Star Track tracking of astrophysical sources with neutrinos Prof. dr. Maarten de Jong Nikhef – National institute for subatomic physics Amsterdam, the Netherlands www.nikhef.nl Project duration: 60 months abstract Although a visit may seem the ideal way to study astrophysical sources in detail, the required travel time makes this idea impractical. The alterna- tive is to boldly view the sources with Earth-based telescopes. The prime objective of this proposal is the scientific capitalization of a new generation of telescopes. Unlike conventional telescopes, these telescopes will detect neutrinos and not light. The detection of neutrinos from the cosmos will break new grounds in the study of various frontier questions in science such as those related to the origin of cosmic rays, the mechanism of astro- physical particle acceleration and the birth of relativistic jets. Section 1A: The Principal Investigator Maarten de Jong CERN, Chorus experiment 1993–1997 Minervalaan 8" 1077 NX Amsterdam, the Netherlands Fell O W (CERN): Conducting the design, construc- Single, 43 years old, Dutch nationality tion and operation of a new detector. Proposed an e-mail: [email protected] upgrade of the detector to improve the charge and tel: +31 20 592.2121 momentum determination of hadrons. Approval of the project: nominated project leader (2 PhD students Work Experience and 5 technicians). Coordinated the design and the manufacture of three so-called honeycomb wire- Nikhef 1997–present chambers at Nikhef. Designed and implemented the necessary infrastructure (gas, cooling, low-voltage, EU WORK PACKAG E COORDINATOR : Responsible for high-voltage, slow control, DAQ, alignment). In the coordination of the information technology charge of the testing and final assembly and installa- aspects of the KM3NeT design study. Contact person tion. The new detectors have been successfully used. of the proposal “KM3NeT: The next generation neutrino telescope” submitted to the Dutch fund- RE S E ARCH ASSOCIAT E (Nikhef): Participating in the ing agency NWO with a total investment budget of construction, calibration (~1 ns precision) and main- 8.8 M€. This proposal in under evaluation by NWO. tenance of the trigger system. Improved the neutrino oscillation trigger such that 10% more physics events PROF E SSOR : Appointed as the first professor in the in target were detected. Netherlands (Leiden University) in the field of experimental astro-particle physics. Lecturing one CERN, NMC & SMC experiments 1991–1993 semester per year. RE S E ARCH ASSOCIAT E (University of Mainz): ANTAR E S Depu TY SP OK E S pe RSON : Responsible for the Supervising an international group of 5 PhD stu- physics coordination of the Antares project and the dents. Established the key point in the data analysis dissemination of scientific results in refereed journals and developed a Monte Carlo simulation program and at conferences. Organising 2 workshops per year with enhanced statistical significance (up to a factor (about 50 participants) and 3 collaboration meetings of 10). Determined the radius of the J/ψ meson by a per year (about 100 participants). novel comparison of the cross section of J/ψ produc- tion to that of elastic π scattering. TE AM LE AD E R : Responsible for the coordination of the Dutch participation in the Antares project (5 PhD RE S E ARCH ASSOCIAT E (Nikhef): Preparing the detector students, 1 post-doc, 4 senior physicists and 6 techni- and coordinating the startup of data taking. Adapted the cians), the project planning and management and inclusive muon trigger to the increased beam intensity. the spending of the investment budget. Supervising PhD students (subjects: Monopole, neutralino and Scientific Committees gamma-ray burst detection). Recruiting new people and building a team. Developed a new data filter pro- Peer Review Committee of the ApPEC 2002–2005. gram for the Antares neutrino telescope (2.5 × faster, CERN SPS-Committee 2001–2004. 100 × better signal-to-noise ratio). Scient. Adv. Committee of Nikhef 2003–present. SE NIOR STAFF : Contact person of the proposal Outreach “Antares: a cosmic neutrino observatory”, sub- mitted to the Dutch funding agency NWO with a Contributing to public relations. total investment budget of 3.6 M€. Invented a new Citations in seven national newspaper articles. readout system. Nominated readout project leader One appearance on local TV. for the Antares experiment. Published a study of One appearance in a theatre play (AdHoc). neutrino physics at a future muon collider. Organised Giving seminars to the general public (1–2 per year). the Antares collaboration meeting at Nikhef (about 100 participants). Contributed to the Topical Education Lectures 1998 and 2001 at Nikhef, the European Graduate School in 2002 and the Fantom study week NIMO, Project Management, 2000, 6 days training. in 2003. Organised the Chorus collaboration meeting Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 1986–1991, PhD. at Nikhef (about 100 participants). Supervising PhD CERN summer student, 1986. students (co-promotor). Developed new track fit Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 1982–1986, Cum Laude. algorithms for the Chorus experiment which yielded Sweelinck Gymnasium, Amsterdam, (1976–1982). 