News

Hirosi Ooguri Elected to the Japan
Writers Association

Hirosi Ooguri,
Kavli IPMU Principal
Investigator and Fred
Kavli Professor at
Caltech, has been
elected to the Japan
Hirosi Ooguri
Writers Association
on June 23, 2017. He has written
several popular science books,
including Introduction to Superstring
Theory, which received the 2014
Kodansha Prize for Science Books,
the most prestigious prize for sciencebooks in Japan (see Kavli IPMU NewsNo. 27, p. 23).
The Japan Writers Association wasestablished in 1926. The Founding
Chair was Kan Kikuchi, a well-known
writer and founder of the major
publishing company Bungeishunju Ltd.
Though the association was disbanded
during World War II, it was reestablished in 1946 as a professionalorganization to promote literature,protect freedom of expression, andsupport writers. Its membershipconsists of writers, playwrights, critics,
essayists, translators, and poets.

in charge of the Kavli IPMU, Ichiro
Sanda, WPI Academy＊1 Director (AD)Toshio Kuroki, and several JSPS officers
visited the institute on July 19, 2017.
PD Ukawa was newly appointed
at the beginning of this Fiscal Year,taking over the position from the
now former PD Toshio Kuroki, who
was in turn appointed as WPI AD.
The site-visit team examined the Kavli
IPMUʼs progress plan for the fiveyear extension period based on its
achievements in the past 10 years,
and the host universityʼs vision andsupport.
To begin with, the site-visit
team heard Director Murayamaʼspresentation on the progress of thenine challenges for the extension
period. Subsequently, the Universityof Tokyo Managing Director andExecutive Vice President Toshihiko
Koseki explained the University ʼsvision, University-wide ripple effects
caused by the Kavli IPMUʼs systemic
reform, and Universityʼs support to the
Kavli IPMU in the future. Then, there
were active question and answer
exchanges between the site-visit teamand the Kavli IPMU/University of Tokyo
side. The two-hour site visit concluded
with comments from the PD, PO, andAD.

2017 WPI Site Visit to Kavli IPMU
2017 WPI Site Visit to Kavli IPMU
For the FY 2017 WPI site visit to the
Kavli IPMU, WPI Program Director (PD)Akira Ukawa, Program Officer (PO)＊1

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Kavli IPMU News No. 39 September 2017

In FY 2017, MEXT established the new
WPI Academy. The WPI centers that haveachieved world-premier status are theinitial members of the WPI Academy.
See https: //www.jsps .go.jp/english/
e-toplevel/18_academy.html.

MEXT Vice Minister Todani,
Director General Seki, andDirector Ohora visit Kavli IPMU

In July, August, and September,
2017, several notable visitors from
MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology) visitedthe Kavli IPMU. (See photos in the
Directorʼs Corner on page 3.)
On July 21, Director General
Yasunao Seki of the Research
Promotion Bureau and two officers
visited the Atmosphere and Ocean
Research Institute, Institute for Cosmic
Ray Research, Graduate School of
Frontier Sciences, Institute for Solid
State Physics, and Kavli IPMU on the
University of Tokyoʼs Kashiwa campus.
At the Kavli IPMU, after hearing an
overview and research of the institutefrom Director Murayama, they toured
the Kavli IPMU building and observed
interaction of researchers at tea time.
On August 21, Director of the
Office for the Promotion of Basic
Research, the Basic Research
Promotion Division, Ryuuma Oohora,and Unit Chief Yuuki Shigeta, bothfrom the Research Promotion Bureau,
visited the Kavli IPMU. After Director
Murayamaʼs overview presentation,
they were guided through the Kavli
IPMU building. When they entered
the interaction area, Piazza Fujiwara,
on the third floor, where researchers
gather for daily tea time breaks,
Mr. Ohora showed interest in abook which he found on a table. It
was Quest for Truth―Interactionof Buddhism and Astrophysics(published by Gentosha Inc.), which
Kavli IPMU Principal Investigator Hirosi
Ooguri wrote with Buddhism scholar
Shizuka Sasaki.
On September 15, MEXT Vice
Minister Kazuo Todani visited the
Kavli IPMU, accompanied by Directorof the Office for the Promotion ofBasic Research Ryuuma Ohora, and
Deputy Director of the Office of Vice
Minister, General Affairs Division,
Susumu Ideshio. Mr. Todani listened to
Director Murayama as he introduced
the institute, and the research being
carried out here. He showed interestin the instituteʼs goal to improve theuniversity system in Japan, and asked
Murayama questions about how the
Kavli IPMU looks after its overseas
researchers and processes theirpension and insurance paperwork.
Following a tour of the Kavli IPMU
building, Mr. Todani joined in theinstituteʼs daily tea time break, andtalked to a number of the researchers.
Second Lecture at Science Café
Universe 2017

