Exploring the Universe through Neutrinos and Cosmic Rays

ABOUT US

Our group conducts research to reveal the history of the universe and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics through the observation of cosmic rays and elementary particles.
Follow @astropp_toyama Instagram: astropp_toyama

Our group's research activities were featured in newspapers.

October 11th, 2026: Featured in the Hokuriku Chunichi Shimbun (morning edition, 17).

October 10th, 2026: Featured in the Chunichi Shimbun (morning edition, 19), the Tokai edition of the Chunichi Shimbun (morning edition, 24), and Kenmin Fukui (morning edition, 14).

Our group's research activities were featured in the University of Toyama's public relations magazine.

University of Toyama News Letter, Autumn 2026 Issue (published on October 1, 2026)

Our laboratory's research activities were featured in the University of Toyama's public relations magazine.

University of Toyama News Letter, Autumn 2026 Issue (published on October 1, 2026)

University of Toyama and Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) sign MOU to advance Hyper-Kamiokande project

[Press release]
(1) University of Toyama (2) The Universtiy of Tokyo
(3) Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) (4) Kamioka observatory

Our research was featured on television

November 18th (Tue) 富山大学広報番組『知のフロンティア～おもしろい富山大学～』
第23回 「大型実験Super-Kamiokande検出器による宇宙線の観測」（理学部）
Youtube (with English)

