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The Fourth International Conference on Particle Physics Beyond the Standard Model (BEYOND THE DESERT '03 - Accelerator, Non-accelerator and Space Approaches) was held during June 9-14, 2003 at Castle Ringberg, Tegernsee, Germany. Traditionally the Scientific Program of the BEYOND conferences, which we started in 1997, covers most of the prominent topics of modern particle physics and astrophysics (see CERN Courier November 1997, pp. 16-18, and March 2003, pp. 29-30). At this conference one of the topics on which we put major emphasis were new theoretical developments in extensions of the Standard Model by Supergravity - which had its twentieth birthday in this year -, by Superstrings and by Extra Dimensions. Two of the 'inventors' of the first superspace formulation of supergravity - Pran Nath and Richard Arnowitt - were participants at this meeting. These topics were discussed by Pran Nath (Boston), Dick Arnowitt (Texas A&M) - who concentrated on the connection to dark matter and g-2 of the muon -, A.E. Faraggi (Oxford, UK), R.E. Allen (Texas A&M) and A. Kobakhidse (Helsinki Univ.).
Fundamental symmetries, including CP violation beyond the Standard Model, a possible time variation of the QCD scale, and the status of preons, were discussed by Peter Herczeg (Los Alamos), M.N. Rebelo (Lisboa, Portugal), R. Lehnert (Algarve Univ., Portugal), Harald Fritzsch (Munich) and S. Fredriksson (Lulea Univ., Sweden).
Interesting developments in General Relativity Research and Aspects of Special Relativity were discussed in the presentations by H. Rauch (Vienna), who showed the potential of neutron interferometry for tests of fundamental physics, by M. Arminjon (Grenoble), who presented a new Scalar Ether Theory of Gravitation, by Irina Dymnikova (Olzstyn), who covered the topic of Cosmological Term, Mass and Space-Time, by Dharamvir V. Ahluwalia-Khalilova (Zacatecas, CCIU, Mexico) whose contribution discusses locality in special relativity, by L. Iorio (Bari) showing up new perspectives in testing the General Relativistic Lense-Thirring Effect, and in the overview talk by P. Aufmuth (Hannover) about search for Gravitational Waves.
Talks about the Early Universe included Cosmological, Quantum-Gravitational and other possible violations of CPT Symmetry presented by N.E. Mavromatos (London, CERN). Transplanckian physics was discussed by Ulf Danielsson (Uppsala), who outlined how the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation might probe physics at or near the Planck scale. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Neutrinos was discussed by F.L. Villante (Ferrara), and Leptogenesis by L. Bento (Lisboa). Maxim Khlopov (Rome, Moscow) gave a broad view non Cosmoparticle Physics, declaring it the Challenge for the Millennium.
Among the experimental highlights at this conference were the final results of the DAMA Dark Matter experiment presented by its Spokesperson Rita Bernabei (Rome), the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW double beta experiment at Gran Sasso, for which the results for the period 1990 - 2003 are presented in this volume, and the results of WMAP about the Cosmic Microwave Background. The DAMA result confirms their first indications for observation of cold dark matter on a 6 Sigma level.
The HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment, presented by its Spokesman H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, improved with three additional years of data the indication for neutrinoless double beta decay to a 4 Sigma level. The experiment is since ten years now the most sensitive double beta experiment worldwide. With the statistics reached it essentially achieved already what we expected from the huge GENIUS project which we proposed at the first of the BEYOND conferences, in 1997.
WMAP was presented by E. Komatsu (Princeton), and S. Hannestad (Odense, Denmark) presented neutrino parameters deducible from this experiment and current large scale galaxy surveys.
Ernest Ma (Irvine) outlined, how our meanwhile rather precise knowledge of neutrino oscillation parameters, i.e. of the correct form of the 3 x 3 neutrino mass matrix, may be obtained from symmetry principles, and showed, that they predict three nearly degenerate Majorana neutrinos in the 0.2 eV range. This theoretical result is of extreme interest also in view of the recent results from double beta decay and WMAP, etc.
Other experimental highlights were the results obtained for solar neutrinos by the SNO experiment, and, in a completely different direction, the results obtained for Superheavy Elements. D. Ackermann (GSI Darmstadt) showed that the elements 107 - 112 have been synthesized and unambiguously identified at GSI, while the observation of elements 112, 116, 118 by the Oganessian group at Dubna was announced by V.K. Utyonkov (Dubna). The Sudbury Neutrino Experiment, presented by G. Ewan ( Kingston, Canada), has provided now strong evidence, on a 5.3 $\Sigma$ scale, and independently of details of solar models, that neutrinos change flavor on their way from the Sun to the Earth. Together with the results of other neutrino experiments, among them the Japanese 250 km Long-Baseline Experiment, presented by T. Kobayashi (Tsukuba, KEK), our knowlegde about neutrino properties thus has improved considerably in the last few years. An in this context highly interesting, non-mainstream view of the structure of the solar core is found in the contribution by Oliver Manual (Missouri).
