Twitter bird

  • APPEC Roadmap Advert

Astroparticle Physics in times of Corona

For several weeks now our everyday life has been quite disrupted by the novel corona virus. We all have to master difficult situations in this unusual time, facing conditions we never experienced before. Although everybody has to deal with a different situation some things are common for almost all of us and our institutions.

“These last weeks will leave a deep sign in my life forever, as possibly the life of many, who will remember the time of COVID. In first place, this time is making me understand better what it means to still have your house to refugee and think how important is our role to understand and help who do not even have it.” Teresa Montaruli

Most institutions have set up a COVID-19 task force to inform and update their employees and to find the right balance between keeping the business running and at the same time protecting the health of the employees in the best possible way.
Despite some people working in the lab most of us have to work from home. There, many have to combine taking care of their kids and doing their daily office work, which is more and more challenging the longer this situation holds.
To keep everybody motivated and to keep contact with colleagues many institutes organize not only scientific virtual meetings but also social events like common coffee breaks, lunches or even concerts.
Traditionally, personal contacts at collaboration meetings, exchanges with scientists – whether within our own working group or during visits to other institutes –  and national and international exchanges at conferences make up a large part of our scientific life. But many conferences were cancelled or postponed, like the APPEC Town Meeting which was planned for this autumn is now postponed to 2021. 

“I am now working from home for almost 3 months. It is amazing to see how much is still possible using video meetings, chats and the good old phone and email. On the other hand I miss the informal talks with colleagues, and unexpected chats while visiting labs and meetings. This informal opportunities are needed for make progress in delicate and complex topics. But we will learn week by week how to optimize in working from home.” Job de Kleuver

Many meetings and events had to move to a virtual place, which has both, advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of moving many activities to the virtual world is that more people can join. Here are some examples for online conferences, colloquia and seminars:

But having all kind of meetings, like Collaboration meetings, group meeting etc. online is sometimes also very exhausting and it is hard to stay concentrated after hours of a zoom meeting.

“On the positive side of this CoVID crisis, family is now more easily reconciled with my work since at least being a single mom of two kids I do not need to travel. This is despite I need to scholarize them at home while I work.
The times I was forced to travel, were problematic to me from the organisation point of view and from the responsibility one. I would be very happy if we understand how effective are video meetings even for audiences of 100 people, if well guided.
Another aspect is mobility that our research work requires. It detaches you from families. We should be more tolerant in not considering it as a must in the career of physicists.” Teresa Montaruli

Many of us do not only have to deal with online conferences but with online teaching duties. Some might be well prepared but for some this might be a new field and a lot of additional preparatory work was necessary to provide lectures at an equal level as usual.

“Overalls, this period of telematic contacts found me well prepared. I have migrated my courses completely online and now I am registering them and I will continue to do this also in the future when we will be back in classrooms. I think most physicists must have been able to do this step egregiously well.” Teresa Montaruli

But in addition to this current challenges some scientist are worried about their future. Especially those with temporary contracts or those just finishing their studies or PhDs, are now in a difficult situation. Not only they have to worry about the next month but also worry if this will have negative influence on their future career.

“I hope we find ways to safeguard the young scientists from career damage. Maybe this is a good moment to discuss what really matters: the quality and prospects of talented young scientists or just the numbers of their output in this early stage of their careers.” Job de Kleuver

This is accompanied by the overall funding situation for the following years. Science and experiments will be delayed and also funding opportunities might get worse in the future.
Despite these worries it is great to see that science still keeps going and even new experiments get deployed (XENONnT (German), Baikal-GVD). This is also reflected in the following topics.

Online Outreach Activities

Normally many science institutes have offers for students and pupils and also the general public to get insights in their labs or allow access to their experiments. Often also school labs are an important outreach tool. All these kind of things now have to be transferred to online activities. Sometimes this can be very successful but some experience is just not possible in this way and we are looking forward to the time when we can offer hands-on-experience for our students and pupils.
Until then you can checkout these links to online accessible outreach activities for students:

Activities to support fight against COVID-19

Besides the attempt to advance everyday physics in the home office and at online conferences, many scientists and  institutes also want to participate directly in the fight against COVID-19. And many have found ways and possibilities to do so! They use their 3d printers to produce protective equipment for hospitals, many provide their computing power for virologic investigations into the structure of the coronavirus (Folding@Home, Rosetta@Home), and physicists are performing simulations on the spread of the pandemic. But it is important to keep in mind that we can only provide resources to support those who are experts in the respective field. In the following list you can find links to all kind of activities, perhaps this will motivate even more institutes to get engaged.

Development of ventilators:

Websites that list and/or coordinate activities:

  • https://science-responds.org/ – This website was built to facilitate interaction between COVID-19 researchers and the broader science community (Particle Physics origin)
  • https://github.com/PubInv/covid19-vent-list – COVID-19 Ventilator Projects (List) and Resources and FAQ
  • https://globalyoungacademy.net/covid19/ Covid19 – Initiatives of the GYA, Young Academies and Partners – repository for global and national young academies as well as partner institutions to link their work on Covid19, any statements, or information dissemination activities, initiatives to support scientists, to coordinate and facilitate institutions or governments

Activities from individual institutes or countries:

This list of different activities shows that we defy the difficult situation and accept it as a challenge. And even if the situation seems to relax a bit at the moment, we will have to live with this, for us still unusual, situation for a longer time. 

