6. Machine Learning Applied to the Reionization History of the Universe in the 21 cm Signal
After the discovery of Higgs particle (also known as GOD particle) at Large Hadron Collider@CERN on 4th July,2012, the next question now people are asking: what's next? Is there anything beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics? Is there any kind of New Physics. If yes, how it looks like and how to probe this. Can one test these ideas in high energy colliders e.g. proton-proton Large Hadron Collider, electron-positron Linear Collider?
In 1987 the core collapse supernova (SN1987A) was observed in a nearby galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. The total energy emitted in SN1987A explosion was larger than that by 10 billion Suns. The kinetic energy of the explosion carries about 1% of the gravitational binding energy of about ergs and the remaining 99% going into neutrinos.
Now the numerical neutrino light curves can be compared with the SN1987A data where the measured energies are found to be “too low”.It is remain unclear whether this anomaly is due to a statistical problem or whether there is some New Physics.
Exploring the Universe with the world’s largest telescope
- What is SKA?
- The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an international project to build a radio telescope tens of times more sensitive and hundreds of times faster at mapping the sky than today’s best radio astronomy facilities. Simply put: the world’s largest game changer radio telescope. It is not a single telescope, but a collection of various types of antennas, called an array, to be spread over long distances.
- What are the Objectives of the SKA project?
- The SKA will be used to advance humanity’s knowledge. Its primary objectives are
(a) To answer fundamental questions of science of nature, such as
-
- How did the Universe, and the stars and galaxies contained in it, form and evolve?
- What is the nature of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’
- Is there life somewhere else in the Universe?
(b) The SKA will collect and process vast amounts of data and will stimulate cutting-edge advances in high-performance computing and Big Data science – especially the processing, analysis and visualization of very large data sets.
- Who is building the SKA telescope and what will be the cost of the project?
- The SKA project is a international enterprise with currently 11 member countries (Australia, Canada, China, United Kingdom India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands and India) forming the international SKA Organisation.100 research institutions and companies are involved in this SKA project. Its Headquarter is located in Jodrell Bank Observatory near Manchester, UK.
Project cost: The total cost of the project is 2 billion euros.
What is the SKA-India consortium?
To execute activities related to SKA projects in India, a SKA-India consortium has been formed. Under this consortium several Research Institutes, IITs, IISER, NISER, Universities of India come together for exploring, formulating, practicing and promoting activities related to the SKA project and its allied aspects.
Regular member of SKA-India consortium:
BITS-Pilani, K K Birla Goa campus has signed a MoU on 13th July,2016 to become a Regular Member of the SKA-India consortium.
Other Regular Members of this consortium includes TIFR, NCRA,RRI, IUCAA, IIA, IISc, SINP,PRL, IIT Kanpur, IISER, NISER, Delhi University, JMU, MGU, Presidency college, Kolkata etc to name a few.
Executive Council of SKA-India consortium:
The consortium has an Executive Council for executing and managing various activities of the Consortium.
BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa campus has nominated Dr. PRASANTA KUMAR DAS, a faculty in the Department of Physics as the member of the Executive Council of the SKA-India consortium.
To track on the progress in SKA telescope project work browse the site maintained by SKA-IndiA(click)
Vigyan Samagam 2019: In order to highlight the value and impact of fundamental research to a broad cross-section of audience including students, academicians and industry, and to further strengthen India's participation in mega-science projects, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) are jointly organising a multi-venue mega-science exhibition, Vigyan Samagam 2019. Six major International/National projects (1) European Organisation for Nuclear Research (TMT) take part in this mega-science exhibition, Vigyan Samagam. LIGO),(6) Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and (7)Thirty Meter Telescope (CERN),(2) Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), (3) India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), (4)International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) (5) Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. A first-of-its-kind, Vigyan Samagam shall be hosted in a caravan mode at four major Indian cities as per the following schedule:
Mumbai - 8th May to 7th July, 2019
Bengaluru: 29th July to 28th September, 2019
Kolkata: 4th November to 31st December, 2019
Delhi: 21st January to 20th March, 2020
More details are available here: https://vigyansamagam.in/
SKA India: BITS Goa activities
Recently, Five students from BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa campus under the leadership of Dr. P K Das took part in the event VS-2019. They conducted two session (i) Astro Quiz and (ii) Radio Telescope making workshop during the SKA week (17th - 23rd June, 2019). A complete report for this is available here (click).
An Institute of Eminence
