23.09.2014

Big in Japan

EU Commission promotes international cooperation with Japan

The European Commission funds two projects with DESY participation which promote cooperation with scientists in Japan: E-JADE and JENNIFER are so-called RISE proposals with the aim to further develop accelerator techniques and to collaborate in precision measurements of the Standard Model of particle physics. RISE is part of the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 for research and innovation, which supports the posting of EU scientists to non-European countries. These two projects are now funded by the EU with a total of 3.9 million euros.

Wide-angle view of the ATF test facility, which recently met the beam focus requirements of ILC (Photo: KEK).

The E-JADE (Europe-Japan Accelerator Development Exchange) project deals with the construction of future large accelerator facilities at highest energies and intends to intensify the cooperation between European and Japanese scientists. Apart from the magnet development for the extension of high-energy hadron colliders (LHC), the topical focus of the proposal includes the International Linear Collider (ILC), with its construction being intensively planned in Japan. In anticipation of the start of the realization of this particle physics’future project, DESY’s Japanese partner institute KEK operates the Advanced Test Facility (ATF) used to test the focusing of nanometre size electron beams. ATF and the further development of the superconducting RF accelerator technology are main issues of the linear collider activities of E-JADE. In addition, the dimensioning of the interaction point for ILC experiments will be optimised to match the specific environment of the Japanese site in the Kitakami mountains. The Japanese E-JADE partners KEK and University of Tokyo are the leading groups in the Japanese linear collider community; the programme will intensify networking with the European partners of CERN and France, Spain and Great Britain. The EU will fund the stay of European scientists in Japan for four years with a total of 1.6 million euros.

The object of JENNIFER (Japan and Europe Network for Neutrino and Intensity Frontier Experimental Research) are the preparation and execution of precision measurements and tests of the quark and lepton flavour structure of the Standard Model of particle physics. In this field, the Belle II and T2K experiments are two world-leading projects run by the KEK laboratory. Both experiments can count on on a substantial participation from eleven European countries. The Belle II detector will be completed in the near future; T2K collects data of rare neutrino interactions; simultaneously, studies are carried out for an experiment upgrade to Hyper-K. Cooperation will be advanced and further expanded in Japan under the leadership of KEK. The main goal of the JENNIFER project funded with a total of 2.3 million euros is the support of an intensive scientific and technological exchange with scientists of the host country Japan and between the participating European partners from science and industry.