Ελληνικά
English
Cern News
Arts at CERN awarded European Commission’s S+T+ARTS Grand Prize for Innovative Collaboration
The European Commission’s S+T+ARTS initiative has awarded Arts at CERN, the arts programme of the Laboratory, the prestigious Grand Prize for Innovative Collaboration in recognition of its efforts to establish transformative collaborations that connect society with science and research.
Two S+T+ARTS Prizes are awarded annually – one for Innovative Collaboration and one for Artistic Exploration – to outstanding projects that show significant impact on social and economic innovation at the convergence of science, technology and the arts, with each receiving €20 000 in prize money. The Grand Prize ceremony will take place on 5th September at the 2024 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, where Arts at CERN will present an exhibition highlighting the collaborative nature of its programmes. As CERN commemorates its 70th anniversary, the exhibition will showcase the Laboratory as a unique environment for creativity, collaboration and artistic inquiry.
The mission of Arts at CERN – a programme funded by the CERN & Society Foundation – is to facilitate dialogue between artists and the CERN community. Since the launch of the first artist residency in 2012, over 250 artists from around the globe have been invited to experience how fundamental science can address the unresolved questions about our universe, engaging with over 1000 scientists and the entire vibrant community of CERN.
Initially focused on artist residencies, Arts at CERN’s programmes have evolved to encompass art commissions, exhibitions and events that bridge the gap between art, science and society. Guided by the vision that science forms an integral part of contemporary culture, Arts at CERN has cultivated a global collaboration network, partnering with scientific laboratories, cultural organisations and research centres.
“Art and science are essential pillars of society, and artists and scientists share common core-values: curiosity and the passion to understand the world on a deeper level. At CERN, we have always believed that these two fields could grow together through creative interaction, and that is the basis of Arts at CERN. The S+T+ARTS Prize acknowledges the effort of the team to create meaningful encounters between artists and scientists and recognises Arts at CERN as a leading programme for engagement between art and science”, says Charlotte Warakaulle, Director for International Relations at CERN.
Since 2018, Arts at CERN has supported 35 art commissions, enabling artists to embark on creative explorations alongside scientific partners and experiments. In return, scientists gain fresh perspectives on their research through the transformative lens of artistic expression. A notable milestone was achieved with the recent launch of the CERN Science Gateway, which features new commissions by former artists in residence at CERN that seek to inspire both the scientific community and the public.
Through Arts at CERN, the Laboratory continues to explore the profound significance of fundamental research in our society. By offering spaces for artistic inquiry within the research context, CERN sets itself apart as a unique place for cultural innovation.
About S+T+ARTS
S+T+ARTS is a large-scale initiative of the European Commission that aims to bring technology and artistic practice together in a way that benefits both European innovation policy and the art world. The initiative promotes and supports people and projects that contribute to tackling Europe's social, environmental and economic challenges.
S+T+ARTS Prize
Part of the S+T+ARTS initiative is the prestigious S+T+ARTS Prize, which is awarded to two projects annually, each of them receiving €20 000 in prize money. The competition honours innovative projects at the nexus of art, technology and science that contribute to economic and social innovation.
The S+T+ARTS Prize is coordinated by Ars Electronica, on behalf of the European Commission, together with the consortium partners INOVA+, French Tech Grande Provence, Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg, Salzburg Festival, Sonar, T6 Ecosystems and Kustodie at TU Dresden University of Technology.
The jury for the 2024 S+T+ARTS Prize was composed of Francesca Bria, Fumi Hirota, Manuela Naveau, Katja Schechtner and Miha Turšič.
ldragu Wed, 06/19/2024 - 13:05 Publication Date Mon, 06/24/2024 - 13:03Building 60 renovations: one year on
CERN’s iconic Main Building, Building 60, has reached a crucial milestone in its two-and-a-half-year renovation, with the completion of the so-called remediation phase. The overall objectives have been to bring the building up to current regulatory standards following the strictest possible safety measures and to improve energy efficiency to the highest environmental standards, while preserving the building’s exceptional architectural value.
Building 60 in confinement for the duration of the first phase of the works. (Image: CERN)Since summer 2023, Building 60 has been surrounded by scaffolding and confined for this remediation phase, involving the removal of mainly asbestos as well as several other pollutants. Planning had already started in 2021, with a specialist consultant assisting the SCE and HSE teams with analyses. Once Building 42 was prepared for the Management and other displaced teams, Building 60 was fully emptied and set up, with only structural elements kept as a foundation for the renovation.
A diagnosis of pollutants helped determine more precisely the type, location and quantities for removal, while the creation of a test site made it possible to better understand the design of the building and the distribution of pollutants, in particular flocked asbestos. The pollutant removal works also included disposal of the waste generated. Ethically, CERN’s priority was to ensure that the flocked asbestos waste would not go to landfill. A novel technology, called “inerting” (“inertage” or “vitrification” in French), was used instead, which involves incinerating the waste by plasma torching in a dedicated facility in France: the process transforms it into a glass-type material, which can be reused in the form of aggregates as a road underlay.
Building 60 has been stripped bare on its path to improving energy efficiency. (Image: CERN)Teams faced a range of challenges due to the building’s layout and accessibility, parallel works and activities, waste removal and inevitable timescale management issues, as well as heatwaves and heavy rain. Given that this project impacts so many people, the CERN community’s patience throughout has been highly appreciated. Mar Capeans, SCE Department Head, commended the efforts so far, saying: “It takes a brave team to make it possible: the Management, who agreed to spend half their mandate far from the tower, HSE and SCE who worked together closely from the preparation phase and throughout the execution, and the many teams and services, inside and outside CERN, who have made achieving this milestone with such excellent results possible.”
The next stage of the renovation and rehabilitation of the building now begins, so that by mid-2025 the Main Building will be restored to its former glory, freshened up, safe and compliant in all respects.
ndinmore Wed, 06/19/2024 - 11:23 Byline SCE department HSE unit Publication Date Tue, 06/25/2024 - 15:25ATLAS dives deeper into di-Higgs
Remember how difficult it was to find one Higgs boson? Try finding two at the same place at the same time. Known as di-Higgs production, this fascinating process can tell scientists about the Higgs boson self-interaction. By studying it, physicists can measure the strength of the Higgs boson’s “self-coupling”, which is a fundamental aspect of the Standard Model that connects the Higgs mechanism and the stability of our Universe.
