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Visiting the Japanese Super-Kamiokande detector (part 2)
In deep underground tunnels of former mines near the Japanese Alps, teams of scientists with Swiss participation are researching various types of elementary particles. Over the next few years, powerful research instruments will be put into operation with which scientists want to discover the nature of neutrinos. The hoped-for results could lead to solving of deep puzzles in our understanding of the universe.
Image: CHIPP, SwitzerlandVisiting the Japanese Super-Kamiokande detector (part 1)
Hardly any elementary particle occurs more frequently in the universe than the elusive neutrino. The investigation of the almost massless tiny particle is a focus of current elementary particle physics. Perhaps the most important contribution to the understanding of neutrino has been made over twenty years by the Japanese Super-Kamiokande detector, in which several Swiss research groups are involved. A visit to the Japanese mountains.
Image: CHIPP, SwitzerlandWhy half the universe is missing
In 2012, the Higgs particle was detected by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN. Since then, one often hears that the Standard Model of particle physics is complete. "Not quite true!" says Alain Blondel, professor of physics at the University of Geneva. There is still the neutrino, which, as it is known today, does not fit into the Standard Model. Exciting news about the elusive particle was published recently: New observations by the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan provide first indications shedding light to a central question of modern physics: Why does the universe consist only of matter while the associated antimatter is missing?
Image: B. VogelT2K presents hint of CP violation by neutrinos
The international T2K Collaboration strengthened its previous hint that the symmetry between matter and antimatter may be violated for neutrino oscillation.