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Prime Minister Modi condoles Uttarakhand accident victims

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

HALDIA, 7 FEB: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, prayed for the victims stuck in the Uttarakhand disaster. He started his speech with mentioning the disaster of Uttarakhand and stated that he was constantly in touch with Uttarakhand CM, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the NDRF troops currently doing rescue operations.

 “Today, we are at one end of Maa Ganga, but Uttarakhand, where Maa Ganga originates, is facing disaster. Due to an avalanche, the river level rose and we are gradually getting all updates from Uttarakhand. I am in constant touch with Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Rawat, HM Amit Shah and officers of the NDRF. I am praying for the courageous people of Uttarakhand, Bengal is praying, the nation is praying,” said PM Modi.

He said that Centre has extended all support to the state troops for rescue operations. Currently, 150 labourers in the Tapovan power plant are feared to be dead after a glacier breached leading to flooding in Uttarakhand.

TMC government has committed many fouls, people ready to show them 'Ram Card' says Prime Minister

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

HALDIA, 7 FEB: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday tore into the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, saying it has committed many fouls and people are ready to show them 'Ram Card'.

Drawing a comparison between Bengal’s love for football and TMC, PM Modi said, “Bengal loves football and in that terminology, I want to say TMC has committed many fouls- Foul of corruption, foul on governance and foul on faith. In a play on the red card in football, PM said Bengal is soon going to show the 'Ram card' to Trinamul.”

He also said it has “criminalised politics, institutionalised corruption and politicised the administration and police”.

He compared the Mamata Banerjee government to a second version of the Left Front government in Bengal and said there has been a “rebirth of communism” under her rule. The indicator, he said, was that politics has been criminalized and administration has been politicized in the state.

The state's politics is the “biggest reason for its condition,” he said.

“Bengal wants to ask Trinamul -- those who fired on the people of Nandigram -- why is she taking the same people in her party,” the Prime Minister said at a political rally in Haldia -- considered the stronghold of Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP in December.

Speaking at the rally, he said, “People who talk about ‘Maa, Maati, Maanush’ don’t have the courage to raise their voice for ‘Bharat Mata’. That’s because these people have criminalized politics, institutionalized corruption and politicized administration and police”.

“Mamata Didi gets angry if someone chants ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, but never loses cool if disloyal people speak against the country. There is conspiracy against yoga, India-made tea and other goods. But Mamata Didi never said anything. I want to assure that India will give answers to all those people who are conspiring against the country,” PM Modi said while addressing his first election rally ahead of the assembly polls in Haldia.

He also said that the people of Bengal expected ‘mamata’ (affection) from chief minister Mamata Banerjee but got ‘nirmamta’ (cruelty).

“Mamata didi promised parivartan (change) in West Bengal. Everyone trusted her with her promise, but in 10 years, all they received was nirmamta (cruelty). What they have is rebirth of the Left. Rebirth of criminals. Rebirth of attack on loktantra. She gets angry on 'bharat mata ki jai' slogan, but she won't get angry no matter what people are saying against country", he said. 

PM Modi further said, “Now the planning is being done on how to malign India’s image. They attack tea workers to malign their image, but have you heard anything on this from Didi? The country will answer these conspiracies with full strength”.

Accusing the state leaders of corruption, PM Modi said even in natural disasters like Cyclone Amphan, they are “looking for opportunities for corruption”. “The Centre gave free ration immediately. But the state failed to give it to the people,” he said.

The court finally had to take a stand on the corruption, he added.

“During Covid, lakhs of farmers here did not get any money, lakhs of farmers should have benefitted from the Kisan Samman project, but did not. The state refused to join the programme,” PM Modi said.

“The TMC tolabaz and syndicate are only for a few days...parivartan is inevitable this time in Bengal,” he said.

PM Modi said only a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government can free the state of this
mismanagement. He exhorted people to vote in a BJP government to experience “asol poriborton (real change)” - like the one being experienced in Tripura.

