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Celebrating 25 years of service to CERN in 2022
Staff members who marked 25 years of service to CERN in 2022 were invited by the Director-General to the traditional ceremony in their honour held on 22 November 2022.
The photos from the ceremony and the list of the 67 staff members concerned can be viewed in this album (restricted access).
We thank them all warmly for their commitment and wish them continued success at CERN!
thortala Mon, 01/09/2023 - 17:19 Byline HR department Publication Date Mon, 01/09/2023 - 17:05New ALICE management takes over from January 2023
Marco van Leeuwen, senior scientist at Nikhef (Netherlands), has taken over from Luciano Musa as ALICE spokesperson as of early January 2023. He will lead the collaboration for the coming three years. Elected by the ALICE Collaboration Board, Marco comes to the position after serving as the upgrade coordinator for the last three years, and as ALICE physics coordinator prior to that. The new management team includes deputy spokespersons Kai Schweda, senior scientist at the GSI Helmholtz Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, and Bedangadas Mohanty, professor of physics at the National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar, India.
The new team is looking forward to collecting several large data samples with the upgraded ALICE detector during Run 3, including the first heavy-ion data taking of Run 3 later this year, as well as preparing for the ITS 3 and FoCal upgrades and the ALICE 3 programme.
Find out more about the new management on the ALICE website.
thortala Mon, 01/09/2023 - 11:24 Publication Date Mon, 01/09/2023 - 11:23New ALICE management takes over from January 2023
Marco van Leeuwen, senior scientist at Nikhef (Netherlands), has taken over from Luciano Musa as ALICE spokesperson as of early January 2023. He will lead the collaboration for the coming three years. Elected by the ALICE Collaboration Board, Marco comes to the position after serving as the upgrade coordinator for the last three years, and as ALICE physics coordinator prior to that. The new management team includes deputy spokespersons Kai Schweda, senior scientist at the GSI Helmholtz Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, and Bedangadas Mohanty, professor of physics at the National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar, India.
The new team is looking forward to collecting several large data samples with the upgraded ALICE detector during Run 3, including the first heavy-ion data taking of Run 3 later this year, as well as preparing for the ITS 3 and FoCal upgrades and the ALICE 3 programme.
Find out more about the new management on the ALICE website.
thortala Mon, 01/09/2023 - 11:24 Publication Date Mon, 01/09/2023 - 11:23Relive 2022 at CERN
This year saw the Large Hadron Collider restart and begin its third run for physics, at a record-breaking energy of 13.6 TeV.
As CERN celebrated ten years since the Higgs boson was discovered, experiments produced a wealth of physics results: from the discovery of new exotic particles to surprising antimatter behaviour and much more.
CERN strengthened international collaborations, bringing together experts to discuss quantum technologies and future technology for health, in a year when Brazil signed an agreement to become an Associate Member State. Additional knowledge-sharing initiatives included a world first in cancer radiotherapy, future clean aviation and even the first CERN-driven satellite being launched into space.
Watch this video and enjoy a visual journey through key moments of 2022!
katebrad Wed, 12/21/2022 - 09:10 Publication Date Wed, 12/21/2022 - 10:58Relive 2022 at CERN
This year saw the Large Hadron Collider restart and begin its third run for physics, at a record-breaking energy of 13.6 TeV.
As CERN celebrated ten years since the Higgs boson was discovered, experiments produced a wealth of physics results: from the discovery of new exotic particles to surprising antimatter behaviour and much more.
CERN strengthened international collaborations, bringing together experts to discuss quantum technologies and future technology for health, in a year when Brazil signed an agreement to become an Associate Member State. Additional knowledge-sharing initiatives included a world first in cancer radiotherapy, future clean aviation and even the first CERN-driven satellite being launched into space.
Watch this video and enjoy a visual journey through key moments of 2022!
katebrad Wed, 12/21/2022 - 09:10 Publication Date Wed, 12/21/2022 - 10:58CERN supports open access publishing for books
Ever since the open access (OA) publication of peer-reviewed primary research articles from CERN authors was made a policy requirement in 2014, CERN has made great strides forward in opening its research to anyone around the world. This has been achieved thanks to a variety of mechanisms implemented by the CERN Scientific Information Service (SIS), ranging from a series of Read & Publish agreements signed with major publishers to CERN’s participation in the SCOAP3 consortium, which has arranged for automatic OA to research in high-energy physics (HEP).
