Gary Varner, professor of at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa, died on July 14.

“His expertise in physics, instrumentation and electronics was widely recognized, and his unwavering dedication to his work and his students was truly admirable,” said Veronica Bindi, chair and professor of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Varner joined the UH Mānoa faculty in 2005, however, his work with UH and the physics and astronomy department dates back to the early 1980s. Throughout his career, he made significant and critical contributions to numerous physics experiments worldwide. These include projects such as the from the 1980’s where he worked with UH faculty as an undergraduate student at Boston University, and more recently, Belle and at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization or KEK in Tsukuba, Japan, and the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna known as at the South Pole.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Varner mentored and trained many undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs and engineers from �鶹��ý and around the world. His innovative ideas for readout and data acquisition in high energy physics live on in a generation of scientists that he trained, inspired and mentored.

He received the Department of Energy Advanced Detector Research award three times and was awarded the 2016 Instrumentation Award for Experimental Particle Physics from the Division of Particle and Fields of the American Physical Society.

Varner earned his BS in electrical engineering and his MS in experimental physics from Boston University. In 1999, he earned his PhD in experimental particle physics from UH ����ԴDz�.

Colleagues note that the success of the department and the UH High Energy Physics group owes a great deal to Varner’s invaluable contributions, which have left an indelible mark on the field.

“Gary was not only a brilliant scientist but also a caring individual, always extending support and kindness,” said friends and colleagues from the Physics and Astronomy Department. “We will forever cherish his important role in our endeavors.”

The has announced that the is going to two scientists for their key experiments of subatomic particles known as neutrinos. They are Arthur B. McDonald, professor emeritus of in Canada and affiliate professor of physics at the , and Takaaki Kajita of the in Japan. Both winners have important ties to UH.

According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Kajita’s and McDonald’s experiments demonstrated that neutrinos change identities and have mass. “The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe,” the academy said in a release.

“We are thrilled that the two 2015 Nobel Laureates in Physics have strong ties to UH Mānoa,” said UH Mānoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman. “In fact, Professor McDonald is scheduled to return to campus in early 2016, when he will continue his work with the and, hopefully, will participate in a Nobel Prize celebration and possible public lecture. We join the world in congratulating the Nobel winners and our .”

Arthur B. McDonald

Since 2010, McDonald has been an affiliate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UH Mānoa. He typically spends about three months every year at UH Mānoa giving seminars and colloquia and brainstorming on neutrino physics and dark matter with members of the university’s High Energy Physics Group. In 2001, McDonald led a group that demonstrated that neutrinos from the Sun changed identity by the time they arrived at the (SNO) in Canada.

“It’s an honor for us in the SNO collaboration to share the Nobel Prize with the Super-Kamiokande collaboration in which my colleagues at the University of �鶹��ý have played such a major role,” said McDonald. “I enjoy discussing physics with and learning from the UH experimental and theoretical particle physicists.”

Takaaki Kajita

Kajita presented the discovery that neutrinos from the atmosphere switch identities from experiments done with the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan. He was the leader of the analysis group of a collaboration of about 100 people. Early analysis of this work was carried out by UH Professor John Learned and students. UH physics PhD student John Flannagan wrote the first dissertation including the Super-Kamiokande’s groundbreaking results.

“We are proud of our association with these two top physicists and the revolution in fundamental physics touched off by their groups’ discoveries,” said UH’s Learned.

The analysis methods developed at UH have become standard in the field of neutrino oscillations. The theory work of UH Professor Sandip Pakvasa and others in the UH High Energy Physics Group has been closely associated with both the Super-Kamiokande and Sudbury Neutrino Observatory efforts.

For more information about the �鶹��ý connection with the initial Super-Kamiokande discovery, .

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

A team of researchers led by scientists at the (NGA) published a new map on September 1 that characterizes the Earth’s radioactivity. The Antineutrino Global Map 2015 (AGM2015) can inform the strategic placement of detectors that aid in identifying undeclared nuclear reactors.

