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Record participation in the 2024 "Women and Girls in Science and Technology" event!

From 5 to 9 February, more than eighty female ambassadors from CERN, the University of Geneva, EPFL and LAPP spoke to 5800 local pupils, giving over 260 presentations in the space of a week! Their goal: to get children excited about science and break down gender stereotypes about scientific jobs.

The Women and Girls in Science and Technology event has been an annual fixture since 2017, marking the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which is celebrated on 11 February. The event’s eight editions have met with increasing success, thanks to an ever-expanding cohort of ambassadors eager to share their passion. In total, more than 24 500 pupils aged between 7 and 15 from the local region have seen for themselves that careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are equally accessible to girls and boys.

Are you a teacher who would like to take part in the 2025 event? Sign up for our education newsletter to find out what we offer and when registration will be open!

Would you like to take part in the 2025 event as a volunteer? Contact the CERN events team to find out about our upcoming calls for volunteers!

More information on CERN's Women in Technology group on: https://wit-hub.web.cern.ch/.

Update on the “25 by ’25” strategy

(Image: CERN)

In spring 2021, the Diversity & Inclusion programme launched the “25 by ’25” strategy, an aspirational target-based initiative to boost the gender and nationality diversity of CERN’s staff and fellows population (MPEs) by the end of 2025. Objective: to reach 25% of women among MPEs by the end of 2025.

The latest statistics (see graphic) are very encouraging: CERN is only 1.3% away from its target!

_____

The International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) has engaged communities in particle physics for more than 25 years. IPPOG also holds dedicated International Masterclasses for girls and women on the occasion of International Day of Women and Girls in Science and Technology.

anschaef Mon, 02/12/2024 - 15:24 Byline Mélissa Samson Publication Date Mon, 02/12/2024 - 15:18

Record participation in the 2024 "Women and Girls in Science and Technology" event!

From 5 to 9 February, more than eighty female ambassadors from CERN, the University of Geneva, EPFL and LAPP spoke to 5800 local pupils, giving over 260 presentations in the space of a week! Their goal: to get children excited about science and break down gender stereotypes about scientific jobs.

The Women and Girls in Science and Technology event has been an annual fixture since 2017, marking the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which is celebrated on 11 February. The event’s eight editions have met with increasing success, thanks to an ever-expanding cohort of ambassadors eager to share their passion. In total, more than 24 500 pupils aged between 7 and 15 from the local region have seen for themselves that careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are equally accessible to girls and boys.

Are you a teacher who would like to take part in the 2025 event? Sign up for our education newsletter to find out what we offer and when registration will be open!

Would you like to take part in the 2025 event as a volunteer? Contact the CERN events team to find out about our upcoming calls for volunteers!

Update on the “25 by ’25” strategy

(Image: CERN)

In spring 2021, the Diversity & Inclusion programme launched the “25 by ’25” strategy, an aspirational target-based initiative to boost the gender and nationality diversity of CERN’s staff and fellows population (MPEs) by the end of 2025. Objective: to reach 25% of women among MPEs by the end of 2025.

The latest statistics (see graphic) are very encouraging: CERN is only 1.3% away from its target!

_____

The International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) has engaged communities in particle physics for more than 25 years. IPPOG also holds dedicated International Masterclasses for girls and women on the occasion of International Day of Women and Girls in Science and Technology.

anschaef Mon, 02/12/2024 - 15:24 Byline Mélissa Samson Publication Date Mon, 02/12/2024 - 15:18

Nature Physics, Published online: 12 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02433-z

Author Correction: A boost for laser fusion

Nature Physics, Published online: 12 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02432-0

Author Correction: Tunable quantum simulation of spin models with a two-dimensional ion crystal

Nature Physics, Published online: 12 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02383-y

It has long been predicted that spin-1/2 antiferromagnets on the kagome lattice should feature a series of plateaus in the change of its magnetization under an applied magnetic field. A quantum plateau of this kind has now been observed experimentally.