He said that in West Bengal, the TMC and its friends Left Front and Congress party are together behind the curtains, accusing them of match-fixing. “They meet and greet each other, devise a strategy together. In Kerala too, there’s a deal between the Left and Congress. In Bengal, the Left and TMC are together; their squabbling is a sham.”

While remembering the past glory of Bengal, PM Modi said, “I pay my respect to Bengal- the land that has given the world visionaries. The gas and road connectivity projects that will be inaugurated today will create new jobs. These projects will help open new doors for trade with our neighbours. Bengal has always been a priority for the Central government”.

PM Modi said, “I promise the farmers of West Bengal that BJP will form the government here and in the first cabinet meeting, a decision will be taken where we will pay you the remaining amount, at par with other Indian farmers, directly into your bank accounts. You will receive all benefits from the Central government.”

 

IIT Kharagpur & NIUA Collaborate to Build Accessible, Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

KHARAGPUR, 3 FEB: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) for ‘Building Accessible Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities (BASIIC).

The collaboration is aimed towards developing a framework for universal city planning which would be more accessible and inclusive for various sections of the community with age-friendly disabled-friendly measures.

Director, Prof. Virendra K Tewari said, “India is a young country with a population growth rate of 1 per cent as of 2019. Such a growth figure along with the current status will create a dynamic need for housing and urban planning in India.”

According to Prof Tewari, “The Department of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT Kharagpur is considered the best school in the country in the domain of architecture as per NIRF. We are proud to collaborate with NIUA in fulfilling its mission statement and achieving the comprehensive goals towards building sustainable living conditions for all.”

Through the Urban & Regional Development Plan Formulation and Implementation Guidelines, NIUA is dwelling upon new emerging aspects like regional development, inclusive planning, sustainable habitat, land use and transport integration at the planning stage, Service Level Benchmarks, disaster management concepts, and governance reforms.

But, there is a lack of consideration for universal design principles, it was noted.

Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay from the Dept. of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT Kharagpur, “After a thorough review of the various acts, guidelines and design standards in the related field and studying global best practices and international standard, IIT Kharagpur will propose a framework for universal cities to ensure that everyone, including people with disabilities, the elderly and parents with children, can participate in society and access built environment, transport, services and urban amenities including recreation and also livelihood and information.”

He also stressed the need for seamless accessibility and the complete travel chain for safe and independent movement for all within the city.

The proposed framework will be instrumental for sector-wise assessment of the existing cities in terms of safety, accessibility and inclusivity as well as planning of Greenfield cities.

The framework will include sections on Infrastructure, amenities and services including water, electricity, sanitation and solid waste; Outdoor environment; Livelihood; Urban mobility and public transport; IT connectivity, digitalization and citizen’s participation, and Tourism and recreation.

Prof. Haimanti Banerji from the Dept. of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT Kharagpur, said, “Differently able persons and elderly often face discrimination and segregation due to the presence of sensory, attitudinal, cognitive, physical, and economic barriers. Through this framework, we would aim to crystallize future pathways for the planning of accessible, safe and inclusive cities in India, by laying emphasis on the process of audit, ground-level data collection, analysis, planning and implementation that would lead to sustainable and user-centric outcomes.”

The researchers are further working on several such developmental projects encompassing affordable housing, innovative construction technologies, dignified living and productive participation for the trans-generational population, the IIT said in a release.

West Bengal has the potential to start a second Green Revolution : Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

KHARAGPUR, 27 JAN: West Bengal has the potential to start a second Green Revolution. Prime Minister has set a target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022-23 and The Government of India has taken several steps for the overall and sustainable development of Indian agriculture, said Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.

He on Monday flagged off the Agri-Food Techathon at IIT Kharagpur and also laid the foundation for Agri-Business Incubation Centre, which will incubate innovative ideas in agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures.

