Attendees came from a wide range of professions and organizations, including a group from the National Science Foundation (NSF), who attended to collect insights from talks to identify opportunities for collaboration with JSPS. NSF Program Officer for Particle Astrophysics James Whitmore had nominated one of the speakers and noted the fundamental nature of the research to be discussed and the difficulty in envisioning practical applications. A faculty member from Kyoto University with a background in linguistics was present and noted the depth of intellectual collaborations between the U.S and Japan. Individuals who attended on their own behalf included an individual from a consulting group and an adult graduate student who were generally curious about the history of these fields, as well as an intern from a U.S. aerospace company who is pursuing a career in space policy. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Director of the JSPS Washington Office Dr. Kohji Hirata provided the opening remarks, in which he highlighted the critical role of JSPS in supporting a wide range of natural sciences, humanities and social science research in Japan. While JSPS does not fund research in foreign countries directly, he expressed JSPS\u2019 desire to establish greater collaborations between Japanese and North American researchers. Dr. Hirata unfortunately had to break the news to the audience that keynote speaker and Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Takaaki Kajita would not be attending the event due to unforeseen circumstanc Keynote Speech (replacement for Prof. Kajita): Dr. Richard Green, National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Richard Green, Division Director of Astronomical Sciences at NSF, began by thanking JSPS for the privilege of attending the event and stressed how it would not have been possible without Dr. Kajita\u2019s vision and work. He emphasized the critical importance of collaboration on MMA, and how the NSF views this field as a major contributor to their overall research objectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Green discussed a number of notable international collaborations and future opportunities. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a collaboration involving North American, Japanese and European partners, studies warm gases and hot dusts in space which can reveal insights about planetary formation. He briefly discussed international collaboration on the Ice Cube project, where strings of photo multiplier tubes are buried in ice that can detect and measure the energy and direction of neutrinos which can help reveal neutrino sources (such as blazars) and the way they are launched across the universe. He took the opportunity to introduce a number of NSF grants including future collaborations on LIGO research and a wide range of astrophysical investigation grants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Green also discussed the history of multi-messenger\nastrophysics. A century ago, scientists such as Victor Hess, Robert Millikan\nand Jacob Clay noted that there were ionizing forces impacting earth\u2019s\natmosphere. In the 1960s, scientists such as John Bahcall and Raymond Davis\nbegan experimenting with methods to detect neutrinos and made fundamental\ncontributions to our understanding of the particle. During an event in 1987\nknown as \u201cSN 1987a,\u201d several neutrino detectors went off hours before the\nvisible light from a collapsing supernova was observed, with observations\nconfirming that 99% of the energy of a supernova core collapse is radiated away\nin the form of neutrinos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He ended his presentation by stating\nthat he believes international collaborations around MMA are primarily driven\nby the curiosity and intellectual drive of scientists who build new machines,\ninvent new technology and invite investment to answer pressing questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st session, Gravitational Wave, Speaker #1: Prof. Gabriela Gonz\u00e1lez, Louisiana State University<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Gabriela Gonz\u00e1lez spoke regarding\nher work observing gravitational waves as part of the LIGO project, an\nundertaking which took decades of efforts from thousands of individuals around\nthe world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She began by presenting Albert Einstein\u2019s\ntheory on the existence of gravitational waves, who hypothesized that two large\nmasses rotating each other produced the ripples of space-time distortion in\nspace-time. To confirm this hypothesis, researchers around the world\nexperimented with interferometers. These devices, which run perpendicular\nlasers in a vacuum, must reach the kilometer-scale to achieve the necessary\nsensitivity to detect gravitational waves. This led to the LIGO scientific\ncollaboration, involving two detectors, and the eventual detection of a\ngravitational wave in 2015 that was attributed to the merging of two black\nholes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Italian detector VIRGO joined the\nproject in 2016, which led to more detections. With more detectors involved,\nresearchers can achieve greater localization of the cosmic event that is\nproducing the gravitational waves to allow astronomers to investigate their\nsource. The Japanese detector KAGRA is expected to join the network soon, while\nan Indian detector will join in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One such detection included a signal that lasted 10 seconds rather than a fraction of a second, which indicated that the signal came from a neutron star merger, the first time such an event had been observed using both light and gravitational waves. The wave detected was designated GW170817 and led to the revelation that gravitational waves travel at the speed of light. This led to a paper published involving 3,000 collaborators comparing data to disentangle information on this multi-messenger event. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez was asleep when the signal came through and recalls awakening at 7:30 am to numerous emails discussing the signal and calling her colleagues to see what was going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez played audio clips for the\naudience where the frequency of these gravitational waves was converted into\nsound, which she described as the \u201cfirst two notes of the gravitational wave\nsymphony.\u201d Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez ended her presentation by expressing excitement about\nthe prospect of increasing the sensitivity of detectors and possible improvements\nto the technology to reveal insights about the nuclear physics of these cosmic\nevents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked about the practical\napplications of research on gravitational waves, Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez referred to\nEinstein\u2019s theory of relativity; if anyone had asked Einstein what his theory\nwas useful for, he would say for understanding the universe. However, without\nEinstein\u2019s theory of relativity, the world today would not have ubiquitous and\nhighly useful applications such as Global Position Systems (GPS). She feels a\nsimilar way about gravitational waves, as it is not currently possible to\nenvision the practical applications of such work that aims to unlock\nfundamental properties of the universe. The technology used in the\ngravitational wave facilities is cutting-edge, and includes work by the private\nsector on vacuum systems, seismic isolation, sensing technology, and reflective\ncoatings for large optics, which will have more general applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st session, Gravitational Wave, Speaker #2: Prof. Takayuki Tomaru, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan \/ High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Takayuki Tomaru of the Gravitational\nWave Project Office of the National Observatory of Japan spoke about the KAGRA\ndetector which is under construction in Kamioka, Japan. He began by introducing\nthe problems with gravitational wave detectors that the KAGRA project aims to\nresolve. Namely, interferometers have good sensitivity in two directions, but\nhave poor angular resolutions which makes localizing the source of the waves\ndifficult. When the VIRGO detector joined the LIGO network, localization was\nimproved considerably, while the addition of KAGRA will bring a tenfold\nincrease in localization improvement, since having multiple detectors located\nin different geographical locations allows for better triangulation of the\nsource. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, the sensitivity of existing interferometers such as LIGO and VIRGO detectors is limited in the low and mid-frequency ranges by seismic noises and thermal noises, respectively. To mitigate these challenges, KAGRA is located underground in a low seismic activity area to limit seismic noise, while an innovative cryogenic mirror system limits thermal (heat) noises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Tomaru then discussed a number of\nproblems that the team encountered in the construction of the facility, such as\nwater leaking into tunnels, as well as several instrumentation challenges that\nthe KAGRA team engineered innovative solutions to mitigate, such as the\n\u2018geometrical anti-spring.\u2019 Despite these challenges, the installation of\nhardware has been completed. Prof. Tomaru concluded his presentation by\nemphasizing that KAGRA was the \u201c2.5th<\/sup> generation\u201d of detectors and\nhow technological breakthroughs made by his team will be used in future telescopes.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the seminar, Dr. Tomaru discussed some of the other technical challenges encountered when constructing the $160 million facility. Given the sensitive nature of these measurements, the team has to be very attentive to conditions such as temperature and pressure to ensure the detector can achieve its mission, requiring a number of clever workarounds to unforeseen challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2nd session, Cosmic Rays, Speaker #1: Prof. Darren Grant, Michigan State University <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Darren Grant began his presentation\nby discussing the nature of the neutrino; he described them as fundamental\nparticles of nature that are the neutral partners of other particles such as\nelectrons. They are the second-most common particles after photons, and rarely\ninteract with matter. He pointed out to the audience that by the time he\nfinished his introductory slide, 3,000 trillion neutrinos had passed through our\nbodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Grant also reviewed some of the history related to neutrinos, including Kenneth Greisen\u2019s proposed detector to look for neutrinos from the crab nebula, and Fred Reines\u2019 first measurements of neutrinos. In the 1960s, Moisey Markov proposed the first underwater neutrino detector. Such approaches use optical module photodetectors that detect \u2018Cherenkov radiation\u2019, or the light produced by particles (such as neutrinos) when they pass through a certain medium. Sites for such detector arrays must be deep and must allow light to penetrate. Notable developments on these efforts include detector arrays deployed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii (DUMAND, 1993) and in Lake Baikal in Russia (1996). <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1988, Francis Halzen and J.G Learned began their project known as AMANDA to deploy detector arrays buried in 2 kilometers of ice, leading to the first measurements of very high energy neutrinos. The IceCube initiative, the successor to AMANDA, includes an expanded array in Antarctica to enable astronomy using neutrino measurements, by identifying sources such as super massive black holes and gamma ray