The results of the world's largest neutrino observation experiment conducted at the South Pole by an international research team in which Chiba University participates have been selected as one of the 2018 major achievements of the scientific journal Science published by the American Society for the Promotion of Science in 10.
The international research team consists of 12 research institutes in 49 countries around the world, and Chiba University is the only official member from Japan.In this research, aiming at the identification of the cosmic neutrino radiation source celestial body, which has been a mystery until now, it is called "multi-messenger observation" in which observation facilities around the world perform follow-up observations based on the information such as the arrival direction of the detected cosmic neutrinos. Pioneering new methods.An algorithm for identifying cosmic neutrino events in real time was developed mainly by Chiba University and started operation in April 2016.
The Chiba University team was mainly in charge of developing and operating a flash system that connects the Antarctic neutrino observation facility "Ice Cube" with researchers around the world.Neutrinos were detected in the Antarctic "Ice Cube" in the early morning of September 2017, 9.Observations began with more than a dozen telescopes from Japan, and the observation team of the "Kanata Telescope" at Hiroshima University discovered an astronomical object with a changing brilliance.As a result, the blazer object located on the right side of Orion was identified as a radioactive source of neutrinos, and the research results were published in Science in July 23.
Professor Shigeru Yoshida, who leads the research team at Chiba University, said, "One of the contributions of our team is the development of a system for immediate identification of neutrino signals. Following the detection of neutrinos, the celestial body is shining brightly. I worked with the German team to calculate how likely it was that these two events would occur in succession. However, since this is the starting point, we will not only identify the celestial bodies that emit high-energy neutrinos, but also in the future. I also want to clarify the mechanism of radiation. "
