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Prototype Schwarzschild–Couder Telescope (pSCT, see Fig. 1), one of prototype telescopes developed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project, observed the Crab Nebula and successfully detected very-high-energy gamma rays from the object with a statistical significance of 8.3σ (Figs. 2–4). The viability of two new technologies used in pSCT, the Schwarzschild–Couder optical system with a large field of view of 8 degrees and a small camera pixel size of 6 mm realized by using silicone photomultipliers (SiPMs), have been proved …

The Division of Experimental Studies in KMI seeks to fill a full-time, non-tenure-track, Associate Professor position. The successful candidate is expected to participate in a flavor physics experiment using a high-energy accelerator, together with researchers at KMI, and also promote collaborative research with other groups in KMI, such as theoretical particle physics. For more details, please read KMI-2020-2-E  

The Division of Experimental Studies in KMI seeks to fill a full-time, non-tenure-track, Associate Professor position. The successful candidate is expected to participate in a flavor physics experiment using a high-energy accelerator, together with researchers at KMI, and also promote collaborative research with other groups in KMI, such as theoretical particle physics. For more details, please read KMI-2020-2-E  

Division for Theoretical Studies in KMI seeks to fill a full-time, non-tenure-track, Associate Professor position. The successful candidate will engage in research on the theory of elementary particle physics, cosmology, or their interdisciplinary field in order to shed light on dark universe. For more details, please read KMI-2020-1-E　    

Prof. Junji Hisano has been appointed as the new Director of the Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI) on April 1st, 2020. KMI was founded in April 2010 after the Novel prize award in physics to Profs. Kobayashi and Maskawa for their discovery of origin of broken symmetry. Since then, KMI has been conducting theoretical, experimental and observational studies of elementary particles and the universe under the leadership of Profs. Kobayashi and Maskawa. This year, our …

  The Belle II experiment—an international collaboration of physicists searching for signs of undiscovered particles—has published the experiment’s first results in a paper selected as an Editors’ Suggestion in Physical Review Letters. The results offer physicists new clues in their hunt for dark matter, a substance believed to make up some 85% of the universe. The Belle II experiment, which operates at the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider in Tsukuba, Japan, searched for a hypothetical new particle called the Z’ that may …

Novel mechanism to avoid theoretical bound on kaon rare decays Researchers try to revisit a theoretical bound, which is based on symmetries, between the charged and neutral kaon rare decays into the pion and neutrinos. Last September, KOTO experiment searching for neutral kaon rare decay reported events with an unexpected rate, which is much bigger than the standard model predictions. So far, KOTO experiment has not claimed that these events are the rare kaon decay signals. On the other hand, …

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, Nagoya City Science Museum and KMI cohosted a special planetarium night at the museum where the planetarium movie “Phantom of the Universe” was screened before prof. Makoto Tomoto from KMI gave a talk about dark matter search at LHC. More than 250 people registered the event, and there was a long line to talk with prof. Tomoto after the event.  Learn more about the planetarium movie “PHANTOM OF THE UNIVERSE — the hunt for dark …

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) selected KMI’s proposal “International research network to reveal dark matter in the universe by multidisciplinary approach in particle and astrophysics” as one of the Core-to-Core programs.  The Core-to-Core program is designed to create top world-class research centers that partner over the long term with other core research institutions around the world in advancing research in leading-edge fields on issues of high international priority. The KMI’s project — International research network to reveal …

On Monday, December 16, 2019, Quark-Hadron Theory Group (H Lab) and KMI held a special event celebrating that the Prof. Chiho Nonaka was selected as a “particularly outstanding female researcher (who not only excels in research achievements and competence but is also expected to play an active role as a university director or manager in the near future)” by the Gender Equality Promotion Expert Committee of Nagoya University.    Prof. Nonaka gave a talk on her latest research on quark …