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02380-1

The existence of Bragg glasses—featuring nearly perfect crystalline order and glassy features—has yet to be experimentally confirmed for disordered charge-density-wave systems. A machine-learning-based experimental study now provides evidence for a Bragg glass phase in the charge density waves of PdxErTe3.

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02396-1

During a photoinduced phase transition, electronic rearrangements are usually faster than lattice ones. Time-resolved measurements now show that the insulator-to-metal transition in a thin-film Mott insulator is preceded by lattice reconfiguration.

Hearing the sound of quark–gluon plasma

Neutron stars in the Universe, ultracold atomic gases in the laboratory, and the quark–gluon plasma created in collisions of atomic nuclei at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): they may seem totally unrelated but, surprisingly enough, they have something in common. They are all a fluid-like state of matter made up of strongly interacting particles. Insights into the properties and behaviour of any of these almost perfect liquids may be key to understanding nature across scales that are orders of magnitude apart.

In a new paper, the CMS collaboration reports the most precise measurement to date of the speed at which sound travels in the quark–gluon plasma, offering new insights into this extremely hot state of matter.

Sound is a longitudinal wave that travels through a medium, producing compressions and rarefactions of matter in the same direction as its movement. The speed of sound depends on the medium’s properties, such as its density and viscosity. It can therefore be used as a probe of the medium.

At the LHC, the quark–gluon plasma is formed in collisions between heavy ions. In these collisions, for a very small fraction of a second, an enormous amount of energy is deposited in a volume whose maximum size is that of the nucleus of an atom. Quarks and gluons emerging from the collision move freely within this area, providing a fluid-like state of matter whose collective dynamics and macroscopic properties are well described by theory. The speed of sound in this environment can be obtained from the rate at which pressure changes in response to variations in energy density or, alternatively, from the rate at which temperature changes in response to variations in entropy, which is a measure of disorder in a system.

In heavy-ion collisions, the entropy can be inferred from the number of electrically charged particles emitted from the collisions. The temperature, on the other hand, can be deduced from the average transverse momentum (i.e. the momentum transverse to the collision axis) of those particles. Using data from lead–lead collisions at an energy of 5.02 trillion electronvolts per pair of nucleons (protons or neutrons), the CMS collaboration has measured for the first time how the temperature varies with the entropy in central heavy-ion collisions, in which the ions collide head on and overlap almost completely.

From this measurement, they obtained a value for the speed of sound in this medium that is nearly half the speed of light and has a record precision: in units of the speed of light, the squared speed of sound is 0.241, with a statistical uncertainty of 0.002 and a systematic uncertainty of 0.016. Using the mean transverse momentum, they also determined the effective temperature of the quark–gluon plasma to be 219 million electronvolts (MeV), with a systematic uncertainty of 8 MeV.

The results match the theoretical expectation and confirm that the quark–gluon plasma acts as a fluid made of particles that carry enormous amounts of energy.

Read more here

abelchio Thu, 02/08/2024 - 11:44 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Fri, 02/16/2024 - 11:41

Hearing the sound of quark–gluon plasma

Neutron stars in the Universe, ultracold atomic gases in the laboratory, and the quark–gluon plasma created in collisions of atomic nuclei at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): they may seem totally unrelated but, surprisingly enough, they have something in common. They are all a fluid-like state of matter made up of strongly interacting particles. Insights into the properties and behaviour of any of these almost perfect liquids may be key to understanding nature across scales that are orders of magnitude apart.

In a new paper, the CMS collaboration reports the most precise measurement to date of the speed at which sound travels in the quark–gluon plasma, offering new insights into this extremely hot state of matter.

Sound is a longitudinal wave that travels through a medium, producing compressions and rarefactions of matter in the same direction as its movement. The speed of sound depends on the medium’s properties, such as its density and viscosity. It can therefore be used as a probe of the medium.