“The Covid-19 crisis is serious and we will remember this for long, but I am convinced that things will go better again, maybe later than we had hoped. Let’s try to keep the spirit and continue as good as it can be with the exciting Astroparticle Physics science and the construction and design of new infrastructures. Let’s be prepared with excellent well-thought plans at the moment that governments will think about new investments to stimulate their economies.
And let science in general, and Astroparticle Physics more specificially, demonstrate that Europe is strong when we join the efforts and work together.
But for now, take care of your families and stay healthy!” Job de Kleuver


The list of links and information provided here is by far not complete. If you like to add something please contact us.

T2K results constrain possible values of the leptonic CP-violating phase

Interview with Federico Sanchez about the recent results of T2K collaboration

Recently the T2K experiment published in Nature their results on the constraint of leptonic CP violation. Although there is no one-to-one link between the matter antimatter asymmetry and the value of delta from the T2K measurement, these results are a major step forward in the study of difference between matter and antimatter. Federico Sanchez explains how T2K measures CP violation and what they can conclude.

Congratulations for your results and their publication. Can you explain why a different behaviour of matter and antimatter is so important?

Inside the Super-K detector. Credit: Kamioka Observatory,  Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo

The different behavior of particle and antiparticles, or matter and antimatter, is by its own a breakthrough result. The different behavior of particle and antiparticles is a possibility contemplated in the Standard Model describing the fundamental particles.  CP violation with leptons is described by a fundamental parameter, the phase angle δCP which is the parameter measured at the T2K experiment. There is no specific prediction of the value of this angle in our theoretical models. Its determination is important to advance in the understanding of the standard model. CP violation is related to flavor-changing mechanisms in the standard model, its measurement may help to understand more deeply the flavor dynamics. Flavor is what physicists identify with the differences between the three lepton families (electron, muon, and tau) or the three quark families. CP violation is a known phenomenon in processes involving quarks since the 1960’s. It has taken the particle physics community almost 60 years to start seen similar behavior in leptons.  I believe this is the most relevant implication of the T2K result.

Besides the relevance to particle physics, CP violation might have implications in the understanding of our matter-dominated Universe. The existence of CP violation mechanism is one of the three conditions proposed by Andrei Sakharov to explain the baryon(or matter) asymmetry of the Universe. Baryon number violation and interactions out of thermal equilibrium are the other two. CP violation is then a necessary condition although not a sufficient one. The CP violation amount and its origin are relevant to model this asymmetry. I would like to stress that we are still far from understanding this mechanism, the baryon number violation has not been proved experimentally so far, and it is not obvious that the CP violation in neutrinos and quarks are the mechanisms required to explain the baryon asymmetry in the universe.  Although some theoretical models connect both phenomena, there is a long way to go. Hopefully, the new results can help in this challenging enterprise. 

Can you explain the measurement principles of T2K?

The observed electron neutrino (left) and electron antineutrino (right) candidate events with predictions for maximal neutrino enhancement (red, long dash) and maximum antineutrino enhancement (blue, short dash). Credit: the T2K experiment

T2K collaboration studies the so-called neutrino oscillations. The neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical interference caused by the fact that every neutrino of the type electron, muon, or tau is a combination of three neutrino masses.  The neutrino type electron, muon, or tau is determined by the associated heavy lepton (electron, muon, or tau) in the interaction. The neutrino has three paths to travel from the production to the interaction points. Each one associated with one neutrino mass. The neutrinos travel as a superposition of these three states, each one with a different mass and speed, producing the interference patterns. Experimentally, this quantum mechanical interference is measured by looking at the appearance of types of neutrinos at the interaction point different from the ones that were produced. Particularly in T2K, we look for the transformation of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos. The CP phase induces differences in the oscillation for the neutrinos and its antiparticles, the antineutrinos. In T2K, we have measured the oscillation parameters for neutrinos and antineutrinos and from the difference, we can infer the value of the CP violation phase.  The T2K experiment can produce both neutrinos and antineutrinos simply by focusing or defocusing positively charged pions and negatively charged pions. The positive pions produce neutrinos during its disintegration and negative pions produce antineutrinos.

Your experiment is sensitive to the δCP Phase, which parameter space can you exclude and what does this mean?

The arrow indicates the value most compatible with the data. The gray region is disfavored at 99.7% (3σ) confidence level. Nearly half of the possible values are excluded. Credit: the T2K experiment

The result from T2K excludes half of the possible values of δCP, particularly the positive values of the phase angle are excluded with a confidence level of 99.7%. If we take possible values of δCP from -180 degrees to 180 degrees we excluded values from  -1.7 degrees to 164.6 degrees. This is the first time we have measured experimentally this fundamental parameter in the Standard Model.The other important read of the T2K results is that the most probable value of the δCP is close to -90 degrees implying the maximal violation of the CP symmetry in neutrinos. The fact that it can be maximal open possible ways to understand the mechanism that differentiates neutrino mass states from flavor states.

What are the consequences of the constrain of T2K on the δCP in the neutrino sector on the matter-anti-matter asymmetry?