Searching for di-Higgs production is an especially challenging task. It’s a very rare process, about 1000 times rarer than the production of a single Higgs boson. During the entire Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), only a few thousand di-Higgs events are expected to have been produced in ATLAS, compared with the 40 million collisions that happened every second. So how can physicists find these rare needles in the data haystack? One way to make it easier to look for di-Higgs production is to search for it in multiple places. By looking at the different ways di-Higgs can decay (decay modes) and putting them together, physicists are able to maximise their chances of finding and studying di-Higgs production.
Researchers at the ATLAS collaboration have now released the most sensitive search for di-Higgs production and self-coupling yet, achieved by combining five di-Higgs studies of LHC Run 2 data. This new result is their most comprehensive search so far, covering over half of all possible di-Higgs events in ATLAS.
The five individual studies in this combination each focused on different decay modes, each of which has its pros and cons. For example, the most probable di-Higgs decay mode is into four bottom quarks. However, Standard Model QCD processes are also likely to create four bottom quarks, making it difficult to differentiate a di-Higgs event from this background process. The di-Higgs decay to two bottom quarks and two tau leptons has moderate background contamination but is five times less common and has neutrinos that escape undetected, complicating physicists’ ability to reconstruct the decay. The decay to multiple leptons, while not too rare, has complex signatures. Other di-Higgs decays are even more rare, such as the decay to two bottom quarks and two photons. This final state accounts for only 0.3% of total di-Higgs decays but has a cleaner signature and much smaller background contamination.
By combining the results from searches for each of these decays, the researchers were able to find that the probability that two Higgs bosons are produced excludes values more than 2.9 times the Standard-Model prediction. This result is at 95% confidence level, with an expected sensitivity of 2.4 (assuming that this process is not present in nature). They were also able to provide constraints on the strength of the Higgs boson self-coupling, achieving the best-yet sensitivity on this important observable. They found that the magnitude of the Higgs self-coupling constant and the interaction strength of two Higgs bosons and two vector bosons are consistent with Standard Model predictions.
This combined result sets a milestone in the study of di-Higgs production. Now, ATLAS researchers have set their sights on data from the ongoing LHC Run 3 and upcoming High-Luminosity LHC operation. With this data, physicists may be able to observe the elusive Higgs-boson-pair production at last.
Read more:
ndinmore Tue, 06/18/2024 - 09:37 Byline ATLAS collaboration Publication Date Tue, 06/18/2024 - 10:59
Bringing black hole jets down to Earth
Dive into the heart of an active galaxy and you’ll find a supermassive black hole gobbling up material from its surroundings. In about one out of ten such galaxies, the black hole will also shoot out jets of matter at close to the speed of light. Such relativistic black hole jets are thought to contain, among other components, a plasma of pairs of electrons and their antimatter equivalents, positrons.
This relativistic electron–positron plasma is believed to shape the dynamics and energy budget of the black hole and its environment. But how exactly this happens remains little understood, because it’s difficult both to measure the plasma with astronomical observations and to simulate it with computer programmes.
In a paper just published in Nature Communications, Charles Arrowsmith and colleagues from the Fireball collaboration report how they have used the HiRadMat facility at CERN to produce a relativistic beam of electron–positron plasma that allows this medium to be studied in detail in laboratory experiments.
Relativistic beams of electron–positron pairs can be created in several ways at different types of laboratories, including high-power laser facilities. However, none of the existing ways can produce the number of electron–positron pairs that is required to sustain a plasma – a state of matter in which the constituent particles are very loosely connected. Without sustaining the plasma, researchers cannot investigate how these analogues of black hole jets change as they move through a laboratory equivalent of the interstellar medium. This investigation is key to explaining observations from ground- and space-based telescopes.
Arrowsmith and colleagues found a way to meet these requirements at CERN’s HiRadMat facility. Their approach involved extracting within a mere nanosecond a whopping three hundred billion protons from the Laboratory’s Super Proton Synchrotron and firing them onto a target of graphite and tantalum, in which a cascade of particle interactions generates huge numbers of electron–positron pairs.
By measuring the resulting relativistic electron–positron beam with a set of instruments, and comparing the result with sophisticated computer simulations, Arrowsmith and co-workers showed that the number of electron–positron pairs in the beam – more than ten trillion – is ten to hundred times greater than previously achieved, exceeding for the first time the number needed to sustain the plasma state.
“Electron–positron plasmas are thought to play a fundamental part in astrophysical jets, but computer simulations of these plasmas and jets have never been tested in the laboratory,” says Arrowsmith. ”Laboratory experiments are necessary to validate the simulations, because what seems like reasonable simplifications of the calculations involved in the simulations can sometimes lead to drastically different conclusions.”
The result is the first from a series of experiments that the Fireball collaboration is carrying out at HiRadMat.
“The basic idea of these experiments is to reproduce in the laboratory the microphysics of astrophysical phenomena such as jets from black holes and neutron stars,” says co-author of the paper and lead researcher Gianluca Gregori. “What we know about these phenomena comes almost exclusively from astronomical observations and computer simulations, but telescopes cannot really probe the microphysics and simulations involve approximations. Laboratory experiments such as these are a bridge between these two approaches.”
Next in Arrowsmith and colleagues’ plasma pursuits at HiRadMat is to have these powerful jets propagate through a metre-long plasma and observe how the interaction between them generates magnetic fields that speed up the particles in the jets – one the greatest puzzles in high-energy astrophysics.
“The Fireball experiments are one of the latest additions to HiRadMat’s portfolio,” says operation manager of the facility Alice Goillot. “We’re looking forward to continue reproducing these rare phenomena using the unique properties of CERN’s accelerator complex.”
View of the HiRadMat facility (Image: CERN)This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101057511 (EURO-LABS).
abelchio Thu, 06/13/2024 - 10:16 Byline Ana Lopes Publication Date Thu, 06/13/2024 - 09:55Instruments of Vision opens in Santiago de Compostela as a collaboration between Arts at CERN and IGFAE
The exhibition Instruments of Vision comprises photographs and videos taken by Armin Linke during visits to experimental facilities, such as CERN or the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (L'Aquila, Italy), or the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (Vienna, Austria), since 2000.
