Hyper-Kamiokande Project is officially approved

Hyper-Kamiokande (HK or Hyper-K) project is the world-leading international scientific research project hosted by Japan aiming to elucidate the origin of matter and the Grand Unified Theory of elementally particles. The project consists of the Hyper-K detector, which has an 8.4 times larger fiducial mass than its predecessor, Super-Kamiokande, equipped with newly developed high-sensitivity photosensors and a high-intensity neutrino beam produced by an upgraded J-PARC accelerator facility.

The supplementary budget for FY2019 which includes the first-year construction budget of 3.5 billion yen for the Hyper-Kamiokande project was approved by the Japanese Diet. The Hyper-K project has officially started. The operations will begin in 2027.

The overall Japanese contribution will include the cavern excavation, construction of the tank (water container) and its structure, half of the photosensors for the inner detector, main part of the water system, Tier 0 offline computing, together with J-PARC accelerator upgrade and construction of a new experimental facility for the near detector complex.

International contributions will include the rest of photosensors for the inner detector, sensor covers and light collectors, photosensors for the outer detector, readout electronics, data acquisition system, water system upgrade, detector calibration systems, downstream offline computing system, and the near/intermediate detector complex.

We would like to work together with domestic and international colleagues in Hyper-K for the development of neutrino physics and astrophysics.