bursts. The project includes 52 institute worldwide, including NSF and JSPS. IceCube allows the measurement of the highest energy neutrinos ever recorded; about one each month is recorded, with researchers assigning them names such as \u201cBert\u201d and \u201cErnie\u201d from the children\u2019s program Sesame Street. Dr. Grant mentioned that the project is also seeking to uncover secrets regarding the nature of dark matter, one of the universe\u2019s greatest mysteries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In September 2017, Dr. Grant was awoken\nby an alert of an event of extra-galactic origin detected by IceCube. Once such\na detection is made, IceCube personnel notify astronomers to train their\ntelescopes on an area of the sky to search for the source; this led to the\nobservation of a gamma ray emissions from a blazar. The team went back in their\ndata and saw a number of neutrino events from the same source direction in late\n2014. Dr. Grant compared the mapping of these neutrino sources to a negative\nphotograph; the whole picture becomes clearer as time goes on and more data is\ncollected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Grant ended his presentation with a\nquote from Mick Jagger, \u201cAnything worth doing is worth overdoing,\u201d and\nemphasized his ambition for IceCube Generation 2 to achieve 10-20 times as much\nsensitivity to produce further astronomical insights using neutrinos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2nd session, Cosmic Rays, Speaker #2: Prof. Shoichi Ogio, Osaka City University<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Shoichi Ogio of Osaka City\nUniversity\u2019s presentation focused on ongoing experiments in observations of\nultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Cosmic rays are high energy particles\nsuch as high energy protons and atomic nuclei that travel through the universe\nin non-linear trajectories, and are affected by terrestrial, galactic and\nintergalactic magnetic fields. These particles can reach extremely high\nenergies for their size; their energy of 50 joules is roughly equivalent to the\nforce from a standard baseball thrown at 60 miles per hour. Their source is\nunknown, although physicists believe their mechanism of acceleration is fermi\nacceleration; thus, identifying the source of UHECRs requires identifying\nastrophysical objects that could accelerate them to these energies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Source candidates for UHECRs include gamma ray bursts (produced either by a core collapse of a massive star, a neutron star merger, or neutron star-black hole merger) and active galactic nuclei. Very large detector arrays (about 100km2<\/sup>) are necessary to detect these extremely rare events. They can be detected using optical techniques by detecting fluorescent light (a fluorescence detector) produced by the interaction between UHECRs and the atmosphere. The Japanese Tokyo-1 detector recorded the first such fluorescence event. Each detector uses devices called scintillators or surface detectors, which generate photons in response to incident radiation. Examples include Volcano Ranch in New Mexico, where 90 scintillators were deployed over 8km2 <\/sup>between 1959 and 1978, and the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array in Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan, involving 111 scintillators over 100km2<\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Ogio belongs to the Telescope Array\nproject, which constructed an array combining 38 fluorescence detectors and 500\nsurface detectors between 2003 and 2008. The combination of these two\napproaches allows for both analysis of the direction the cosmic ray comes from,\nas well as indicators of the chemical composition of the cosmic ray. He showed\nthe audience a number of pictures and diagrams of the area, and described plans\nto greatly expand the experiment by adding more detectors and increasing the\narea covered to 3,000km2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He ended the presentation by\nhighlighting upcoming projects that could reveal more hints about the source of\nUHECRs, and emphasizing the importance of international collaborations. These\ninclude AugerPrime in Argentina, where instrumentation upgrades are being made\nto surface detectors to allow event-by-event composition of information, the Probe\nof Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) project to observe cosmic ray\nair showers using satellites in space at the University of Chicago, and the fluorescence\ndetector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST) which aims to address\nrequirements for a large-area and low-cost detector for measuring properties of\nUHECRs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the reception, Dr. Ogio was asked\nwhat the next step in his research would be if the source of UHECRs were to be\ndiscovered. He explained that the next step would be to solve how cosmic rays\npropagate through the universe from their source and reach the earth, which\nwould then allow analysis of the strength and distribution of matter. Given\nthat this is very fundamental science, he was not sure what the implications of\nthese discoveries would be, but it could map the distribution of dark matter\nand other fundamental physics questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3rd session, Discussions on New Astronomy, Speaker\n#1: Prof. Michitoshi Yoshida, Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical\nObservatory of Japan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Michitoshi Yoshida, Director of the\nSubaru Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, presented\non a number of key topics in MMA. He outlined how physicists and astronomers\nare using various electromagnetic waves to explore different aspects of the\nuniverse. For example, radio waves allow us to explore cold gases; infrared light\ncorrespond to cool stars and dust; optical techniques allow us to see stars; ultraviolet\nradiation indicates hot stars and hot plasma; and X-rays correspond to hot gas.