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Astroparticle physicists from all over Europe met in Brussels on 9 January, together with colleagues from other worldwide institutions and laboratories and representatives of the European Commission, for the official launch of the new roadmap set out by the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium (ApPEC). This document gives an indication to the European scientific community for the priorities for research and the recommended strategies for the next ten years. Top of the list are gravitational waves, neutrinos, dark matter and gamma rays, plus the encouragement to act in concert in these areas of research, because that is the only way for Europe to exploit to the full the promising potential for future progress and discoveries. We asked Antonio Masiero, INFN vice-president and chairman of ApPEC since January 2017, to tell us how European astroparticle physics will face nowadays frontiers of our knowledge about the universe and which major directions will be followed after the new roadmap launch.
Which are the main recommendations that the new ApPEC roadmap is based on for the future of astroparticle physics in Europe?
The new ApPEC roadmap identifies three main areas for future research into astroparticle physics: the newly-born multi-messenger astronomy, i.e. simultaneous study of different cosmic messengers (cosmic rays, electromagnetic radiation, neutrinos and gravitational waves) emitted by the high energy cosmic sources in the universe; neutrino physics, which is the detailed study of the most mysterious and elusive elementary particle, which could open the door to new physics; and the exploration of the dark side of the universe, dark matter and dark energy, together with the study of its evolution, from the moment of Big Bang (cosmology, study of cosmic microwave background radiation or CMB).
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Basic research produces new knowledge and technology. That means innovative, leading edge technology, which can often provide useful applications in society. It may occur, though, that when the research reaches its scientific objective and concludes its programme, the developed technology is not sufficiently mature to leave the scientific laboratories and become innovations ...
Stavros Katsanevas and Antonio Masiero have been appointed, respectively, as the new director of the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) and the new chairman of the EGO Council. After seven years as director of the EGO consortium, set up by the INFN and its French counterpart CNRS to operate the Virgo interferometer for detecting gravitational waves, Federico Ferrini’s mandate has ...
The NASA satellite dedicated to studying high energy radiation in the universe and relying on fundamental Italian participation, with the involvement of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), has been awarded, for the fourth time, the Bruno Rossi Prize of the High Energy Astrophysics Division. The announcement ...
There are positive results from experiments on cells using boron in proton therapy. The experiments, which were conducted by an international team of Italian and Czech researchers, seem to demonstrate for the first time that a reaction from a fusion of proton and boron 11 (11B) can be effectively achieved in cancerous cells. This result would make the reaction potentially useful for the treatment of tumours with proton therapy, by increasing the biological efficacy of the “shells” (the protons) used to ...
STUDYING THE STARS UNDER A MOUNTAIN:
15 January was a special day for the National Laboratories of Gran Sasso (LNGS) of INFN. It was the 30th anniversary of the world’s most important underground laboratory dedicated to astroparticle physics. The guest of honour for the celebration of this major anniversary was the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who visited the experimental rooms inside the Gran Sasso mountain massif before meeting the INFN community and leaving a message of thanks and congratulations for the work already completed, as well as best wishes for the future. In terms of dimensions and worth of the scientific instrumentation, the INFN National Laboratories of Gran Sasso are the biggest and most important underground research centre in the world, where internationally known scientists and Nobel Prize winners conducted their research and continue to operate, names such as Carlo Rubbia and Barry Barish who was awarded a 2017 Nobel Prize for the discovery of gravitational waves. The LNGS were designed and built beneath 1400 metres of rock, to the purpose of exploiting the protection of the mountain against cosmic radiation, which constantly hits the Earth. The Laboratories are therefore immersed in what physicists call ‘cosmic silence’, which is a necessary condition for carrying out scientific activity involving the study of extremely rare phenomena that are difficult to detect. ...
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INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS).
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