EuCAPT steering committee members voted for the best lightning talks and awarded special prizes. The next symposium will take place in 2022, hopefully in person, at CERN.
A EuCAPT Astroneutrino Theory Workshop took place in Prague 2021 (September 20 – October 1) which was organized by and took place in the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of Czech Technical University in Prague (IEAP CTU). 45 scientists from not only Europe but also worldwide participated in the workshop focused on the role of neutrinos in astroparticle phenomena (https://indico.utef.cvut.cz/event/28/overview).
The scientific agenda was split into the four areas: i) Aspects of Cosmic Neutrino Background; ii) Electromagnetic properties of neutrinos; iii) Neutrinos in celestial dynamics and iv) Neutrinos in cosmic rays. The main goal of the Workshop was to bring together experts of the selected areas, from whom the participants can learn. Secondly the workshop tried to build up a creative environment supporting the formation of new ideas and collaborations. The Workshop was targeted primarily to PhD. students and postdocs. The format of a day was 2-3 invited talks/lectures in the morning and continued in the afternoon by a participant presentations session and by a discussion block.
The White Paper (available here) aims to identify the opportunities in the field for the next decade, and to strengthen the coordination of Astroparticle Theory and Cosmology in Europe. It includes contributions from about 135 scientists, who participated in the brainstorming sessions at the first EuCAPT annual Symposium, provided feedback via the dedicated channels on the CERN Mattermost community platform, and contributed to the writing of the document.
Over the last weeks all members of the astroparticle and cosmology communities were invited to endorse the White Paper. With 135 authors, 400 endorsers, 133 pages and 1382 references it is now published on ArXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.10074.