ILC NewsLine
Einstein, the Violin and the Neutrino
Professor emeritus Masatoshi Koshiba, Professor Brian Foster and KEK Director General Yoji Totsuka
From left to right: Professor emeritus Masatoshi Koshiba, Professor Brian Foster and KEK Director General Yoji Totsuka. .
The year 2005 is "The World Year of Physics", commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of three great physics papers by Albert Einstein. Professor Brian Foster, European regional director of ILC GDE, has been trying hard to promote the link between physics and music. As a violinist who started his lessons at the age of 11, he loves Mozart, much as Einstein did. He and his teacher, Jack Liebeck, a young and talented violinist from the UK, have become close friends and are traveling around the globe, literally, to play together in a lecture celebrating, Einstein, music and Superstrings. Foster is also organising 27 or so gala concerts world-wide.

In Japan, together with another talented young pianist Kotaro Fukuma, they were greeted by a Nobel laureate physicist Professor Masatoshi Koshiba. KEK hosted a joint lecture and concert titled "Tunes of Physics and Violin" on the 9th of October, where Koshiba talked about neutrinos, and Liebeck and Fukuma played Mozart, Brahms, Paert and Elgar.

Although Foster did not meet Koshiba while he was a member of the TASSO experiment at DESY in the 1970s and 80s, he did meet many of his students such as Professors Orito and Yamada. Yamada was the last director of INS, the Institute of Nuclear Study at University of Tokyo. The late professor Orito was one of the most important leaders for promoting the linear collider among Japanese physicists.

 

Violinist Jack Liebeck and Pianist Kotaro Fukuma
Violinist Jack Liebeck and Pianist Kotaro Fukuma.
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"Making sure that everyone is working in the same direction is a big challenge", Foster speaks of his role in ILC GDE. "We have to make sure that the European Union is onboard, and that requires political activity. I was in Brussels last month to talk to the EU; we had a very positive meeting."

Foster also commented on European ILC activities. "There are lots of different things going on in different countries. There are still some very clear concentrations of efforts at DESY in superconducting cavities, for example. We are starting to get significant involvement from CERN, in particular with the cryogenics and civil engineering", he said. "The overall perspective is that the effort is increasing, and that people are very enthusiastic and momentum is building up. It is our job to make sure that continues to happen."

Asked about his personal point of view on the ILC, he said, "Well, it's probably the last experiment I will do, so I hope it would be the best. Certainly, it has enormous promise. What we might see of course depends on what nature holds. What we do know is that it's uniquely suited to look at the physics of the future with enormous precision and with high energy. We are convinced that it will make world-challenging discoveries. The sooner we start it, the better. So we have to be patient and enthusiastic simultaneously."
--Youhei Morita and Kaoruko Saeki