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H2020Doctoral network2016–2020

ELUSIVES · The Elusives Enterprise: Asymmetries of the Invisible Universe

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2016-04-01 → 2020-03-31
EU contribution
€3,855,581
Participants
12
Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

The Elusives Enterprise: Asymmetries of the Invisible Universe

Neutrinos and Dark Matter are the most abundant and also the most elusive building-blocks of nature because of their tenuous couplings to ordinary matter. Each particle has a mirror image with identical mass and opposite charge: its antiparticle. What is the essential nature of particles and antiparticles? This is a most fundamental open question in science. The laws of physics are almost -but not quite- symmetric for particles and antiparticles, and this could explain why the universe is made only of matter. Tiny differences detected in visible matter are largely insufficient to explain this fact, but an asymmetric behaviour of the elusives components of nature, neutrinos and/or dark matter, may explain it. The unexpected symmetric behaviour of the strong interactions also points to new physics and a new particle, the axion, which might be the origin of dark matter. Understanding the connection between the asymmetries of matter and antimatter in the visible and invisible world was the main goal of this project.It also complemented, continued and specially extended to a new qualitative realm the knowledge sharing and long-term collaboration of the well-established ITN Invisibles. The public engagement was also focused on the societal impact of research, showing that investments in science imply technological innovations which are essential not only for science but also for the benefit of society at large. The main deliverable of Elusives was the scientific results that improved our understanding of the most abundant particles in the universe, that is, N and DM. A complementary search was that of the origin of the mass of ordinary particles, at the heart of the LHC and other hadronic enterprises.The strong dissemination strategy of the project aimed at increasing the impact of these scientific results. Elusives has been able to attract highly talented young people to a research career at the forefront of scientific and technological developments, has helped them to develop their full potential via a structured and coherent training and has fostered their growth as individuals.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

NEUTRINOS and DARK MATTER (DM) are the most abundant and also the most elusive building-blocks of nature because of their tenuous couplings to the ordinary matter we are made of. Each particle has a mirror image with identical mass and opposite charge: its antiparticle. What is the essential nature of particles and antiparticles? This is a most fundamental open question in science. The laws of physics are almost -but not quite- symmetric for particles and antiparticles, and this could explain why the universe is made of matter, i.e. why we are here. Tiny differences detected in visible matter are largely insufficient, while an asymmetric behaviour of neutrinos or of DM may be the seed. In turn, the unnaturally symmetric behaviour of strong interactions points to a new particle, the axion, also a superb DM candidate. For the first time, the connection between these asymmetries in the visible and invisible world will be addressed. Very timely, an ambitious experimental search of asymmetric behaviour has been launched on neutrinos, axions and other DM, and the Higgs, with imminent major breakthroughs. The path to understand the Universe and build the New Standard Model must confront this problem. The mission of Elusives ITN is to form the new generation of researchers to accomplish this task, focusing on phenomenology with the necessary link to experiment. This is the first transnational such program, exploiting the capital investment in new experiments and overcoming the fragmentation of the research effort. ELUSIVES ITN is uniquely placed for it: * World-leadership in all relevant areas; * Multidisciplinarity; * Key theorists and experimentalists; * Outstanding training record; * CERN, Fermilab, SuperKamiokande and ADMX partners; * World leading cutting-edge research-related industry; * Highest professional beneficiary dissemination; * Top-quality expertise from emerging countries; * Optimal gender balance with over 50% female international leaders as coordinators.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID · MadridCoordinatorSpain
  • CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisFrance
  • GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAT GOTTINGEN STIFTUNG OFFENTLICHEN RECHTS · GottingenGermany
  • ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI FISICA NUCLEARE · FrascatiItaly
  • KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE · KarlsruheGermany
  • MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · MUNCHENGermany
  • RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG · HeidelbergGermany
  • UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA · BarcelonaSpain
  • UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA · ValenciaSpain
  • UNIVERSITAT ZURICH · ZurichSwitzerland
  • UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM · DURHAMUnited Kingdom
  • UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON · SOUTHAMPTONUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union