Books (including monographs and textbooks) have often been left out of such agreements and schemes. However, more and more monographs are now being published OA, thanks in part to historical and recent initiatives supported by CERN. The latest of these initiatives, SCOAP3 for books, has made dozens of books available in OA since its inception in 2022.
CERN’s commitment to OA for books is nothing new: CERN authors have long benefitted from the Organization’s support to help them make their monographs and reports freely accessible to anyone. As a result, ever since the OA publication of the first Yellow Reports in 1955, many monographs by CERN authors have followed suit. CERN’s efforts in this direction have recently been completed by the Organization’s participation in the MIT’s Direct to Open programme, through which libraries around the world shift from buying monographs from the MIT Press to funding them for everyone.
On top of all that, SCOAP3 for books looks set to bring about an enduring change in the publishing landscape for books in HEP and related disciplines. The initiative, which represents an expansion of the regular activities of the CERN-coordinated SCOAP3, has so far made more than 60 academic books (including monographs and textbooks) available open access. Voluntary contributions from hundreds of SCOAP3 member institutions fund the programme, opening education and research in HEP to the world.
Books published in OA thanks to the SCOAP3 for books initiative can be accessed on the publishers’ websites and through a dedicated collection on the OAPEN Library.
Enjoy your reading!
For any questions, please contact open-access-question@cern.ch.
CERN Scientific Information Service
https://scientific-info.cern
CERN supports open access publishing for books
Ever since the open access (OA) publication of peer-reviewed primary research articles from CERN authors was made a policy requirement in 2014, CERN has made great strides forward in opening its research to anyone around the world. This has been achieved thanks to a variety of mechanisms implemented by the CERN Scientific Information Service (SIS), ranging from a series of Read & Publish agreements signed with major publishers to CERN’s participation in the SCOAP3 consortium, which has arranged for automatic OA to research in high-energy physics (HEP).
Books (including monographs and textbooks) have often been left out of such agreements and schemes. However, more and more monographs are now being published OA, thanks in part to historical and recent initiatives supported by CERN. The latest of these initiatives, SCOAP3 for books, has made dozens of books available in OA since its inception in 2022.
CERN’s commitment to OA for books is nothing new: CERN authors have long benefitted from the Organization’s support to help them make their monographs and reports freely accessible to anyone. As a result, ever since the OA publication of the first Yellow Reports in 1955, many monographs by CERN authors have followed suit. CERN’s efforts in this direction have recently been completed by the Organization’s participation in the MIT’s Direct to Open programme, through which libraries around the world shift from buying monographs from the MIT Press to funding them for everyone.
On top of all that, SCOAP3 for books looks set to bring about an enduring change in the publishing landscape for books in HEP and related disciplines. The initiative, which represents an expansion of the regular activities of the CERN-coordinated SCOAP3, has so far made more than 60 academic books (including monographs and textbooks) available open access. Voluntary contributions from hundreds of SCOAP3 member institutions fund the programme, opening education and research in HEP to the world.
Books published in OA thanks to the SCOAP3 for books initiative can be accessed on the publishers’ websites and through a dedicated collection on the OAPEN Library.
Enjoy your reading!
For any questions, please contact open-access-question@cern.ch.
CERN Scientific Information Service
https://scientific-info.cern
LHCb brings leptons into line
Today the international LHCb collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented new measurements of rare particle transformations, or decays, that provide one of the highest-precision tests yet of a key property of the Standard Model of particle physics, known as lepton flavour universality. Previous studies of these decays had hinted at intriguing tensions with the theoretical predictions, potentially due to the effects of new particles or forces. The results of the improved and wider-reaching analysis based on the full LHC dataset collected by the experiment during Run 1 and Run 2, which were presented at a seminar at CERN held this morning, are in line with the Standard Model expectation.
A central mystery of particle physics is why the 12 elementary quarks and leptons are arranged in pairs across three generations that are identical in all but mass, with ordinary matter comprising particles from the first, lightest generation. Lepton flavour universality states that the fundamental forces are blind to the generation to which a lepton belongs. In recent years, however, an accumulation of results from LHCb and experiments in Japan and the US have suggested that this might not be the case, generating cautious excitement among physicists that a more fundamental theory – perhaps one that sheds light on the Standard Model’s mysterious flavour structure – might reveal itself at the LHC.
