Latin American Association for High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

The Latin American Association for High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (LAA-HECAP) was created in November 2021. It aims to leverage and amplify the successful and growing dynamics of research in HECAP in Latin America, as demonstrated by the fruitful and long-term organization of the Latin American Symposium on High Energy Physics (Simposio Latino Americano de Física de Altas Energias – SILAFAE) series and the recent initiative of strategic planning through the Latin American Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures for HECAP (LASF4RI-HECAP), with the participation of several countries in the region. LAA-HECAP is hosted by the ICTP-South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR).

Announcements and Opportunities

• The Preparatory Group in LAS4FRI nominated a committee to organize a contribution from the Latin American community to the update of the European Strategy on Particle Physics (ESPP). The contribution was based on the gathering of individual opinions following the ESPP guidelines and a town hall meeting on March 7. The document entitled "A Survey of the Latin American High Energy Physics community on the future flagship project at CERN for the ESPP Update" was uploaded to the ESPP webpage and is available here.

• The Brazilian High-Energy Physics (HEP) community has also submitted its national input to the ESPP Update and can be found here. 

• The paper "Statistical Analysis of Scientific Metrics in High Energy, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics in Latin America" by Manuel Morales-Alvarado, Fernando Quevedo, Mario Ramos-Hamud and Diego Restrepo was posted in the arXives in March - see here. The authors perform a comprehensive statistical analysis of key scientific metrics to evaluate the productivity and impact of research conducted in Latin American countries within the fields of High Energy Physics, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (HECAP) over the last 70 years. A must read!

• The Latin American Webinar on Physics (LAWPHYSICS) celebrated its 10th anniversary on February 21, 2025 with the event "The First Decade of LAWPhysics, and Perspectives for Latin American HECAP", Check out the amazing collection of webinars (176 and counting) at their YouTube channel and website. Congratulations to the organizers for this important milestone.

• Ulisses Barres de Almeida, from the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF), took office as the new director of CLAF in March for the period 2025-2029. He replaces Luis Huerta, from Chile. We thank Luis for his good work and welcome Ulisses in his new position wishing him success. We hope we can continue the successful mobility program initiated by Luis in this next period with Ulisses.

• There are some activities taking place soon at ICTP-SAIFR in São Paulo that are of interest to this community:

Perimeter-SAIFR-IFT Journeys School

July  14 – 20, 2025 (registration deadline on May 1st)

V Joint ICTP-Trieste/ICTP-SAIFR School on Cosmology

July  28 – August 8, 2025   (registration deadline on May 17)

CLAF/ICTP-SAIFR Astroparticle Physics School (registration deadline on May 29)

August 11 – 15, 2025    

• The 2025 CERN Latin-American School of High-Energy Physics will take place from 30 April to 13 May in Quesada, Costa Rica.

• The seventh Magnificent CEvNS workshop, focusing on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS), will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 9 to 11, 2025.

• SIMONS-BALSEIRO POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS

The Balseiro Institute, located in Bariloche, Argentina, invites applications for 6 postdoctoral positions, funded by the Simons Foundation through the Targeted Grants to Institutes program. The positions are open to candidates in all areas of theoretical physics, broadly defined, including condensed matter physics, high energy physics, and complex systems.

Appointments will begin in September 2025, with a duration of two years, with possible extensions to one more year. The stipend, free of taxes, will be approximately USD 2,000 per month. Successful candidates should have expertise in one or more areas of theoretical physics; candidates working at the intersections of fields are also encouraged to apply. The selected postdoctoral scholars will work in collaboration with members of the theoretical physics groups at Balseiro Institute.

Applications should include a CV, a statement of research interests that identifies the preferred area(s) from the list below, a list of publications, and a minimum of two recommendation letters. The application deadline is April 10, 2025, and the results will be announced by April 30, 2025. The application materials should be sent to simons@ib.edu.ar.

• Quantum computing in Latin America

Quantum computing, long relegated to the realm of theoretical research, is beginning to materialize as a transformative force for business. In this context, the alliance between NTT DATA, a global giant in consulting and technology services, and Kipu Quantum, a pioneer in quantum computing solutions for the industry, emerges as a crucial milestone for the adoption of this disruptive technology in Latin America. For more details see here.

• We are glad to announce the recipients of the grants from the CLAF mobility program in partnership with LAA-HECAP.