When confirmed, the result might have several implications. First of all, it is a new source of CP violation beyond the traditional one in the quark sector. This additional source plus the special properties of neutrinos might explain through a relevant theory the origin of the matter-dominated Universe through theoretical models.  Another relevant implication is related to the value of δCP. If the result is confirmed to be maximal as suggested by T2K, this might have theoretical implications since it might be a reflection of hidden symmetries in a model. 

What are your ideas to further improve the measurements?

In particle physics, 99.7% is not sufficient to claim a discovery. We need values of the confidence level of 99.9999%. To reach this precision we need more data, the 115 events collected by T2K are not enough. To achieve larger statistics there are few venues we are taking. The first one implies running longer time, the second to increase the flux of neutrinos, and third to increase the mass of the far detector.  The first step is just time and money, we will keep running a few years more hopefully doubling or tripling the number of neutrinos we detect. The second step can be done by increasing the total number of protons we can accumulate in the accelerator per unit of time.  Protons produce the pions that subsequently produce neutrinos by decay.  There is already an approved project that will almost double the number of protons during the next years. The third one requires new detectors. Recently, the upgrade of the T2K far detector, SuperKamiokande, was approved by the Japanese authorities. The new project, HyperKamiokande, will increase the detector mass and the number of detected neutrinos per unit of proton in the accelerator by almost a factor of ten.  With this increase, we can accumulate ten times more neutrinos for the same number of protons than we do today.  Unfortunately, this will not be sufficient. In parallel, we need to understand some of the uncertainties of the experiment. These uncertainties are related to better control of the neutrino flux predictions and the modeling of neutrinos interacting with nuclei. Both are at the moment the most relevant non-statistical uncertainties in the measurement and they will become dominant when we increase the number of detected neutrinos. To address these issues, we need supporting experiments to help to understand the production of pions by proton interactions and to improve the understanding of neutrino interactions. We also need to develop more precise theoretical models describing the interaction of neutrinos with nuclei so we can interpret these experiments correctly, and in parallel, we need to prove experimentally they are correct.


We would like to add a short comment by Silvia Pascoli in which she discusses the results of the T2K experiment in a theoretical context. We asked her about the connection between T2K results and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe.

A simple assumption, justified by cosmological inflation, is that the Universe at the very beginning contained the same amounts of matter and antimatter. In the 60’ A. Sakharov identified the conditions which are required for some process in the Early Universe to generate a small asymmetry between matter and antimatter: the violation of the C and CP symmetry, lepton (or baryon) number violation, which is testable in neutrino less double beta decay, and the out of equilibrium condition.
Leptogenesis, using leptonic CP violation, is among the favourite explanations of the baryon asymmetry as it takes place in models which have been proposed to explain the observed neutrino masses. Under certain conditions, specifically in see-saw type I neutrino mass models, it has been shown that the leptonic CP violating delta phase searched for in long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments can be the source of the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry. This is a highly non-trivial statement as in many other models the baryon asymmetry that can be generated is too small.
Observing leptonic CP violation and the violation of lepton number would provide circumstantial evidence (although not a proof) towards leptogenesis as the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe.

We asked her to further comment on the connection to neutrinoless double beta decay.

First of all, as I discussed above, lepton number violation is one of the three key criteria for leptogenesis to explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. Neutrino less double beta decay is the most sensitive test we have of this global symmetry of the Standard Model. Moreover, the results of T2K and NOvA and other neutrino oscillation experiments on the ordering of neutrino masses play a key role in the predictions for the lifetime of the decay process. So, mass ordering information is very important to plan the future program in this field and to interpret the results from future experiments.


Federico Sanchez graduated at the Univ. of Sevilla and got his PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona working at an experiment at CERN. He worked as a researcher at DESY and at the Max Planck Institute fur Kernphysik in Heidelberg where he acted as co-physics coordinator of the HERA-B experiment. He has worked at several particle physics experiments such as ALEPH and LHCB at CERN or HERA-B at DESY.
In 2002, he joined the K2K experiment in Japan and since then he was working on neutrino physics as the leader of the group at IFAE. He participates in the T2K experiment in Japan from almost the very beginning. In 2016,  he was one of the researchers awarded the Breakthrough prize on fundamental physics which was given to the K2K and T2K collaborations for the experimental establishment of neutrino oscillations. Between 2007 and 2011, he was a member of the Nemo and SuperNemo collaborations and contributed to the preliminary ideas of the NEXT experiment.
In August 2018, he moved as a professor at the Université of Genève to take the responsibility of the group dedicated to neutrino physics at the T2K and HK experiments. In April 2019, Federico was elected International Co-Spokesperson of the T2K collaboration. 

Snowmass 2021 process

In the U.S., the Snowmass 2021 process will take place over the next year. Organized by the Division of Particles and Fields (DPF) of the American Physical Society (APS), this process is intended to define the most important questions for the particle physics community and to identify the most promising ways to address these questions in a global context. Snowmass provides an opportunity for the entire HEP community to come together to identify and document a vision for the future of particle physics in the US and its international partners. Given the increasing importance of interdisciplinary work, a strong participation of related fields such as astrophysics, cosmology, gravity, nuclear physics, accelerator physics, AMO and materials science is expected.

Between autumn 2020 and summer 2021 there will be a series of preparatory meetings and workshops organized by Snowmass conveners from ten frontiers (energy, neutrino, rare processes & precision, cosmic, theory, accelerator, instrumentation, computation, underground facilities, and community involvement).

