The Astroparticle and Cosmology (APC) laboratory in Paris gathers researchers (experimentalists, theorists and observers) working in different areas including
high-energy astrophysics,
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
,
gravitation
In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
, and
neutrino
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...
physics.
The institute was founded in January 2005 and soon moved to new
Great Mills campus of
Paris Cité University
Paris Cité University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. It was created by decree on 20 March 2019, resulting from the merger of Paris Descartes (Paris V) and Paris Diderot (Paris VII) universities, established fol ...
in the
Paris Rive Gauche area.
The laboratory is a "Mixed Research Unit" in French terminology, funded by Paris Diderot University, the
Centre national de la recherche scientifique
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...
(represented by three of its Institutes: mainly
IN2P3
IN, In or in may refer to:
Dans
* India (country code IN)
* Indiana, United States (postal code IN)
* Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN)
* In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Businesses and organizations
* Independen ...
, but also INSU and INP), the
, and the
Paris Observatory
The Paris Observatory (, ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centres in the world. Its historic building is on the Left Ban ...
.
The first director of the laboratory was
Pierre Binétruy
Pierre Binétruy (14 August 1955, Casablanca, French Morocco – 1 April 2017, Paris) was a French theoretical physicist, known for his research on cosmology, gravitational waves, strong nuclear interactions, and supersymmetry.
Education and caree ...
(2005-2013). From January 2014 until December 2017 the director was
Stavros Katsanevas
Stavros Katsanevas (1953 – 27 November 2022) was a Greek-French astrophysicist who was director of the European Gravitational Observatory, professor (Exceptional Class) at the Université Paris Cité, former director of the AstroParticle and ...
, followed by Sotiris Loucatos, and Antoine Kouchner (since July 2018).
Research activities
Cosmology
This group, headed by Cyrille Rosset, includes two main areas of research:
# Experimental investigation of the cosmic microwave background, including attempts to detect CMB polarization B-modes, which could provide support for the theory of Inflation. Researchers were involved in the
Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (; ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...
space mission and are now active in the
QUBIC experiment
QUBIC is a cosmology project to study cosmic inflation by measuring the B-modes of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), by observing the sky with a millimeter wave radio telescope interferometer. It uses bolometric interfer ...
, the
Simons Observatory
The Simons Observatory is located in the high Atacama Desert in Northern Chile inside the Chajnator Science Preserve, at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 ft). The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Simons Array were located nearby ...
, and the
LiteBIRD
''LiteBIRD'' (Lite (Light) satellite for the studies of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection) is a planned small space observatory that aims to detect the footprint of the primordial gravitational wave on t ...
satellite.
# Cosmological analysis of large spectroscopic and imaging surveys for the determination of constraints on the nature of dark energy. Researchers are involved in the wide-field observatories aimed at understanding the nature of dark energy: the large field
Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...
telescope,
the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the
Euclid
Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...
space mission
High-energy astrophysics
Research carried out by this group, headed by Anne Lemière, aims at understanding the violent phenomena of the universe (mostly within
compact stars
In astronomy, the term compact object (or compact star) refers collectively to white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. It could also include exotic stars if such hypothetical, dense bodies are confirmed to exist. All compact objects have a ...
,
neutron stars
A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses the core past white dwarf star density to th ...
, or
black holes
A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
). The group is engaged in many international projects with telescopes or instruments detecting photons, cosmic rays, or neutrinos. For the observation of:
#
gamma rays
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists o ...
, it is involved in the
INTEGRAL
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a Summation, sum, which is used to calculate area, areas, volume, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental oper ...
observatory, the
High Energy Stereoscopic System
High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is a system of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) for the investigation of cosmic gamma rays in the photon energy range of 0.03 to 100 TeV. The acronym was chosen in honour of Vic ...
, the
Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is a multinational project to build a new generation of ground-based gamma-ray instruments in the energy range extending from some tens of GeV to about 300 TeV. It is proposed as an open obser ...
, and the
Space Variable Objects Monitor
The Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a small X-ray telescope satellite developed by China National Space Administration (CNSA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the French Space Agency (CNES), launched on 22 June 2024 (07:00:00 UTC ...
#
cosmic rays
Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar ...
of ultra-high energy, it is involved in
JEM-EUSO
The Extreme Universe Space Observatory onboard Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EUSO) is the first space mission concept devoted to the investigation of cosmic rays and neutrinos of extreme energy (). Using the Earth's atmosphere as a giant detec ...
#
neutrinos
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that it ...
, it is involved in the
ANTARES
Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by ...
and
KM3NeT
The Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope, or KM3NeT, is a European research infrastructure located at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. It hosts water Cherenkov radiation, Cherenkov neutrino astronomy, neutrino telescopes designed to detect and st ...
projects collaborations
#
X-rays
An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
, it was involved in the space mission
Hitomi
Neutrinos
The research carried out by this group, headed by Davide Franco, is dedicated to understanding neutrino properties is one of the laboratories' main activities. Researchers are involved in studies of the phenomenon of oscillation (
Borexino
Borexino is a deep underground particle physics experiment to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos. The detector is the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter and is protected by 3,800 meters of water-equivalent depth (a vo ...
,
Double Chooz
Double Chooz was a short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment in Chooz, France. Its goal was to measure or set a limit on the ''θ''13 mixing angle, a neutrino oscillation parameter responsible for changing electron neutrinos into other neutr ...
) and on future projects addressing the measurement of the neutrino mass hierarchy with atmospheric neutrinos with the deep-sea water Cherenkov telescope Orca and the long-baseline neutrino oscillation project Laguna-LBNO.
Gravitation
This core research of this group led by Stanislav Babak is the direct detection of gravitational waves. The group is involved in both ground-based (
Virgo interferometer
The Virgo interferometer is a large-scale scientific instrument near Pisa, Italy, for detecting gravitational waves. The detector is a Michelson interferometer, which can detect the minuscule length variations in its two arms induced by the p ...
)
and space-based (
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a planned space probe to detect and measure gravitational waves—tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime—from astronomical sources. LISA will be the first dedicated space-based gravitational-w ...
and its precursor
LISA Pathfinder
LISA Pathfinder, formerly Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-2 (SMART-2), was an ESA spacecraft that was launched on 3 December 2015 on board Vega flight VV06. The mission tested technologies needed for the Laser Interferometer ...
) instruments.
Theory
This group, headed by Dmitri Semikoz, covers the research topics of the laboratory from a theoretical perspective. It also carries out work on other areas of fundamental physics.
Organization
The staff of the laboratory consists of 75 permanent researchers and over 60 engineers, technicians, and administrative personnel, plus about 125 non-permanent employees (PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, visitors). In addition, the Paris Center for Cosmological Physics directed by
George Smoot is also part of the laboratory and one of the three functional centres of the ''Astroparticle Physics European Consortium'' is based here.
An "International Associated Laboratory" in astroparticle physics was launched in September 2007. It associates the APC laboratory with the
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) is an independent joint laboratory of Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, founded in 2003 by a gift by Fred Kavli and The Kavli Foundation. It is ho ...
(
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
).
Evaluation
The laboratory has been evaluated twice by the AERES: in 2008
and in 2013.
In the latter evaluation, the lab won excellent scores (A or A+ in all criteria).
Astroparticle Physics European Consortium
''Astroparticle Physics European Consortium'' (APPEC) is a consortium of organizations from European countries that coordinate and fund research in astroparticle physics.
References
External links
*
List of publications by members of the lab
{{authority control
Research institutes in France
French National Centre for Scientific Research
2005 establishments in France