At the LHC, the quark–gluon plasma is formed in collisions between heavy ions. In these collisions, for a very small fraction of a second, an enormous amount of energy is deposited in a volume whose maximum size is that of the nucleus of an atom. Quarks and gluons emerging from the collision move freely within this area, providing a fluid-like state of matter whose collective dynamics and macroscopic properties are well described by theory. The speed of sound in this environment can be obtained from the rate at which pressure changes in response to variations in energy density or, alternatively, from the rate at which temperature changes in response to variations in entropy, which is a measure of disorder in a system.

In heavy-ion collisions, the entropy can be inferred from the number of electrically charged particles emitted from the collisions. The temperature, on the other hand, can be deduced from the average transverse momentum (i.e. the momentum transverse to the collision axis) of those particles. Using data from lead–lead collisions at an energy of 5.02 trillion electronvolts per pair of nucleons (protons or neutrons), the CMS collaboration has measured for the first time how the temperature varies with the entropy in central heavy-ion collisions, in which the ions collide head on and overlap almost completely.

From this measurement, they obtained a value for the speed of sound in this medium that is nearly half the speed of light and has a record precision: in units of the speed of light, the squared speed of sound is 0.241, with a statistical uncertainty of 0.002 and a systematic uncertainty of 0.016. Using the mean transverse momentum, they also determined the effective temperature of the quark–gluon plasma to be 219 million electronvolts (MeV), with a systematic uncertainty of 8 MeV.

The results match the theoretical expectation and confirm that the quark–gluon plasma acts as a fluid made of particles that carry enormous amounts of energy.

abelchio Thu, 02/08/2024 - 11:44 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Fri, 02/16/2024 - 11:41

Stories from CERN's women in science

Each year, on 11 February, CERN celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science by shedding light on the variety of career paths for women in STEM. This year, we asked nine female scientists to share their stories with us and tell us what inspired them to pursue a STEM career and what are their favourite memories involving science.

Sorina, physicist at the CMS experiment

Sorina is a Romanian research physicist at the CMS experiment, working on heavy-ion research.

“My favourite thing about my job is the data analysis, as well as detector development and installation. I am very happy when I can work with the students. The most rewarding part of it is when I see their careers as physicists evolve.”

Jenny, PhD student at the ATLAS experiment

Jenny is a Norwegian doctoral student at the University of Oslo. She’s currently working on upgrading the pixel detector for the ATLAS experiment.

Science was her favourite class in school, which inspired her to pursue a career in STEM. “My curiosity for science started with what we can see in our everyday lives, for example how yeast makes bread dough rise, how a candle flame goes out if it loses access to oxygen, or how nature changes with the seasons.”

Pinelopi, PhD student with the Medipix collaboration

Pinelopi is a PhD student with the Medipix collaboration. Medipix chips developed for pixel detectors at the LHC are now used in a variety of fields, including medical imaging.

It was her family and her secondary school experiences that inspired Pinelopi to pursue a career in STEM. “My mother studied physics, so I wanted to become like her, while my father loves to explore ideas and think outside the box. As a secondary school student, I visited CERN with my class, and I was amazed by everything. My dream was to one day return as a physicist.”

Federica, PhD student at the LHCb experiment

Federica is an Italian doctoral student in particle physics, working on heavy-ion physics at the LHCb experiment. She is currently involved in putting the VELO detector into service.

Federica has always been curious about science and knew from an early age that she was going to pursue a STEM career. Her favourite memory involving science goes back to secondary school, when two CERN physicists visited her class to give a masterclass. “They built a hand-made cloud chamber for us, with things you could find in the kitchen, to detect the particles from cosmic rays. And I fell in love with particle physics!” remembers Federica.

Joni, physicist at the ATLAS experiment

Joni, a Vietnamese physicist from the University of Melbourne, focuses mainly on data analysis for heavy-ion collisions at the ATLAS experiment. She’s also involved in the operation of the ATLAS detector.