For this occasion, Armin Linke has produced images that portray some of the work pursued by staff from the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics (IGFAE) at CERN. The photographs show how the scientific community has generated very complex instruments that allow us to observe and understand how the most fundamental elements of matter work. These photographs are enriched by the unique location of the exhibition, which is on display at Igrexa da Universidade, a baroque church at the heart of the old town.
In the exhibition, Linke invites visitors to witness spaces of research, where various kinds of instruments or components – such as parts of particle detectors, data processors archival images – can be found. His work captures the dynamic nature of laboratories, highlighting often overlooked elements and scenes in which physicists become intertwined with the precise instruments that underpin scientific inquiry. These activities are depicted not merely as isolated scientific endeavours but as integral components of a broader social and cultural composition, reflecting the interconnectedness of science, society and technology.
CERN science and history are explored in three interviews with key voices in the community: Maria Fidecaro, an experimental physicist and one of the first female scientists at CERN, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, former Director-General of CERN, and Peter Jenni, one of the founding fathers of ATLAS and a former spokesperson of the experiment.The three physicists shared with the artist their views on the development of detector and imaging technologies at CERN and the role these technologies play in advancing particle physics.
“Breakthroughs in physics over the past decades, guided by complex instrumentation and sophisticated experiments, have transformed our understanding of fundamental concepts such as matter, space and time. As artists engage with science, our understanding deepens and becomes more diverse, inviting everyone to participate in an intellectual and creative exchange that takes place across disciplines”, writes Mónica Bello, Head of Arts at CERN and curator of the exhibition.
Instruments of Vision opens on 21 June and runs until 28 August 2024. The exhibition commemorates the 25th anniversary of IGFAE and the 70th anniversary of CERN. On this occasion, IGFAE and Arts at CERN join forces to promote new models of dialogue between artists and scientists at the laboratories.
ckrishna Thu, 06/13/2024 - 10:07 Byline Ana Prendes Publication Date Fri, 06/14/2024 - 10:00How can AI help physicists search for new particles?
One of the main goals of the LHC experiments is to look for signs of new particles, which could explain many of the unsolved mysteries in physics. Often, searches for new physics are designed to look for one specific type of new particle at a time, using theoretical predictions as a guide. But what about searching for unpredicted – and unexpected – new particles? Trawling through the billions of collisions that occur in the LHC experiments without knowing exactly what to look for would be a mammoth task for physicists. So, instead of sifting through the data and looking for anomalies, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations are letting artificial intelligence (AI) do the job.
At the Rencontres de Moriond conference on 26 March, physicists from the CMS collaboration presented the latest results obtained by using various machine learning techniques to search for pairs of “jets”. These jets are collimated sprays of particles originating from strongly interacting quarks and gluons. They are particularly difficult to analyse, but they could be hiding new physics.
Researchers at ATLAS and CMS use several strategies to train AI algorithms in their searches for jets. By studying the shape of their complex energy signatures, scientists can determine what particle created the jet. Using real collision data, physicists at both experiments are training their AI to recognise the characteristics of jets originating from known particles. The AI is then able to differentiate between these jets and atypical jet signatures, which potentially indicate new interactions. These would show up as an accumulation of atypical jets in the data set.
Another method involves instructing the AI algorithm to consider the entire collision event and look for anomalous features in the different particles detected. These anomalous features may indicate the presence of new particles. This technique was demonstrated in a paper released by ATLAS in July 2023, which featured one of the first uses of unsupervised machine learning in an LHC result. At CMS, a different approach involves physicists creating simulated examples of potential new signals and then tasking the AI with identifying collisions in the real data that are different to regular jets but resemble the simulation.
In the latest results presented by CMS, each AI training method exhibited varying sensitivities to different types of new particles, and no single algorithm proved to be the best. The CMS team was able to limit the rate of production of several different types of particles that produce anomalous jets. They were also able to show that the AI-led algorithms significantly enhanced the sensitivity to a wide range of particle signatures in comparison to traditional techniques.
Event display of one of the CMS events determined by the AI algorithm to be highly anomalous and therefore potentially coming from a new particle. (Image: CMS collaboration)These results show how machine learning is revolutionising the search for new physics. “We already have ideas about how to further improve the algorithms and apply them to different parts of the data to search for several kinds of particles,” says Oz Amram, from the CMS analysis team.
Read more:
ndinmore Thu, 06/13/2024 - 09:33 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Thu, 06/13/2024 - 11:26Accelerator Report: Setting the stage for a productive summer
On 5 June, the first period of luminosity production at the LHC came to an end and we began our second machine development (MD) session. The MD studies continued until 10 June, when the last MD beams were dumped ahead of the scheduled technical stop. Luminosity production is expected to resume on 17 June for a period of nine weeks of uninterrupted production, until the next MD session, which is scheduled to start on 19 August.
When production beams were dumped on 5 June, the counter for the integrated luminosity showed 30.4 fb-1 for ATLAS and CMS, 2.5 fb-1 for LHCb and 17.3 fb-1 for ALICE, exactly as expected.
The scheduled (green line) and achieved (black dots) integrated luminosity for ATLAS and CMS for the 2024 proton–proton run. The blue shaded areas indicate the MD sessions, the green shaded areas indicate the technical stops, the red shaded areas represent special physics runs and, finally, the yellow shaded area represents the period with heavy ion collisions. (Image: CERN)During the MD session, many important and very interesting topics were studied, which will benefit both this year’s run and future operations. Notably, the machine optics for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) were studied to preempt any issues and ensure that we have enough time to address them.
In the Accelerator Report of 3 May, I discussed the collimator hierarchy problem that emerged on 17 April, when the machine was filled with 1791 bunches per beam. This issue limited the squeeze process, slightly reducing luminosity production. Following numerous studies and a final test last week, the LHC team identified several corrections to be applied to the machine’s settings, which will require it to be revalidated. This will have no impact on physics time, since a short intensity ramp-up is always performed after a technical stop in order to revalidate the accelerator. Once validation is complete, the squeeze process can go back to the values initially planned for this year’s run.
The 2024 run has been extended by four weeks of proton physics, as mentioned in my Accelerator Report of 16 April. The 2024 target for the integrated luminosity has thus been updated from 90 fb-1 to 110 fb-1.
