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(INT Program June 1 - 26, 2015) Reported by K. Abazajian, W. Haxton, C. Lundardini, I. Sarcevic Date posted July 27, 2015 |
The INT Program Neutrino Astrophysics and Fundamental Properties was held at the INT in Seattle, Washington from June 1-26, 2015. The program was organized by Kevork Abazajian (University of California, Irvine), Wick Haxton (University of California at Berkeley), Cecilia Lunardini (Arizona State University), and Ina Sarcevic (University of Arizona). The purpose of the four-week program was to address several topics:
These themes were timely in view of recent experimental progress in neutrino physics, such as the results from IceCube, Planck and GERDA. The participants were roughly equally split between expertise in solar neutrinos, supernovae and correspondent neutrino physics, high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, and cosmological neutrino probes. Overall, the participants received the program very well and excellent progress was made on these topical areas, from members of the program that do not typically interact in detail. The purpose of stimulating the interactions between the different communities was well served. The program included a five-day workshop entitled Neutrino Astrophysics and Fundamental Properties during the third week of the program, from June 15-19. The organizers of the workshop were also the main program organizers. During the non-workshop weeks, the number of talks was limited to two morning talks, happening three or four days a week. We asked speakers to limit their formal presentations to 30 minutes, and we provided an additional 15 minutes for discussion. This format worked very well, and helped conserve time for collaborative discussions among smaller groups of participants as well as individual research. The talks were generally very interactive. Daily afternoon discussion sessions, about one hour long, provided an additional opportunity for questions and other follow-up, on topics directly related to the morning's talks or on other related topics of interest. The presence of a moderator ensured that these meetings were sufficiently focused and productive. There were a number of key advances during the workshop:
Several new collaborations were discussed during the program, and we expect a number of publications in the next few months to result from discussions during the program. The field remains very active, with the expectation of new discoveries in the near future. |