The Frontier Conveners are nominated by the community and selected by the DPF Executive Committee plus members of the chair lines of Division of Astrophysics (DAP), Division of Physics of Beams (DPB), Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) and Division of Gravitational Physics (DGRAV). Their first task is to identify topical group conveners. This process was developed in order to provide a diverse and representative leadership including junior and senior researchers, theorists and experimentalists, and balance regarding gender, geographical distribution, and background.

Besides there is the Steering group, which consists of the DPF Chair line and one representative each of the related units DAP, DPB, DNP, and DGRAV. This Steering group oversees the process and meets regularly with the Frontier Conveners. An inclusive Advisory Group is consulted on major decisions, and consists of the Steering Group plus the rest of the DPF Executive Committee (members at large, secretary/treasurer, and councillor), an editor, a communication liaison, and a set of International Advisors.

One of these International Advisers is Berrie Giebels as representative for APPEC.

Berrie Giebels, APPEC representative in the Snowmass 2021

Berrie Giebels defended his dissertation in 1998 and was a research associate at SLAC for 3 years. Since 2001 he is physicist at CNRS in the field of high energy astroparticle physics (Fermi, HESS, CTA). Since 2016 he is IN2P3/CNRS deputy director in charge of the astroparticle physics & cosmology perimeter including the large research infrastructures (EGO-Virgo, CTA, LSST, KM3NeT, Auger,..).

„The Snowmass Process, while essentially aimed at developing a vision for the future of particle physics in the U.S., is also a very inclusive process – thematically, integrating other fields of research such as astroparticle physics, and geographically, through the inclusion of the international community in its advisory group. Participating to this process as a European scientist is a unique opportunity to reach beyond our currently closed borders and reaffirm that research in physics relies on worldwide cooperation and collective goals. The APPEC roadmap objectives and priorities should provide valuable insights to shape the Snowmass 2021 vision, which will in return have an influence on the next European Astroparticle physics strategy update.“ – Berrie Giebels

To optimally engage all participants in the process, the Division of Particles and Fields invites the international community to submit written documents. Given the increasing importance of interdisciplinary work in related fields such as astrophysics, cosmology, gravity, nuclear physics, accelerator physics, AMO, and materials science, members of the Divisions of Astrophysics, Gravitational Physics, Nuclear Physics, Physics of Beams and members of other units with a connection to particle physics are strongly encouraged by the DPF Chair, Young-Kee Kim to participate in this process: 

Letters of Interest (submission period: April 1, 2020 – August 31, 2020)
Letters of interest allow Snowmass conveners to see what proposals to expect and to encourage the community to begin studying them. They will help conveners to prepare the Snowmass Planning Meeting that will take place on November 4 – 6, 2020 at Fermilab. Letters should give brief descriptions of the proposal and cite the relevant papers to study. Instructions for submitting letters are available at https://snowmass21.org/loi. Authors of the letters are encouraged to submit a full writeup for their work as a contributed paper.

Contributed Papers (submission period: April 1, 2020 – July 31, 2021)
Contributed papers will be part of the Snowmass proceedings.  They may include white papers on specific scientific areas, technical articles presenting new results on relevant physics topics, and reasoned expressions of physics priorities, including those related to community involvement. These papers and discussions throughout the Snowmass process will help shape the long-term strategy of particle physics in the U.S. Contributed papers will remain part of the permanent record of Snowmass 2021. Instructions for submitting contributed papers are available at https://snowmass21.org/submissions/.

The Snowmass homepage (https://snowmass21.org) provides you further information on the current status of Snowmass 2021.

Monthly Snowmass Newsletter:

A New Milestone in the Construction of the Cubic Kilometer Baikal-GVD Deep Underwater Neutrino Telescope

From February 17 to April 10, two new clusters of optical modules were installed, the sixth and the seventh, at Baikal-GVD Deep Underwater Neutrino Telescope. The effective volume of the facility, corresponding to the detection of hadronic showers produced by neutrinos, reached 0.35 km3.

Credits: B. A. Shaybonov

The Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope is designed for detecting and studying high-energy neutrino fluxes from astrophysical sources. Scientists plan to explore the astrophysical processes with huge energy releases occurred at the time when the Universe was hundreds of millions or billions of years younger.

According to the project, the volume of the facility in Lake Baikal should be about one cubic kilometer. The installing of the two new clusters in 2020 was an important step towards this goal. The effective volume of the facility, corresponding to the detection of neutrino produced showers, reached ~ 0.35 cubic kilometer. The estimates, based on existing algorithms (which are constantly improving), suggest that the current setup should be able to detect 3-4 neutrino interactions per year with the neutrino energy exceeding 100 TeV.

The Baikal Neutrino Telescope, being still under construction, is a unique scientific facility, one of four pillars of the Global Neutrino Network (GNN), along with IceCube at the South Pole, KM3NeT and ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea. They explore all together the Universe considering neutrinos as messengers.

The installation site of the Baikal Neutrino Telescope is 3.5 km away from the shore. The facility is assembled at the depth of 750-1300 m in the Southern Hollow of Lake Baikal from about one-meter-thick ice surface, what greatly simplifies the installation.