Drawing reference of Prime Minister’s address at the programme of laying the foundation stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Barhi, Dr Pokhriyal quoted, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also said that West Bengal is the focal point for bringing agricultural reform in India.”

Addressing the first Agri-Food Techathon organized by NABARD and IIT Kharagpur, Dr Pokhriyal said, “I am happy that Agri-Food Tekathon is associated with Shastri's ideal of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan'. Shastri started the Green Revolution to make India self-reliant. He believed in the powers of farmers to bring a revolution in India's agricultural ecosystem. He believed in the strong relationship between farmers - food grains and life.”

This Techathon has been organized to promote the participation of the youth of India in innovation and entrepreneurship in various sectors of the agri-food sector. This agri-food techthon will identify new ideas for startup incubation in the region and help them become successful businesses. The main objective of this event is to find new solutions to agricultural problems through technical talks by encouraging academics and encouraging young farmers, besides spreading awareness is also an important objective of this program.

NABARD Chairman Dr. GR Chintala, IIT Kharagpur Director Prof. VK Tiwari, Deputy Director Prof. SK Bhattacharya, Head of Agriculture and Food Engineering and Center for Rural Development and Innovative Sustainable Technology, Prof Rintu Banerjee, Rajendra Mishra of IIT Kharagpur Professor CS Kumar, Head of School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, Professor HN Mishra, Nodal Officer, Agriculture Business Incubation Center, IIT Kharagpur were also present.

Agri-food startups are bringing a big change in the Indian food and agriculture sector by removing the shortcomings of the agricultural value chain, providing efficient products, technology and services to both farmers and consumers. They are providing services such as ICT app, farm automation, weather forecasting services, drones, inputs retailing, equipment hiring, online vegetable marketing, smart poultry and dairy, protected farming and innovative food processing and packaging. In 2018, there were around 500 agri startups in India which is very encouraging as these startups have raised around $ 130 million investment in the last five years.

Dr. Nishank further said, “I am happy that the measures being adopted by IIT Kharagpur have been integrated with the National Education Policy. Our new education policy is focused on interdisciplinary education and will ensure what students want to learn. Likewise, this Agri-Food Tekathon will identify new concepts and new ideas for agri-food startup incubation and will also help in transforming these start-ups into successful business ventures. Also, according to our new education policy, vocational education will start in schools from sixth grade and will include internships. Increasing the importance of vocational education will greatly benefit the growth of agri-food startups.”

The two-months long national-level online technical fest at IIT Kharagpur will have participation from over 750 university/college students, entrepreneurs and rural youths from across the country in the age range of 20-25 years with diverse academic backgrounds. 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. G.R. Chintala, Chairman, NABARD, who was the Guest of Honor, said, “Keeping in mind the requirement of technological interventions in the agriculture sector, this techathon will create an ecosystem for the youth of our country to share the knowledge for improving the conventional farming practices for the benefit of our farmers. Agri-Food Techathon 2021 will provide a great boost to the young startups working on cost-efficient technologies for the agriculture sector.”

Highlighting the unique aspects of Agri-Food Techathon 2021 initiative, Prof. V.K. Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, said, “We are moving at a fast pace to achieve the target of 125 incubatees in the next five years through Agri-Business Incubation Centre (ABIC). In order to meet the food requirements of 135 crore people, we require innovation. We need to produce more out of small land. Our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has already said in 2015 that by 2022, the income of the farmer must be doubled.”

“We are also working on that aspect. The population involved in agriculture is shrinking due to their movement to construction, infrastructure development and other activities due to various reasons. There is a need for more and more mechanisation and innovation. Until and unless we use technology such as AI/ML, image processing, Embedded systems and IoT, it will not be possible to maximise the income of the farmer and maximise the yield out of the land. IIT Kharagpur has trained over 11,000 farmers in the last ten years on various kinds of irrigation water, drip irrigation and many other ideas from this Department,” Prof. Tewari said.