Every year, the Kavli IPMU and
Tamarokuto Science Center cohosts Science Café Universe atTamarokuto Science Center in NishiTokyo City. This yearʼs Science Café2017 was the ninth in this series, andnon-Japanese Kavli IPMU researchers
gave lectures in English without any
translation into Japanese. This public
lecture style was a first for the Kavli
IPMU. This yearʼs first lecture wasalready given on June 24 (see Kavli
IPMU News No. 38, p. 19). On July
8, Kavli IPMU postdoctoral fellow
David Stark gave the second lecture,
entitled The Birth, Growth, and Deathof Galaxies. There were about 40
attendees; 40% of them were juniorhigh-school and high-school students.
In the first part of the lecture,David showed a number of picturesand simulations to introduce howgalaxies grow through attraction ofgas into dark matter halos which
consist of dark matter . The last partof the lecture was devoted to thedeath of galaxies, and David explained
what mechanism causes grown-up

galaxies to stop forming stars andturn into inactive galaxies. Finally,
David discussed that there are several
theories about why galaxies cease
forming new stars. No definite answer
for this problem has been obtained
yet, and he introduced his own
research working on this problem.
Despite English being the only
language used throughout thelecture and subsequent Q&A session,
participants left comments in thequestionnaire such as, The English
was difficult to understand, but I could
tell how enthusiastic the lecturer was
about his research, and, I would
like to hear a lecture given in English
again. Also, a number of attendees
remained after the lecture to ask
questions to the lecturer in English.
Overall, we think this trial of Science
Café in English was a success, which
will aid future planning of similar
public events by the Kavli IPMU.

写真2

five years as they search for the Higgs
particle at CERN .
After the movie, people moved
to the Kavli IPMUʼs interaction area,
Piazza Fujiwara, on the third floor,
and there was a science café lecture
in English by Chicago University
Professor and Kavli IPMU Principal
Investigator Young-Kee Kim. Kim has
a long career in high-energy physics
experiments using high-energy
accelerators, including the ATLAS
experiment, which contributed tothe discovery of the Higgs particle
at CERNʼs Large Hadron Collider.
She talked about the importance of
this discovery as well as upcoming
next-generation high-energy physics
experiments after the Higgs discovery .
Further, she mentioned ongoingand planned high-energy physics
experiments in Japan, such as theSuperKEKB/Belle II experiment, HyperKamiokande project, and ILC project.
After the lecture, a discussion tofacilitate dialog between Kim and theattendees was held. Some attendees
were seen to talk with her in English.

写真3

Kavli IPMU Science Café What
Can a Particle Accelerator
Discover?

On July 15, 2017, the Kavli IPMU
hosted Science Café What Can a
Particle Accelerator Discover? There
were about 40 attendees including
junior high-school and high-school
students.
This event started at the lecture hallwith a screening of the documentary
film Particle Fever (Kavli IPMU
version with Japanese subtitles; formore details, see Kavli IPMU NewsNo. 30, p. 23). This film follows the
lives of six physicists over the course of

Booth at the 2017 Super Science
High School Student Fair

On August 9 and 10, the 2017
Super Science High School Student
Fair was held at the Kobe International
Exhibition Hall in Kobe, Hyogo
Prefecture. The Kavli IPMU and other
8 WPI centers jointly ran a booth
exhibiting their research activities.