The integrated luminosity for ATLAS and CMS since the start of the LHC. Just before the start of the MD session and the technical stop, we reached an integrated luminosity of 100 inverse femtobarns for Run 3. (Image: CERN)With the extra knowledge and experience gained from the MD session, the preventive maintenance performed on the machine and the resolution of the collimator hierarchy issue, we are optimistic that we will have an uninterrupted and successful luminosity production period this summer. We aim to reach an integrated luminosity of 80 fb-1 for ATLAS and CMS before the next MD session starts, on 19 August, on the way to our new 2024 luminosity target of 110 fb-1.
anschaef Wed, 06/12/2024 - 13:02 Byline Rende Steerenberg Publication Date Wed, 06/12/2024 - 12:59CERN welcomes International Year of Quantum Science and Technology
100 years ago, a handful of visionary physicists upturned notions about nature that had guided scientists for centuries. Particles can be point- or wave-like, depending on how you look at them. Their behaviour is probabilistic and can momentarily appear to violate cherished laws such as the conservation of energy. Particles can be entangled such that one feels the change of state of the other instantaneously no matter the distance between them, and, as befalls Schrödinger's famous cat, they can be in opposite states at the same time.
Today, thanks to pioneering theoretical and experimental efforts to understand this complex realm, physicists can confidently navigate through such apparently irrational concepts. Quantum theory has not only become foundational to physics, chemistry, engineering and biology, but underpins the transistors, lasers and LEDs that drive modern electronics and telecommunications -- not to mention solar cells, medical scanners and global positioning systems. But this is only the beginning.
On 7 June the United Nations declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology to celebrate the contributions of quantum science to technological progress, raise awareness of its importance to sustainable development, and ensure that all nations have access to quantum education and opportunities. As the world’s largest particle physics lab, CERN has been interrogating the quantum theories that govern the microscopic world for the past 70 years. Most recently, it has entered the rapidly growing domain of quantum technologies, which aims to harness the strangest aspects of quantum mechanics to build a new generation of quantum devices for fundamental research and beyond.
“In recent years, we have learned not just to use the properties of the quantum world but, also, to control them,” explains Sofia Vallecorsa, coordinator of the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (QTI). “Today, the revolution is all about controlling individual quantum systems, such as single atoms or ions, enabling even more powerful applications.”
At CERN, quantum technologies are studied and developed through two different initiatives: the QTI, whose aim is to enable technologies – such as quantum computing, quantum state sensors, time synchronisation protocols, and many more – for high-energy physics activities; and the recently established Open Quantum Institute (OQI), whose aim is to identify, support and accelerate the development of future societal applications benefiting from quantum computing algorithms.
One of the most promising fields is quantum computing. Unlike classical computers that use “bits” that can be in one of just two states, quantum computers use qubits which can exist in superpositions of states. This enables a vast number of computations to be processed simultaneously, offering important applications in fields such as cryptography, logistics and process optimisation, and drug discovery. Quantum communication, which exploits the principles of quantum mechanics to make it impossible to intercept information without detection, is another significant area of development. A third pillar of CERN’s quantum-technologies programme is sensing to allow ultra-precise measurements of physical quantities, with potential applications in fields including medicine, navigation and climate science.
“What started 100 years ago as a purely theoretical physics investigation is now beginning to unleash its full potential,” says OQI coordinator Tim Smith of CERN. “The International Year of Quantum Science and Technology will be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the past, the present and the future of our understanding of the quantum world.”
cmenard Wed, 06/12/2024 - 12:03 Byline Matthew Chalmers Publication Date Wed, 06/12/2024 - 12:26Computer Security: Blind trust means money lost
We acknowledge that finding decent accommodation near CERN in the Geneva area or the Pays de Gex is difficult. Particularly difficult if you’re trying to organise such accommodation from abroad. Demand wildly exceeds supply. And where customers are in (desperate) need of supply, fraudsters are never far away.
And indeed, this spring has seen two fraudulent transactions on the CERN Marketplace – your private flea market – a place to sell books, music or electronics, buy a new (used) car or find accommodation. In both cases, the fraudsters were advertising vacant apartments that they didn’t own. Using fake identities, hardly traceable email addresses and even, in one case, a stolen passport, they engaged with potentially interested tenants and provided details, photos and a location. A seemingly plausible story. But a fake one. And they pushed their victims into signing a lease and talked them into paying a deposit – which can easily be a few thousand euros – money that was subsequently lost.
As with any other online market platform (Amazon, eBay, etc.) or real-life flea market, a sales/purchase contract is also an expression of trust. The seller trusts that the money you pay is genuine, that the transfer you make is non-revocable, that the cheque is covered. The buyer trusts that the seller will really hand over or ship the merchandise and that the merchandise is as described and without any unmentioned flaws or faults. This is why, usually, face-to-face transactions using cash are preferable. As a buyer, you can see (and test) what you buy. As a seller, you can take comfort in the fact that counterfeit money is hard to come by (while uncovered cheques are easily possible). And this is why, in the online world, payments should usually be made through a trusted partner – an escrow service like eBay offers them. Or transactions should be backed up by insurance (like with Amazon or PayPal).
The CERN Marketplace is an unmoderated forum for private transactions – sales, purchases, etc. Other than providing the platform, CERN does not engage further nor take any responsibility for its contents. Participation just requires an email address as a handle. Those participants are neither vouched for nor vetted. In addition, while posts must comply with CERN’s Computing Rules and the dedicated rules of the CERN Marketplace, they are generally not moderated, verified or approved. Of course, any violation of those rules will be followed up by the CERN Computer Security team and might lead to posts being deleted, participants being blocked, and sanctions (including calling the local police) ─ as happened in the aforementioned cases.
But don’t take a chance. BE VIGILANT. Like in real life. Unless you know the seller/buyer, don’t fully trust them. If you’re looking for an apartment to rent, it’s advisable to either seek input from your peers (“Does anyone know that landlord? Are they trustworthy?”) or do an in-person visit, ask for a live video tour of the apartment or ask a local friend to do a visit for you. In any case, avoid transferring money to unknown parties. Perhaps set up an escrow account where money is transferred only under certain conditions. Remember: “Blind trust means money lost”.