Supernova and relic neutrinos were the topic of another session. Irina V. Krivosheina (Heidelberg, Nishnii-Novgorod), at that time member of the Baksan group, which as one of three groups observed SN1987A neutrinos - the Japanese group at Kamioka was honoured with the Nobel Prize in 2003 - gave a retrospective view of this exciting event, and some insider details of its discovery. Relic supernova neutrinos and their observation are, as discussed by M.R. Vagins (Irvine) and S. Ando (Tokyo Univ.), one of the future tasks of Superkamiokande.
Breathtaking discoveries have been made, and were described by A. Eckart (Koeln), concerning the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of our Galaxy. Other presentations in the Dark Matter Theory Session covered possible dark matter at the Center of the Galaxy (Raoul Viollier, Cape Town), relic neutralinos (S. Scopel (Torino), Axions (J.E. Kim, Seoul), Caustic Rings (Pierre Sikivie, Florida) and Dark Energy and Brane Dynamics (R. Neves, Faro, Portugal).
In the context of Dark Matter search the announcement (by H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, MPI, Heidelberg) of the start of the GENIUS-Test Facility in GRAN SASSO found large interest. The first four naked high-purity Germanium detectors were installed successfully in liquid nitrogen in GRAN SASSO on May 5, 2003 (see CERN Courier, July 2003). This is the first time ever, that this novel technique aiming at extreme background reduction and proposed for the GENIUS project six years ago, is going to be tested underground.
The physical goal of GENIUS-TF is to confirm the DAMA result, by looking for the modulation signal. GENIUS-TF may be for some time the only experiment besides DAMA (LIBRA), which could see the modulation.
Several sessions were devoted to Search for New Physics with Colliders. Results of the search for Higgs bosons, for R-Parity violation, for Leptoquarks and for Exotic Couplings at CERN and Fermilab were presented in the usual excellent way by our friends and participants of the BEYOND meetings from the very beginning R. Nikolaidou (CEA Saclay), S. Costantini (Roma, "La Sapienza"), S. Soeldner-Remboldt (Manchester, UK), S. Andringa (Lisboa) and L. Brigliadori (Bologna).
Search for a phase transition between hadronic matter and a Quark Gluon Plasma at the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was outlined by Raimond Snellings (Amsterdam) and compared to measurements at the CERN SPS. Michael Hebert (Irvine) presented the goals and theoretical motivation of search for lepton flavor violation in the charged sector by the MECO muon to electron conversion experiment.
Further outstanding contributions to Fundamental Physics, obtained by using Penning traps, were outlined by one of the pioneers of the field, Ingmar Bergstrom (Stockholm), who recently measured among others the Q value of double beta decay of 76Ge with unprecedented precision.
Coming back to the underground and space experiments, and their future, Gamma Ray Astronomy, Highest Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos, Gamma-Ray Bursts, were covered by presentations of Eckart Lorenz (Munich), who discussed Ground-Based Gamma-Ray Astronomy, J. Bluemer (Karlsruhe), who presented the Pierre Auger Observatory, F. Raupach (Aachen) discussing the physics potential of AMS. Perspectives of the CANGAROO-III experiment were outlined by K. Tsuchiya (Tokyo, ICRR), and a theoretical view about production of super high-energy cosmic rays around the GKZ cutoff was given by S.D. Katz (DESY), and Daniele Fargion, who also talked about Tau neutrino astronomy. Christian Spiering (Zeuthen) gave an overview about results from the AMANDA Neutrino Telecope and Zh.-A. Dzhilkibaev about Status and Perspectives of the Baikal Neutrino Project. Finally, Y. Kuno (Osaka) outlined the goals of future Neutrino and Muon Factories.
In total, this conference gave a nice overview over major front disciplines of present particle, astrophysics and cosmology, in which non-accelerator experiments play a large role these days. The Proceedings might serve as a nice handbook for students about the present situation and the future perspectives and developments of these fields.
We thank all colleagues who have contributed to the success of the meeting by their excellent talks and lively discussions. We thank the Max Planck Gesellschaft for financial support. We also would like to thank A. H\"ormann and his staff at Schloss Ringberg for their again highly efficient and pleasant cooperation, and for their help in creating an inspiring atmosphere during the conference. We further thank AMETEC Co. for kind support. Furthermore we thank all people who contributed in one or another way to the organization of the conference, especially the members of the Heidelberg Double Beta Decay and Dark Matter Group.
In particular we are indebted to the Scientific Secetary of the conference, Dr. Irina Krivosheina (Nishnij Novgorod/Heidelberg) for her invaluable help in organizing this conference and in preparing these Proceedings.
Heidelberg, February 2004
H. V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus
(Conference Chairman of BEYOND 2003)