21

News

Learning and Creating Physics ̶
From High School to the Forefront
Research of the Universe

On August 19, 2017, a Collaborative
Knowledge Creation Practical Learning
Course Learning and Creating Physics
̶ From High School to the Forefront
Research of the Universe for juniorhigh-school and high-school scienceteachers was held at the Seihoku
Gallery of the Yayoi Auditorium Annex
on the University of Tokyoʼs Hongo
campus. It was co-hosted by the Kavli
IPMU and the University of Tokyo
Center for Research and Development
on Transition from Secondary to Higher
Education, Division for Cross-Stage
Education and Assessment, CoREF.＊2
About 30 teachers attended this event.
The program started with a handson exercise, where teachers wereassigned a task to give an easy-tounderstand explanation of dark matterto high-school fresh-year students.
The participants were divided into
groups to discuss and present how
to accomplish the task, based on thegiven material. Subsequently, Kavli
IPMU Director Murayama gave alecture explaining why dark matter isbelieved to exist. He also gave someexamples of familiar phenomena,
which are likely not to exceed
the Japanese government course
guidelines for high-schools, including
quadratic curves and planetary orbits,
and the relation between the flame
reactions and absorption lines (seephoto on page 3).
Finally, there was time for attendees
to have a discussion with CoREF
Professor Hajime Shirouzu and Kavli
IPMU Director Murayama . They
discussed how to introduce cuttingedge science in normal classes,
amongst many things.
＊2

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Consortium for Renovating Education of
the Future

Kavli IPMU Seminars

1.

Coulomb branches of 4d N=2
SUSY gauge theories for R3 × S1
Speaker: Hiraku Nakajima(Kyoto U)
Date: May 01, 2017
2. Existence of crepant resolutions
and generalized McKay
correspondence
Speaker: Yukari Ito (Nagoya U)
Date: May 08, 2017
3. Implications of locality andunitarity for massive S-matrix
Speaker: Yu-tin Huang (National
Taiwan U)
Date: May 09, 2017
4. ADE String Chains and Mirror
Symmetry
Speaker: Babak Haghighat(Tsinghua U)
Date: May 16, 2017
5. RD , RK : Flavor Anomalies in B
Decays.
Speaker: Alakabha Datta (UMississippi)
Date: May 17, 2017
6. Extent and spatial distribution
on a kpc scale of star formationin cluster galaxies from z=0 to z
~0.5
Speaker: Benedetta Vulcani (INAF
OaPD)
Date: May 18, 2017
7. Phase space slicing method in
NNLO QCD and its application incollider physics
Speaker: Chong-Sheng Li (ITP,
Peking U)
Date: May 19, 2017
8. Status of the Dark Energy
SurveySpeaker: Gary Bernstein (U Penn)
Date: May 22, 2017
9. Weak gravitational Lensing by
Large-Scale Structure
Speaker: Hendrik Hildebrandt (U
Bonn)
＊

＊

Kavli IPMU News No. 39 September 2017

Date: May 23, 201710. Probing fundamental physics withgalaxies
Speaker: Neal Dalal (U Illinois)
Date: May 24, 2017
11. Recent wide-angle photometricredshift catalogues
Speaker: Maciej Bilicki (Leiden U)
Date: May 25, 2017
12. Classical Field Theory
Speaker: James Wallbridge (Kavli
IPMU)
Date: May 25, 2017
13. Aspects of the chiral algebra in
4d N=2 SCFT
Speaker: Jaewon Song (KIAS)
Date: May 30, 2017
14. Magnetic bubble chambers
for sub-GeV dark matter direct
detection
Speaker: Tom Melia (UC Berkeley)
Date: May 31, 2017
15. From Einstein to Gravitational
Waves and Beyond
Speaker: Barry Barish (Caltech/
LIGO)
Date: May 31, 2017
16. Higgs bundles, branes andapplications
Speaker: Laura Schaposnik (UIllinois at Chicago)
Date: Jun 06, 201717. Peterson isomorphism in K-theory
and Relativistic Toda lattice
Speaker: Takeshi Ikeda (Okayama
U of Science)
Date: Jun 06, 201718. Gravitational Instabilities of theCosmic Neutrino Background with
Non-zero Lepton Number
Speaker: Neil Barrie (U Sydney)
Date: Jun 07, 201719. Cosmic rays from high-redshift
starburst galaxies and their rolein heating and ionizing theintergalactic and circum-galactic
mediumSpeaker: Ellis Owen (U College