Credits: B. A. Shaybonov

This year, the expedition met hard times because of anomalous weather conditions. During the ice formation period, a strong wind broke the ice cover of the lake. Huge ice blocks and ridges grew all across the lake, which significantly impeded the mounting. Nothing like that was observed in the whole 40-year-long history of the Baikal expeditions. It was not clear whether the team would be able to cut the ice through all these ice ridges to lay the cables to the new facility.

Thanks to a great experience of the team, the appropriate solution was found and the two new clusters were installed. In addition to them, an experimental technological string with five calibration laser light sources and underwater fibre-optic cables for data exchange was mounted. At present, all devices are successfully taking data.

Credits: B. A. Shaybonov

In total, 60 researchers, engineers, technicians, workers, including volunteers, participated in the expedition. The 2020 expedition program has been fully completed.

This year, the International Scientific Baikal-GVD Collaboration comprises the Institute for Nuclear Research of RAS (Moscow), the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), Irkutsk State University, Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University, St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University, the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of Czech Technical University in Prague, the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia), the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Krakow, Poland), EvoLogics GmbH (Berlin, Germany).

The expedition was organized by the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna).

G.V. Domogatsky, spokesman of the Baikal-GVD Collaboration


Further information:

 

Installation of the center
Installation
Cluster 7
Evening atmosphere II
Evening atmosphere I
Winch
Ridges

Photo Credits: B. A. Shaybonov

The MVM Project, from Dark Matter Research to Mechanical Ventilator

Caption/Credit

A prototype unit in its final configuration at Elemaster.
Credits: MVM Collaboration

Caption/Credits

The first five pre-prototype units at Elemaster. Credits: MVM Collaboration

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has shown a scarcity of ventilators compared to the number of patients. Thus, on the initiative of Cristian Galbiati (GSSI and Princeton University) with Art McDonald (Queen’s University), the MVM Milano Mechanical Ventilator project has been launched. MVM is an innovative device for assisted breathing, based on an open access design, and widely available components for its easy large-scale production. MVM was born within the collaboration of GADM (Global Argon Dark Matter), engaged in experiments on dark matter at the INFN’s Gran Sasso Laboratories in Italy, and SNOLAB in Canada. The expertise in  sophisticated experimental apparatuses for research in astroparticle physics has allowed the development in the field of complex control systems of gases, similar to those used in lung ventilators.The project has the support of groups from universities and research institutes in Europe, Canada and USA. Bringing the MVM ventilator to patients requires a collaboration that goes beyond the field of particle physics. Thus, scientists , clinicians and companies such as Elemaster collaborate on the project. Members of the MVM International Collaboration have activated a crowdfunding campaign.

A. Varaschin for the MVM project


Further information:

Roma International Conference on Astro-Particle physics

— CANCELLED/POSTPONED, please check the website of the event for further information —
RICAP-20 will be the eight edition of the RICAP Conference and will take place from June 30th to July 3rd, 2020 in Roma, Italy. The acronym stands for Roma International Conference on Astro-Particle physics, the Conference is entirely dedicated to the study of high energy cosmic rays and it is organized by the three public Universities of Roma (University “Roma Tre”, University “La Sapienza” and University “Tor Vergata”). These Institutions provide both theoretical and experimental contributions, and participate to major experimental projects in the field (AGILE, AMS, ANTARES, ARGO, Auger, CTA, Fermi, JEM-EUSO, KM3NeT, NEMO, PAMELA,…). The Conference is held every two years and in 2020 will be held at the Physics Department of the University “La Sapienza”.
The aim of the Conference will be to present and discuss some of the most relevant theoretical and experimental results in the field of high energy cosmic rays (gamma, neutrinos, charged cosmic rays). Special attention will be paid to the multi-messenger search for high energy cosmic rays sources, including gravitational wave searches. A special session will be dedicated to Dark Matter search. The Conference will give the opportunity to collect experimental results from presently operating experiments. Experiments in progress and future projects will be discussed, debating on the different features and on sensitivities. Particular relevance will be given to the discussion of the open questions in high energy Astroparticle Physics
 
Further information and registration:  https://agenda.infn.it/event/19310/

16th Patras Workshop

— CANCELLED/POSTPONED, please check the website of the event for further information —

The 16th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs will be held in Trieste (Italy) from 20 to 26 June 2020. The nature and composition of Dark Matter and Dark Energy are two of the most pressing mysteries of frontier physics, and research in these fields is presently gathering increasing momentum and attracting the efforts of scientists from many international institutions. The “16th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs” is the latest event in an annual series of conferences, started in 2005 at CERN. This workshop is aiming to continue the rich and successful series, reviewing recent theoretical advances, laboratory experiments, novel ideas as well as astrophysical and cosmological results in the fields of axions, WIMPs and WISPs. Participation by young scientists is strongly encouraged.

More information: https://axion-wimp2020.desy.de/

Report on the 1st EuCAPT census

The European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory (EuCAPT) invited all scientists (PhD students, postdocs, and staff) affiliated to a European institution, and active in Theoretical Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology, to participate in the “1st EuCAPT census” by filling an Indico registration form. 660 scientists responded to this call and  completed the census between January 13 and 31, 2020. This number shows the strong interest in Europe-wide coordination of Theoretical Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology. The data collected offer a first snapshot of the research interests of the Astroparticle and Cosmology theory community. The key-findings are summarized here.

