Yifang Wang: high energy physics in China

On 8 March 2012, Yifang Wang, co-spokesperson of the Daya Bay Experiment and Director of Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced the discovery of a new type of neutrino oscillation with a surprisingly large mixing angle (θ13), signifying ‘a milestone in neutrino research’. Now his team is heading for a new goal—to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to precisely measure oscillation parameters using the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, which is due for completion in 2020. Neutrinos are fundamental particles that play important roles in both microscopic particle physics and macroscopic universe evolution. The studies on neutrinos, for example, may answer the question why our universe consists of much more matter than antimatter. But this is not an easy task. Though they are one of the most numerous particles in the universe and zip through our planet and bodies all the time, these tiny particles are like ‘ghost’, difficult to be captured. There are three flavors of neutrinos, known as electron neutrino (νe), muon neutrino (νμ), and tau neutrino (ντ), and their flavors could change as they travel through space via quantum interference. This phenomenon is known as neutrino oscillation or neutrino mixing. To determine the absolute mass of each type of neutrino and find out how they mix is very challenging. In a recent interview with NSR in Beijing, Yifang Wang explained how the Daya Bay Experiment on neutrino oscillation not only addressed the frontier problem in particle physics, but also harnessed the talents and existing technology in Chinese physics community. This achievement, Wang reckons, will not be an exception in Chinese high energy physics, when appropriate funding and organization for big science projects could be efficiently realized in the future.