The neutrino and its antimatter cousin, the antineutrino, are subatomic particles that are produced by stars of all types, including the Sun, as well as Earth’s atmosphere, supernovae, nuclear reactors and radioactive materials. AGM2015 is the first model of the Earth’s natural and manmade antineutrino flux, using open source geophysical data sets and publicly available international antineutrino detection observational data.

The research team is composed of neutrino physicists and geophysicists from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the , , the and a Virginia-based company known as .

“This antineutrino map may mark the start of a new scientific subfield,” said UH Professor John Learned. “This map is similar to making the first map of North America after Columbus arrived, in that those early explorers had fragmentary information from a few scattered outings and used it to create a comprehensive tool for many others.”

“John’s analogy is particularly relevant to the natural antineutrino flux, which has very large uncertainties compared with the manmade antineutrino flux,” added �鶹��ý Pacific University Professor Stephen Dye. “AGM helps guide the quest to chart what keeps our planet warm inside.”

The map and accompanying research paper are published in . For more information and to download the map, go to the .

About antineutrinos and geo-neutrinos

Learned was part of the team that discovered oscillations and mass in neutrinos in 1998. Antineutrinos were first detected as emissions from nuclear reactors in the mid-1950s two decades after their existence was proposed. More than 99 percent of all terrestrial antineutrinos come from within the Earth, with the remainder coming from nuclear reactors. The detection of antineutrinos from nuclear reactors continues to provide insights into their oscillatory behavior and potential future applications for nuclear nonproliferation.

The study of geo-neutrinos, needed to support reactor detection, is also a gateway to meaningful geologic research into the Earth’s heat sources and geodynamics. Geophysical antineutrinos, or geo-neutrinos, are produced by naturally occurring radioisotopes in the Earth, revealing information about the planet’s interior. Geo-neutrino measurements are essential in characterizing the Earth’s radiogenic power across geologic time and in improving our understanding of planetary formation processes in the early solar nebula.

The authors expect to release periodic updates to the original AGM2015 as future oscillation measurements, crust/mantle model advancements, and ongoing construction and decommissioning of nuclear reactors will eventually change the map.

AGM2015 is a product of NGA’s antineutrino research program. In addition to mapping out the Earth’s antineutrino flux, NGA and UH have developed a small prototype antineutrino detector that is currently being tested at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

An international team of scientist, which operates the at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider in China, recently began a series of studies aimed at understanding the anomalous Y(4260) particle. As a striking and unexpected first observation from these new studies, the collaboration has reported that the Y(4260) particle in fact decays to a new—and perhaps even more mysterious—particle that they named the Zc(3900).

The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa’s in the physics and astronomy department is part of the international collaboration that made this discovery. High energy physics involves the study of subatomic particles that are the building blocks of matter and the forces that act between them.

“The new observations challenge what was thought to be a well-understood system of possible configurations of charmed- and anti-charmed quarks, those that were considered to be among the simplest and most easily understood subatomic particles,” said Professor Frederick A. Harris, co-spokesperson for the experiment.

Recent discoveries of several new particles, including the Y(4260) and now the Zc(3900), suggest that more complex structures have to be considered.

A description of new particle was reported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Energy Physics and submitted to the Physical Review Letters. .

For more information, read the or the .

Beijing Spectrometer collaboration

UH Mānoa joined the Beijing Spectrometer collaboration in 1993 and since then has had a strong impact on its research program.

In particular, UH Manoa has played a key role in developing a number of the critical instrumental components of the BESIII Experiment and its predecessor BESII. In 2010, UH Mānoa helped construct the beam energy measurement system for the Beijing electron-positron collider, improving the precision of BESIII’s particle measurements.

The BESIII Experiment research team is comprised of about 350 physicists from 50 institutions in 11 countries. U.S. groups include UH Mānoa, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Rochester.