_____
Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, check our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
anschaef Tue, 06/11/2024 - 13:57 Byline Computer Security team Publication Date Tue, 06/11/2024 - 13:56This year’s memorable relay race
More than 1000 runners, competing in 167 teams, took part in the CERN relay race on 30 May – a record level of participation for a highly memorable event! The race times ranged from 12 minutes and 15 seconds (the fourth best performance ever for the current route) to more than 23 minutes.
The Nordic walking race attracted 26 participants. And the children from the Jardin des Particules joined in the fun!
The CERN Alumni Network also took part in the event for the fourth year in a row by organising a virtual relay race, in which 14 teams of alumni from a total of 26 countries competed.
The winners of the fancy dress competition, or how to push the relay race to the extreme. (Image: Running club)The photos and the results of the relay race (worth consulting for the team names alone!) are now online on the Running club’s website.
The CERN relay race is organised every year by the CERN Running club and the Staff Association. A big thank you to all the participants and volunteers, who make this race such a success.
anschaef Tue, 06/11/2024 - 12:48 Byline Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Tue, 06/11/2024 - 12:37Future colliders and fusion reactors
CERN's accelerator experts and EUROfusion's nuclear fusion specialists are now working jointly to develop innovative technologies for future colliders and nuclear fusion reactors, drawing on their respective unique competencies, in particular in the area of high field magnets.
CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Mike Lamont, and EUROfusion Chair (presently Programme Manager), Ambrogio Fasoli, sign the first addendum to the framework agreement between CERN and EUROfusion in November 2023. (Image: CERN)The common projects are facilitated by the collaboration agreement that was signed in November 2023 by CERN and members of EUROfusion, the European consortium of fusion research laboratories carrying out a technical design of a fusion demonstration power plant (DEMO) to succeed ITER.
Marking a milestone in scientific cooperation, this partnership paves the way for joint ventures in a broad spectrum of areas, encompassing research and development in physics, engineering and technology. It focuses on the engineering design and construction of significant scientific experiments and instruments.
CERN established a dedicated fusion technology coordination unit in 2023 with the involvement of accelerator and knowledge transfer experts, reflecting the Organization’s commitment to fostering collaboration across multiple scientific disciplines. The agreement signed between EUROfusion and CERN is a prominent example of the unit’s activities.
“There are clear synergies in the development of technologies for nuclear fusion and those for future colliders, particularly with regard to the use of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) conductors. In the ideation of DEMO, the demonstration fusion power plant that will succeed ITER, the choice of tokamak central solenoids using HTS materials is being explored by a number of EUROfusion members”, says Gianfranco Federici, Head of the EUROfusion Fusion Technology Department. “The collaboration agreement provides a platform for all of our members and CERN to collaborate and create a centre of excellence for fusion technology”.
Central to this alliance, the inaugural project initiated this year is envisioned as a crucial step towards a future testbed for tritium blanket technology. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2024. “The teams at CERN and EUROfusion are engaging in fruitful exchanges concerning magnet concepts and designs based on high-temperature superconductors. The extraordinary challenges posed by the magnets of a muon collider require the development of new concepts, some of them similar to those of fusion machines. This is particularly true for the target solenoid, a key component of the collider, which needs to reach a very high field, is subjected to large heat and radiation loads and is likely to be built with HTS conductors”, says Luca Bottura, who is leading the magnet design efforts of the International Muon Collider Collaboration and the magnet work package of the EU MuCol design study.
Recently, the scope of the collaboration has been extended to include cooperation on advanced shielding materials, of interest both to fusion and accelerators. This topic will be the focus of a joint workshop, which is due to take place later this year.
anschaef Mon, 06/10/2024 - 11:49 Byline Antoine Le Gall Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Tue, 06/11/2024 - 11:36Shaking the box for new physics
When you receive a present on your birthday, you might be the kind of person who tears off the wrapping paper immediately to see what’s inside the box. Or maybe you like to examine the box, guessing the contents from its shape, size, weight or the sound it makes when you shake it.
When physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) analyse their datasets in search of new physics phenomena such as new particles, they usually take one of two different approaches. They either perform a direct search for a specific new kind of particle, equivalent to tearing off the wrapping paper immediately, or use an indirect strategy based on quantum mechanics and its subtle wonders, similar to shaking the box and guessing what’s inside.
At the annual LHCP conference that took place in Boston last week, the CMS collaboration reported how it used the second approach to look for new physics in a rare decay of a particle called B0 meson.
The physics process that drives the decay of a particle into lighter ones can be influenced by new, unknown particles, which might be too heavy to be produced at the LHC. This influence could change the decay process in ways that can be measured and compared to predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics. In the same way as shaking the box containing your birthday present could give you a clue about what’s inside, any deviation from the Standard Model predictions could give physicists a hint of new physics.
The decay of the B0 meson, which is made up of a bottom quark and a down quark, into a K*0 meson (containing a strange quark and a down quark) and two muons is particularly suited to this approach. This is because it occurs via a rare penguin transition that is highly sensitive to possible contributions from new heavy particles.
In its new study, the CMS team used all the data collected by its detector between 2016 and 2018, during the second run of the LHC, to “shake” this B0 decay “box”. This box offers many ways to look for new physics. One is to weigh the box, i.e. measure the rate at which the decay occurs. Another is to take two twin boxes – for example, one corresponding to the decay into two muons and the other to the decay into two electrons – and check if they weigh the same.
In their new study, the CMS researchers looked at the shape of the box, i.e. they examined how the particles produced in the decay share the energy of the parent B0 meson and measured at what angles they fly away from each other. They then determined a set of parameters using these energies and angles, and compared the results with two sets of predictions from the Standard Model.
For most parameters, the results are in line with these two sets of Standard Model predictions. However, for two parameters, known as P5’ and P2, and for specific energies of the two muons, the results are in tension with the two available predictions. Overall, the results are in agreement with the previous results from the ATLAS, LHCb and Belle experiments, while improving upon their level of precision.
Unfortunately, there is a charming, “naughty” kind of penguin that’s crashing the birthday party: a charm quark that participates in the rare penguin transition. This complicates the Standard Model predictions and makes it difficult to draw a conclusion. To advance, researchers need better predictions, more data and improved analysis techniques.
