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Overview
The Latin American Association for High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (LAA-HECAP) was created in November 2021. It aims to leverage and amplify the successful and growing dynamics of research in HECAP in Latin America, as demonstrated by the fruitful and long-term organization of the Latin American Symposium on High Energy Physics (Simposio Latino Americano de Física de Altas Energias – SILAFAE) series and the recent initiative of strategic planning through the Latin American Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures for HECAP (LASF4RI-HECAP – lasf4ri.org), with the participation of several countries in the region.
The statutes of LAA-HECAP can be found here. The current members of the Board and of the Executive Committee can be found here.
Announcements and News
Tenure track position at PUCP in Peru
A new tenure track position is to be opened this year at the PUCP, in Peru. We are searching for candidates interested in either theory or experiment. We would appreciate it if you could circulate this notice among your peers. Notice that the deadline for the call is on August 31st!
You can find more information about the position in https://inspirehep.net/jobs/ICTP Network Program and LAA-HECAP
LAA-HECAP will apply for an ICTP Network Program to fund mobility in the region for HECAP. If you are interested in participating in the Network please fill the short Google Form here until March 31st.
LAA-HECAP representative in IUPAP
We are happy to announce that Ana Amelia Machado was appointed LAA-HECAP representative in the C11 Comission (Particles and Fields) in IUPAP. Ana is a young researcher at UNICAMP with a very important contribution to DUNE and SBNF – her group developed the photon detectors that will be used in these experiments. She is also involved with LA institutions working on DUNE.
Program and Advanced School on Multi-Messanger Astrophysics in São Paulo
The Advanced School (May 29 – June 7/2023) is designed to introduce MMA to young researchers interested in this exciting new field. It will offer 6 introductory courses to approximately 100 students and postdocs, including lectures, hands-on sessions, presentations by the students, as well as a few scientific talks by some of the participants of the Program. Some level of financial support for students, both from Brazil and from other countries will be provided.
The Program (May 22 – June 16/2023) will bring together a group of specialists to map out the main challenges and the opportunities for research in MMA, as well as the prospects for new discoveries in astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics that will come as a result of that research. It will also identify how the Brazilian physics and astronomy communities can better prepare for the new opportunities that will appear with the growing number and quality of events with multi-messenger observations. Another important aspect is the new generation of experiments and instruments that will play a role in MMA over the next decade: which of the existing projects have a higher chance of impact, and of those, in which would Brazilian researchers be able to play a significant role? And what are the capabilities of local industries to provide technological support for these projects, in terms of instrumentation or components that can be locally sourced? These questions will be addressed during the Program, which will also prepare a document (“white paper”) summarizing the discussions and the main conclusions.
More information at https://www.institutoprincipia.org/en/mma
MOCa 2023: Dark Matter in Colombia
The seventh edition of the MOCa workshop (Materia Oscura en Colombia) will be held on May 11-12, 2023. The goal of the meeting is to provide an opportunity to discuss various aspects of Dark Matter, like:
- theory + pheno,
- production in laboratory,
- N-body simulations,
- connections with cosmo and astro,
- …
We are a growing, active, and diverse community working on dark matter. Hence, a broad approach to dark matter research is necessary given the nature of the challenge.
We expect this event to provide a platform for maximizing interactions and creating new collaborations. Furthermore, we foresee a number of shorter lightning talks on specific topics. These are meant to highlight individual and/or unusual ideas and can also help increase the visibility of younger scientists.
In-person event: The workshop will be held at the Universidad de Antioquia, in Medellín.
More details can be found at: https://indico.cern.ch/e/
Giambiagi Winter School on Cosmology - 2023
Applications are open for the Giambiagi Winter School on Cosmology, taking place in a hybrid format in Buenos Aires from July 17 through 28, 2023.
This school is a joint activity by ICTP and DF-UBA with the goal of providing an introduction to the current state of research in cosmology and astroparticle physics. It is geared toward graduate students as well as more senior non-expert researchers interested in the field.
Topics:
- CMB
- Dark Matter
- Gravitational Waves
- Inflation
- Statistical Methods
- Structure Formation
Speakers:
M. AMIN, Rice University, USA
C. DVORKIN, Harvard University, USA
J. LESGOURGUES, RWTH, Germany
M. MIRBABAYI, ICTP, Italy
R. ROSENFELD, ICTP-SAIFR, Brazil
M. SIMONOVIĆ, CERN, Switzerland
R. STURANI, ICTP-SAIFR, Brazil
M. ZALDARRIAGA, IAS, USA
Grants: A limited number of grants are available to support the attendance of selected participants, with priority given to participants from developing countries. There is no registration fee.
