Symposium Summary and the Scope

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Toshitaka Kajino^1,2 Chair of NIC-XIV

1National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, JAPAN

2The University of Tokyo

It was a great pleasure for us to organize the 14th International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC-XIV) in Niigata Japan, which shall illuminate the new horizon of nuclear astrophysics and related fields. This was co-hosted by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and RIKEN Nishina Center, supported by IUPAP, JINA-CEE, JSPS, JEC Fund, Niigata Prefecture and Niigata City, and many other institutes and associations, and also sponsored by PTEP, Bourbone, and many other companies. I feel highly honored to have hosted this symposium as the Chair of NIC-XIV.

The first NIC symposium was held in Austria Vienna in 1990. Since then, nuclear astrophysics has been growing this big until today such that it assembles many science fields of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, elementary particle physics, earth and planetary science, and meteorite science as well as nuclear physics. Total 293 participants including 172 foreigners and 121 Japanese from 28 countries brought themselves together in this NIC-XIV.

Substantial arguments were made on the cosmic, galactic, and stellar evolution based on foremost understanding of the origin and production mechanism of atomic nuclides under the free and generous atmosphere. The symposium topics include: Big-Bang Cosmology, Nucleosynthesis, Dark Matter, and Dark Energy; First Generations of Stars and Galactic Chemo-Dynamical Evolution; Stellar Evolution and Hydrostatic Nuclear Burning Processes; Explosive Nucleosynthesis in Stars; Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts and Mergers; Novae and X-Ray Bursts; Neutron Stars and Hadron Physics;

Meteoritic Abundances, Interstellar Gas and Dust Astronomy; X and γ Ray Astronomy and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics; Neutrino Astrophysics and Weak Process;

Radioactive Nuclei Far From Stability; Nuclear Theory in Astrophysics; Nuclear Experiments in Astrophysics; Nuclear Data and Astrophysics; New Facilities in Nuclear

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Proc. 14th Int. Symp. on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC2016)

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Astrophysics and Astronomy. Two research topics of the r-process and the neutron-star physics among them were discussed in special sessions on June 21^stand 23^rd to make coherent progress among different neighboring fields. It was also the first attempt in the NIC series of symposia to set up parallel sessions in the morning 9:00–12:00 on June 22^nd in order to pick up as many research highlights including oral talks of young scientists. The number of participants did not decay very much from the opening session of Big-Bang Cosmology on the first day until the last session of cosmic X and γ Ray Astronomy on the last day.

A special emphasis was put in this NIC-XIV upon opening new scientific domains by cooperation and the synergy effect among researchers in interdisciplinary fields. The whole scientific program consists of 37 invited talks, 59 oral talks, and 189 poster presentations, and it is worthy of special mention that several breakthrough invited talks were made by young generations. Two lectures given by Takaaki Kajita and Phil Woods were the invited talks selected by European Physical Journal. A few outstanding poster presentations among many qualified posters were awarded gold, silver, bronze prizes in each category of theory, experiment and observation.

In recent years, the observational and experimental efforts to detect the signals from celestial phenomena like supernovae or mergers of compact objects were highly rewarded, to develop new fields of astrophysics, i.e. neutrino astronomy and gravitational wave astronomy. Neutrino astronomy is based on technology of laboratory nuclear physics, and provides valuable knowledge in astronomy and astrophysics how the atomic nuclides are created in stellar core collapse and explosions, which was one of the science targets to discuss in this NIC-XIV Symposium. We had two special lectures on neutrino astronomy and element genesis. First was given by Prof. Takaaki Kajita who was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015 for the discovery of the neutrino oscillation, and the second by Prof. Kosuke Morita who was awarded Japan Academy Prize in 2016 for the discovery of Nihonium which is a super heavy element of atomic number 113. These two talks were even symbolic in this NIC-XIV which is the conference to discuss the origin and evolution of elements in the universe.

As an associated event with NIC-XIV, the NIC Summer School was held in Niigata University that approximately 50 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers

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participated in. Three post-symposia also were held. They are the 2nd Sicily-East Asia (SEA) Workshop on Low Energy Nuclear Physics held at CNS, The University of Tokyo; 2nd NAOJ-ECT* Workshop on “Many Riddles About Core-Collapse Supernovae - One Bethe and Beyond” held at NAOJ Mitaka; and International Symposium on MOdern Technique and its Outlook in Heavy Ion Science (MOTO16) held at Rikkyo University. Many students and young researchers as well as NIC-XIV participants joined in these meetings to exchange their expertise. Another associated event was the public lectures entitled “Cosmic Evolution tells the Origin of Elements”

held at downtown Tokyo by bringing 325 citizens. I believe that these associated science events stimulated the intellectual curiosity of any levels and developed dreams for basic science especially to the youth carrying the next generation.

Finally, I report that the NIC-XIV International Advisory Committee decided that the next NIC-XV will be hosted by Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy in 2018.

On behalf of NIC-XIV Organizing Committee, I hope that the 14th International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos served for all participants to exchange expertise and deeper knowledge on Nuclei in the Cosmos and for the young generations to raise international competitiveness and will be in particular a good opportunity to get motivation on establishing new international collaborations and the leadership in the studies of nuclear astrophysics and related interdisciplinary science in the future.

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