Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter March 2016 Volume 5 • Number 1 worldscinet.com/appn Takaaki Kajita 2015 Physics Nobel Laureate published by Institute of Advanced Studies, Nanyang Technological University (IAS@NTU) and South East Asia Theoretical Physics Association (SEATPA) South East Asia Theoretical Physics Association Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter March 2016 • Volume 5 • Number 1 A publication of the IAS@NTU Singapore and SEATPA Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter publishes articles reporting frontier discoveries in EDITORIAL physics, research highlights, and news to facilitate interaction, collaboration and 3 cooperation among physicists in Asia Pacific physics community. PEOPLE Editor-in-Chief 4 “Observing the Distant Supernova” — Interview with Kok Khoo Phua Nobel Laureate Prof Brian Schmidt Associate Editor-in-Chief “Discovering the W and Z Bosons” — Interview with Swee Cheng Lim Nobel Laureate Prof Carlo Rubbia SEATPA Committee Christopher C Bernido Phil Chan Leong Chuan Kwek Choy Heng Lai Swee Cheng Lim Ren Bao Liu Hwee Boon Low Anh Ký Nguyên Choo Hiap Oh OPINION AND COMMENTARY Kok Khoo Phua 10 China’s Great Scientific Leap Forward: Completion of a Roh Suan Tung Preecha Yupapin planned ‘Great Collider’ would transform particle physics Hishamuddin Zainuddin Freddy Zen Editorial Team NEWS Sen Mu 12 CityU’s Institute for Advanced Study will Champion Bold New Han Sun Chi Xiong Research Initiatives Case made for 'Ninth Planet' Graphic Designers Chuan Ming Loo Erin Ong Cover Photo: "Takaaki Kajita 5171- 2015" by Bengt Nyman - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Commons - https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Takaaki_ Kajita_5171-2015.jpg#/media/ File:Takaaki_Kajita_5171-2015.jpg High Temperature Superconducting Magnetic Lens Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter (APPN) Developed at IHEP is published jointly by Institute of Advanced From the Jade Rabbit to the Monkey King Studies, Nanyang Technological University (IAS@NTU) and South East Asia Theoretical New Structurally Perfect Candidate First Proposed for Physics Association (SEATPA) Quantum Spin Liquids IAS@NTU and SEATPA Address: 60 Nanyang View #02-18 ARTICLES Singapore 639673 Tel: +65 6513 7660 22 Statistical Physics in the Oeuvre of Chen Ning Yang Fax: +65 6794 4941 seatpa.org Yoichiro Nambu and the Origin of Mass ntu.edu.sg/ias Superfluidity and Symmetry Breaking— An Anderson Living APPN is distributed by Legacy World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. Takaaki Kajita — 2015 Physics Nobel Laureate Address: 5 Toh Tuck Link Neutrino Oscillations: Discovery, Current Status, Future Singapore 596224 Directions Tel: +65 6466 5775 Fax: +65 5467 7667 worldscientific.com Electronic edition APPN is also available online at: worldscinet.com/appn Subscriptions For subscription please contact: [email protected] Advertisement BOOKS For advertisement please contact: 59 [email protected] Authors CONFERENCE CALENDAR APPN welcomes articles with general 64 Upcoming Conferences in the Asia Pacific Region interests to the physics community. To recommend or contribute news, articles, history, book reviews, please write to: JOBS [email protected] 68 SOCIETIES The views expressed in this Newsletter 75 List of Physical Societies in the Asia Pacific Region belong to the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Print ISSN: 2251-158X Online ISSN: 2251-1598 MCI(P)085/10/2015 EDITORIAL This is the first issue of the Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter (APPN) in 2016. We plan to publish 3 to 4 issues this year, and continue to bring you important and latest discoveries and headline news in physics. In 2015, the physics society mourned the loss of Professor Yoichiro Nambu (1921-2015), a Japanese-born American Nobel Laureate, known for his contributions in the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry. Professor Thomas W. B. Kibble has shared his memories of Nambu in this issue, some never told before. In 2015, we also witnessed another Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita winning the Nobel Prize for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. Professor Ngee-Pong Chang’s contributing article focuses on the importance of Professor Kajita’s works on neutrino oscillations, as well as the roles that Asian physicists play on the frontier of neutrino physics. Also in other fields of physics, Asian countries have gained some international attention. Professors David Gross and Edward Witten discuss China’s scientific leap forward and how the completion of a planned ‘Great Collider’ could transform particle physics. [The article was first published in Wall Street Journal in September 