In total 55 nationalities are represented, with more then half from four countries: UK, Italy, Spain and Germany. These are also the countries where around half of the scientists are working. We note however that the geographic and topic distribution might be biased by the channels used to advertise the census. Looking at the positions, the majority of registrants are currently faculty members. EuCAPT will make an effort to reach out to younger scientists and encourage them to join. EuCAPT will also try reach out to those communities which appear under-represented in the census, in particular low-energy neutrino astronomy and nuclear astronomy. The percentage of female scientists is only 20%, a disappointing result that however appears consistent with data from the American Physical Society and the UK Institute of Physics, and thus probably reflects the actual gender distribution in our community.

EuCAPT will now effectively start the process of consolidating and coordinating the relevant scientific community.

Part of the activities of EuCAPT is a monthly virtual colloquium which will start on March 3. The following presentations are already planned:
  • March 3, 11 am – Joachim Kopp
  • April 7, 11am – Samaya Nissanke
  • May 5, 11am – Licia Verde
Further information and details on how to connect will be announced on the EuCAPT website.
There will also be an annual symposium, the first one to be held at CERN from September 30 to October 2. For more details see: https://indico.cern.ch/event/853904/

We encourage those who have not completed the census but want to be informed about EuCAPT, to sign up at https://www.eucapt.org/census

iDMEu – an EoI gathering the dark matter community

Interview with Marco Cirelli, Caterina Doglioni, Gaia Lanfranchi and Florian Reindl

In October 2019 the first Joint ECFA – NuPECC – APPEC Seminar (JENAS) took place in Orsay, close to Paris, where a call has been issued for novel Expressions-of-Interest. Following this call a group of Dark Matter scientists  have drafted an open EoI to gather the broader dark matter community. Among others (see full list here), Marco Cirelli, Caterina Doglioni, Gaia Lanfranchi and Florian Reindl initiated the “Initiative for Dark Matter in Europe and beyond: Towards facilitating communication and result sharing in the Dark Matter community (iDMEu)”. In this interview they present their ideas and aims for this EoI.

You are working in various countries and experiments. Where and how did you come up with the idea for the EoI?

Florian: The idea of this EoI was born at the JENAS meeting, which took place in October last year in Orsay.

Marco: Yes, although I knew many of my colleagues from previous meetings, the JENAS workshop was just the concrete occasion that allowed us to meet in person and the idea of an EoI to emerge.

Florian: The main spirit of this meeting was the wish to strengthen the bonds between the different communities, working on fundamentally different approaches to detect DM (e.g. direct, indirect and collider searches, but also fixed-target, beam-dump and dedicated axion/ALP experiments). We are all working on dark matter in different countries, for different experiments and in different communities, but agreed that even in the dark matter community a common “platform” to share ideas, data etc. is missing. This was the starting point which evolved in the EoI.

Caterina: We see this EoI as a platform to bring together different existing efforts. An effort is, for instance, the LHC Dark Matter Forum / Dark Matter Working Group, where LHC theorists and experimentalists are connecting LHC results on WIMPs to direct and indirect detection experiments. In the LHC community there is also a growing wish to expand the DM menu beyond WIMPs, both conceiving new models and finding new experimental signatures.

Gaia: When we first discussed in Orsay, I immediately understood the importance of the initiative and I supported it. For me it represents the natural evolution of my activity within the Physics Beyond Colliders (PBC) study group. The PBC was launched by the CERN management in 2017 with the aim to investigate the potential of the CERN accelerator complex and scientific infrastructure for projects aiming to answer the same fundamental questions as those at colliders but requiring a different type of beams and experiments. To investigate the nature of DM beyond the WIMP paradigm was already part of this effort. The PBC study group gathered together colleagues from collider, beam dump, fixed target, axion/ALP experiments, and astroparticle to explore synergies and complementarities of different theoretical and experimental approaches.

What are your aims and how you want to realize them?

This image shows the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, with the mass distribution of the dark matter in the gravitational lens overlaid (in purple).(Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (JPL/LAM), P. Natarajan (Yale) and J-P. Kneib (LAM))

Florian: Nowadays, dark matter is commonly accepted as one of the fundamental open questions of physics. Therefore, we see the community quickly growing and approaching the dark matter problem from very different angles experimentally like theoretically. The result is a very active and lively, but also very diverse community. The idea of the EoI is to bring all those people together to take full advantage of all we “know” about dark matter already and to also make full use of cross-links for future work. The EoI is intended to show that there is a broad interest of the actors in the field to actually do this. It is also meant as a basis to jointly work on a concrete implementation.

Gaia: The origin and nature of DM is one of the deepest mysteries in particle physics today and we need to attack this problem from different fronts. Theory wise, we need to understand which other relevant hypotheses about the DM nature should be considered beyond the standard WIMP paradigm and how these hypotheses fit into a general theory framework. Two prominent examples are, for example, axions with masses in the micro-eV range or light DM with thermal origin in the MeV-GeV range. Experiment wise, we need to identify synergies and complementarities across different experimental approaches in order to enlarge the exploration as much as possible while optimising resources. In order to pursue these goals, first of all we need to develop a “common language”, which means to identify a common theory framework: theoretical and experimental physicists need to talk together in order to identify motivated benchmark models which could be tested experimentally. A first step in this direction was done within the Physics Beyond Colliders activity and allowed us to put together results from a wide variety of experimental efforts. This framework could be further improved with the help of the particle and astroparticle theory community and more experimental results can be included.

