Okayama University has been selected as one of the major contributing partners to promote research in the EU-funded international joint project "CMB-INFLATE". The project is coordinated by the University of Paris and the research team consists of 16 universities and research institutes from around the world (including 4 from Japan). After a competitive application process, the project was approved for a research grant through the RISE Project and EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program in February 2021. The main goal of the project is to analyze the unique polarization pattern in the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) radiation imprinted by primordial gravitational waves. It is believed that the research will help identify the inflation mechanism that led to the exponential expansion of space in the early universe before the hot Big Bang.

Okayama University is represented by Professor ISHINO Hirokazu from the Department of Physics at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology and his research team, who promote the research and development of advanced data analysis methods to evaluate and mitigate systematic errors with the aim of observing CMB more accurately at large angular scales. The research team’s analysis methods have been instrumental in the LiteBIRD project, which is a scientific satellite whose launch has been approved by JAXA in the 2020s. Their work can be applied to various CMB observation efforts, making it possible to “observe” the gravitational waves present at the origin of the universe and investigate the reasons for cosmic inflation.

The research period for CMB-INFLATE is set for 4 years and during this time Okayama University will serve as a data analysis base, welcoming many researchers representing institutions in France, Italy, Norway, and other European countries to our campus to promote international joint research.

Professor ISHINO was selected as one of the lead researchers in Okayama University’s original project titled, “International Research Center Formation Program to Accelerate Okayama University Reform (RECTOR)” in 2020 and we expect his numerous efforts to increase the number of collaborative international research projects in the near future. In addition to sharing exciting research results from "CMB-INFLATE" through EURAEXESS, Okayama University plans to promote the expansion of international joint research projects and activities.

○ Organizations participating in CMB-INFLATE:
University of Paris (Representative), Okayama University, Hanoi Institute of Technology, French National Center for Scientific Research, University of Ferrara, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Stockholm University, Nagoya University, SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), University of Tokyo, The Sapienza University of Rome, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), University of Oslo, University of Toronto, University of Cardiff, KEK (Inter-University Research Institute Corporation High Energy Accelerator Research Organization)