Christian Sarmiento Cano

Postdoctoral research from Universidad Industrial de Santander in Colombia to visit Iván Sidelnik from the Centro Atómico de Bariloche

Project: Neutron Detection Using Water Cherenkov Detectors for Precision Agriculture Applications

Melissa Cruz

Professor from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras to visit Ignacio Bediaga from CBPF

Project: CP violation measurements in B->pph decays

Mario A. Acero Ortega

Professor from Universidad del Atlántico, Colombia, to visit Alexis Aguilar-Arevalo from UNAM, Mexico

Project: Neutrino Oscillations Data Analysis and Particle Detectors

Igo Amauri Dos Santos Luz

PhD student  from Universidade Federal da Bahia in Brazil to visit Fernando Monticelli from Universidad de La Plata in Argentina

Project: Integration of the Neural Ringer algorithm into the ATLAS Global Event Processor firmware project

Luz Ángela García

Professor from Universidad ECCI in Bogotá, Colombia to visit Diana Lopez Nacir from UBA, Argentina

Project: Studying dark energy models with current cosmological observables

Matías Leizerovich

PhD student from UBA to visit Dr. Luisa Jaime from UNAM

Project: implement a parametrization at background level in the frame of the f(R) theories of gravity and evaluate its cosmological prediction

We thank CLAF, especially its Director Luis Huerta, for supporting this initiative.

• The US-ATLAS Physics Education Outreach Program is funding two 3-months visits to BNL or another US-ATLAS institute for graduate students pursuing his/her degree (MSc or PhD) in a Latin American Institution to work on an ATLAS Experiment related project. The interested candidate should send a one-page statement of how this visit can be useful for his/her current research project, a CV and also arrange for 2 letters of recommendations to be sent to:

laa-hecap@ictp-saifr.org

Special consideration will be given to students participating in emerging High Energy Physics experimental groups in Latin America.  The visit will need to start before September 10th, 2024 and the deadline for application is July 20, 2024. For questions regarding possible projects please contact Denis Damazio and/or Joseph Haley at:

Denis.Oliveira.Damazio@cern.ch  and  Joseph.Haley@okstate.edu 

• We are happy to announce a partnership between CLAF and LAA-HECAP to establish a Mobility Program for High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics within institutions in Latin America with the purpose of creating new or strengthening existing collaborations in these fields. The total amount of funding for the whole one-year program is USD 10,000 and it will support scientific visits starting in August 1st 2024. We therefore ask for researchers interested in these visits to please submit the following documents until June 1st to laa-hecap@ictp-saifr.org:

. cover letter stating the institution of origin, the institution of the visit, the main purposes of the visit and what is requested (estimated budget);

. letter of invitation with the dates of the visit;

. short research project.

The visits must be finished before July 31st 2025. Visits of 1 to 2 weeks are preferred. Young investigators are encouraged to apply. A report of activities will be required two weeks after the end of the visit. 

• We are glad to announce the scientific visits made possible by an ICTP Network grant for the first semester of 2024. There were ten excellent proposals but we could fund only three. The Executive Board selected the visits:

1. Miguel Sofo Haro (UNC-CONICET) to visit Irina Nasteva (UFRJ)

Project: Installation of the CONNIE experiment upgrade with Multi Skipper-CCD Modules

2. Fernando Lucca (La Plata) to visit Eduardo F. Simas Filho (Federal University of Bahia)

Project: Integration of Ringer algorithm into the Global Event Processor firmware project - Global Trigger of the TDAQ Phase-II upgrade of the ATLAS detector

3. Alberto Martín-Ruiz (ICN-UNAM, Mexico) to visit Mauro Cambiaso Harb (Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile)

Project: Exact solutions to axion electrodynamics

• The XV Latin American Symposium on High-Energy Physics (SILAFAE) will be held again in Mexico, after the 1996 opening (Mérida) and the 2006 edition (Puerto Vallarta). This time the venue will be in the Cinvestav premises, in the North area of Mexico City. Event's indico is https://indico.nucleares.unam.mx/event/2125/. We cordially invite you to participate (abstraction submission is open, as well as the participation fee payment; you will receive your invitation letter shortly after your registration) and spread the word, particularly to students and postdocs.  Registration deadline: 18 October 2024.