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Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to Flag-off Agri-Food Techathon at IIT-Kharagpur to promote Agri and Food Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to Flag-off Agri-Food Techathon at IIT-Kharagpur to promote Agri and Food Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

MIDNAPORE, 24 JAN: IIT Kharagpur in association with NABARD is organizing the first of its kind Agri-Food Techathon (AFT 2021), to promote the participation of India’s youth in innovation and entrepreneurship in different domains of the Agri-Food sector.

The event will be inaugurated by the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on January 25, 2021. The foundation of the Agri-Business Incubation Centre will also be laid at the inaugural event, which will carry out the mandate to incubate innovative ideas in agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures.

Agriculture is the largest employment vertical with a GDP share of 14%. Over the years, India has witnessed a substantial increase in yields, crop diversity due to mechanization and knowledge dissemination programmes. However, the steeping consumption due to population explosion has been a constant challenge demanding rapid progress in the agricultural sector.

Talking about the initiative Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur opined, “While India is moving at an accelerated pace towards automation and digitization, there is a crucial need to complement it with automation in the rural livelihood and farm sector and warrant uniform progress. To

achieve this goal we are reaching out to the talented youth of this country through the Agri-Food Techathon. This platform will enable them to exhibit and depict their creativity, problem-solving and prototyping-skills in Agriculture and Food Technology thus leading to indigenous product development, employment generation and fulfilment of our promise to Atmanirbhar Bharat.” The national-level online technical fest spanned over January - March 2021, will have participation from over 750 university/college students, entrepreneurs and rural youths from across the country in the age range of 20-25 years with diverse academic background.

Apart from workshops, mentorship and guest talks, AFT-2021 will host a competitive B-plan submission for the participants. Business and technology experts in areas covering farm mechanization, AIML, IoT in agriculture, precision farming, greenhouse farming, organic farming, agricultural biotechnology, soil technology and testing, food processing, packaging and storage, food supply chain management.

Renowned professional experts from countries premier institutions like IIT Kharagpur, IARI New Delhi, CIAE Bhopal and Founders / CEOs of different successful agri-food tech startups like Sickle Foundation, Sfarms India, Fasal, Nutrigreen, Organic Farming, Cropin, B2V, Keyhti, Khadyam, Crofarm, WAycool, Villa Mart, etc. are taking part in the Sensitization Workshop of the AFT-2021.

More than 30 teams with high potential will be selected for formal association with ABIC, IIT Kharagpur. They will be offered assistance in the form of Technology and Business Development Mentorship, R&D support, Laboratory / Workshop / Pilot Plant access and Funding Opportunities through potential Investors / Accelerators. Business and technology experts from key domains of Agriculture and Food Technology will be involved as panellists and mentors.

Union Education Minister

The event is being organized by the Agricultural & Food Engineering Department, Centre for Rural Development & Innovative Sustainable Technologies and Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship in association with NABARD.

Prof. H N Mishra, Professor-in-Charge of the Agri Business Incubation Centre (ABIC), remarked, “At our Centre, we will facilitate the incubated startups to develop low-cost technologies and transfer them for sustainable development of rural communities. We shall further conduct hands-on training, workshops, and seminars for capacity building of farmers and unemployed rural youth.”

Special emphasis will be given through action-oriented research to promote climate-resilient agriculture in vulnerable districts, agricultural value chains, promote farmers’ collectives, value addition, market-linkage, and risk management; also offering expert advisory services, policy advocacy including building up of human capital in rural areas.

Mamata announces she will fight Bengal polls from Nandigram, home turf of Suvendu

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

NANDIGRAM, 18 JAN: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today announced that she would contest from Nandigram, a home turf of her former right hand man Suvendu Adhikari, who crossed over to the BJP last month,  in the upcoming assembly polls.

She expressed her desire and emotion to contest the assembly polls from Nandigram seat amidst the presence of thousands of Nandigram residents at a mass rally held here today.