More information here.
ICTP-SAIFR Latin American School on CTA Science - March 27-31, 2023
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the major global observatory for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy over the next decade and beyond. The scientific program of CTA is rather broad: from understanding the role of relativistic cosmic particles to the search for dark matter. CTA will explore the universe using photons from 20 GeV to 300 TeV and significantly improve the sensitivity of high-energy gamma-ray phenomena.
It will feature two arrays, a southern one being located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) site in Chile, Atacama desert, and a northern one located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) site in La Palma, Canary Islands. This combination will make CTA the first ground-based gamma-ray telescope with the capability to observe a large sky fraction. CTA will have telescopes of different sizes, with the large ones reaching 23 meters in diameter. The CTA consortium currently has 1,500 members from more than 150 institutes in 25 countries, 18 of them in Latin America.
Therefore, it is of paramount importance to train Latin-American students about CTA science, and this motivated the first Latin-American School of CTA Science. The school will feature lectures on the following topics:
Numerical Tools
Dark Matter
Fundamental Physics
Multi-Messenger.
The lectures will be given by experts on these topics who are familiar with the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes technique. At the school, the students will be familiarized with theoretical aspects of gamma-ray astronomy and through hands-on activities will learn how to install the codes and familiarize themselves with numerical programs, which are important for CTA science.
There is no registration fee and limited funds are available for travel and local expenses.
For more information and registration see https://www.ictp-saifr.org/cta2023/
1st General Assembly of LAA-HECAP
On Thursday November 17, 2022 at 17H15 (Quito, Ecuador time) the First General Assembly of the Latin American Association for High Energy Physics, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (LAA-HECAP) will take place in hybrid mode. Please use this zoom link when connecting remotely: https://usfq.zoom.
The agenda for this event is as follows:
* General LAA-HECAP presentation (Rogerio Rosenfeld) 25 min
* Activity Report and approval of Plan of Activities (Diana López) 15 min
* Statistics Committee presentation (Diego Restrepo) 15 min
* Communication Committee presentation (Arturo Sánchez) 15 min
* Selection of the next SILAFAE site (presentation of proposal by Pablo Roig, CINVESTAV) 15 min.
* AOB/General discussion 20 min
We hope to count with your participation and/or input.
2023 CERN Latin-American School on High Energy Physics
The 11th CERN Latin-American School of High-Energy Physics (CLASHEP2023) will take place from 15 to 28 March 2023 in San Esteban, Valparaíso Region, Chile.
There will be about 32 lectures, each lasting about 90 minutes including time for questions. These will be complemented by parallel group discussion sessions most afternoons. There will be an evening poster session during which all students are invited to present their research work. In addition, there will be group project work based on the detailed study of published experimental data analyses. The timetable will be available soon.
CLASHEP is targeted particularly at students in experimental HEP who are in the final years of work towards their PhDs. However, it is anticipated that some post-doctoral students in experimental HEP, and some students in phenomenology, including some masters students, will also be accepted. It should be noted that some pre-knowledge of the subjects is necessary in order to be able to profit fully from the lecture courses.
Demand for attendance at the School exceeds the number of available places, so a competitive selection is made based on information provided on the application form and the letter of recommendation from the student’s professor or supervisor.
The School is open to qualified candidates of any nationality. Sponsorship may be available to cover the fees, and in some cases also the travel expenses, of selected Latin-American students where it is not possible to obtain support from other sources.
Information and registration can be found here.
XIV Latin American Symposium on High Energy Physics
The XIV Latin American Symposium on High Energy Physics (SILAFAE) will take place
November 14-18, 2022 in Quito, Ecuador. The SILAFAE conference series is a traditional
event that brings together the community of Particle Physics and related areas such as
Cosmology, Gravitation and Astrophysics. The conference has been the main regional hub
for discussions on topics in the relevant fields, updates of the recent developments, and
exploration of new ideas and perspectives towards the future. The event also promotes
the expanion of regional and international cooperation as well as the advancement of
younger scientists and students. In addition, the Assembly of LAA-HECAP will be held during the event.
Information and registration can be found here. Important dates:
Registration deadline: September 30. Abstract submission deadline: September 9.
8th International Conference on "High Energy Physics in the LHC Era"
The 8th International Conference on “High Energy Physics in the LHC Era,” (HEP2023) will be held from the 9th to the 13th of January 2023 in Valparaíso, Chile. The conference site will be the picturesque campus of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM). The conference attendance will be in-person only.
The goal of the conference is to bring together young and senior scientists, theorists and experimentalists, to discuss recent progress in High Energy Physics. The program of the conference will address a broad range of topics covering the main areas of high-energy particle physics and nuclear physics and beyond, such as:
– Higgs and EW physics.
