Worker in the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) tunnel at CERN. Image © CERN.
For three days last week, more than 250 scientists gathered at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the future of European participation in the field of neutrino physics.
Neutrinos are a hot topic of study among the physics community because their properties may explain the existence of a universe made of matter. Neutrinos interact so little with other particles that trillions of them pass through our bodies without leaving a trace. They are by far the lightest of the known particles, and are also the least understood.
The European Strategy for Future Neutrino Physics workshop was a step toward establishing a roadmap for European participation in neutrino physics, and increasing coordination both within the European neutrino physics community and between the European community and the rest of the world.
Experiments underway around the world now and over the next five years may greatly advance our understanding of neutrinos, but physicists expect they will need to learn more. The possibilities for new accelerator-based neutrino facilities beyond 2015, and the R&D necessary over the next few years to determine the direction of neutrino research, were the focus of last week’s workshop.
The workshop, organized by a special panel of the CERN Scientific Policy Committee, also investigated the role that CERN could play in the future of European and worldwide neutrino physics facilities. CERN has a long history of involvement in neutrino physics, including the use of neutrinos to discover the weak neutral current. But today, CERN’s involvement in neutrino physics is limited to creating beams of neutrinos for experiments at Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy.
The SPC panel will present a report to the CERN Council in December, for which last week’s workshop provided critical input. The CERN Council is responsible for setting European strategy for particle physics as well as for deciding on future directions for the CERN laboratory. The report will address the feasibility and merit of a European neutrino physics strategy as well as the possibilities for CERN, whether future facilities are located in Europe or elsewhere in the world.
For more information, visit the agenda for the meeting, which includes all presentations given at the meeting and abstracts for the 44 posters presented
