VISPA Research Team Included in Physics World Top 10 Breakthroughs for 2011
In its list of top 10 physics breakthroughs for 2011, Physics World includes the measurement of neutrino oscillations by the T2K experiment, based in Japan. The International T2K collaboration includes VISPA group members who have played significant roles in the experiment, including design, construction and operation of critical detector components and data analysis. The experiment was set up to measure how neutrinos change identity after travelling some 300 kilometres across Japan. Data collected from its first year of operation has given the first indication that muon type neutrinos can transform into electron type neutrinos, as reported in a paper published in Physical Review Letters. Once confirmed, this may help explain the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The experiment resumed operation in January 2012 now that the accelerator laboratory has recovered from the devastating Tohoku earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, 2011.
T2K international collaboration (includes members from VISPA)