Chief Scientist Laboratories High Energy Nuclear Physics Laboratory
Chief Scientist: Takehiko Saito (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

Comprehensive understanding of the interactions among microscopic particles that is essential to understand the building block of the matter. We investigate the hadronic interactions via studying sub-atomic nuclei with strange quark(s), the so called hypernuclei. We are leading the projects for studying hypernuclei with heavy ion beams at the accelerator facilities in Germany and China. We also initiated and lead the project to study hypernuclei by analyzing the nuclear emulsion data with machine learning techniques. We also lead the development of precise neutron imaging techniques at the world best precision by using particle tracking detectors.
Main Research Fields
- Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Related Research Fields
- Engineering
- Informatics
- Complex Systems
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering
- Particle, Nuclear, Cosmic ray, Astro physics
- General applied physics
Keywords
- Nuclear Physics
- Hadron Physics
- Detector development
- Machine learning
- Development of precise neutron imaging techniques
Selected Publications
Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.
- 1.
Takehiko R. Saito, Wenbou Dou, Vasyl Drozd, Hiroyuki Ekawa, Samuel Escrig, Yan He, Nasser Kalantar-Nayestanaki, Ayumi Kasagi, Myroslav Kavatsyuk, Enqiang Liu, Yue Ma, Shizu Minami, Abdul Muneem, Manami Nakagawa, Kazuma Nakazawa, Christophe Rappold, Nami Saito, Christoph Scheidenberger, Masato Taki, Yoshiki K. Tanaka, Junya Yoshida, Masahiro Yoshimoto, He Wang, and Xiaohong Zhou.:
"New directions in hypernuclear physics"
Nature Reviews Physics (2021). 10.1038/s42254-021-00371-w - 2.
Takehiko R. Saito, Hiroyuki Ekawa and Manami Nakagawa.:
"Novel method for producing very-neutron-rich hypernuclei via charge-exchange reactions with heavy ion projectiles"
European Physical Journal A57 (2021) 159 - 3.
J. Yoshida, H. Ekawa, A. Kasagi, M. Nakagawa, K. Nakazawa, N. Saito, T.R. Saito, M. Taki and M. Yoshimoto.:
"CNN-based event classification for alpha-decay events in nuclear emulsion"
Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A989 (2021) 164930 - 4.
*T.R. Saito, C. Rappold, O. Bertini, S. Bianchin, V. Bozkurt, H. Geissel, M. Kavatsyuk, E. Kim, Y. Ma, F. Maas S. Minami, D. Nakajima, C. Nociforo, B. Ozel-Tashenov, J. Pochodzalla, C. Scheidenberger and K. Yoshida.:
"Summary of the HypHI Phase 0 experiment and future plans with FRS at GSI (FAIR Phase 0)"
Nucl. Phys. A 954 (2016) 199-212 - 5.
*J. Aysto, K.-H. Behr, J. Benlliure, A. Bracco, P. Egelhof, A. Fomichev, S. Gales, H. Geissel, T. Grahn, L.V. Grigorenko, M.N. Harakeh, R. Hayano, S. Heinz, K. Itahashi, A. Jokinen, N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki, R. Kanungo, H. Lenske, I. Mukha, G. Münzenberg, C. Nociforo, H.J. Ong, S. Pietri, M. Pfutzner, W. Plass, A. Prochazka, S. Purushothaman, T. Saito, C. Scheidenberger, H. Simon, I. Tanihata, S. Terashima, H. Toki, L. Trache, H. Weick, J.S. Winfield, M. Winkler and V. Zamfir.:
"Experimental program of the Super-FRS Collaboration at FAIR and developments of related instrumentation"
Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B376 (2016) 111-115 - 6.
*A. Esser, S. Nagao, F. Schulz, P. Achenbach, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, R. Bohm, O. Borodina, D. Bosnar, V. Bozkurt, L. Debenjak, M.O. Distler, I. Friscic, Y. Fujii, T. Gogami, O. Hashimoto, S. Hirose, H. Kanda, M. Kaneta, E. Kim, Y. Kohl, J. Kusaka, A. Margaryan, H. Merkel1, M. Mihovilovic, U. Muuller, S.N. Nakamura, J. Pochodzalla, C. Rappold, J. Reinhold, T.R. Saito, A. Sanchez Lorente, S. Sanchez Majos, B.S. Schlimme, M. Schoth, C. Sfienti, S. Sirca, L. Tang, M. Thiel, K. Tsukada, A. Weber, and K. Yoshida (A1 Collaboration).:
"Observation of 4H(Lambda) Hyperhydrogen by Decay-Pion Spectroscopy in Electron Scattering"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 (2015) 232501 - 7.
