On August 12, Chiang Mai University in Thailand officially joined the international cooperation project of High-energy Underwater Neutrino Telescope (HUNT). Under the witness of Professor Winita Punyodom, Vice President of Chiang Mai University, Researcher WANG Sheng, Deputy Director of Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Academician CAO Zhen, Professor CHEN Mingjun, PI of HUNT Project, and Associate Professor Waraporn Nuntiyakul, Department of Physics and Materials Science of Chiang Mai University jointly signed a memorandum of cooperation on HUNT Project, which marked a key step in the internationalization of HUNT Project.

According to the cooperation plan, the two sides will cooperate in the fields of Monte Carlo simulation of atmospheric muons and detector development, especially in the field of student joint training and academic exchange between two institutes. In order to effectively promote the deep participation of the Thai team in the project, Thailand plans to send a graduate student to China to participate in specific scientific research work within one week.

In 2021, LHAASO discovered a large number of ultra-high-energy gamma ray sources in the Milky Way. Therefore, Academician Cao Zhen put forward the project of building super-large-scale neutrino astronomy telescope (HUNT) under the kilometer-level water. Its scientific goal is to focus on the observation of neutrino signals from these LHAASO sources, and then reveal the origin of high-energy cosmic rays with direct evidence.

After three years of R&D work, the HUNT project has made progress in stages: a new generation of super-large photosensitive area detector unit has been successfully developed, four rounds of deep-water tests have been completed, and the construction of small prototype array in South China Sea is being promoted. Up to now, the HUNT project has attracted the participation of project teams from nearly 20 universities and research institutes home and abroad.