Yoshikazu Nagai Appointed as Deputy Spokesperson of the NA61/SHINE Experiment
Since his affiliation to ELTE, supported by the Topical Excellence Program of NKFIH, he has established and led the experimental neutrino physics research group, actively engaging in their participation in neutrino-related experiments: T2K in Japan, DUNE in the US, and NA61/SHINE at CERN. For more information regarding the group activities, refer to (English) and (Hungarian).
The NA61/SHINE collaboration conducts various precision measurements at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) H2 beamline at CERN. NA61/SHINE physics program includes advancing our understanding of phenomena through hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. It seeks to deepen our knowledge on strong interaction, neutrino physics, and cosmic ray physics. Under Dr. Nagai's leadership, ELTE has significantly contributed to the NA61/SHINE initiative, primarily through two crucial research topics:
- The neutrino group, led by Dr. Yoshikazu Nagai, focuses on precision measurements of hadron production with hadron-nucleus collisions.
- The heavy ion group, led by Prof. Máté Csanád, conducts research in femtoscopy with nucleus-nucleus collisions.
Figure: A T2K replica neutrino production target placed in front of the NA61/SHINE facility for precision measurements of hadron production exiting from the target surface.
Figure: A view of NA61/SHINE TPCs. A simulated ion beam interaction on a nuclear target is overlayed with the NA61/SHINE facility for visualization.
Notably, Dr. Nagai has been instrumental in pioneering several upgrade projects and his leadership in the NA61/SHINE collaboration before appointed as Deputy Spokesperson. These initiatives include the collaborative construction of Forward Time Projection Chambers (TPC) with the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre in Budapest and University Colorado Boulder in the US, upgrade of software with modern architectures, coordination of data acquisition, and the proposal of construction of a novel beamline branch that delivers lower energy hadron beams to NA61/SHINE.
With his recent appointment as Deputy Spokesperson, Dr. Nagai is set to orchestrate a forthcoming research endeavor, continuing to drive innovation and scientific exploration within the NA61/SHINE experiment.