Addressing the rally, Miss Banerjee said, “I want to request Subrata Bakshi (TMC general secretary), it is my wish, I will not neglect Bhabanipur, I will give potential candidate (for Bhabanipur), but I want my name in Nandigram too. Due to my love for Nandigram, I could not control my emotions”.

Bakshi, who was on the podium, swiftly accepted the request.

Miss Banerjee further said, “Nandigram is my lucky place. I started my election campaign from here during 2016 assembly polls and TMC won the polls. So, today, I am announcing my election campaign from here for 2021 assembly polls. I believe, we will win all the seats and we will win the polls.”

She said, “I won’t be able to give much time here (Nandigram) during polls, because I will have to fight from 294 assembly seats. You (Nandigram residents) will have to take responsibility to win the seat. After election, I will give much time and will meet your all demands”.

Later in her speech, she indicated that she may contest from two constituencies and said, “Bhabanipur is my big sister, Nandigram is my younger sister…I will fight from both if possible. In case I am unable to contest from Bhabanipur, someone potential candidate would contest”.

Nandigram was the scene of massive public protest against forcible land acquisition by the then Left Front fovernment for creation of a special economic zone.

The protracted and often bloody protests added to Miss Banerjee and her party’s political heft and catapulted the TMC to power in 2011, marking the end of the Left Front rule of 34 years.

Adhikari is considered the face of the movement in Nandigram.

After switching over to the BJP, Adhikari has often accused Miss Banerjee of having forgotten the people of the area who helped her gain power in the state.

Without taking Suvendu’s name, Miss Banerjee said she would never allow “a handful of people” to sell out Bengal to the BJP.

“Those who have left the party have my best wishes. Let them become president and vice president of the country. But don’t you dare to sell out Bengal to the BJP. As long as I am alive, I won’t allow them to sell out my state to the BJP,” she said.

The CM went on to take a dig at Adhikari, saying it was “good some people have left (TMC)”.

“Some are moving from here to there. They will be fought by our local leaders, don't worry, these guys were not there when the Trinamul Congress was formed. It is good some people have left,” Miss Banerjee said.

“There are three kinds of leaders—‘lobhi’ (greedy), ‘bhogi’ (hedonist) and the ‘tyagi’ (the one who renounces). The bhogis and lobhis might quit the party, but the tyagis never will. This party is like a mother to us and the tyagis will never ever quit the party,” she said adding that there are some who have loads of money, so to save that money; they have gone to the BJP.

She also alleged that BJP leaders from Delhi threatened them.

Miss Banerjee asserted the TMC will win a third straight term in office and the BJP will be decimated.

Miss Banerjee also hit out at the BJP, accusing it of luring her party men by promising to turn their black money into white. “Washing Powder Bhajapa (BJP) : TMC me kaala, BJP ka washing machine me shaada (black in Trinamul, white in BJP washing machine),” she remarked.

Miss Banerjee recalled the struggles she waged in Nandigram and Singur over forcible land acquisition by the Left Front government, and asserted the BJP was committing the same mistake by trying to undermine the farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders.

“No one should undermine the farmers’ struggle. The BJP is trying to undermine it and will face the same consequences like the Left did because of Nandigram and Singur,” she said, and reaffirmed her opposition to the three farms laws.

“The CPI-M tried to snatch away the land of the farmers. The BJP is trying to snatch away the crops of the farmers,” she said.

Miss Banerjee said, “Nandigram showed the way, today farmers in Punjab are agitating (against the farm laws). We are with the farmers...BJP must withdraw the three farm laws.”

Meanwhile, TMC leaders in Nandigram who were seen jubilant after Miss Banerjee’s announcement said that this announcement will galvanise party workers in East and West Midnapore districts and adjoining areas who were feeling rudderless after Suvendu Adhikari quit the party.