Interest in the “flavour anomalies” peaked in March 2021, when LHCb presented new results comparing the rates at which certain B mesons, composite particles that contain beauty quarks, decay into muons and electrons. According to the theory, decays involving muons and electrons should occur at the same rate, once differences in the leptons’ masses are accounted for. But the LHCb results hinted that B mesons decay into muons at a lower rate than predicted, as indicated by the results’ statistical significance of 3.1 standard deviations from the Standard Model prediction.
The new LHCb analysis, which has been ongoing for the past five years, is more comprehensive. It considers two different B-meson decay modes simultaneously for the first time and provides better control of the background processes that can mimic the decays of B-mesons to electrons. In addition, the two decay modes are measured in two different mass regions, thus yielding four independent comparisons of the decays. The results, which supersede previous comparisons, are in excellent agreement with the principle of lepton flavour universality.
“Measurements of the ratios of rare B-meson decays to electrons and muons have generated much interest in recent years because they are theoretically ‘clean’ and show consistency with a pattern of anomalies seen in other flavour processes,” explains LHCb spokesperson Chris Parkes of the University of Manchester and CERN. “The results shown today are the product of a comprehensive study of the two main modes using our full data sample and applying new, more robust techniques. These results are compatible with the expectation of our theory.”
New datasets will allow LHCb – one of the four large experiments at the LHC at CERN – to investigate lepton flavour universality further, in addition to conducting a wider research programme that includes studies of new hadrons, including the search for exotic tetraquarks and pentaquarks and investigation of the differences between matter and antimatter. An upgraded version of the experiment now in operation for LHC Run 3 will collect larger datasets that will allow even higher-precision tests of rare particle decays.
“Earlier LHCb indications of anomalies concerning lepton flavour universality triggered excitement,” says theoretical physicist Michelangelo Mangano of CERN. “That such anomalies could potentially have been real shows just how much remains unknown, since theoretical interpretations exposed a myriad of unanticipated possible phenomena. The latest LHCb findings take nothing away from our mission to push the boundary of our knowledge further, and the search for anomalies, guided by experimental hints, goes on!”
Read more on the LHCb website and in the CERN Courier.
ndinmore Tue, 12/20/2022 - 09:56 Publication Date Tue, 12/20/2022 - 09:50LHCb brings leptons into line
Today the international LHCb collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented new measurements of rare particle transformations, or decays, that provide one of the highest-precision tests yet of a key property of the Standard Model of particle physics, known as lepton flavour universality. Previous studies of these decays had hinted at intriguing tensions with the theoretical predictions, potentially due to the effects of new particles or forces. The results of the improved and wider-reaching analysis based on the full LHC dataset collected by the experiment during Run 1 and Run 2, which were presented at a seminar at CERN held this morning, are in line with the Standard Model expectation.
A central mystery of particle physics is why the 12 elementary quarks and leptons are arranged in pairs across three generations that are identical in all but mass, with ordinary matter comprising particles from the first, lightest generation. Lepton flavour universality states that the fundamental forces are blind to the generation to which a lepton belongs. In recent years, however, an accumulation of results from LHCb and experiments in Japan and the US have suggested that this might not be the case, generating cautious excitement among physicists that a more fundamental theory – perhaps one that sheds light on the Standard Model’s mysterious flavour structure – might reveal itself at the LHC.
Interest in the “flavour anomalies” peaked in March 2021, when LHCb presented new results comparing the rates at which certain B mesons, composite particles that contain beauty quarks, decay into muons and electrons. According to the theory, decays involving muons and electrons should occur at the same rate, once differences in the leptons’ masses are accounted for. But the LHCb results hinted that B mesons decay into muons at a lower rate than predicted, as indicated by the results’ statistical significance of 3.1 standard deviations from the Standard Model prediction.
The new LHCb analysis, which has been ongoing for the past five years, is more comprehensive. It considers two different B-meson decay modes simultaneously for the first time and provides better control of the background processes that can mimic the decays of B-mesons to electrons. In addition, the two decay modes are measured in two different mass regions, thus yielding four independent comparisons of the decays. The results, which supersede previous comparisons, are in excellent agreement with the principle of lepton flavour universality.
