Updated astroparticle roadmap welcomed
European funding agencies are welcoming the priorities for the future of astroparticle physics, which have been laid out in the update to the European roadmap for astroparticle physics published at the end of last month. The update follows on from the initial roadmap, released in 2008, which aimed to define the research infrastructures which are necessary for the development of this field.
“The update of the roadmap provides a better picture of what will come first on the menu,” said Christian Spiering, the chair of both the Astroparticle European Research Area [ASPERA] and the Astroparticle Physics European Coordination [ApPEC], the Scientific Advisory Committee that produced the roadmap.
The strategy reaffirms the need for support for current experiments and their planned upgrades, especially in the areas of gravitational waves, the search for dark matter and neutrino property measurement.
The mid-term planning (spanning 2015-2020) incorporates four large projects to be constructed, starting from the middle of this decade: the Cherenkov Telescope Array, a ground-based high energy gamma ray observatory; KM3NeT, a neutrino telescope to be built in the Mediterranean Sea; Next, a ground-based cosmic ray observatory; and LAGUNA, a low energy neutrino project.
“We know that some of these large projects will need a global approach. It is why we invited our colleagues from other continents to discuss how we can succeed in implementing these infrastructures together,” said Hermann-Friedrich Wagner, the chair of the ASPERA Governing Board.
On a greater time scale, very large infrastructures, in the domains of dark energy and gravitational wave detection, are being considered.
“What is described in the European strategy of astroparticle physics is great science. We look forward to seeing the first of these projects running,” said Maurice Bourquin, the chair of the ApPEC Steering Committee.
For more information, the statement from the European funding agencies can be downloaded here.