IIT Kharagpur Researchers Develop UAV-assisted 5G Infrastructure

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

KHARAGPUR, 13 JAN: Researchers from G S Sanyal School of Telecommunication at IIT Kharagpur have developed a UAV assisted communication infrastructure for 5G that can serve as an air-borne mobile telecom tower during emergency situations. The system includes an Android-based application fitted to a fleet of drones which are programmed to create emergency communication networks by extending cellular network coverage from the closest available mobile towers.

While 4G is still making inroads in deeper reaches of India, the transition to 5G is eagerly awaited, especially with the popularity of the IoTs triggering a surge in the number of mobile data traffic.  But 5G has a lot more to offer than a faster network. The landscape of future 5G access networks is expected to seamlessly and ubiquitously connect everything, and support at least 1000-fold traffic volumes, 100 billion connected wireless devices, and diversified requirements on reliability, latency, battery lifetime, etc.

Flying base stations are a feature that enhances wireless capacity and coverage footprint on the ground with ultra-dense traffic demands, to meet the requirements of 5G and B5G cellular communications. Such a UAV-based network is inhabitable for various applications such as setting-up emergency communication networks over disaster regions, acting as a relay or maintains Quality of Service over densely populated areas like concerts, fests, and stadiums. 

UAVs, however, have one major challenge – the battery life of the device which is about 45 minutes which makes it difficult to maintain consistency in the service. Further, in an emergency situation, it is crucial to protect critical data within a micro span of time.

The research team at IIT Kharagpur comprising of Kirtan Gopal Panda, Shrayan Das, Bharat Dwivedi, Aunullah Qaiser and led by Prof. Debarati Sen, at the G S Sanyal School of Telecommunication set up by HCL co-founder Arjun Malhotra, have responded to this bottleneck.

“Through intelligent programming, we can deploy our 5G-connected drone fleet in a particular location as soon as the first emergency signal is flagged and complete the evacuation of the endangered data in the telecommunication backbone network within the first 3 minutes of occurrence of a disaster. The drones will relay the data to the rescue server which is located thousands of miles away while restoring the network connection through the nearest mobile tower,” said Prof. Debarati Sen. 

In the case of network disruptions, the drones can intelligently avoid it by changing their location and bypassing the jam. In addition to data protection, the localization and rescue based services can be used to locate survivors and provide emergency aid while decreasing the time for first responders. For people traveling to an affected region and devoid of any cellular network, they can be auto-connected to such nearby drone service as they search for a mobile network.

“We have already studied the performance of the UAV network with the APP ‘NerQuake’ in situations of emergency response in disaster management and maintenance of the quality of service by deploying a fleet of four unmanned aerial vehicles. We have used network coverage data of various mobile service providers in the North-Eastern states in verifying the functionality of the APP,” remarked Prof. Sen. 

The team has submitted the phase-I report to MEITY, Govt. of India who has been funding the project. The researchers are open to the commercialization of this intelligent UAV system.

“The prospects of this system are wide-ranging. Apart from a disaster situation, these smart drones can be used for crowd management. These can further be used to extract data from smart meters without any manned service at the location or surveillance of remote terrains with the transmission of real-time surveillance data. In agriculture, these UAVs can be used for crop health monitoring and pesticide spray on crops,” added the researchers.

Courtesy: Inputs/Images IIT-KGP

IIT Guwahati researchers find new clues to how and why stars die

Neutrinos are considered to be the most crucial ingredient in the mechanism of core collapse supernova explosions, death of large, massive stars. New research has found thatincluding all three neutrino and antineutrino species emitted from a supernovarevealed more clues to the mystery of the dying stars.Commonly ignored mu-tau neutrinos may hold the key to understand the neutrino impact on supernovae explosions.

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

GUWAHATI, 12JAN: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati in collaboration with researchers from Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany, and Northwestern University, USA, have revealed important clues to understand the death of massive stars and have also revealed the problems with the existing models. They found that all three species of the neutrinos from the supernovae are important contrary to the common treatments with only two flavors.