London)Date: Jun 08, 2017
20. Cores in Dwarf Galaxies from
Fermi Repulsion
Speaker: James Unwin (U Illinois)
Date: Jun 09, 2017
21. The Search for Inflationary
B-modes: Latest Results fromBICEP/KeckSpeaker: Clem Pryke (UMinnesota)
Date: Jun 12, 2017
22. The universal quantum invariant
and colored ideal triangulations
Speaker: Sakie Suzuki (Kyoto U)
Date: Jun 13, 2017
23. From CREAM to ISS-CREAM
Projects
Speaker: Hwanbae Park (Kyngpook
National U )Date: Jun 14, 201724. Universality in Biology?:
Fluctuation-response relationshipand Deep Linearity in Adaptationand Evolution
Speaker: Kunihiko Kaneko(Universal Biology Inst, U Tokyo)
Date: Jun 14, 201725. Perverse coherent sheaves on
blow-ups at codimension two lociSpeaker: Naoki Koseki (Kavli
IPMU)
Date: Jun 15, 201726. Secondary astrophysicalproduction of anti-deuteron andanti-Helium3 cosmic ray
Speaker: Ryosuke Sato (WeizmannInst)
Date: Jun 16, 201727. Derived categories and flips
Speaker: Matt Ballard (IAS / U
South Carolina)
Date: Jun 20, 2017
28. New information from the small
scale CMB
Speaker: Simone Ferraro (UCBerkeley)
Date: Jun 21, 2017

29. The Galaxy-Halo Connection
with the Observation of Neutral
Hydrogen
Speaker: Hong Guo (SHAO)
Date: Jun 27, 201730. Supernovae: Observational
Wonders and Theoretical
Nightmares
Speaker: Tomasz Plewa (Florida
State U)
Date: Jun 28, 201731. The Curious Case of Lyman-alpha
Emitting Galaxies
Speaker: Zheng Zheng (Utah U)
Date: Jun 29, 201732. Mutations of non-commutative
crepant resolutions arising fromdimer models
Speaker: Yusuke Nakajima (Kavli
IPMU)
Date: Jun 29, 2017
33. R-matrices and cohomologicalHall algebras
Speaker: Eric Vasserot (Jussieu)
Date: Jul 04, 201734. A New Population of(extragalactic) X-ray Transients
Speaker: Franz Bauer (Institutode Astrofisica, Facultad de Fisica
Pontificia Universidad Catolica deChile)
Date: Jul 05, 201735. Planet Formation as an
Astrophysical Problem
Speaker: Roman Rafikov (DAMTP,
U Cambridge)
Date: Jul 06, 2017
36. From the FOURGE to the FIRE:
Tracking Galaxy Evolution over 12
Billion Years
Speaker: Kim-Vy Tran (University of
New South Wales)
Date: Jul 06, 201737. The Mass Within Galaxy Clusters:
CMB Cluster Lensing andSplashback
Speaker: Eric Baxter (U Penn)
Date: Jul 10, 2017

Personnel Changes

Changes of Deputy/Associate
Directors
Kavli IPMU Administrative Director
Tomiyoshi Haruyama was additionallyappointed to Kavli IPMU Deputy
Director on June 7, 2017.
Kavli IPMU Professor Nobuhiko
Katayama stepped down as Kavli
IPMU Associate Director on July 13,
2017. He will concentrate on his
research.

Promotion
Yukinobu Toda,
who was Kavli IPMU
Associate Professor,
became Kavli IPMU
Professor on July 16,
2017.

Yukinobu Toda

Moving Out
The following people left the Kavli
IPMU to work at other institutes. Theirtime at the Kavli IPMU is shown insquare brackets.
Kavli IPMU Postdoctoral Fellow
Edmond Cheung [October 1, 2014 ー
September 30, 2017] moved toRaise.me as a Lead Data Scientist.
Kavli IPMU Postdoctoral Fellow
Dulip Piyaratne [October 16, 2014
ー August 13, 2017] moved to
the University of Arizona as a
Postdoctoral Research Associate.
Kavli IPMU Postdoctoral Fellow
Wiphu Rujopakarn [March 16, 2014
ー August 7, 2015 and March 1,
2016 ー July 10, 2017] moved to
Chulalongkorn University in Thailand
as a Lecturer of Department of Physics,
Faculty of Science.

News23