Professors, researchers and doctoral students from 4 Moroccan universities participated in an international project to create the largest neutrino detector (a neutrino study device) of its kind in the world within an international cooperation comprising 20 countries.

Morocco is the only representative of African and Arab countries within the project called "Hyper Kamiokande" in Japan.

The coordinator of the project in Morocco, Professor Muhammad Al-Kuwaijri, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net via e-mail that "Morocco's contribution to the project is pivotal, essential and diversified. Analyze detector data once it has been collected.

The world's largest neutrino detector

According to Al-Kuwaijri (a professor at the Faculty of Science at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra), the "Hyper Kamiokande" detector will be the largest of its kind, and it will compete with the American project "DUN" (the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment), as well as its predecessors, "Kamiokande" and "Super". Kamyokande, previously with the honor of winning the Nobel Prizes in Physics in 2002 and 2015.

No less important will the "Kamiokande Hyper" be, as it is newer and more accurate;

It is expected to occupy a central position in the field of neutrino physics, and the scientific community pins great hopes on it to advance this field of research and achieve important new breakthroughs."

Neutrino detector will be 670 meters under the mountain (Kamiokande Hyper)

Al-Kuwaigri said in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, "Hyper Kamiokandi aims to answer some fundamental questions about the origin and fate of matter in the universe, by studying the properties and behavior of neutrinos, in addition to verifying the ability of the proton (one of the two components that make up the nucleus of an atom) to fission.

The neutrino is one of the building blocks of the universe and does not consist of other particles. It differs from the electron in that the latter is electrically charged, while the neutrino is electrically neutral;

This makes the task of observing it very difficult, as it rarely interacts with the ocean, which explains its nickname of the "ghost particle".

It is the second most abundant particle in the universe, as there are about 60 billion neutrinos emitted from the sun, and studying it may be the way to answer a number of mysteries that have baffled scientists for decades.

The researchers aspire to exploit the huge volume of the detector (260 million liters of ultra-pure water) in order to collect the largest possible amount of data and analyze it later to derive recent data related to neutrino masses, the extent of the different behaviors of antineutrinos versus neutrinos, and the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations.

The cost of the Hyper Kamyokandi project is estimated at about $600 million, with Japan contributing 75% of the total cost, while the rest of the international partners (19 countries) will bear the remaining quarter of the expenses, and Morocco is one of the partners and will, in turn, contribute financially to the design and construction of everything it needs in the tasks assigned to it. The exact material value that Morocco will contribute is linked to the contribution of each of the four Moroccan universities separately, in addition to other bodies such as the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation.

Inauguration of the tunnel excavation process under the Kamioka Mountains, which will host the detector in Japan (the island)

How was Morocco chosen?

Dr. Muhammad Al-Kuwaijri, the national coordinator of the project, answers that “in 2020, he submitted a proposal for Morocco to join the project, in order to build the largest neutrino detector of its kind in the world, through 4 different national universities.

At the head of each university, including a local coordinator, ensures the progress of all contributions within the framework allocated to it, where Professor Mohamed Kouigry, professor at the Faculty of Science at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra, Professor Rachid Ahl al-Amarah, representing Mohammed V University in Rabat, and Professor Idris Benchekroun, representing Hassan University The second is in Casablanca, and Professor Ahmed Ratani from the Mohammed VI Polydisciplinary University.

Al-Kuwaijri adds that, "After several rounds of negotiations with the project spokesperson and members of its board, a secret vote was taken (according to custom) by all board members regarding the final decision on Morocco's request, as it was unanimously approved to join the project in November/ In November 2021, Morocco will officially become the first African and Arab country to join the "Hyper Kamiokandi" project.

Moroccan universities participating in the project

On the importance of the participation of Moroccan universities in this project, Kouigari points out that "Morocco's accession to this project will guarantee a scientific training of the highest level for its researchers, especially doctoral students, professors of tomorrow at national universities, and will preserve the dynamism that this field is known in Morocco and inherited through generations. Researchers, especially as a golden generation of university cadres are about to retire, and the best predecessor must be compensated by the goodness of Khalaf, which is in line with the proposals of the country's new development model.

The detector is 71 meters in height and 68 meters in diameter, and is thus the largest particle detector in the world (Hyper-Kamiokande).

It is expected that Morocco’s contribution to the establishment of the project will include 3 main branches: the first is related to the task of calibrating the detector’s energy by using a nuclear device.

As for the second expected contribution, it concerns the establishment of a local calibration unit (outside Japan) to calibrate some properties of the optical units of the detector (as its eyes), while the last task remains related to strengthening the computing network that will be used to store and process data taken from the detector such as those resulting from the simulation.

It should be noted that Morocco leads the African continent by having the fastest supercomputer on the continent, the Toubkal computer, which is managed by the multidisciplinary Mohammed VI University, and Ibn Tofail University also aims to establish a second-tier computing center to support the network itself.

Muhammad Al-Kwaijri concludes his interview with Al-Jazeera Net by saying, "It is expected that 3 American universities and Moroccan universities will cooperate in the success of this mission, as one of the doctoral students from Ibn Tofail University - who is the companion of the link participating in this project - will spend a whole year in one of those American universities under Joint supervision within the framework of the US Fulbright Program, which will accelerate Moroccan-American cooperation in this field.