*C. Rappold, T.R. Saito ,O. Bertini, S. Bianchin, V. Bozkurt, E. Kim, M. Kavatsyuk, Y. Ma, F. Maas, S. Minami, D. Nakajima, B. Ozel-Tashenov, K. Yoshida, P. Achenbach, S. Ajimura, T. Aumann, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, H.C. Bhang, C. Caesar, S. Erturk, T. Fukuda, B. Gokuzum, E. Guliev, J. Hoffmann, G. Ickert, Z.S. Ketenci, D. Khaneft, M. Kim, S. Kim, K. Koch, N. Kurz, A. Le Fevre, Y. Mizoi, L. Nungesser, W. Ott, J. Pochodzalla, A. Sakaguchi, C.J. Schmidt, M. Sekimoto, H. Simon, T. Takahashi, G.J. Tambave, H. Tamura, W. Trautmann, S. Voltz and C.J. Yoon.:
"Hypernuclear production cross section in the reaction of 6Li + 12C at 2 A GeV"
Phys. Lett. B 747 (2015) 129-134 - 8.
*C. Rappold, T.R. Saito, O. Bertini, S. Bianchin, V. Bozkurt, M. Kavatsyuk, E. Kim, Y. Ma, F. Maas, S. Minami, D. Nakajima, B. Ozel-Tashenov and K. Yoshida.:
"On the measured lifetime of light hypernuclei 3H(Lambda) and 4H(Lambda)"
Phys. Lett. B 728 (2014) 543-548 - 9.
*C. Rappold, E. Kim, T.R. Saito, O. Bertini, S. Bianchin, V. Bozkurt, M. Kavatsyuk, Y. Ma, F. Maas, S. Minami, D. Nakajima, B. Ozel-Tashenov, K. Yoshida, P. Achenbach, S. Ajimura, T. Aumann, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, H.C. Bhang, C. Caesar, S. Erturk, T. Fukuda, B. Gokuzum, E. Guliev, J. Hoffmann, G. Ickert, Z.S. Ketenci, D. Khaneft, M. Kim, S. Kim, K. Koch, N. Kurz, A. Le Fevre, Y. Mizoi, L. Nungesser, W. Ott, J. Pochodzalla, A. Sakaguchi, C.J. Schmidt, M. Sekimoto, H. Simon, T. Takahashi, G.J. Tambave, H. Tamura, W. Trautmann, S. Voltz and C.J. Yoon.:
"Search for evidence of 3n(Lambda) by observing d + pi- and t + pi - final states in the reaction of 6Li+12C at 2A GeV"
Phys. Rev. C 88 Rapid Communication (2013) 041001-1-6(R) - 10.
*C. Rappold, E. Kim, D. Nakajima, T.R. Saito, O. Bertini, S. Bianchin, V. Bozkurt, M. Kavatsyuk, Y. Ma, F. Maas, S. Minami, B. Ozel-Tashenov, K. Yoshida, P. Achenbach, S. Ajimura, T. Aumann, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, H.C. Bhang, C. Caesar, S. Erturk, T. Fukuda, B. Gokuzum, E. Guliev, T. Hiraiwa, J. Hoffmann, G. Ickert, Z.S. Ketenci, D. Khaneft, M. Kim, S. Kim, K. Koch, N. Kurz, A. Le Fevre, Y. Mizoi, M. Moritsu, T. Nagae, L. Nungesser, A. Okamura, W. Ott, J. Pochodzalla, A. Sakaguchi, M. Sako, C.J. Schmidt, M. Sekimoto, H. Simon, H. Sugimura, T. Takahashi, G.J. Tambave, H. Tamura, W. Trautmann, S. Voltz, N. Yokota and C.J. Yoon.:
"Hypernuclear spectroscopy of products from 6Li projectiles on a carbon target at 2 A GeV"
Nucl. Phys. A 913 (2013) 170-184
Annual research report
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Takehiko Saito
- Chief Scientist
Core members
- Yukiko Kurakata
- Assistant
- Yoshiki Tanaka
- Research Scientist
- He Wang
- Research Scientist
- Hiroyuki Ekawa
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Manami Nakagawa
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Vasyl Drozd
- Intern
- Yiming Gao
- International Program Associate
- Yan He
- International Program Associate
- Ayumi Kasagi
- Junior Research Associate
- Enqiang Liu
- International Program Associate
- Abdul Muneem
- International Program Associate
- Shohei Sugimoto
- Student Trainee
- Ayari Yanai
- RIKEN Student Researcher M
- Michi Ando
- Administrative Part-time Worker II
- Hanako Kubota
- Administrative Part-time Worker II
- Risa Kobayashi
- Administrative Part-time Worker II
- Chiho Harisaki
- Administrative Part-time Worker II
- Kazuma Nakazawa
- Visiting Scientist
Contact Information
Laser Science Laboratory, 112
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
Email: takehiko.saito [at] riken.jp