20% more physics events found in target. 1 Scientific leadership profile Having performed various particle physics experi- For the funding of scientific projects I have (co-) ments at CERN*, I have now focussed my career on written various proposals which have provided so the study of cosmic neutrinos. The study of cosmic far a total amount of about 3.6 M€ for (hardware) neutrinos is one of the key components in the field investments and about 4.8 M€ for personnel. In of astro-particle physics. This is a relative new addition, I am contact person of a proposal submit- field emerging at the interface between astrophys- ted to the Dutch funding agency NWO with a total ics and accelerator-based particle physics. In 2006, investment budget of 8.8 M€. At the moment of this I have been appointed as the first professor in the writing, this proposal is still under evaluation. Netherlands in the field of experimental astro-par- ticle physics. The election as deputy spokesperson I initiated the measurements and supervised the of the Antares¶ project and the nomination of work- analysis that has led to the publication “Measurement package coordinator of the KM3NeT† design study of nucleon structure functions in neutrino scattering”. speak for my leadership in this field. At that time, there were only two measurements made worldwide which yielded contradicting results. This My ideas can be considered as creative and effective. paper has been seminal in two ways. It has resolved Most recently, I have invented the ‘All-data-to-shore’ the long standing discrepancy and it is today the one concept for the readout of the Antares prototype and only measurement of all three structure functions neutrino telescope. In this, the rare neutrino signal is of the nucleon known to exist. filtered on shore from the background using a farm of commodity PCs and state-of-the-art software. I have been supervising master and PhD students The software has been realised by me and is now throughout my scientific career. About half of these fully operational in the Antares experiment. This students continued a career in science, the others achievement is remarkable (few considered this have found a job in industry relatively fast. One of possible) and changed the picture dramatically. Now, my students originally applied to a permanent post in my idea has become a seminal part of the astrophys- the computing department of Nikhef. I was member ics program with the next generation neutrino of the search committee and I persuaded this person telescope. Some of my ideas have led to new results to become a PhD student in my group. After a (e.g. measurement of the size of a very short lived successful PhD, this person has won two prestigious particle), others have disproved an initial claim for a awards in the Netherlands. new theory (e.g. colour transparency). In the following, I list a few quotes from a selection Both in particle physics and astro-particle physics, a of PhD theses of students whom I have supervised: key issue is the reconstruction of particle trajectories in a detector. For the Chorus experiment at CERN, “Maarten de Jong took a key role in all stages of I have developed a new track-fit algorithm. This has this work. He convinced the collaboration that a DIS improved the final measurement of µν →ντ oscilla- program in 1998 was possible and thus obligatory. tions by such an amount that the most precise result In the analysis, he brought me back on track when I ever could be achieved. For the Antares experiment, was once again in panic and desperation. This text I have found a linear solution of the track-fit problem would have been unreadable without Maarten’s ex- by considering a subset of the phase space. Although tensive commenting.” R.G.C. Oldeman, PhD thesis, its impact has not been quantified yet, preliminary University of Amsterdam (2000). studies have shown that it can improve the angular resolution of a neutrino telescope significantly. “Maarten, to you I owe most thanks. I could not have wished a better supervisor! Your enthusiasm and I have coordinated the construction and opera- inexhaustible drive have continuously motivated me. tion of a new kind of particle detector (so-called Without your knowledge and bright ideas, I could ‘Honeycomb chamber’) for the Chorus experiment. never have written this thesis.” B.A.P van Rens, PhD This marked the first successful application of this thesis, University of Amsterdam (2006). kind of detector in a large scale experiment. For the Antares experiment I have coordinated the design “Maarten was so kind to become my thesis advisor efforts of the submarine power system.