The Opening Ceremony of the International Conference “Neutrino Factory”

Prof. Tran Thanh Van, Chairman of Rencontres du Vietnam gave a speech at the opening session

This is a big conference in a series of international conferences of “The 12^th Rencontres du Vietnam” in 2016.

The conference was attended by 144 international delegates from 21 countries and territories in the world. Most of the scientists are from the countries that Neutrino has strongly developed, including: Japan (28), America (27), Italy (11), Switzerland (11), England (10), France (5), etc.

There were also Vietnamese scientists at the conference, named Dr. Cao Van Son (University of Tokyo, Japan) and Le Phuoc Trung (University of Tus, America).

The conference lasts until August 28, 2016 with its emphasis on future neutrino projects, the progress on studies of future facilities able to improve on measurements of the properties of neutrinos and charged lepton flavor violation as well as new phenomena.

The workshop is an opportunity for experimenters, theorists and accelerator physicists to share expertise with the common goal of designing the next generation of experiments. The organizing committee of the workshop includes Prof. Jacques Dumarchez (University of Paris 6, France), Prof. Takashi Kobayashi (a Japanese-born scientist), Prof. Alain Blondel (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and Prof. Jorge Morfin (Fermilab, America).

View of the workshop “Neutrino Factory”

The workshop “Neutrino Factory” was first organized in Lyon, France in 1999 after the discovery of a phenomenon called “neutrino oscillation” and this phenomenon proved that Neutrinos have mass.

That was also a breakthrough of modern physics. The conference is, in turns, organized in three regions: America, Asia and Europe and it annually attracts from 100 to 200 physicists in the world. In 2015, the conference was organized in Brazil.

The 2002 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three physicists, two of whom had discovered neutrino from the sun, neutrino from the atmosphere of the earth and even neutrino from the explosion of stars (also called Supernova)

Prof. Raymond Davis observed neutrino from the sun since 1968, but up to 2002, that meant 34 years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize.  The 2014 Nobel Prize was awarded to two physicists named Takaaki Kajita and Arthur Mc. Donal for their great contribution to neutrino oscillation and that proved neutrinos have mass.

A photo taken among delegates and scientists at ICISE

After 1998, many events occurred, including the discovery of Higgs particle at CERN in 2012; many experiments on neutrino using accelerators and nuclear reactions consolidated neutrino phenomenon. That was the reason for many neutrino projects that came into being such as T2K (Tokai to Kamioka) experiment which could send neutrino up to 295 km, with the participation of about 500 members from 61 universities and physics institutes of 12 countries or the cooperation for an experiment named DUNE in the U.S. So far February 2016, there have been about 790 co-operations of 144 institutes and universities in the world. These experiments could send neutrino about 1,300 km (about one fifth of the earth radius).

Prof. Tran Thanh Van – Chairman of Rencontres du Vietnam said the conference attracted a lot of Japanese scientists and he hoped that was a good opportunity for Japanese and Vietnamese scientists to cooperate in neutrino physics. The establishment of a neutrino researching group in Quy Nhon City is appropriate.

Đ.T (Source: daidoanket.vn)