Tsuyoshi Nakaya Awarded the 2014 Nishina Memorial Prize

November 14, 2014
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)

Professor
Tsuyoshi Nakaya

Tsuyoshi Nakaya, a professor at the Kyoto University and an affiliate member of Kavli IPMU, received the 2014 Nishina Memorial Prize. He shared this prize with Takashi Kobayashi, a professor at the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) .
They have taken a leading role in the T2K (Tokai to Kamioka) collaboration conducting a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. The award ceremony will be held on December 5, 2014 at the Tokyo Kaikan.

The Nishina Memorial Prize was established to memorialize Dr. Yoshio Nishina’s achievements. The purpose of this prize is to recognize young researchers with distinguished achievement in the every field of relating to the atomic physics：science, engineering and medical science, etc.

Nakaya was honored for “the observation of electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam”.
In the T2K experiment, a muon neutrino beam produced at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) , which located in Tokai village, Ibaraki prefecture, was emitted toward the Super-Kamiokande detector underground in Kamioka, Gifu prefecture, which is 295km (185miles) away from J-PARC. In July 2013, the T2K collaboration was the first to definitely confirm that electron neutrinos appear in a muon neutrino beam. This result has clarified the unexplained oscillation probability in which a muon neutrino is transformed into an electron neutrino among the three generations : electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino. In addition, this work has provided the clues to promote the research on CP violation in neutrinos.

The T2K neutrino beam group was also awarded the 2013 Suwa Prize in February 2014 for their contribution to the discovery of electron neutrino appearance in the T2K experiment by creating and operating the highest intensity neutrino beam facility.