Find out more on the CMS website.
abelchio Fri, 06/07/2024 - 15:40 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Wed, 06/12/2024 - 14:00LHC tunnel named as one of the 50 most iconic tunnels in the world
Construction work for the tunnel of the world’s most iconic particle accelerator began in 1983. The tunnel was initially home to the Large Electron–Positron Collider, which ran from 1989 to 2000, and now houses the Large Hadron Collider.
During construction of the tunnel, the team had to overcome multiple engineering challenges, including boring a 27-km circular tunnel with a constant radius and dealing with numerous geological challenges. From 1998 to 2005, it was majorly upgraded to prepare it for the LHC. These civil engineering works included constructing new transfer tunnels from the SPS to the LHC and giant underground caverns to house the ATLAS and CMS detectors.
Now, this feat has been recognised by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) as one of the 50 most iconic tunnels in the world, on the occasion of the Association’s 50th anniversary. The ITA has published a book to commemorate this list, which includes impressive projects such as the Gotthard Base Tunnel and the Channel Tunnel.
The list was revealed at the annual World Tunnel Congress in Shenzhen in April. Here, the civil engineering plans for the Future Circular Collider were presented to the global tunnelling community. Owing to its scale and technical complexity, the project has attracted a great deal of interest from designers and contractors, and the executive committee of the ITA even paid a special visit to CERN in December 2022. Read more about the FCC tunnel in the CERN Courier.
ndinmore Thu, 06/06/2024 - 11:28 Byline John Osborne Publication Date Thu, 06/06/2024 - 11:23Upgrading the LHCb sub-detectors for the HL-LHC
On 5 July 2022, protons began colliding again in the LHCb detector after a three-and-a-half-year break known as Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), marking the start of the third run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). During this period, the original LHCb detector at the LHC was largely dismantled and an almost completely new detector constructed. The 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics approved by the CERN Council strongly supported exploiting the full potential of the LHC for studying flavour physics. A further upgrade of the LHCb detector, known as Upgrade II, is planned to allow LHCb to operate at a much higher instantaneous luminosity and cope with the demanding data-taking conditions of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). The latest technological developments will be taken into account to design the new detectors.
Electromagnetic calorimeter
The new revolutionary electromagnetic calorimeter being developed for LHCb Upgrade II will be able to precisely measure the arrival time of electromagnetic particles. Its test measurements demonstrated detection of high-energy electrons within 20 picoseconds of precision. This is the first time that such excellent performance has been achieved with an electromagnetic calorimeter in particle physics. The new calorimeter will have finer granularity, enabling it to cope with a much higher particle density at higher instantaneous luminosity. Luminosity is an important indicator of the performance of an accelerator: it is proportional to the number of particle collisions that occur in a given amount of time.
The technology for the new LHCb calorimeter modules is based on the “Spaghetti Calorimeter” (SpaCal) concept, in which the scintillators resemble strands of spaghetti. These scintillating fibres are housed in the 5180 longitudinal holes in the SpaCal module. The calorimeter is constructed with modules with two types of absorbers: tungsten-based SpaCal-W modules, which will be built using tungsten 3D-printing technology, and lead-based SpaCal-Pb modules.
The number of particles crossing the detector is extremely high in the central region surrounding the beam pipe, inside which the proton beams of the LHC circulate. The current LHCb calorimeter is composed of Shashlik modules. The performance of these modules decreases over time due to radiation damage caused by the large flux of particles when the LHC is running. During the next Long Shutdown, these degraded Shashlik modules in the very central region around the LHC beampipe will be replaced with 32 SpaCal-W modules, and an additional 144 SpaCal-Pb modules will be placed around them.
Ring-imaging Cherenkov system
In the upgrade of the ring-imaging Cherenkov (RICH) system, the whole electronics chain will be replaced. The detector will be equipped with a high-rate data acquisition system and a novel readout application-specific integrated circuit, called FastRICH, which is capable of providing precise timestamps of Cherenkov photons. These photons are produced when electrically charged particles, such as protons or electrons, travel faster than light in a medium.
The new LHCb RICH will be the first system featuring fast timing capabilities for single photons at the hundred-picosecond level, demonstrating once again how the challenging conditions of a flavour physics experiment at the LHC can lead to technological breakthroughs.
Prototypes of both subdetectors, SpaCal and RICH, have been successfully tested at CERN’s accelerator complex with beams from the Super Proton Synchrotron in preparation for the HL-LHC era.
ckrishna Thu, 06/06/2024 - 09:37 Byline LHCb collaboration Publication Date Thu, 06/06/2024 - 10:00Using carbon dioxide to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
For World Environment Day, celebrated by the United Nations on 5 June, CERN reaffirms its commitment to environmentally responsible research. Among numerous actions, CERN has a dedicated strategy to reduce emissions, which targets gas recirculation, gas recovery and exploring the use of alternative gases. Currently, the majority of CERN’s direct greenhouse gas emissions come from its particle detectors, which use a range of gas mixtures for particle detection and detector cooling. These gases are mainly synthetic refrigerants, including fluorinated gases with a particularly high global warming potential.
Since 2017, CERN has been developing a novel approach to detector cooling using carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 has a global warming potential of 1, which is several thousand times lower than the synthetic refrigerants currently used in low-temperature refrigeration systems, making it an excellent alternative. The Engineering department’s Cooling and Ventilation group and the Experimental Physics department’s Detector Technology group, with the support of other teams across CERN and partners in science and industry, are currently renovating the cooling systems of the ATLAS and CMS inner detectors. Surface work is already under way, while underground work will take place during the next long shutdown, LS3, scheduled to begin at the end of 2025. The objective is to achieve a drastic reduction of direct emissions of fluorinated gases, saving the equivalent of 40 000 tonnes of CO2 each year.
How? Every technical parameter has been optimised to cool CO2 to -53 °C, close to the temperature where CO2 becomes solid (-56.6 °C), pushing the performance of the equipment and the standard cooling cycles. Not only will this technology contribute to CERN’s objective of reducing its emissions, but it could also have applications in other low‑temperature industries, notably the food and pharmaceutical industries, furthering CERN’s tradition of knowledge and technology transfer for the benefit of society. Find out more in the new video below.
