Latest news with #IHEP
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China joins US in hunt for ripples in spacetime with new telescope in Tibet
High on the Tibetan Plateau, China has completed a cutting-edge telescope designed to detect ripples in spacetime from the dawn of the universe with the help of the United States – strengthening a global effort to probe how everything began. The Ali Cosmic Microwave Background Polarisation Telescope (AliCPT), perched at 5,250 metres (17,220 ft) in Tibet 's remote Ali prefecture, was finished this month after eight years of construction involving 16 institutions worldwide, including Stanford University, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing, the project is one of the few surviving examples of China-US collaboration in basic science at a time when geopolitical tensions have sharply curtailed joint research. Among the project's international partners, Stanford University played a key role in building and testing the telescope's detectors and readout systems, ensuring the 'brains' of the instrument could operate reliably in freezing conditions before being shipped to Tibet, according to a 2020 paper in Proceedings of SPIE. The cutting-edge Ali Cosmic Microwave Background Polarisation Telescope took eight years to build. Photo: Handout The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could also contribute to the project.
Arab Times
7 days ago
- Science
- Arab Times
Telescope hunts Big Bang's oldest ripples
BEIJING, July 14, (Xinhua): High on a ridge 5,250 meters above sea level in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, a new eye onto the infant universe has blinked open. Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced Sunday that their AliCPT-1 telescope has captured its first crisp images of the moon and Jupiter at 150 GHz, a milestone that marks the formal opening of China's first hunt for primordial gravitational waves. The ripples -- faint whispers from the dawn of time -- may hold the key to explaining how the universe began. Imagine the universe as a newborn; the primordial gravitational waves would be its very first cry. Born from quantum fluctuations in spacetime during the epoch of cosmic inflation, these elusive signals are the most pristine ripples ever etched into the fabric of the cosmos. Primordial gravitational-wave detection is believed to be a critical test of cosmic origin, probing inflation and quantum gravity. 'If we successfully detect primordial gravitational waves, we will glimpse the universe in its very first instant,' said Zhang Xinmin, a researcher at the IHEP. 'At the same time, it can drive breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies like cryogenic superconducting detectors and low-temperature readout electronics, thus propelling cosmology into an era of unprecedented precision,' Zhang added. Led by the IHEP, the telescope was built in eight years by a 16-member global consortium including China's National Astronomical Observatories and Stanford University. Placed on the roof of the world, the telescope is designed to escape atmospheric water vapor that would drown the whisper of primordial gravitational waves. Only four sites on Earth are known to be viable for such observations: Antarctica, Chile's Atacama Desert, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Greenland, said Liu Congzhan, a project manager of the telescope experiment. The moon and Jupiter experiment is just the beginning, said Li Hong, also a researcher at IHEP. 'As the Northern Hemisphere's first high-altitude primordial gravitational-wave observatory, the telescope fills a gap for China and, together with devices in Antarctica and Chile, completes a global, complementary network.'
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China deploys prototype detectors to locate neutrinos in South China Sea
Chinese scientists have deployed prototype detectors in the South China Sea to explore building a large underwater observatory to detect neutrinos, tiny particles from space. Last month, equipment including sensitive detector units and an LED light source for calibration was deployed at a depth of 1,600 meters (5,250 feet) using the submersible Shenhai Yongshi, or Deep-Sea Warrior, according to the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing. The detectors, now linked to China's national underwater scientific observation network for power and data transmission, are positioned in the darkness to detect faint flashes of light caused by passing neutrinos, according to the institute's statement on Wednesday via WeChat, the South China Morning Post reported. All of this is part of a bid to construct the High-energy Underwater Neutrino Telescope (HUNT), which aims to become the world's largest underwater neutrino observatory. The project will feature over 55,000 detectors suspended along thousands of strings, covering 30 cubic kilometers (7.2 cubic miles) of ocean. The stable operation of the prototype detectors is a meaningful milestone in the preliminary research for the HUNT project, according to the institute. When completed, the project is expected to place China among the leaders in neutrino astronomy, SCMP adds. IHEP researcher Chen Mingjun explained that in addition to its astronomical significance, HUNT is expected to offer a valuable research platform for marine science. Due to the nature of cosmic rays, which are composed of highly energetic particles, their direction of motion is constantly deflected by interstellar magnetic fields, making it difficult to observe their origin directly. According to Chen, observing high-energy neutrinos, which can travel vast distances without being affected by magnetic fields or matter, provides an effective way to uncover the processes and sources behind these highly energetic particles. He also added that this approach could significantly advance humanity's understanding of the cosmic phenomena. Due to limitations in detection technology and financial resources, current international experiments, developed over decades, are constrained in their ability to detect high-energy neutrino sources. The effective volume of their detectors ranges from 1 to 8 cubic kilometers, which may not be sufficient for identifying sources, particularly those from galaxies. The detectors were now deployed with help from China's first deep-sea research vessel, Tansuo 3, and the Shenhai Yongshi, a 4,500-meter-class manned submersible owned by the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering. The detector prototypes were developed in collaboration between the Ocean University of China, IHEP, and the Institute of Acoustics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, the deployed detectors have also been successfully linked to the South China Sea Seabed Scientific Observation Network, another key national scientific project led by the Institute of Acoustics. IHEP also highlighted the South China Sea as the only viable location in China for the telescope because of its vast expanse. However, the South China Sea is not the only potential site for HUNT. Last spring, researchers deployed prototype detectors at a depth of 1,300 meters in Siberia's Lake Baikal, where they conducted on-site testing with Russian scientists working on the Baikal-GVD neutrino experiment.
