Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB) Areas of research: Cosmology, Astrophysics, Particle Physics Location: Barcelona Website: icc.ub.edu; Contact: secretariacientifica@icc.ub.edu
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences of University of Barcelona, ICCUB, is an interdisciplinary centre devoted to fundamental research in the fields of cosmology, astrophysics and particle physics. In addition, the institute has a strong technology programme through its participation in international collaborations in observational astronomy and experimental particle physics. Research at ICCUB, one of the few centres around the world devoted to cosmology from the viewpoint of both particle physics and astrophysics, is largely driven by the following fundamental questions: What are the origin and fate of the Universe? Which are the ultimate constituents of the Universe? Or why does the Universe have its present appearance? The ICCUB has experienced a significant growth, becoming a consolidated research institution with more than 50 long-term scientists, 15 engineers and 65 postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. The Institute was created in 2006 as the instrument of the University of Barcelona for the active support of research in theoretical astrophysics and particle physics, paying special attention to their synergy with cosmology, to promote experimental physics and instrument development, enabling a significant participation of the University of Barcelona in large international collaborations, and to attract highly qualified scientific personnel. These is a brief selection of the projects participated by ICCUB (http://icc.ub.edu/research/ key_projects): • Space missions: like GAIA, a satellite by the European Space Agency (ESA) designed for astrometry and launched on 2013. The main goal of the Gaia mission is to make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying an unprecedented one per cent of its population of 100 billion stars. • Particle detectors: like LHCb, designed to study small difference between the decay of the b particle and the decay of its corresponding antiparticle, the anti-b, through their production in proton collisions. Particle physicists hope that the study of this difference will allow them find the reason why matter and antimatter of the early Universe did not annihilate completely with each other.
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