Caterina: Because we know so little about the nature of dark matter, I am keen to try to keep pursuing it from all directions. My own direction is the LHC, and I want to collaborate as much as possible with all others, experimentalists and theorists, who can point the community in the most promising directions towards a discovery. Since one of my passions at work is data acquisition and computing, I am also keen to connect the work of this initiative to that of the HEP Software Foundation, which facilitates collaboration and sharing of software; and to the ESCAPE project, a multi-collaboration effort across particle and astroparticle physics that aims to establish a collaborative cluster of scientific infrastructures that work together on Open Science implementations of our research tools.

Marco: I am a theorist, so I don’t work in any specific experimental collaboration. But as a theorist, I pay a lot of attention to results achieved by my experimental colleagues. The search for Dark Matter in recent years has literally boomed and expanded in a myriad of interesting directions, with many new theory ideas (at different mass scales, embedded in different frameworks or simply standalone) and many new experimental setups (ranging from tabletop to full-fledged international collaborations). This ‘explosion’ is of course positive and incredibly exciting, but also needs to be somewhat framed and patterned in order to be more efficient. To realize this, we want to rely on the work already produced in the different communities. We want to act at the ‘human relations’ level (conferences, meetings, cross-talks) and at the technical level (online repositories, sharing of results, common services).

You already have more than 200 endorsers. Do they represent the Particle-, Astroparticle- and Nuclear Physics Community? What are their main interests?

Florian: We have endorsers from all communities and also from experiment and theory. I would like to note that this EoI was born in Europe, but the EoI is not restricted to Europe and we find supporters all over the world. What brings us together is to solve the puzzle of dark matter.

Content of the Universe (credit: HAP / A. Chantelauze)

Gaia: Within the signatories I recognize the names of friends, colleagues, and distinguished physicists belonging to the three communities with a very broad spectrum of interests, from collider physics, to DM direct and indirect detection experiments, flavour physics, gravitational waves, and particle and astroparticle theory. I do believe that this excellent and broad mixture of different expertise will strengthen the EoI program.

Marco: In addition to the different scientific backgrounds, I can also recognize among the endorsers people at different career stages, ranging from some of the senior policy makers of the field to young postdocs and some PhD students. This, I think, is very healthy and shows the grassroots nature of the initiative.

Gaia: We are living a period of confusion in particle physics, old paradigms seem to be inadequate to answer fundamental questions, and new ones are still to be defined. Nevertheless I have seen in the last few years an increasing interest from people belonging to different communities to cross boundaries, talk together, exchange ideas and results, towards the common goal of understanding fundamental laws of Nature. Nature is the same for everyone. This EoI is the expression of an already existing and widespread movement in this direction and that is why it is getting a large support.

Marco: The diverse scientific interests and backgrounds are in a sense natural, since the Dark Matter problem is by its very nature transdisciplinary. In another sense, this also shows that many sub-communities are perhaps restructuring themselves in this period and that many colleagues that were working on other subfields are now reorienting their research towards Dark Matter.

Caterina: One of the key points of this initiative in my opinion is to be inclusive of everyone’s interests and voices. Many of these voices are already being heard in working groups where “expert work” is ongoing, such as DMWG and PBC, and we will rely on their work to set the direction and topics of the future steps. Even if we distributed the EoI link quite broadly, we may not have reached out to everyone who is interested. Therefore, this is by no means a “closed” list – we will turn this list of endorsers into a mailing list with an archive that will be on the indico page so that others can sign up along the way.

What do you expect that APPEC-ECFA-NuPECC organisations can do?

Marco: The organizations have already done a lot, just by making the interesting and highly non-trivial JENAS meeting possible, that spurted our initiative. By keeping the channels of communication open in between the communities (e.g. organizing other similar meetings, or providing logistical support to initiatives like ours) I think that these organizations can have a very positive role.

Gaia: We need help on several fronts. First of all, we need guidance from APPEC-ECFA-NuPPEC, to better understand what can be realistically done and with which priority. Second, the help of these organisations will also be invaluable to have this effort officially recognized in the Institutes of all active participants in order to:

  1. have a framework in which this proposal can be developed;
  2. get support for related activities (space/logistic/funding for meetings/conferences/workshops, setup of publicly accessible repositories where to store results/algorithms/webpages, etc);
  3. improve the communication in two directions:
    1. across the three scientific communities in order to spread information about events, discussions, and results,
    2. towards the general public in order to convey a common message and present our research progress as a common story, as truly is.

Do you think your work can influence the EPPSU, and if not this one, maybe the next?

Group picture from JENAS-2019.

Caterina: Some of us proposing this EoI had also already worked together on the Briefing Book towards the update of the European Strategy of Particle Physics, where we wrote an “Outlook on synergies” in the Dark Matter chapter reflecting the wish for closer collaborations between the astroparticle, particle and nuclear physics in terms of common search targets and common tools (e.g. experimental technologies, shared software repositories…).