CO2 Cooling upgrade for the main detectors (Video: CERN)This is just one of CERN’s initiatives to minimise its impact on the environment in key domains, including energy, water, waste, sustainable land use, noise and emissions. Find out more here.
ndinmore Tue, 06/04/2024 - 12:17 Byline Anna Cook Publication Date Wed, 06/05/2024 - 12:10The CERN Alumni Network turns seven
2024 is proving to be an exhilarating year for the CERN Alumni Network, which will turn seven on 8 June. Join the seventh-anniversary LinkedIn live on Tuesday, 13 June to discover the impactful work being carried out by its members and celebrate our shared achievements together.
The CERN Alumni Network, which boasts nearly 10 000 members, is an integral part of the CERN community as it enables alumni to keep in touch with the Organization and each other after leaving the Laboratory. Throughout the year, the Network organises events to connect with alumni and companies and it also offers career guidance and mentoring.
Between 9 and 11 February 2024, CERN witnessed the momentous gathering of just under 600 people for the Network’s triennial reunion, Third Collisions. This vibrant event served as a testament to the enduring camaraderie within the CERN community, providing a platform for alumni to reconnect and exchange ideas. From captivating keynote addresses to interactive panel discussions, participants explored a wide array of topics, showcasing the breadth of knowledge within the alumni network and its collective commitment to addressing global challenges. Recordings of many of the keynote talks and parallel sessions can be accessed on the Indico event page. One highlight of Third Collisions was the inclusion of the first careers fair, which provided a platform for companies to connect directly with alumni. Networking sessions and CERN Club activities further reinforced the sense of a CERN community at the event. Participants also had the privilege of exploring the newly inaugurated Science Gateway, which served as a fitting backdrop for discussions on cutting-edge research and innovation.
Third Collisions was more than just a reunion: it was a convergence of minds, ideas and experiences. Energised by new insights and connections, participants departed with a renewed sense of purpose and pride in belonging to the extraordinary CERN alumni community. Thanks to Third Collisions, several alumni have come forward to propose new regional groups. Reflecting on the event, one attendee remarked, "I am so proud to be part of such a thriving and inspiring community! All the trajectories of CERN's alumni are super interesting, and it felt like a big family get-together."
If you haven't joined the Network yet, now is the perfect time to do so. By becoming a member, you can expand your professional network, forge connections with individuals who share your CERN experience, participate in exciting events and showcase your ongoing endeavours to a community passionate about the groundbreaking work conducted at CERN. Don’t forget to join the LinkedIn live on 13 June to continue these celebrations and connect with this ever-growing community.
Watch highlights from the Third Collisions event below.
ndinmore Thu, 05/30/2024 - 11:47 Byline CERN Alumni programme Publication Date Thu, 05/30/2024 - 11:45
Accelerator Report: Exploring potential performance increases
Over the years, the teams responsible for the LHC proton injector chain (Linac 4, PS Booster, PS and SPS) have developed various production schemes for the LHC beam, pushed the performance of the beam and explored its potential to enhance the collisions in the LHC. In 2023 and this year, until the end of last week, the so-called “standard LHC beam” has been used in batches of 3 x 36 bunches, provided by the SPS. On 24 May, the LHC was switched to the “BCMS (Beam Compression, Merging and Splitting) beam” mode to explore its potential to produce more collisions and to compare its performance to that of the standard beam.
In the LHC injector chain, the standard beam is produced by injecting three bunches from the PS Booster into the PS. After an initial acceleration, the PS splits each bunch longitudinally (see box) into three, resulting in nine bunches. These nine bunches are then accelerated to the maximum energy of the PS, where each bunch is split into two, and then again into two, resulting in 36 bunches, each spaced by 25 ns (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: The standard production scheme. The three bands at the bottom of the diagram represent the three PS Booster bunches injected into the PS. The middle band shows the splitting into three, while the top band shows the double split into two, which results in 36 bunches. (Image: CERN)The SPS receives three of these 36-bunch shots from the PS and accelerates them to an energy of 450 GeV before injecting them in the clockwise or counter-clockwise direction into the LHC. This means that one PS Booster bunch results in 12 bunches in the LHC. The number of protons per bunch (named intensity) required by the LHC is 16 x 1010. Taking the 12-fold splitting into account, this means that the number of protons per bunch which the PS Booster has to inject into the PS is 12 times higher than the LHC bunch intensity, i.e. 192 x 1010 protons per bunch.
The BCMS beam is produced by injecting six bunches into the PS: three from a first cycle and three, 1.2 seconds later, from a second cycle. After an initial acceleration, these six bunches are compressed and merged, in pairs of two, into a single bunch, resulting in three bunches, which are then each split into three bunches. The remainder of this production scheme is identical to the standard production scheme, which also results in 36 bunches spaced by 25 ns. With this scheme, six bunches are manipulated to obtain 36 bunches, which gives a splitting factor of six. Therefore, to obtain a bunch intensity of 16 x 1010 protons for the LHC, the PS Booster needs to provide only 96 x 1010 protons per bunch (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: The BCMS production scheme. The six bunches injected from the PS Booster can be seen at the bottom of the diagram. These bunches are compressed in pairs of two and then merged into three bunches, after which each bunch is split into three. In the top part of the image, the same double split into two is applied, as in the standard production scheme, resulting in 36 bunches. (Image: CERN)The LHC has now used the BCMS beam for about a week and the first signs of improved performance compared with the standard beam have already been observed.
How is it that the BCMS beam results in more collisions in the LHC if it contains the same number of protons as a standard beam?
The BCMS beam has a greater brightness, which means that it contains the same number of protons but in a smaller beam size. This smaller beam size is the result of the lower intensity per bunch in the PS Booster.
The challenge is to preserve this increased brightness when the beam is accelerated in all the machines of the LHC injector chain and in the LHC itself. During acceleration in the LHC, the beam size seems to increase slightly more with the BCMS scheme than with the standard beam scheme. Studies of the beam behaviour and adjustments of the machine parameters may limit this growth in the future, further increasing the number of collisions.
Final adjustments will be made in the coming weeks. A fact-based comparison will allow us to decide whether to continue using the BCMS production scheme or to revert to the standard production scheme. Stay tuned!
Bunch splitting, an explanation:
In the world of particle accelerators, we focus on two main spatial dimensions: transverse and longitudinal.
- The transverse plane refers to the horizontal (left-right) and vertical (up-down) movements of the particles. When we talk about transverse beam size, we measure how wide and tall the beam is in these directions.
