Particle Physics and the Universe

(1998, NS 109)
August 20-25, 1998
Haga Slott, Enköping, Sweden
Organizers: Professors Per Carlson, Royal Institute of Technology; and Lars Bergström and Claes Fransson, Stockholm University.

About 50 people participated in the symposium, including 36 invited lecturers from abroad. One major field at the symposium was neutrino physics. New experimental data indicate that the neutrino actually has a non-zero mass. This enables the various neutrinos (there are three different ones) to oscillate between each other by quantum-mechanical means. For example, the excessively low number of observed solar neutrinos can be explained by oscillations. Several contributions dealt with different aspects of neutrino research. Neutrinos with mass may also comprise part of the "dark matter" in the universe. Various methods for studying dark matter were thoroughly discussed. Very high-energy neutrinos can be used to study energy-rich processes at great distances from our own galaxy.

Another highly topical field is the various types of cosmic electromagnetic radiation, ranging from studies of continuous cosmic background radiation to the pulsing sources known as gamma ray bursts. The latter have recently been shown to come from sources outside our own galaxy and are very high-energy. Among the mechanisms suggested are collisions of neutron stars with black holes.

The question of whether the universe will expand eternally or whether its current expansion will be followed by contraction is a very central issue.

The symposium discussed new data from supernova explosions that took place very far away and thus early in the evolution of the universe. The symposium attracted publicity in the press and on radio. Its proceedings have been published in a separate volume of Physica Scripta.

 

Participants

Jenni Adams	Uppsala University	jenni@teorfys.uu.se
Guido Altarelli	CERN	guido.altarelli@cern.ch
John Bahcall	IAS, Princeton	jnb@sns.ias.edu
Neta Bahcall	Princeton University	neta@astro.princeton.edu
Steve Barwick	UC Irvine	BARWICK@MASTER.PS.UCI.EDU
Lars Bergström	Stockholm University	lbe@physto.se
Claes-Ingvar Björnsson	Stockholm University	bjornsson@astro.su.se
Roger Blandford	Caltech	rdb@caltech.edu
Adam Burrows	Arizona University	burrows@jupiter.as.Arizona.EDU
Per Carlson	RIT, Stockholm	carlson@msi.se
John Carlstrom	University of Chicago	jc@oddjob.uchicago.edu
Jim Cronin	University of Chicago	jwc@hep.uchicago.edu
Ulf Danielsson	Uppsala University	ulf@teorfys.uu.se
John Ellis	CERN	John.Ellis@cern.ch
Tom Francke	RIT, Stockholm	francke@particle.kth.se
Claes Fransson	Stockholm University	fransson@astro.su.se
Wendy Freedman	Carnegie Observatory	wendy@rmdm.ociw.edu
Tom Gaisser	Bartol Research Institute	gaisser@bartol.udel.edu
Ariel Goobar	Stockholm University	ariel@physto.se
Bengt Gustafsson	Uppsala University	bengt.gustafsson@astro.uu.se
Alan Guth	MIT	guth@ctp.mit.edu
Per Olof Hulth	Stockholm University	hulth@physto.se
Cecilia Jarlskog	Lund Institute of Techn.	ceja@matfys.lth.se
Till Kirsten	MPI Heidelberg	kirst@kosmo.mpi-hd.mpg.de
Rocky Kolb	Fermilab	rocky@fnal.gov
Andrei Linde	Stanford University	linde@physics.stanford.edu
Eligio Lisi	University of Bari	lisi@bari.infn.it
Piero Madau	STScI	pmadau@stsci.edu
Jeremiah Ostriker	Princeton University	jpo@Princeton.EDU
Jim Peebles	Princeton University	pjep@pupgg.Princeton.EDU
Martin Rees	University of Cambridge	mjr@ast.cam.ac.uk
Hector Rubinstein	Uppsala University	rub@physto.se
Bernard Sadoulet	UC Berkeley	sadoulet@physics.berkeley.edu
Joe Silk	UC Berkeley	silk@pac2.berkeley.edu
Håkan Snellman	RIT, Stockholm	snell@theophys.kth.se
David Spergel	Princeton University	dns@astro.Princeton.EDU
Michel Spiro	Saclay	SPIRO@hep.saclay.cea.fr Paul
Paul Steinhardt	University of Pennsylvania	steinh@steinhardt.hep.upenn.edu
Roland Svensson	Stockholm University	svensson@astro.su.se
Max Tegmark	IAS, Princeton	max@ias.edu
Yoji Totsuka	University of Tokyo	totsuka@suketto.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Michael Turner	University of Chicago	mturner@oddjob.uchicago.edu
Tony Tyson	Lucent Technologies	tyson@bell-labs.com
David Tytler	UC San Diego	dtytler@ucsd.edu
Gabriele Veneziano	CERN	gabriele.veneziano@cern.ch
Alan Watson	Leeds University	phy6aaw@phys-irc.novell.leeds.ac.uk
Eli Waxman	Weizmann Institute	waxman@figaro.weizmann.ac.il
Trevor Weekes	Whipple Observatory	weekes@egret.sao.arizona.edu
David Wilkinson	Princeton University	dtw@pupgg.Princeton.EDU