This award will provide participant support for early career scientists and graduate students to participate in the PACIFIC 2013 Symposium. This symposium will focus on the latest developments at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology and on their ramifications for understanding fundamental interactions.
It will be held September 2-7, 2013 at the University of California Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station, located on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia.
For Broader Impacts, it has a particular focus on early career scientists and graduate students. To make the symposium more accessible to the general public, they have integrated a public lecture by one of the symposium speakers into the schedule.
Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Including Fundamental InteraCtions (PACIFIC) conference focused on the rapidly developing field at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Thanks to the ample new data and a plethora of theoretical ideas, the field of astro-particle physics has become the source of excitement and discoveries. This conference was building on the success of previous meetings that were held at University of Califoronia Richard B. Gump Station in 2011 and 2012. The symposium succeeded in bringing together researchers from the United States, as well as other countries, representing Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. The scientific program included presentations on a wide range of topics, which were followed by discussions. The origin of dark matter, the observations and the theory of astrophysical neutrinos, the gamma-ray data and the connection between gamma ray observations and the cosmic rays were among the topics discussed at the conference. The participants included leading theorists working in astroparticle physics, as well as leading experimentalists. Both senior and young researchers were among the participants. The conference presentations are archived; they are available at the conference website maintained at UCLA. The organizers have received a number of comments from the participants praising the scientific content and the stimulating atmosphere of the conference. Some scientific projects resulted from discussions that took place at this conference. Some research publications, such as, e.g., arxiv:1406.0511, thank NSF for supporting the PACIFIC-2013 conference, where, according to the authors, their work was initiated. Scientific materials presented at the conference are archived and made available at http://pacific.physics.ucla.edu