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n He defined MMA as astronomy leveraging\nthese different wavelengths, along with gravitational waves and particles such\nas neutrinos and cosmic rays, and mentioned some historical breakthroughs.\nThese include the 1948 detection of cosmic rays associated with solar flares,\nthe 1964 detection of the solar neutrino, and the initiation of neutrino\nastronomy with the SN 1987A event detected by the Kamiokande detector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His next topic of discussion was the\nsynthesis of heavy metals such as gold and platinum in the universe, a long-standing\nmystery for astronomers and physicists. He discussed the hypothesis that if\nheavy metals were synthesized during neutron star mergers, then the optical\nemissions from such an event would decay faster than infrared emissions. After\nthe seminar, Dr. Yoshida explained that this hypothesis is based on the opacity\nof heavy metals; these elements block optical radiation, while infrared\nradiation passes through, which has been confirmed by data collected from\nneutron star merger observations using the Subaru Telescope. One such\nobservation, the GW178017 discussed by Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez, led to other insights\nregarding the origin and emission mechanisms of gamma ray bursts, the\ninteractions between relativistic jets and interstellar media, and the\nstructures of neutron stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Yoshida then discussed the\nlocalization problems of detectors that had been discussed by other speakers.\nHe showed diagrams of the localizations produced by the LIGO detector network;\ndespite advances, they still include massive samples of stars to sort through\nto discover the source of the event producing gravitational waves. Dr. Yoshida\npresented a solution for this challenge: the Japanese Collaboration for GW\nElectromagnetic Follow up project (J-GEM), which uses narrow and wide-field\ntelescopes to follow up on GW detection more efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He concluded the presentation by musing about the future possibilities of MMA, such as revealing further insights into cosmic nucleosynthesis (such as heavy metals), uncovering the mechanisms of supernova explosions and the formation of neutron stars, probing inside of stars through the study of gravitational waves, and determining the origin and nature of gamma ray bursts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3rd session, Discussions\non New Astronomy, Panel Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel discussion began with Dr. Christopher Packham of University of Texas at San Antonio, the moderator, asking the panelists about various principles and ways forward with MMA. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez considers MMA as a way to \u201cadd different senses to better understand the universe,\u201d and Dr. Tomaru considered the possibility of determining the distance of astronomical objects and events through improving the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors. Dr. Grant noted that the primary way to synergize collaborations on MMA is to continue to develop open policy across researchers and experiments, which Dr. Yoshida agreed with by pointing out that some actors in the space lack an open data policy. Dr. Green provided an example of such a lack of synergy; when the first neutron star merger was detected, \u201ceveryone turned their telescopes towards that – that is a waste of resources.\u201d He suggested a way to process alerts so the right telescope can be assigned the right job. Dr. Ogio noted that while he is in the field of charged particles rather than MMA, his field also needs a quicker way to analyze data from each event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first audience question built on\nthis topic of open policy and data by asking the panel whether it was risky to\nrely on spontaneous rather than institutionalized collaborations, and how to\ndeal with actors who are not open to sharing data. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez noted that such\nspontaneous collaborations have seen significant growth in numerous fields,\nwith Dr. Green agreeing by discussing a \u201cbottom-up movement\u201d in the field to\ncollaborate and more efficiently use resources and facilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The moderator then asked the panel about\nmethods to promote further collaboration between the U.S and Japan, as well as\nhow to increase interest among early-career scientists. Dr. Green repeated his\nbelief that \u201cthe science leads,\u201d but mechanisms such as regular meetings and\npost-doc\/student exchanges could deepen linkages. Dr. Grant stated his belief\nthat early-career scientists are \u201cincredibly intuitive\u201d and generally are\nattracted to new and exciting ideas such as those being explored in the MMA\nfield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The next question asked the panelists to\nchoose what observation facility they considered most important to advance the\nfield. Dr. Yoshida noted the difficulty in picking one but noted the importance\nof large telescopes such as Subaru in performing spectroscopy on target\nobjects. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez, instead of selecting a facility of facilities, instead\nemphasized the importance of having networks of facilities with similar\nsensitivity to triangulate sources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An audience member then asked the panel if\nit wouldn\u2019t be better to put these detectors in space. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez agreed that\nit sounds like a good idea but presented the case that the LISA interferometer\nthat started around the same time as LIGO will only be launched into space in\n2034. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The next question concerned possible\nrevelations about dark matter that MMA could unveil. Dr. Grant described how the\nIce Cube team uses gamma ray formation as a guide to where they should look for\nmatter signatures in terms of neutrinos, although they have yet to uncover any\ncorrelations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An audience member questioned Dr. Yoshida\u2019s\nassertion that gold could not be synthesized in the core of a star. Dr. Yoshida\nthen walked the audience through his thinking on the issue. Since nuclear\nfusion is the main reaction in the core of a star, and heavier elements than\niron cannot be synthesized by nuclear fusion, this indicates that additional\nneutron sources are needed to form heavy elements within a star, which can come\nfrom neutron capture. He explained that the neutron capture process inside\nstars is too infrequent to produce heavier metals than lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The moderator then called on the panelists to speculate on what could be some major breakthroughs in the next 20 years. Dr. Yoshida said that he was interested in the simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and neutron signals from a supernova, while Dr. Grant expressed confidence that the cosmic ray mystery would be solved. Dr. Ogio hoped that his team could more precisely determine the structure of the a mysterious \u2018hotspot\u2019 source of cosmic rays and expects that we will experience another supernova explosion in our galaxy. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez expressed a general desire for deviations from existing theories and moving on to bigger theories regarding fundamental properties of the universe. Dr. Tomaru stressed the need for a larger frequency range for detectors and the possibility of using satellites to explore the millihertz range. Dr. Green noted the asymmetric understanding of the three messengers, and the need for standard models regarding particles and electromagnetic radiation, although there is no underpinning for gravity as well as larger forces such as dark matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Hirata closed the event by inviting\nthe audience to attend JSPS\u2019s next seminars; next November in Boston and next\nMarch in Bethesda. At the following reception, Dr. Hirata introduced the Chief\nExecutive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science\n(AAAS), Dr. Rush Holt. He spoke about his fifty-year association with Japan and\nrecalled watching the Apollo 11 landing from Kyoto. He went on to praise the\ncollaborations discussed at the seminar and how scientific investigation into\nthese subjects transcends national borders and cultural differences. Dr. Gonz\u00e1lez\nand Dr. Green also gave remarks for a toast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-Sponsors : <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n AAAS (American Association for the\nAdvancement of Science)<\/p>\n\n\n\n DOE (U.S. Department of Energy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICRR of University of Tokyo (Institute\nfor Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research\nOrganization)<\/p>\n\n\n\n NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory\nof Japan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n NSF (National Science Foundation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Science in Japan Forum 2019 On 7 June, the JSPS Washington Office held its 24th annual \u201cScience in Japan\u201d forum at the Cosmos Club. Located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, the Cosmos Club is a private social club for distinguished individuals in science, literature and the arts. The theme of the event was \u201cNew Eyes …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5865,"parent":176,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5851"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6315,"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5851\/revisions\/6315"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/span>Opening Remarks<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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es<\/s>. Dr. Kajita received the prize in 2015 for making a breakthrough discovery in \u201cneutrino oscillations,\u201d which proved that the particle indeed had mass, which contrasted hypotheses in the Standard Model of particle physics that assumed they were mass-less. A message from Dr. Kajita was distributed, which discussed importance of multi-messenger astronomy for making observations that go deeper into the nature of the universe and physics. He then emphasized the importance of the ensuing discussion at the seminar for advancing multi-messenger astronomy and facilitating world-wide collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Seiichi Shimasaki, Science Counselor of the Embassy of Japan in the United States, spoke next to give an overview of some of the breakthroughs that the invited guests would discuss. He praised the 2015 discovery of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project in the U.S, which is now forming an international network in collaboration with a similar observatory in Japan known as the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope (KAGRA). Mr. Shimasaki also noted an upcoming project by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to launch satellites to measure cosmic rays to help understand the history of the universe. He ended his speech by discussing the prospects of using data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) as a key tool to analyze massive datasets produced by projects, and how astrophysics is \u201con the verge of piercing the universe\u2019s greatest mysteries.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jspsusa.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/03.-Dr.-Green-1-1024x943.jpg\")
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