The results of this crucial work have been recently published in the journal, Physical Review Letters (PRL),and has garnered worldwide attention from the astrophysics community. The research has been carried out by Dr. Sovan Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati, along with his research scholar, Ms. Madhurima Chakraborty, in collaboration with Dr. Francesco Capozzi, Postdoctoral fellow, Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany, and Dr. Manibrata Sen, Postdoctoral fellow, Northwestern University, USA.

Supernovae: the super explosions at the time of death of large massive stars are considered to be the cradle of birth for new stars and synthesis of the heavy elements in nature. At the end of their life, the stars, especially massive ones, collapse resulting in an immense shock wave that causes the star to explode, briefly outshining any other star in its host galaxy. The study of supernovae and the particles they release helps us understand the universe because almost all matter that makes up the universe is a result of these massive explosions.

“However, the mechanism of these super explosions is not yet completely solved and has remained one of the enigmas of nature”,says Dr. Sovan Chakraborty,Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati. The solutions to the toughest challenges to the core collapse mechanism of the huge supernovae come from the tiniest subatomic particles called neutrinos.

During the core collapse supernova explosion, neutrinos are created in several particle processes. Due to their neutral nature and extremely weak interaction with stellar matter the neutrinos escape the dying star and carry 99% energy of the collapsing star. Thus the tiny neutrinos are the only messenger bringing information from the deepest interiors of the star. The Nobel physics prize in 2002 was shared by Masatoshi Koshiba for the detection of neutrinos from the Supernova SN1987A at the Kamiokande neutrino detector situated in Japan.

Neutrinos on the other hand have their own complexities. In the last seven decades after the discovery of neutrinos physicists have come a long way in understanding these incredible particles. However, there are still many open questions like understanding their flavor structure and the ordering of the masses of different neutrinos. In fact, supernovae are the only natural source where neutrinos and antineutrinos of all three species (electron, mu and tau ‘flavors’) are produced in substantial amounts. This creates additional complexities.

However, the existing supernovae models predicted that the mu & tau neutrinos & antineutrinos have very similar properties and are considered as a single species. This simplified the supernova neutrino problem and most studies are done under the assumption that all types behave the same way when ejected from the star’s dying core.

Speaking about this Dr. Sovan Chakraborty explains, “This information is very crucial for the reason that in the extremely dense supernovae core neutrinos interact with other neutrinos and may interchange flavors. This conversion may happen rapidly (in nanosecond time scale) and flavor interchange can affect the supernovae process as the different flavors are emitted with different angular distribution. These ’fast' conversions are nonlinear in nature and are not confronted in any other neutrino sources but supernovae. We for the first time did a non-linear simulation of fast conversion with ‘all’ the three neutrino flavors in supernovae.”

This becomes possible as new supernova simulations show the presence of muons in the supernovae and in turn produce asymmetry between muon neutrinos and antineutrinos, taken to be zero otherwise, implying three flavor effects.

Co-author Dr. Manibrata Sen pointed out, “These three flavor studies change the results dramatically in comparison to the existing two flavor results and can have major implications for particle and astrophysics of supernovae neutrinos”.

Dr. Francesco Capozzi, presently a Postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia tech University, USA cautioned,“The models used in our research work too have some simplifications, more generic studies are being done by our team and other competing groups. The clearer answers will need more precise muon supernova simulations which are appearing to be one of the most promising solution to the problems of core collapse mechanism”.

Meanwhile, these new results give a clear message that the differences between the three flavors of neutrinos are all relevant, and ignoring the presence of any of the flavors gives us an incomplete picture of fast flavor exchange.

Dr. Chakraborty added,“Three flavor studies are essential as the fast oscillations may actually influence the solution to the question, i.e., why and how some massive stars die as supernovae and some don't.”