Joni is passionate about science communication and education activities, especially for the young generation. Her passion for science was triggered by her curiosity to explore – in her own words – “worlds that are physically unreachable and invisible to the naked eye, like atoms and subatomic particles”.

Joni shared with us a glimpse of one of her first big moments at CERN: “When I started working as a run control shifter, I was very nervous, but the shift leader, Clara Nellist, was very kind and supportive of the whole crew. Now that I've become a shift leader myself, I'm truly grateful to Clara and everyone I've had a chance to work with at CERN, who constantly encouraged me to move beyond my comfort zone.”

Livia, post-doc at the ALICE experiment

Livia, an Italian physicist, oversees the operation of the muon spectrometer of the ALICE experiment. She’s also doing research and development on silicon detectors for the upcoming ALICE detector upgrade.

Since secondary school, Livia has always been enthusiastic about science. The experiments in her school’s laboratory and her passion for research convinced Livia to pursue a STEM career.

When we asked Livia about her favourite moments at work, she didn’t hesitate: “The amazing and fun time I spent in the ALICE control room, waiting for the LHC beam to arrive, while preparing the detectors for data taking. The most fun for me is doing R&D on particle physics detectors, building them from scratch and then seeing them installed in the experiment caverns.”

Tetiana, physicist at the ATLAS experiment

Tetiana is a Ukrainian physicist from the Annecy Particle Physics Laboratory in France, working on the ATLAS experiment. She works on the upgrade of the electronics for an ATLAS calorimeter. She’s also searching for phenomena beyond the Standard Model.

When we asked what inspired her to pursue a STEM career, Tetiana told us that it was an obvious choice for her, as everyone in her family was either a scientist or an engineer. “I decided to do a PhD in physics and mathematics when I was 10 years old.”

Her favourite memory involving science from her childhood is growing “beautiful blue crystals from copper sulphate. They were growing on the kitchen windowsill in my home in Kharkiv next to jars of green onions.”

Deepti, engineer for the North Area Consolidation project

Deepti is an Indian engineer working on the project to consolidate CERN’s North Area experiment facility.

Deepti was always intrigued by the basic principles of science and their everyday utility. Her affinity for STEM kept growing over the years and she decided to pursue a career in mechanical engineering.

“During my childhood, I was fascinated by buoyancy, gravity, density and water displacement as I watched paper boats float on water. When I was a young child, I learned to make paper boats and put them on running water during the monsoon season in India.”

Alicia, PhD student in the accelerator field

Alicia is a Spanish doctoral student working on developing an ultra-fast generator for special magnets used in CERN’s accelerators.

During her engineering studies, she enjoyed being in the lab the most, which inspired her to choose this path.

“When I was still living in Madrid, I used to go to a secondary school that was very close to the Residencia de Estudiantes [student housing] and I loved that place: the buildings are beautiful, the garden that surrounds it, everything. And then I read a discreet sign that said that this was also a historical site of the European Physical Society. Marie Curie had been there, Einstein too… That may have had an influence on my choice of a degree!” says Alicia.

cmenard Wed, 02/07/2024 - 10:46 Byline Bianca Moisa Publication Date Wed, 02/07/2024 - 10:23

Stories from CERN's women in science

Each year, on 11 February, CERN celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science by shedding light on the variety of career paths for women in STEM. This year, we asked nine female scientists to share their stories with us and tell us what inspired them to pursue a STEM career and what are their favourite memories involving science.

Sorina, physicist at the CMS experiment

Sorina is a Romanian research physicist at the CMS experiment, working on heavy-ion research.

“My favourite thing about my job is the data analysis, as well as detector development and installation. I am very happy when I can work with the students. The most rewarding part of it is when I see their careers as physicists evolve.”

Jenny, PhD student at the ATLAS experiment

Jenny is a Norwegian doctoral student at the University of Oslo. She’s currently working on upgrading the pixel detector for the ATLAS experiment.

