November 21, 2012
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)
Kashiwa, Japan - In November 2012, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) joined to the Belle II experiment, which starts in 2014 at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. Kavli IPMU joined also to the Belle experiment.
Since the establishment of Kavli IPMU, while the mission of the institute is to address fundamental questions about the universe with experimental assault on three fronts, namely underground, sky, and accelerator tied with theoretical physics and mathematics, full-time researcher in the field of accelerator-based high energy physics had been missing. However, in November 1st of 2012, Takeo Higuchi joined as a project associate professor and established a high energy physics research group.
The Belle Experiment is a high energy particle physics experiment investigating physics of B and anti B mesons produced by the KEKB※ accelerator. Physics data of Belle experiment had been taken from 1999 to 2010. In 2001, Belle discovered CP-violation in B meson decays, which made a great contribution to the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Kobayashi and Maskawa. Data analyseis for the Belle experiment still continues. The SuperKEKB project, an upgraded facility with approximately 40 times more luminosity, is now on going and the detector is being upgraded accordingly as Belle II. It is an international collaboration experiment with approximately 400 researchers from 15 countries.
Higuchi has been heavily involved in the Belle and Belle II experiments at KEK. Though current member of Kavli IPMU high energy group is only one person, a few postdoc researchers are expected to join in around April 2013. The group will contribute to the Belle II in assembly of the silicon vertex detector for a precise measurement of decay point of B meson and development of its readout system, and to explore new physics beyond the standard model. Facilities including class-1000 clean room, coordinate measuring device, automatic wire-bonder wire-pull tester and wire-pull tester automatic wire-bonder have been already prepared, and collaborators from other institutes have been already utilizing them.
Higuchi saids, “It is my great pleasure that Kavli IPMU, of which mission is to address questions in our Universe by synergies of experimental physics, theoretical physics, and mathematics, has become a collaborator of the Belle II and Belle experiments. From now, our newly established high energy group of Kavli IPMU can make more realistic activities than before; we will elucidate mysteries in our Universe in a new manner that has not existed in Kavli IPMU before. One of our group’s important responsibilities in Belle II is to establish a super-precise assembly procedure of a silicon vertex detector, which determines decay vertices of B mesons in the precision of less than 100 micrometers. Our high energy group will access to answers of our Universe’s questions by an establishment of new experimental technique and Belle II data analyses.”
Peter Krizen, the spokesperson of the Belle II collaboration and professor of University of Ljubljana, Slovenia saids, “It is my great pleasure to congratulate Higuchi’s group for having been accepted as the Belle II Collaboration members. His personal contribution to this exciting new experiment has been extremely important over the past several years, and I am sure that with his group at Kavli IPMU he will be able to contribute even much more in the years to come. In fact, Kavli IPMU has already been effectively involved in Belle II through the preparation of the installation procedures for the very precise vertex detector. For Belle II it is also an important asset to have such a prestigious institution as Kavli IPMU on the list of collaborating institutions. I am very much looking forward to our collaboration in the coming years”
※ KEKB accelerator: Colliding-type accelerator of electron and positron beams located at KEK in Tsukuba, Japan.
Accelerated electrons (8GeV) and positrons (3.5Gev) are stored in separate rings of approximately 3km circumference and 10 meter depth, and collided with each other at an interaction point. It is used for the elementary particle physics experiments.