NEWS & TOPICS

• 2026-October-28 We hold a seminar presented by M. Kobayashi from the Nagoya university.
• 2026-October-11 Our group's research activities were featured in the Hokuriku Chunichi Shimbun (北陸中日新聞).
• 2026-October-10 Our group's research activities were featured in the Chunichi Shimbun (中日新聞), the Tokai edition of the Chunichi Shimbun (中日新聞東海版), and the Kenmin Fukui (県民福井).
• 2026-October-01 M. Hiraide has joined our group as an administrative assistant.
• 2026-October-01 The research activities of our laboratory were featured in the University of Toyama News Letter, the university’s public relations magazine.
• 2026-September-28 In Investigation of the Origin and Evolution of Matter in the Universe by Extremely Rare Events (UGRP2026), Nakano gave an oral presentation, and A. Yankelevich and Kato gave a poster presentation.
• 2026-September-14 Nakano gave an oral presentation at 高エネルギーマルチメッセンジャー観測の将来計画に関する意見交換会 held in the University of Tokyo.
• 2026-September-14 Kato, Nanjo, A. Yankelevich, and Nakano gave an oral presentation at JPS annual meeting 2026 held in the University of Tokyo.
• 2026-September-07 J. Sato from Yokohama National University stays from September 7th to 8th for joint research.
• 2026-August-26 Y. Uesaka from Dokkyo Medical University stayed on August 26th for joint research.
• 2026-July-24 Nakano gave a poster presentation at 学変A MSMI第2回領域会議 held in J-PARC/大洗シーサイドホテル.
• 2026-July-21 Robert Kralik from King's Colledge London joined our group as visiting researcher.
• 2026-July-14 Kato attended Vietnam School on Neutrino 2026 (VSoN2026) from July 14th to July 24th.
• 2026-July-12 Futatsugi attended Sino-Thai international summer school on high energy physics and astrophysics from July 12th to July 29th.
• 2026-July-07 Nakano has published an accessible introductory article for high school students.
• 2026-July-06 President's discretionary fund in the university of Toyama has been accepted. Nakano leads this project as a Principle Investigator.
• 2026-July-03 Nakano attended 令和8年度（第43回）公益財団法人富山第一銀行奨学財団 「研究活動に対する助成に関する目録贈呈式 and receive the grant.
• 2026-June-29 Futatsugi got financial support to attend Sino-Thai international summer school on high energy physics and astrophysics .
• 2026-June-22 A. Yankelevich gave a poster presentation at XXXII International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics (Neutrino2026) .
• 2026-June-19 We held a seminar presented by Teppei Katori from King's College London.
• 2026-June-17 Research plan "Super-Kamiokande 検出器における超新星背景ニュートリノ探索のための9-リチウムの生成頻度の測定とその除去手法の開発" by Kiriyama was accepted as 富山大学理学部同窓会 雪紋 2026年度 (令和8年度)研究助成.
• 2026-June-15 S. Sugama from Yokohama National University stayed from June 15th to 20th for joint research.
• 2026-June-04 "富山大学と東京大学宇宙線研究所とのハイパーカミオカンデ等における宇宙素粒子物理学研究推進のための覚書 調印式 (MOU between the university of Toyama and the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, the university of Tokyo)" was held. Nakano attended this signing ceremony and explain the works conducted in the university of Toyama.
• 2026-June-02 K. Saito from Tohoku university stayed on June 2nd for joint research.
• 2026-June-02 Paper "Measurement of solar neutrino interaction rate below 3.49 MeV in Super-Kamiokande-IV" led by A. Yankelevich and Nakano has been published in Phys. Rev. D.
• 2026-May-30 Nakano gave a poster presentation at the domestic workshop held in Kanazawa university.
• 2026-May-28 Nakano gave a talk presentation in the SMOOTH seminar at Sun Yat-sen university.
• 2026-May-27 A. Yankelevich gave a talk presentation at 6th New Physics Opportunities at Neutrino Facilities (NPN2026) .
• 2026-May-27 Kato got financial support to attend Vietnam School on Neutrino 2026 (VSoN2026) .
• 2026-May-23 Super-Kamiokande 30th anniversary symposium was held to celebrate the Super-Kamiokande's continuous operation since 1996.
• 2026-May-20 令和8年度（第43回）公益財団法人富山第一銀行奨学財団「研究活動に対する助成」 "暗黒物質探索に向けた負電荷ミューオンの原子核捕獲反応の分析" has been accepted. Nakano leads this project as the Principle Investigator.
• 2026-May-14 Futatsugi gave an oral presentation, and Kato and Kiriyama gave poster presentations at 第14回高エネルギー物理春の学校2026 .
• 2026-April-27 H. Sekiya from Kamioka observatory stayed on April 27th for joint research.
• 2026-April-24 V. Siccardi from King's College London stayed on April 24th for joint research.
• 2026-April-17 We held a seminar presented by Alejandro Yankelevich from the University of Toyama.
• 2026-April-14 R. Kralik from King's College London stayed from April 14th to May 15th for joint research.
• 2026-April-14 T. Katori from King's College London stayed from April 14th to 25th for joint research.
• 2026-April-14 K. Saito from Tohoku university stayed from April 14th to 17th for joint research.
• 2026-April-13 R. Gaior from ILANCE stayed from April 13th to 14th for joint research.
• 2026-April-13 S. Aoyama from Kobe university stays from April 13th to 17th for joint research.
• 2026-April-09 Pre-print led by Nakano has been uploaded in arXiv. "Solar Neutrino Flux Fluctuations Caused by Solar Gravity Modes"
• 2026-April-08 We held a seminar presented by Yosuke Ashida from Tohoku university.
• 2026-April-08 Y. Ashida from Tohoku university and M. Harada from Kamioka observatory stayed on April 8th for joint research.
• 2026-April-07 M. Ishitsuka from Tokyo university of Science and R. Akutsu from KEK stayed on April 7th for joint research.
• 2026-April-01 Three undergraduate stutends newly joined our group. In this fisical year, our group consists of 1 faculty staff, 1 posdoctoral fellow, 3 master program students, and 4 undergraduate students.