- The longitudinal plane is the plane along the path of the accelerator, used to measure the length of the bunches and the spacing between them.
CERN’s artists on stage at the Victoria Hall as Fabiola Gianotti receives the 2024 prize from the “Fondation pour Genève”
On 13 May 2024, members of CERN’s vibrant community attended, and some performed at, the prestigious Fondation pour Genève prize ceremony at Victoria Hall. Since 1978, the annual prize has honoured Geneva citizens and institutions that contribute to the international influence of the city in scientific, political, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. CERN received it in 1999. For the 2024 prize, CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti was the recipient, honouring her exceptional commitment to the international influence of Geneva.
Musical contributions from the CERN community were at the heart of this celebration, which began with the Canettes Blues Band performing ATLAS Boogie and ended with an excerpt of Niccolò Jommelli’s Requiem performed by the CERN Choir. Interspersed throughout the evening were various testimonials, including from CERN community members. Presentations showing CERN’s 70-year history and the newly inaugurated Science Gateway, CERN’s state-of-the-art centre for education and outreach, celebrated the scientific and cultural impact of CERN in Geneva.
Watch the full award ceremony on the Fondation pour Genève website.
ndinmore Wed, 05/29/2024 - 10:26 Publication Date Wed, 05/29/2024 - 10:22HiLumi News: The HL-LHC’s cold powering system successfully passed the tests
If you’re an avid follower of High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) news, you will no doubt already have heard about “the python”, the new superconducting link developed at CERN. It is a component of the new cold powering system that will power the HL-LHC inner triplet magnets, which will focus proton beams more tightly around the ATLAS and CMS collision points.
This new system is packed with novel superconducting technologies: MgB2 superconducting cables, twisted together to form a compact bundle of about 9 centimetres in diameter, are inserted into a 22-centimetre-diameter flexible cryostat, with vacuum insulation and flowing helium gas. The MgB2 cables operate in the helium gas at temperatures from about 4.5 K (-268.7 °C) to 20 K (-253.2 °C). The REBCO high-temperature superconducting cables then transfer the current from 20 K to 50 K (-223.2 °C) and, finally, current leads provide the transition from 50 K to room temperature. This system can carry a direct electrical current (DC) of around 120 kA over the required distance of 85 metres.
While the superconducting cables of the LHC magnets have to be maintained in superfluid helium (at 1.9 K (-272.2 °C)) or in liquid helium (at 4.5 K), the new superconducting part of the system is capable of operating at a temperature of up to 60 K (-213.2 °C) at its highest, qualifying it as “high temperature” in superconductivity terms. “One of the beauties of this new system is that it operates in helium gas. The cryogenic cooling of the superconducting link is at zero cost, because it transfers the helium gas that in any case is needed to cool the current leads. This is one of the benefits of using high-temperature superconductors,” explains Amalia Ballarino, leader of the HL-LHC Cold Powering Work Package.
The new superconducting links will connect the power converters, located in radiation-free underground technical galleries above the LHC tunnel, to the HL-LHC magnets. The distance between the two link ends spans about 85 m for the inner triplets and includes a vertical path via an 8-m shaft (simulated here by the ramp visible in the photo). (Image: CERN)The superconducting link and its flexible cryostat can be spooled onto a large drum and transported like conventional power transmission cables. This new type of superconducting system has enormous potential for future accelerators and in areas beyond accelerator technology where large transfer of current is needed, or for the development of clean aviation.
The first HL-LHC cold powering system has just passed its first tests in the SM18 test facility. While the python was fully qualified in the previous R&D phases, this is the first time that a full power transmission system, transferring current from room temperature to the liquid helium environment via MgB2 and REBCO superconducting technology, has been constructed and successfully validated in final operating conditions. The complexity of the system is enhanced by the multiplicity of the circuits it contains. “The 19 superconducting cables and current leads, rated at currents ranging from 2 kA to 18 kA, transported a total DC current of 94 kA, the maximum current that could be delivered by the test station,” adds Ballarino. “Electromagnetic compatibility among circuits was validated, and high-voltage insulation tests were successfully accomplished. This great success is the result of ten years of R&D.”
The next steps will take place in early summer, when the cold powering system will be transported to the HL-LHC IT String where the collective behaviour of the inner triplet magnet system will be tested prior to installation underground in the LHC during the next long technical stop (LS3), scheduled to begin in 2026.
__________
To find out more, read this article published in the CERN Courier in April 2023.
anschaef Tue, 05/28/2024 - 13:24 Byline Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Tue, 05/28/2024 - 13:21CERN and the US sign joint statement of intent
CERN and the US government have released a joint statement concerning future planning for large research infrastructures, advanced scientific computing and open science. The Joint Statement of Intent was signed in Washington DC in April by CERN Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti, and Principal Deputy US Chief Technology Officer, Deirdre Mulligan, of the White House Office of Science and Technology (pictured).
Acknowledging their longstanding partnership in nuclear and particle physics, CERN and the US intend to enhance collaboration in planning activities for large-scale, resource-intensive facilities with the goal of providing a sustainable and responsible pathway for the peaceful use of future accelerator technologies.
Concerning the proposed Future Circular Collider, FCC-ee, which would collide electrons and positrons to produce copious quantities of Higgs bosons, the text states: “Should the CERN Member States determine the FCC-ee is likely to be CERN’s next world-leading research facility following the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider, the United States intends to collaborate on its construction and physics exploitation, subject to appropriate domestic approvals.” A technical and financial feasibility study for the proposed FCC is due to be completed in March 2025.
CERN and the US also intend to discuss potential collaboration on pilot projects to incorporate new analytics techniques and tools such as AI into particle physics research at scale and affirm their collective mission “to take swift strategic action that leads to accelerating widespread adoption of equitable open research, science, and scholarship throughout the world”.
In December 2023, the high-energy physics advisory panel to the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation released a 10-year strategic plan for US particle physics. Meanwhile, the next update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, which is formed through a broad consultation of the particle physics community in Europe and beyond, is about to get under way. The CERN Council has set the deadline for submitting written input for the next Strategy update at 31 March 2025, with a view to concluding the process in June 2026. The final report of the FCC Feasibility Study will be a key component of that input.
ndinmore Fri, 05/24/2024 - 11:59 Byline Matthew Chalmers Publication Date Fri, 05/24/2024 - 17:23