Science was her favourite class in school, which inspired her to pursue a career in STEM. “My curiosity for science started with what we can see in our everyday lives, for example how yeast makes bread dough rise, how a candle flame goes out if it loses access to oxygen, or how nature changes with the seasons.”

Pinelopi, PhD student with the Medipix collaboration

Pinelopi is a PhD student with the Medipix collaboration. Medipix chips developed for pixel detectors at the LHC are now used in a variety of fields, including medical imaging.

It was her family and her secondary school experiences that inspired Pinelopi to pursue a career in STEM. “My mother studied physics, so I wanted to become like her, while my father loves to explore ideas and think outside the box. As a secondary school student, I visited CERN with my class, and I was amazed by everything. My dream was to one day return as a physicist.”

Federica, PhD student at the LHCb experiment

Federica is an Italian doctoral student in particle physics, working on heavy-ion physics at the LHCb experiment. She is currently involved in putting the VELO detector into service.

Federica has always been curious about science and knew from an early age that she was going to pursue a STEM career. Her favourite memory involving science goes back to secondary school, when two CERN physicists visited her class to give a masterclass. “They built a hand-made cloud chamber for us, with things you could find in the kitchen, to detect the particles from cosmic rays. And I fell in love with particle physics!” remembers Federica.

Joni, physicist at the ATLAS experiment

Joni, a Vietnamese physicist from the University of Melbourne, focuses mainly on data analysis for heavy-ion collisions at the ATLAS experiment. She’s also involved in the operation of the ATLAS detector.

Joni is passionate about science communication and education activities, especially for the young generation. Her passion for science was triggered by her curiosity to explore – in her own words – “worlds that are physically unreachable and invisible to the naked eye, like atoms and subatomic particles”.

Joni shared with us a glimpse of one of her first big moments at CERN: “When I started working as a run control shifter, I was very nervous, but the shift leader, Clara Nellist, was very kind and supportive of the whole crew. Now that I've become a shift leader myself, I'm truly grateful to Clara and everyone I've had a chance to work with at CERN, who constantly encouraged me to move beyond my comfort zone.”

Livia, post-doc at the ALICE experiment

Livia, an Italian physicist, oversees the operation of the muon spectrometer of the ALICE experiment. She’s also doing research and development on silicon detectors for the upcoming ALICE detector upgrade.

Since secondary school, Livia has always been enthusiastic about science. The experiments in her school’s laboratory and her passion for research convinced Livia to pursue a STEM career.

When we asked Livia about her favourite moments at work, she didn’t hesitate: “The amazing and fun time I spent in the ALICE control room, waiting for the LHC beam to arrive, while preparing the detectors for data taking. The most fun for me is doing R&D on particle physics detectors, building them from scratch and then seeing them installed in the experiment caverns.”

Tetiana, physicist at the ATLAS experiment

Tetiana is a Ukrainian physicist from the Annecy Particle Physics Laboratory in France, working on the ATLAS experiment. She works on the upgrade of the electronics for an ATLAS calorimeter. She’s also searching for phenomena beyond the Standard Model.

When we asked what inspired her to pursue a STEM career, Tetiana told us that it was an obvious choice for her, as everyone in her family was either a scientist or an engineer. “I decided to do a PhD in physics and mathematics when I was 10 years old.”

Her favourite memory involving science from her childhood is growing “beautiful blue crystals from copper sulphate. They were growing on the kitchen windowsill in my home in Kharkiv next to jars of green onions.”

Deepti, engineer for the North Area Consolidation project

Deepti is an Indian scientist working on the project to consolidate CERN’s North Area experiment facility.

Deepti was always intrigued by the basic principles of science and their everyday utility. Her affinity for STEM kept growing over the years and she decided to pursue a career in mechanical engineering.

“During my childhood, I was fascinated by buoyancy, gravity, density and water displacement as I watched paper boats float on water. When I was a young child, I learned to make paper boats and put them on running water during the monsoon season in India.”