• 2026-April-01 Dr. Alejandro Yankelevich newly join our group as JSPS Postdoctoral fellowship for overseas researchers.
• 2026-March-31 Research plan "Super-Kamiokande 実験での muon-bundle 事象の評価" by Futatsugi was accepted as 奨励共同研究 of the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE), Nagoya university.
• 2026-March-24 Four undergraduate students graduated.
• 2026-March-23 ひらめき☆ときめきサイエンス～ようこそ大学の研究室へ～KAKENHI "ニュートリノで太陽を見よう -邪魔者の宇宙線ミューオンを防ぐには??-" has been accepted. We will hold a scientic program at the university of Toyama. Detail will be announced in this homepage.
• 2026-March-23 Kato and Nakano gave an oral presentation at JPS Spring meeting 2026 held in online format.
• 2026-March-10 We held a seminar presented by Shinya Kanemura from the University of Osaka.
• 2026-March-07 Nakano gave a talk presentation at 第11回「極低放射能技術」研究会 held in Kobe university.
• 2026-March-06 Kato , Kiriyama , Futatsugi , and Nakano gave poster presentations at 第2回 学術変革「地下稀事象」若手研究会 held in Kobe university.
• 2026-March-02 Nakano gave an oral presentation at 第8回 空気シャワー観測による宇宙線の起源探索研究会 held in the ICRR, the university of Tokyo.
• 2026-February-27 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 26K00707 "背景事象の理解向上で実現する超新星背景ニュートリノの史上初観測" has been accepted. Nakano joins this project as a Co-Investigator.
• 2026-February-19 Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) (Publicly Offered Research) 26H01494 "Nuclear reactions between Oxygen and muons for cosmic-ray muon polarization measurements with world-leading sensitivity" has been accepted. Nakano leads this project as the Principle Investigator.
• 2026-February-04 We held a seminar presented by Anatoli Fedynitch from Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica.
• 2026-January-29 Nakano gave an oral presentation at 令和7年度 共同利用研究成果発表会 held in the ICRR, the university of Tokyo.
• 2026-January-08 R. Gaior from LPNHE Sorbonne Universit stayed on January 8th for joint research.
• 2025-December-26 Nakano gave a seminar at 素粒子宇宙物理研究室 held in Yokohama national university.
• 2025-December-24 One proposal of Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan (Standard Program) by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) was accepted. "Rejection and purification of radioactive impurities in water Cherenkov particle detectors"
• 2025-December-08 Paper about the measurement of isotope production rate through the muon capture process by the Super-Kamiokande detector led by Nakano has been published in Phys. Rev. C. "Measurement of the branching ratio of 16N, 15C, 12B, and 13B isotopes through the nuclear muon capture reaction in the Super-Kamiokande detector"
• 2025-December-05 Y. Takemoto from Kamioka observatory stayed on December 5th for joint research.
• 2025-December-04 We held a seminar presented by Kozo Fujisue from Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica.
• 2025-December-04 T. Tada and Y. Asano from Okayama university stayed on December 4th for joint research.
• 2025-December-04 K. Fujisue from Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica stayed from December 4th to 5th for joint research.
• 2025-December-03 Nakano received an award for outstanding teacher based on faculty performance evaluations.
• 2025-November-29 Kato , Kiriyama , Koyata , and Futatsugi gave talk presentations at The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Hokuriku Branch of JPS held in the University of Toyama.
• 2025-November-29 We held The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Hokuriku Branch of JPS at the university of Toyama.
• 2025-November-28 K. Saito from Tohoku university stayed on November 28th for joint research.
• 2025-November-18 Our group's researches was featured on television in 富山大学広報番組『知のフロンティア～おもしろい富山大学～』 , 第23回 「大型実験Super-Kamiokande検出器による宇宙線の観測」（理学部). Youtube
• 2025-November-05 We held a seminar presented by Sho Sugama from Yokohama National University.
• 2025-November-04 S. Sugama from Yokohama National University stayed from November 4th to 7th for joint research.
• 2025-November-01 We held a face-to-face OSECHI group meeting at the university of Toyama.
• 2025-October-30 We held a face-to-face meeting for the COMET Japan group at the university of Toyama.
• 2025-October-24 Press release for Nature 646, 818-824 (2025) . Detail can be found in 理学部のホームページ .
• 2025-October-22 Nakano gave a seminar at New Horizons QUP Seminar .
• 2025-October-20 We held a seminar presented by Torsten Bringmann from University of Oslo.
• 2025-October-10 We held a seminar presented by N. Yokozaki from Zhejiang University.
• 2025-September-18 Nakano gave three talk presentations at II EU Workshop on Water Cherenkov Experiments for Precision Physics held in Jagiellonian Univeristy.
• 2025-September-09 Nakano gave a poster presentation at Workshop for the Global Cosmic Ray Observatory -- Challenging Next-Generation Multi-Messenger Astronomy with Interdisciplinary Research held in the university of Tokyo.
• 2025-August-26 Pre-print led by Nakano has been uploaded in arXiv. "Measurement of the branching ratio of 16N, 15C, 12B, and 13B isotopes through the nuclear muon capture reaction in the Super-Kamiokande detector"
• 2025-July-26 Nakano gave a poster presentation at the domestic workshop held in Niigata university.
• 2025-July-14 We held a seminar presented by M. Eto from Ymagata university.
• 2025-June-26 Nakano gave an oral presentation at 学術変革「地下稀事象」領域研究会 held in the university of Tokyo.
• 2025-June-23 We held a seminar presented by K. Mizukoshi from Tohoku university.