“Measurements of the ratios of rare B-meson decays to electrons and muons have generated much interest in recent years because they are theoretically ‘clean’ and show consistency with a pattern of anomalies seen in other flavour processes,” explains LHCb spokesperson Chris Parkes of the University of Manchester and CERN. “The results shown today are the product of a comprehensive study of the two main modes using our full data sample and applying new, more robust techniques. These results are compatible with the expectation of our theory.”
New datasets will allow LHCb – one of the four large experiments at the LHC at CERN – to investigate lepton flavour universality further, in addition to conducting a wider research programme that includes studies of new hadrons, including the search for exotic tetraquarks and pentaquarks and investigation of the differences between matter and antimatter. An upgraded version of the experiment now in operation for LHC Run 3 will collect larger datasets that will allow even higher-precision tests of rare particle decays.
“Earlier LHCb indications of anomalies concerning lepton flavour universality triggered excitement,” says theoretical physicist Michelangelo Mangano of CERN. “That such anomalies could potentially have been real shows just how much remains unknown, since theoretical interpretations exposed a myriad of unanticipated possible phenomena. The latest LHCb findings take nothing away from our mission to push the boundary of our knowledge further, and the search for anomalies, guided by experimental hints, goes on!”
Read more on the LHCb website and in the CERN Courier.
ndinmore Tue, 12/20/2022 - 09:56 Publication Date Tue, 12/20/2022 - 09:50ATLAS moves into top gear for Run 3
After over three years of upgrade and maintenance work, the Large Hadron Collider began its third period of operation (Run 3) in July 2022. Since then, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator has been colliding protons at a record-breaking energy of 13.6 TeV. The ATLAS collaboration has just released its first measurements of these record collisions, studying data collected in the first half of August 2022.
The researchers measured the rates of two well-known processes: the production of top-quark pairs and the production of a Z boson, which proceed through strong and electroweak interactions, respectively. The ratio of their cross sections is sensitive to the inner structure of the proton, and their measurement sets constraints on the relative probabilities that reactions are initiated by quarks and gluons.
These early measurements also validate the functionality of the ATLAS detector and its reconstruction software, which underwent many improvements in preparation for Run 3.
Physicists focused on Z-boson decays to electron and muon pairs, and on top-quark decays to a W boson and a jet – collimated sprays of particles – originating from a bottom quark. The W boson subsequently decays into one electron or muon and an invisible neutrino. As the analysis uses very early Run 3 data, physicists relied on preliminary calibrations of the leptons, jets and luminosity. These were derived promptly after the first data became available.
ATLAS measured a top-quark pair to Z boson production ratio that is consistent with the Standard Model prediction within the current experimental uncertainty of 4.7%.
The calibration and corresponding uncertainties will be improved as more data is processed. Future updates of the calibration will allow researchers to measure the cross sections with greater precision.
To validate their results, physicists performed a series of cross-checks. These included measuring the ratio of the cross section each time the LHC was injected with a new fill of protons for a data-taking run.
More analyses using the Run 3 data will follow, exploiting the unprecedented energies and the increased LHC data set.
Read more on the ATLAS website.
kbernhar Thu, 12/15/2022 - 17:06 Byline ATLAS collaboration Publication Date Fri, 12/16/2022 - 17:05ATLAS moves into top gear for Run 3
After over three years of upgrade and maintenance work, the Large Hadron Collider began its third period of operation (Run 3) in July 2022. Since then, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator has been colliding protons at a record-breaking energy of 13.6 TeV. The ATLAS collaboration has just released its first measurements of these record collisions, studying data collected in the first half of August 2022.
The researchers measured the rates of two well-known processes: the production of top-quark pairs and the production of a Z boson, which proceed through strong and electroweak interactions, respectively. The ratio of their cross sections is sensitive to the inner structure of the proton, and their measurement sets constraints on the relative probabilities that reactions are initiated by quarks and gluons.
These early measurements also validate the functionality of the ATLAS detector and its reconstruction software, which underwent many improvements in preparation for Run 3.
Physicists focused on Z-boson decays to electron and muon pairs, and on top-quark decays to a W boson and a jet – collimated sprays of particles – originating from a bottom quark. The W boson subsequently decays into one electron or muon and an invisible neutrino. As the analysis uses very early Run 3 data, physicists relied on preliminary calibrations of the leptons, jets and luminosity. These were derived promptly after the first data became available.
ATLAS measured a top-quark pair to Z boson production ratio that is consistent with the Standard Model prediction within the current experimental uncertainty of 4.7%.
