All articles tagged with #cern
BASE at CERN achieved a world-first by transporting a portable cryogenic Penning trap containing 92 antiprotons on a truck across CERN’s site, demonstrating feasibility for delivering antimatter to other laboratories for higher-precision measurements outside the main antimatter facility.
Scientists at CERN's LHCb have identified a new baryon, Xi-cc-plus, composed of two charm quarks and one down quark. Weighing about four times the mass of a proton, it offers a testbed for quantum chromodynamics and the strong force; discovered after 2023 detector upgrades, it is only the second observed baryon with two heavy quarks and has a lifetime up to six times shorter than a similar earlier baryon.
British researchers at CERN report the discovery of Xi-cc-plus, a proton-like particle four times heavier than a regular proton, found in data from the upgraded LHCb detector after a 20-year search, promising new insights into the strong force that binds atomic nuclei.
CERN’s LHCb collaboration announced the discovery of a new baryon called Xi-cc-plus, containing two charm quarks and one down quark, making it the 80th identified particle and the first new one found after the LHCb upgrades completed in 2023. It is heavier than a proton and has a shorter lifetime—about six times shorter than a similar earlier particle—posing detection challenges but providing a test bed for quantum chromodynamics and guiding future collider plans like the Future Circular Collider.
At CERN, the LHCb collaboration announced the discovery of a proton‑like baryon made of two charm quarks and one down quark, about four times the proton’s mass, observed with 7-sigma significance in Run 3 data; it’s the second baryon with two heavy quarks and a key test for quantum chromodynamics, including a shorter lifetime than the up-quark counterpart, and follows upgrades to the LHCb detector completed in 2023.
Scientists at CERN used a rare Z-boson–tagged event to observe how a single quark traverses quark-gluon plasma, revealing fluid-like wake patterns that align with hydrodynamic predictions and confirming the primordial plasma behaved as a dense, flowing liquid in the universe’s first microseconds.
New research shows metal-rich asteroid material can harden and self-damp under intense stress from a nuclear deflection, suggesting larger devices could be used without catastrophic fragmentation and preserving a last-resort option for very large or short-warning threats; NASA/ESA plan to study Apophis in 2029 and researchers will test more asteroid types (e.g., pallasites) to better inform planetary defense and hint at planetary formation insights.
CERN has secured $1 billion in private donations from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund, John Elkann, and Xavier Niel to kick off the Future Circular Collider (FCC), a 90.7-km tunnel intended as the Large Hadron Collider’s successor. The plan features a two-phase roadmap: FCC-ee as a Higgs factory starting around 2030 with operations by 2047, followed by FCC-hh protons at 85 TeV in the 2070s to probe new physics. A CERN Council decision is expected in 2028, with construction potentially starting in 2030. China’s CEPC stall may open collaboration opportunities modeled after ITER, while the HL-LHC upgrade remains a priority in the near term.
The Large Hadron Collider is being upgraded to reach extreme cryogenic temperatures to improve measurements and reduce electronic noise. A new CO2-based heat exchanger, developed with Swep, cools Atlas components to -45C, while other accelerator sections reach 1.9 Kelvin for superconducting magnets. This relies on dilution refrigeration using helium-4 and helium-3, a key tech for quantum computing, with broader applications in cryogenic cooling for semiconductors and even supermarket refrigeration. By achieving colder conditions, scientists aim to probe physics beyond the Standard Model.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland will be shut down starting June for about five years to undergo major upgrades to increase its collision capacity, with the goal of enabling more advanced experiments. During this period, CERN is also planning the development of the Future Circular Collider, a much larger and more powerful accelerator, although its future is uncertain due to high costs and scientific debates. The LHC's shutdown is part of ongoing efforts to deepen our understanding of fundamental physics, including the universe's origins.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being shut down temporarily for upgrades to increase its collision capacity, with a long-term plan to replace it with the even larger Future Circular Collider, aiming to continue groundbreaking discoveries in fundamental physics despite high costs and scientific debates.
Mark Thomson, a renowned physicist, takes over as Cern's director general and plans to shut down the LHC for upgrades to enhance its capabilities, while also preparing for the ambitious Future Circular Collider project to continue exploring fundamental questions about the universe.
A consortium of private donors has pledged 860 million euros to support CERN's proposed Future Circular Collider, a major new particle accelerator intended to succeed the Large Hadron Collider and explore fundamental physics, pending approval by CERN Member States around 2028.
Scientists at CERN recreated cosmic jet conditions using particle accelerators to investigate missing gamma-rays from blazars, finding that plasma beam instabilities are too weak to explain the phenomenon, which supports the idea of relic magnetic fields in intergalactic space. This experiment provides new insights into cosmic jet physics and the universe's magnetic history.
Scientists at CERN created plasma fireballs to test hypotheses about the behavior of jets from supermassive black holes called blazars, finding evidence that weak intergalactic magnetic fields may disrupt particle cascades, helping to explain their mysterious jets.