Alicia, PhD student in the accelerator field

Alicia is a Spanish doctoral student working on developing an ultra-fast generator for special magnets used in CERN’s accelerators.

During her engineering studies, she enjoyed being in the lab the most, which inspired her to choose this path.

“When I was still living in Madrid, I used to go to a secondary school that was very close to the Residencia de Estudiantes [student housing] and I loved that place: the buildings are beautiful, the garden that surrounds it, everything. And then I read a discreet sign that said that this was also a historical site of the European Physical Society. Marie Curie had been there, Einstein too… That may have had an influence on my choice of a degree!” says Alicia.

cmenard Wed, 02/07/2024 - 10:46 Byline Bianca Moisa Publication Date Wed, 02/07/2024 - 10:23

Nature Physics, Published online: 07 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02398-z

Mathematical proofs of black hole physics are becoming too complex even for specialists.

Nature Physics, Published online: 06 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02392-5

Some exotic metals exhibit competing electronic states that can be influenced by small perturbations. Now, a study of a kagome superconductor shows that this competition is exquisitely sensitive to weak strain fields, providing insight into its anomalous electronic properties.

Introducing CERN’s robodog

Building 937 houses the coolest robots at CERN. This is where the action happens to build and programme robots that can tackle the unconventional challenges presented by the Laboratory’s unique facilities. Recently, a new type of robodog has entered CERN’s robot pool and successfully completed its first radiation protection test in the North Area.

“There are large bundles of loose wires and pipes on the ground that slip and move, making them unpassable for wheeled robots and difficult even for humans. We carried out a proof-of-concept survey with the Radiation Protection group in this area. There were no issues at all: the robot was completely stable throughout the inspection,” said Chris McGreavy, a robotics engineer in CERN’s Controls, Electronics and Mechatronics (CEM) group.

Until today, CERN’s family tree of robots included the modular CERNbot in different sizes and configurations, such as the CERNbotSPS, as well as the Train Inspection Monorail (TIM) and CRANEbot. They can carry heavy payloads like robotic arms and other tools but are limited when it comes to entering cluttered areas and moving over unstructured surfaces and on steps.

The team is now developing tools and advanced control algorithms for the robodog and its successors for long-term deployment in the experiment caverns, such as that of the ALICE detector, which are complex environments with metal stairs and narrow corridors designed for humans or, well, robots with legs. The current robodog is a commercially available product which CERN plans to use to explore possibilities to develop its own robotic solution in the future. In collaboration with the Experimental Physics R&D department, the CEM group is developing more customised solutions based on four-legged robot that will soon be able to manoeuvre throughout almost the entire cavern. These robodogs will be able to monitor the state of the caverns and their environmental conditions regularly. They can identify water or fire leaks and other incidents, such as false alarms, in a timely manner, all of which can significantly impact the operation of the machines in the caverns and tunnels.

Each robot developed at CERN is carefully crafted to meet unique challenges and to complement each other. For example, there are rails attached to the ceiling running along the 27-kilometre tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The TIM monorail robot uses these rails to move around the tunnel. While it is great for monitoring and interacting with the tunnels from above, CERN’s new small robodog can perform activities on the ground, especially under the beamline, where no robot could tread before so easily. It is envisaged to be integrated with the four monorail robots currently in operation in the LHC.

“The TIMs are used for monitoring the large distances of the LHC from above and can travel long distances without recharging. They can deploy the quadbots in local areas to get more information about specific places that the TIM cannot easily access,” explains McGreavy.

The robodog will be able to enter new dimensions of the caverns, unlike the previous wheeled, tracked or monorail robots – expanding the range of environments that CERN robots can navigate. The Beams department continues to dream up robots for CERN and engineer them into reality.

ckrishna Mon, 02/05/2024 - 17:19 Byline Chetna Krishna Publication Date Tue, 02/06/2024 - 09:00

Introducing CERN’s robodog

Building 937 houses the coolest robots at CERN. This is where the action happens to build and programme robots that can tackle the unconventional challenges presented by the Laboratory’s unique facilities. Recently, a new type of robot called CERNquadbot has entered CERN’s robot pool and successfully completed its first radiation protection test in the North Area.