Gaia: there is already a widespread and large movement in the direction of work across theory-experiment and across different communities. This movement cannot be stopped at this stage, but certainly can be better organized. I hope that the ESPPU delegates will not miss the opportunity to further boost the already lively and rich particle, astroparticle and nuclear physics communities.

Caterina: There were already favourable steps in this direction in the 2013 strategy, which have led to the creation of initiatives such as EuCAPT, an astrophysics theory centre within CERN, whose help we’ve been relying on for the hosting of this EoI and further initiatives.

Marco: I don’t think that initiatives like ours are meant to ‘influence’ processes like the EPPSU. In some sense, we are just aiming to deal with the day-to-day business of Dark Matter research in a more streamlined way (creating links, putting in place technical tools, facilitating communication…) rather than devising the broad lines of the strategy. We are bold enough to think that Dark Matter is already a clear crucial priority of our field, and we would like to make the process of searching for it more efficient.

Caterina: This EoI is meant to encourage communication within a platform that will help DM researchers in Europe and worldwide, and will have useful practical outcomes such as common repositories and shared outreach material.

What will be the next steps?

Florian: We have some next steps sketched at our indico page. I think the most important one is a kick-off meeting organized at CERN (with an available remote connection), which will be followed up by meetings at upcoming conferences and workshops.

Marco:The kick-off meeting will be an occasion to further understand the work that is already being done in many working groups aimed at structuring DM searches in different subfields. Then we will discuss the next steps with the community of endorsers.

Florian: We also plan to establish a common repository to share experimental data (or use existing repositories) coming along with frameworks for their theoretical interpretation. Also, we will from the beginning work together on public outreach, such as e.g. the international dark matter day.

Gaia: My personal opinion is that in a first stage we should rely on existing activities and facilitate communication among them. As far as I am concerned, I will further boost the work done within the Physics Beyond Colliders study group during the workshop FIPs 2020 organized at CERN in May 2020. At this meeting, we will discuss, among other topics, results and prospects for light DM and axion searches with a wide variety of experimental techniques and with the help of renowned theoretical and experimental experts in these fields. I know that a similar effort is being done within the DM@LHC workshop and I have been invited to their annual meeting in June 2020 at DESY to discuss possible synergies. We hope to be present at the APPEC, ECFA and NuPPEC town meetings and to establish an annual meeting of iDMEu.


 

Further reading:

  • Marco Cirelli

    Marco Cirelli is a senior CNRS researcher at the Laboratory of Theoretical and High Energy Physics (LPTHE) of Sorbonne University, in Paris. He obtained his PhD from Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, in 2004 and subsequently worked at Yale University, Saclay and CERN. From a background as a particle theorist, he slowly drifted towards astroparticle theory and cosmology. His interests have been revolving around the issue of Dark Matter for the past 15 years. In particular he focuses on searches using charged cosmic rays (positrons, antiprotons, antinuclei), high-energy gamma rays and neutrinos. From 2012 to 2018 he has led the ERC project “NewDark” (New Directions in Dark Matter Phenomenology at the TeV scale).
  • Marco Cirelli
  • Caterina Doglioni
  • Gaia Lanfranchi
  • Florian Reindl
 

APPEC SAC sub-committee to prepare report on Direct Detection of Dark Matter

Over the past year, the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) received mandate from the General Assembly to form a Dark Matter (DM) Direct Detection sub-committee, which is now ready to begin its work.

How to detect Dark Matter (credit: HAP / A. Chantelauze)

It is chaired by Leszek Roszkowski, who is supported by 12 experts from different fields covering relevant aspects of direct detection such as experiments targeting axion searches, LAr and LXe experiments, scintillating crystals, CCDs, theory and astronomy and cosmology connections, as well as connections with collider measurements.To aid in the discussions and to formulate concrete recommendations for the experimental effort in direct DM detection for the next decade, the DM Direct Detection committee is expected to provide an assessment of current and future scientific opportunities in non-accelerator DM searches, and to summarize the results in a written report.

The final report is expected to include:

  • The global context of DM particle searches, including the existing hints or evidence for DM particles, an inventory of alternatives for the particle nature of DM, and an inventory of present and best estimates of foreseen sensitivities of various techniques and how they compare to other than direct detection methods.
  • An inventory of existing DM experiments, with focus to Europe, and the technologies adopted by these, with current most competitive results.
  • A comparative SWOT analysis of existing, planned and proposed technologies for DM direct detection with the potential to surpass current sensitivities in the next decade with the eventual goal of reaching or surpassing the so-called neutrino floor.
  • An assessment of the required infrastructure in Europe, including maintenance and upgrades of existing facilities.
  • A list of likely technological and scientific synergies between the different direct detection technologies and with research and R&D outside of the field.
  • An inventory of physics, astronomy or other research that can be done in addition to DM direct detection with the various technologies. In addition, it would be important to discuss if such other research can be done even within the specifically proposed DM experiments. Synergies with other experiments of indirect, accelerator and cosmology DM searches should also be considered, including possible technical and R&D synergies, e.g. with CERN, other laboratories and industry.
  • Any other recommendations within the scope of DM direct searches, that the committee deems relevant.

The report is expected to be a useful and valuable resource not only for experts but also for a wider community of astroparticle physics and related research areas. It would therefore be welcome if the broader implications of low background physics and the search for rare events could also be discussed, as well as the relevance of the programme for the training of the next generation of researchers.