Skip to main content
EnglishEN
European Commission logo print header

From Super-Kamiokande to Hyper-Kamiokande

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

On the trail of new physics in a huge underground water tank shielded from cosmic rays

The laws of physics govern our universe, explaining things such as why we do not float off Earth into space as well as where the ball in a pinball game goes and how fast. Despite all the amazing discoveries, observations and theoretical developments over the last hundred years or so, there are important and acknowledged gaps in our understanding. We do not make the laws, we discover them. The EU-funded SK2HK project hopes to resolve or at least shed new light on some of the most important riddles associated with neutrinos by initiating secondments of European researchers to Japan’s Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector, the world's largest underground neutrino detector. Scientists will not only participate in neutrino experiments, they will also make important contributions to the experimental hardware required to upgrade the SK detector to the Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) detector, whose construction began at the project's start.

Objective

"The study of the neutrino properties and interactions has been key in the development of the Standard Model of fundamental interactions and it is providing first clues on the understanding of its deeper foundations. In this aspect the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector (ICRR, U. Tokyo, Japan) for many years has played a crucial role. It contributed to the discovery of oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, thus establishing their 'massive' character. Because of this discovery, Takaaki Kajita, the “person in charge of this proposal” from our main Third Country partner ICRR, was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics 2015.

With SK2HK we aim to continue the very successful SKPLUS, through extension of participation of European institutes in the state-of-the-art experimental program related to the SK, the SK-Gd and the Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) experiments. We want to gain insight and even discover the hypothesized charge-parity violation in the leptonic sector with SK and the future HK. We want to discover the ""Diffuse Neutrino Supernova Background"" with SK-Gd and to explore in depth the Grand Unification with SK and the future HK. Those measurements are key to the complete understanding of the most fundamental concepts of Physics.

An important aspect of this proposal is significant amount of hardware R&D related to HK, especially given the decision to start HK construction in 2020. Timely finalization of these activities is crucial to the success of HK and requires even closer cooperation with our partners. Given the uniqueness of the technologies that are being developed, it is efficient to do some work at the location where most of the infrastructure needed for the R&D is. In this project those are the ICRR of the Univ. of Tokyo and the TRIUMF laboratory in Canada, as well as several European laboratories, incl. the applying institutions.

The proposed secondment program offers a unique opportunity to fulfill these goals while working with World leading experts."

Fields of science

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019

See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MSCA-RISE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)

Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID
Net EU contribution
€ 133 400,00
Address
CALLE EINSTEIN 3 CIUDAD UNIV CANTOBLANCO RECTORADO
28049 Madrid
Spain

See on map
Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 133 400,00

Participants (6)

Partners (2)

Share this page

Download

Last update: 2 April 2024

My Booklet

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/872549

European Union, 2024