The calibration and corresponding uncertainties will be improved as more data is processed. Future updates of the calibration will allow researchers to measure the cross sections with greater precision.
To validate their results, physicists performed a series of cross-checks. These included measuring the ratio of the cross section each time the LHC was injected with a new fill of protons for a data-taking run.
More analyses using the Run 3 data will follow, exploiting the unprecedented energies and the increased LHC data set.
Read more on the ATLAS website.
kbernhar Thu, 12/15/2022 - 17:06 Byline ATLAS collaboration Publication Date Fri, 12/16/2022 - 17:05CMS completes the release of its entire Run 1 proton-proton data
The CMS experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, with a broad programme of activities at the forefront of particle physics research. As of 5 December 2022, all of the proton-proton data collected by CMS during Run 1 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is now available through the CERN Open Data Portal. This completes the process that started in 2014 with the experiment’s very first open data release in experimental particle physics.
Completing the delivery of its Run 1 data within 10 years reaffirms the CMS collaboration’s commitment to an open data policy. This policy embodies values laid down in the CERN Convention, which states that all research undertaken at the Laboratory must be open and available to everyone.
The newly released CMS data consists of 42 collision datasets, representing a total of 491 terabytes, taken in early and late 2012 towards the end of LHC Run 1. This data includes some of the original findings from CMS that were used to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, which earned François Englert and Peter Higgs the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Included in the release are examples of code used to extract physics. This software has been successfully used to demonstrate the intricacies of experimental particle data taking in the CMS Open Data workshops held over the last three years. In addition, the CMS Open Data guide covers details of how physics objects can be accessed using this software, giving users the possibility to expand on this sample code for studies of their own interest.
Adaptable software samples are one of the most efficient ways of passing on the knowledge needed for research on the CMS data. “The software included in this release helps us preserve the huge efforts of the CMS Run 1 data analysts,” says Julie Hogan, one of the key contributors to the CMS Open Data workshops.
”The code samples are essential ingredients for any serious effort to use this data for research,” adds Edgar Carrera, the lead organiser of the latest workshops. “We therefore do our best to allow users of the data to follow the original CMS procedures as closely as possible.”
The preparations for the next CMS data releases are under way. The collaboration looks forward to providing additional heavy-ion open data from Run 1 and to proceeding with further Run-2 releases.
Find out more about the CMS Open Data workshops in the video here:
ndinmore Wed, 12/14/2022 - 09:46 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Wed, 12/14/2022 - 11:53CMS completes the release of its entire Run 1 proton-proton data
The CMS experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, with a broad programme of activities at the forefront of particle physics research. As of 5 December 2022, all of the proton-proton data collected by CMS during Run 1 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is now available through the CERN Open Data Portal. This completes the process that started in 2014 with the experiment’s very first open data release in experimental particle physics.
Completing the delivery of its Run 1 data within 10 years reaffirms the CMS collaboration’s commitment to an open data policy. This policy embodies values laid down in the CERN Convention, which states that all research undertaken at the Laboratory must be open and available to everyone.
The newly released CMS data consists of 42 collision datasets, representing a total of 491 terabytes, taken in early and late 2012 towards the end of LHC Run 1. This data includes some of the original findings from CMS that were used to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, which earned François Englert and Peter Higgs the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Included in the release are examples of code used to extract physics. This software has been successfully used to demonstrate the intricacies of experimental particle data taking in the CMS Open Data workshops held over the last three years. In addition, the CMS Open Data guide covers details of how physics objects can be accessed using this software, giving users the possibility to expand on this sample code for studies of their own interest.
Adaptable software samples are one of the most efficient ways of passing on the knowledge needed for research on the CMS data. “The software included in this release helps us preserve the huge efforts of the CMS Run 1 data analysts,” says Julie Hogan, one of the key contributors to the CMS Open Data workshops.
”The code samples are essential ingredients for any serious effort to use this data for research,” adds Edgar Carrera, the lead organiser of the latest workshops. “We therefore do our best to allow users of the data to follow the original CMS procedures as closely as possible.”
The preparations for the next CMS data releases are under way. The collaboration looks forward to providing additional heavy-ion open data from Run 1 and to proceeding with further Run-2 releases.
Find out more about the CMS Open Data workshops in the video here:
ndinmore Wed, 12/14/2022 - 09:46 Byline CMS collaboration Publication Date Wed, 12/14/2022 - 11:53