2015]. As you can see in the News section, China has recently launched a satellite, the Dark Matter Particle Explorer for the detection of dark matter in our galaxy. Let us not forget dark energy and the accelerating expansion of our universe! We present the interview with Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt, who discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae. Back to great accelerators, another interview with Nobel Laureate Professor Carlo Rubbia highlights his work that led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN. In this issue, you will also find brilliant articles like “Statistical Physics in the Oeuvre of Chen Ning Yang” by Professor Michael Fisher and “Superfluidity and Symmetry Breaking— An Anderson Living Legacy” by Professor Frank Wilczek. The recently founded Institute of Advanced Study at City University of Hong Kong is also briefly introduced in the News. As always, we hope you enjoy reading this issue of APPN and give us feedback and suggestions! Editor in Chief Kok Khoo Phua President, South East Asia Theoretical Physics Association Director, Institute of Advanced Studies, Nanyang Technological University March 2016, Volume 5 No 1 3 PEOPLE “Observing the Distant Supernova” Nobel Laureate Prof Brian Schmidt Brian Schmidt Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University Professor Brian Paul Schmidt is the 2011 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics and is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University. He was previously a Distin- guished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Professor Schmidt was awarded many notable awards such as the Pawsey Medal, the Dirac Medal, and shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant super- novae”. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012. From Wikipedia, we know that your father is a fishery to be great. A good personal relationship is also important. biologist. Do you think your father had a positive influ- More than that, your project must be interesting to you. In ence on you for you to become a scientist? my case, I chose where to go because I liked the supervisor, and he was very well known. But I didn’t like his project, so Yes. When I was a kid, my mother had to work a bit, and I talked with many people and looked for ideas. This one my father was still in his PhD. My father often babysat me came out and I knew that was what I wanted to do. Then while he was doing his research. From the earliest days I can one week later, I talked to my supervisor about the project remember, I had wanted to become a scientist, because I can I’m interested in. He thought the project I proposed was see how my father loved what he did. Absolutely, my father is actually better than the one he assigned to me. If you have the person who made me want to be a scientist. In the same some projects you are interested in, you could talk to your way, I help my sons. One of my sons wants to be a scientist, supervisor. As long as it’s reasonable, he will allow you to and the other one definitely does not want to be one. change. Talking about PhDs, would you give some suggestions Would you like to share with us how you found the about decisions about PhD? amazing people to form a group? The best way to make the best decision is by talking to people. Those are the people I worked with during my PhD. When Firstly, you need to find the correct person. People like me we realized it was the right time to do the project, we formed are very busy and may not be the best supervisor. (Joke) a group. The first person we invited was the one from Chile. The right supervisor must be someone who you respect, We also invited other people based on their expertise. Nick are interested in and someone who is also interested in you. was still doing another project with the other team. I had They must also be personable and have a good track record. time and energy, so he let me be the lead despite my young Track record is really important; they give you the resources age of 27. 4 Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter PEOPLE Where is the fund from for your group? Can you share the experiences in leading the High-Z team and collaborating with Professor Adam Reiss, as We didn’t have much money when we started; we did it very well as competing with Professor Saul Perlmutter’s team cheaply. Most Nobel prizes don’t involve lots of money, but “Supernova Cosmology Project”? are done when people are young, they have interest and energy. There is a lot of history here. They were a group of particle physicists. We were studying supernovae. They put a huge Were there any women in your team? amount of effort from 1988 to 1994, but didn’t discover anything. There were no women in our team.