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Updated: daily
- ALICE does the double-slitALICE does the double-slit In the photoproduction of ρ0 mesons in collisions between two lead (Pb) nuclei, the interference between the two cases shown generates an interference pattern akin to that of a double-slit interferometer. (Image: CERN) In the famous double-slit experiment, an interference pattern consisting of dark and bright bands emerges when a beam of light hits two narrow slits. The same effect has also been seen with particles such as electrons and protons, demonstrating the wave nature of propagating particles in quantum mechanics. Typically, experiments of this type produce interference patterns at the nanometre scale. In a recent study, the ALICE collaboration has measured a similar interference pattern at the femtometre scale using ultra-peripheral collisions between lead nuclei at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC); a femtometre is a quadrillionth of a metre. In ultra-peripheral collisions between two heavy nuclei, the nuclei pass close to each other without co…
- LHCb announces its 2024 PhD Thesis Awards winnersLHCb announces its 2024 PhD Thesis Awards winners The 2024 LHCb Thesis Awards took place on 7 June 2024 at the University of Glasgow. The committee comprised Johannes Albrecht, Miriam Calvo Gomez, Wenbin Qian, Patrick Robbe (deputy spokesperson) and Lesya Shchutska (chair). The LHCb Thesis Awards recognise excellent PhD theses and additional work that have made an exceptional contribution to LHCb. This year’s winners are Shunan Zhang (Peking University, China), Alessandro Scarabotto (Sorbonne University, France) and Sara Celani (EPFL, Switzerland). Find out more about the LHCb Thesis Awards on the LHCb website. anschaef Wed, 08/07/2024 - 21:27 Byline LHCb collaboration Publication Date Mon, 08/12/2024 - 08:26
- NA62 announces its first search for long-lived particlesNA62 announces its first search for long-lived particles Probing rare particle physics processes is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but to find the needle we first need the haystack – a large amount of statistical data collected at high–luminosity experiments. The NA62 experiment, also known as CERN’s kaon factory, produces this haystack of collision data to allow physicists to study rare particle physics processes and look for weakly interacting new physics particles. The collaboration recently presented the results of its first search for long-lived new physics particles at the 42nd International Conference on High Energy Physics in Prague. “While experiments at the Large Hadron Collider are known to push the energy frontier with proton–proton collisions at the world-record energy of 13.6 trillion electronvolts, fixed-target experiments like NA62 are pushing the intensity frontier with a billion billion (1018) protons on target per year,” said Jan Jerhot, a postdoctora…
- ALICE honours its 2024 Thesis Award winnersALICE honours its 2024 Thesis Award winners On 9 July 2024, the ALICE collaboration honoured its PhD Thesis Award winners in a ceremony organised as part of the ALICE collaboration meeting at CERN. Since 2008, ALICE has recognised the most outstanding PhD theses in the fields of physics and instrumentation, based on the excellence of the results obtained, the quality of the thesis manuscript and the importance of the contribution to the collaboration. The ALICE Thesis Award Committee unanimously chose four winners: Francesca Ercolessi (Universita di Bologna, Italy), Florian Jonas (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany), Ezra D. Lesser (University of California, Berkeley, United States) and Luca Quaglia (Universita di Torino, Italy). Find out more about the award winners on the ALICE website. anschaef Wed, 08/07/2024 - 21:44 Byline ALICE collaboration Publication Date Fri, 08/09/2024 - 09:43
- Accelerator Report: Navigating hot summer days and thunderstormsAccelerator Report: Navigating hot summer days and thunderstorms Although summer weather has finally arrived and many have left or will soon leave for holidays, the accelerator complex has no intention of letting up. In fact, the summer is often a very productive period for physics: in July, the LHC was producing collisions around 55% of the time. During the summer, the activities scheduled are mainly aimed at physics production, leading to an increased number of cycles for the experiments and fewer interruptions. However, the warm weather, especially when coupled with high humidity, can pose challenges for the cooling of the accelerators. Many of the accelerator systems, including the cryogenics that keep the LHC magnets cold and superconducting, rely on cooling towers, but high outside temperatures and humidity reduce their cooling capacity. High temperatures can also affect the buildings that house critical equipment, such as power converters, beam instrumentation electronics and r…
- AMBER releases its first resultsAMBER releases its first results The AMBER experiment in CERN's North Area (Image: CERN) Last week, at the biennial ICHEP conference, the AMBER experiment presented results from its first data-taking period. Taken in 2023, these results show preliminary plots of the antiproton’s production cross section – the probability that antiprotons are produced when a beam of protons interacts with a helium target. Knowing more about how antiprotons are produced will help improve the sensitivity of searches for dark matter. While physicists can observe the effect of dark matter on the Universe, they still cannot “see” it directly, as it does not react with the electronmagnetic force. This means they still do not know what it is, despite the fact that it accounts for around a quarter of the Universe’s mass. Space-based experiments like AMS look for clues about dark matter by collecting data on cosmic rays – high-energy particles from outer space that hit the Earth’s atmosphere. Among the…
- Breakthrough in rapid cooling for BASE antiprotonsBreakthrough in rapid cooling for BASE antiprotons To study antimatter particles, experiments must cool them to the lowest possible temperatures. The BASE experiment has just reached a new milestone in this regard. In an article published by the journal Physical Review Letters, the collaboration presents a new device that reduces the time required to cool an antiproton from 15 hours to just 8 minutes. This considerable improvement makes it possible to measure antiprotons’ properties with unparalleled precision. BASE, located in CERN's antimatter factory, specialises in studying antiprotons by measuring their fundamental properties, such as the intrinsic magnetic moment and the charge-to-mass ratio, with the highest possible precision. By comparing these measurements with those of protons, the collaboration furthers our understanding of antimatter. One of the goals is to help resolve the fundamental question of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe. To d…
- Updating the European Strategy for Particle PhysicsUpdating the European Strategy for Particle Physics Key dates for the 2024-26 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. On 21 March, the CERN Council formally launched the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, a two-year process involving the whole community that aims to develop a common vision for the future of particle physics in Europe within the international context. The process is expected to be concluded in June 2026 with the approval of the updated Strategy by the Council. According to the remit of the European Strategy Group (ESG), the aim of the Strategy update is to develop a visionary and concrete plan that greatly advances human knowledge in fundamental physics through the realisation of the next flagship project at CERN; this plan should attract and recognise the value of international collaboration and should allow Europe to continue to play a leading role in the field. In addition to the input of the particle physics community, the E…