“There are large bundles of loose wires and pipes on the ground that slip and move, making them unpassable for wheeled robots and difficult even for humans. We carried out a proof-of-concept survey with the Radiation Protection group in this area. There were no issues at all: the robot was completely stable throughout the inspection,” said Chris McGreavy, a robotics engineer in CERN’s Controls, Electronics and Mechatronics (CEM) group.

(Right to left) CERNquadbot with its counterpart, CERNBotNA – where NA stands for North Area. Together, these robots have completed a successful radiation protection survey inside CERN’s largest experiment area. (Image: M.Struik/CERN)

Until today, CERN’s family tree of robots included the modular CERNbot in different sizes and configurations, such as the CERNbotSPS, as well as the Train Inspection Monorail (TIM) and CRANEbot. They can carry heavy payloads like robotic arms and other tools but are limited when it comes to entering cluttered areas and moving over unstructured surfaces and on steps.

The team is now developing tools and advanced control algorithms for the robodog and its successors for long-term deployment in the experiment caverns, such as that of the ALICE detector, which are complex environments with metal stairs and narrow corridors designed for humans or, well, robots with legs. In collaboration with the Experimental Physics R&D department, the CEM group is developing this four-legged robot that will soon be able to manoeuvre throughout almost the entire cavern. These robodogs will be able to monitor the state of the caverns and their environmental conditions regularly. They can identify water or fire leaks and other incidents, such as false alarms, in a timely manner, all of which can significantly impact the operation of the machines in the caverns and tunnels.

Each robot developed at CERN is carefully crafted to meet unique challenges and to complement each other. For example, there are rails attached to the ceiling running along the 27-kilometre tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The TIM monorail robot uses these rails to move around the tunnel. While it is great for monitoring and interacting with the tunnels from above, CERN’s new small robodog can perform activities on the ground, especially under the beamline, where no robot could tread before so easily. It is envisaged to be integrated with the four monorail robots currently in operation in the LHC.

“The TIMs are used for monitoring the large distances of the LHC from above and can travel long distances without recharging. They can deploy the quadbots in local areas to get more information about specific places that the TIM cannot easily access,” explains McGreavy.

The robodog will be able to enter new dimensions of the caverns, unlike the previous wheeled, tracked or monorail robots – expanding the range of environments that CERN robots can navigate. The Beams department continues to dream up robots for CERN and engineer them into reality.

Watch CERN’s robodog at work:

ckrishna Mon, 02/05/2024 - 17:19 Byline Chetna Krishna Publication Date Tue, 02/06/2024 - 09:00

Nature Physics, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02379-8

Inertial confinement represents one of two viable approaches for producing energy from the fusion of hydrogen isotopes. Scientists have now achieved a record yield of fusion energy when directly irradiating targets with only 28 kilojoules of laser energy.

Nature Physics, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02363-2

Inertial confinement fusion experiments in a direct-drive configuration report more energy produced in deuterium–tritium fusion reactions than the amount of energy in the central part of the plasma created by laser irradiation of the fuel capsule.

Nature Physics, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02361-4

Hydro-equivalent scaling of recent direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions shows that a burning plasma can be achieved with a higher laser energy.

Nature Physics, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02389-0

When cracks creep forward in our three-dimensional world, they do so because of accompanying cracks racing perpendicular to the main direction of motion with almost sonic speed. Clever experiments have now directly demonstrated this phenomenon.

Nature Physics, Published online: 01 February 2024; doi:10.1038/s41567-024-02387-2

Understanding the mechanism by which magnons—the quanta of spin waves—propagate is important for developing practical devices. Now it is shown that long-range dipole–dipole interactions mediate the propagation in a van der Waals antiferromagnet.