• 2025-May-20 Y. Takeuchi Kobe Okayama university stayed on May 20th for joint research.
• 2025-May-19 We held a seminar presented by Lukas Treuer from Sokendai.
• 2025-May-08 R. Shinodao from Kamioka observatory stayed on May 8th for joint research.
• 2025-April-21 We held a seminar presented by T. Nakamori from Yamagata university.
• 2025-April-11 Y. Koshio from Okayama university stayed on April 11th for joint research.
• 2025-April-10 R. Akutsu from KEK stayed on April 10th for joint research.
• 2025-April-01 One graduate school student and five undergraduate stutends newly join our group.
• 2025-March-24 We held two seminars presented by K. Funakubo from Saga University and M. Tachibana from Saga University.
• 2025-March-21 Nakano gave an oral presentation at Spring Meeting (The Physical Society of Japan) held in Hokkaido university.
• 2025-March-17 We held a seminar presented by Stefan Lederer from Tokyo University of Science.
• 2025-March-13 We held a seminar presented by S. Taniguchi from Osaka university.
• 2025-March-08 Nakano gave an oral presentation and an poster presentation at 第10回「極低放射能技術」研究会 held in the university of Toyama.
• 2025-March-07 We held a workshop, 第10回「極低放射能技術」研究会 .
• 2025-March-06 We held a workshop, 第1回 学術変革「地下稀事象」若手研究会 .
• 2025-February-17 We held a seminar presented by K. Hashino from National Institute of Technology, Fukushima College.
• 2025-February-13 We held a seminar presented by S. Mishima from Saitama Medical University.
• 2025-February-04 A. Taketa from Earthquake Research Institute, H. Menjyo from Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Anatoli Fedynitch and Stefan Frose from Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica stayed on February 4th for joint research.
• 2025-January-27 We held a seminar presented by N. Osamura from Nagoya University.
• 2025-January-17 The results of our industry-academia collaborative research have been accepted for publication in Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. "Removal of Radioactive Noble Gas Radon from Air by Ag-Zeolite"
• 2025-January-16 Nakano gave an oral presentation at ミューオン核物理・核データ --基礎研究から応用研究へ held in RCNP in Osaka university.
• 2024-December-20 Nakano gave a seminar at 物理工学 談話会 held in Yokohama national university.
• 2024-November-30 Nakano gave an oral presentation at Annual Meeting of Hokuriku Branch of JPS (The Physical Society of Japan) held in Kanazawa university.
• 2024-November-25 The results of our industry-academia collaborative research have been accepted for publication in Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. "Study of radon removal performance of silver-ion exchanged zeolite from air for underground experiments"
• 2024-November-25 We held two seminars presented by T. Asaka from Niigata University and T. Shimasaki from he university of Tokyo, Kavli IPMU.
• 2024-November-11 George Burton from King's College London stayed from November 11th to 14th for joint research.
• 2024-October-26 Paper about the measurement of charge ratio and polarization of cosmic-ray muons by the Super-Kamiokande detector led by Nakano has been published in Phys. Rev. D. "Measurements of the charge ratio and polarization of cosmic-ray muons with the Super-Kamiokande detector"
• 2024-October-10 We held a seminar presented by T. Kuwahara from Peking University.
• 2024-October-03 We held a seminar presented by M. Fujiwara from Technical University of Munich.
• 2024-September-16 Nakano gave an oral presentation at 79th Annual Meeting (The Physical Society of Japan) held in Hokkaido university.
• 2024-July-05 Nakano gave an oral presentation at the domestic workshop held in Osaka university.
• 2024-July-01 Y. Maekawa from Keio University stayed from July 1st to 4th for joint research.
• 2024-July-01 J. Sato from Yokohama National University, T. Senami from Kyoto university, and M. Yamanaka from Hosei university stayed from July 1st to 2nd for joint research.
• 2024-June-29 Nakano gave an oral presentation at the domestic workshop held in the university of Toyama.
• 2024-June-28 Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering) 24K21202 "フッ素を含む大質量暗黒物質直接探索実験への挑戦" has been accepted. Nakano joins this project as a Co-Investigator.
• 2024-June-21 Nakano gave a poster presentation at the Neutrino conference held in Milano, Italy.
• 2024-June-13 We held a seminar presented by K. Sakurai from Tohoku university.
• 2024-May-09 Nakano gave an oral presentation at the domestic workshop held in Osaka Metropolitan University.
• 2024-May-03 Paper about solar neutrino measurement by the Super-Kamiokande detector led by Nakano has been published in Phys. Rev. D. "Solar neutrino measurements using the full data period of Super-Kamiokande-IV"
• 2024-April-25 S. Fujita from IPMU and R. Shimamura from Yokohama National University stayed from April 23rd to 25th for joint research.
• 2024-April-01 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 24K00654 "Search for solar g-mode oscillation using solar neutrinos based on solar model construction and helioseismic theory" has been accepted. Nakano leads this project as the Principle Investigator.
• 2024-April-01 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) 24H00231 "高解像度前置検出器とハイパーカミオカンデで実現するニュートリノ物理の新展開" has been accepted. Nakano joins this project as a Co-Investigator.
• 2024-April-01 Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) 24H02243 "極低放射能技術の展開" has been accepted. Nakano joins this project as a Co-Investigator.
• 2024-April-01 This group was newly established.