– Neutrino physics.
– QCD.
– Beyond the Standard Model physics.
– Dark matter particle searches.
– Astroparticles.
– Nuclear physics.
– Heavy Ion Collisions.
– Gravitational waves measurements.
– Particle detectors and instrumentation.
– Future experimental facilities.
We encourage presentations of physics results from experimental high energy and nuclear physics labs (CERN, JLAB, RHIC, DESY, Fermilab and other institutions) and also expect that theory talks will go beyond the scope of the physics from these facilities.
We cordially invite you to participate to the conference and give a presentation on any topic relevant to the scientific program of the conference and better suit your research area.
For more information, registration and talk submission, please visit the conference website: http://indico.cern.ch/event/
7th ComHEP: Colombian Meeting on High Energy Physics
This is the seventh Colombian Meeting on High Energy Physics (7th ComHEP). We hope to bring together young and senior particle physicists from Colombia and abroad, to discuss recent progress in particle physics, cosmology, and related areas. The program of the meeting will address a broad range of topics, divided into dedicated sessions on:
- Standard Model and the Higgs boson
- Beyond the Standard Model
- Neutrino Physics
- Neutrino Experiments
- Hadron and flavor physics
- Dark matter
- Cosmology and Cosmic rays
- Theoretical physics
More details can be found at: https://indico.cern.ch/e/
LAA-HECAP vice-president Fernando Quevedo gives a talk at Snowmass 2022
Fernando Quevedo, vice-president of LAA-HECAP, gave a talk on “Particle Physics in Latin America” at the 2022 Snowmass Meeting on July 25.
Slides can be found here.
LAA-HECAP's letter to Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
LAA-HECAP sent a letter in July 24, 2022 to the Consejo Superior Universitario of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala expressing its concerns about the current situation at the Escuela de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas (ECFM).
A copy of the letter can be found here.
Brazil signs an agreement to become CERN's Associate Member
After more than 10 years of the first negotiations, an agreement was signed on March 3rd, 2022, for Brazil to become an Associate Member of CERN, the first in Latin America. This agreement must still be ractified by the Brazilian Congress.
Postdoctoral positions at the National Observatory, Brazil
Applications for five postdoctoral positions are open in the National Observatory to develop research in the areas of cosmology, stellar and extragalactic astrophysics and planetary sciences, including data from the surveys J-PAS, J-PLUS or S-PLUS alone or in conjunction with data in other frequencies. The J-PAS project (www.j-pas.org) will make a three-dimensional mapping of the universe at large scales (z~1) and has as its primary scientific motivator constraints on cosmological parameters, but given its unique design, will bring an immense legacy for almost all areas of astronomy. A unique feature of J-PAS is the unprecedented use of 56 narrowband filters, spaced at 100 Å, to image all observed objects. This basically allows obtaining a low-resolution spectrum of the covered area (estimated at 8500 square degrees with ~500 million galaxies), reaching a photo-z accuracy of ~0.3%.
J-PAS has signed agreements with the projects eROSITA-DE (https://www.mpe.mpg.de/eROSITA), WEAVE-QSO (https://www.ing.iac.es//confluence/display/WEAV/The+WEAVE+Project) and JWST-TDF (http://lambda.la.asu.edu/jwst/neptdf/index.html) for joint efforts in common areas.
J-PLUS (www.j-plus.es) and S-PLUS (www.splus.iag.usp.br) are also spectrophotometric surveys designed for studies of the local universe with a twelve-filter photometric system that combines some narrowband filters from J-PAS, SDSS as well as some specially designed for specific scientific cases of stellar and galactic astrophysics.
The selected candidate will become a Participating Member of the corresponding surveys with direct access to observational data, in addition to access to the computer cluster of the J-PAS Data Center of the National Observatory.
More details can be found at: https://www.gov.br/observatorio/pt-br/assuntos/areas-de-atuacao/capacitacao-institucional/documentos/editais/Edital_Chamada_PCI_02_2022.pdf
Contact: Simone Daflon (daflon@on.br) or Jailson Alcaniz (alcaniz@on.br)
LAA-HECAP will apply for an ICTP Network Program to fund mobility in the region for HECAP. If you are interested in participating in the Network please fill the short Google Form here until March 31st.
LAA-HECAP will apply for an ICTP Network Program to fund mobility in the region for HECAP. If you are interested in participating in the Network please fill the short Google Form here until March 31st.
Latin American Association for High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
laa-hecap@ictp-saifr.org
Hosted by ICTP-SAIFR