Brahmagupta Physics colloquium by Prof. Takaaki Kajita
ABSTRACT :
Super-Kamiokande is a very large neutrino detector with 50,000 tons of pure water. The experiment began in 1996. In 1998, neutrino oscillation was discovered by the studies of atmospheric neutrinos. The discovery and the subsequent studies motivate further studies of neutrinos. Therefore, the new detector Hyper-Kamiokande is under construction in Kamioka. Gravitational waves are expected to be a very important new tool to observe the Universe such as the mergers of black hole binaries or those of neutron star binaries. KAGRA is a laser interferometer with 3km X 3km arm lengths, with cryogenic mirrors and located in underground. I will discuss the neutrino and gravitational wave researches in Kamioka.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Takaaki Kajita is the Special University Professor at the University of Tokyo, and also the Director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) of The University of Tokyo. Kajita received his Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo School of Science in 1986, and has been researching at Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande detectors at the Kamioka Observatory in central Japan. In 1998, at the Neutrino International Conference held in Takayama, Gifu, he showed the analysis results which provided strong evidence for atmospheric neutrino oscillations. In 2015 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in discovering atmospheric neutrino oscillations. Currently, he is the project leader for KAGRA Project, aiming to explore the gravitational wave astronomy.