CERN: Press release

CERN celebrates 70 years of scientific discovery and innovation

ssanchis — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:41:10 +0000

CERN celebrates 70 years of scientific discovery and innovation

Today CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, announced a programme to celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2024. This landmark year honours CERN's remarkable contributions to scientific knowledge, technological innovation and international collaboration in the field of particle physics. Throughout the year, a variety of events and activities will showcase the Laboratory’s rich past as well as its bright future.

Leading up to an official high-level ceremony on 1 October, the preliminary anniversary programme, spanning the entire year, offers a rich array of events and activities, aimed at all types of audiences, at CERN and in the Organization’s Member States and Associate Member States and beyond. The first public event, scheduled for 30 January, will combine science, art and culture, and will feature a panel of eminent scientists discussing the evolution of particle physics and CERN’s significant contributions in advancing this field. On 7 March and 18 April, special events will showcase the practical applications of high-energy physics research in everyday life. Mid-May will see a focus on the importance of global collaboration in scientific endeavours, while the events in June and July will explore the current unanswered questions in particle physics and the facilities being planned for future breakthroughs. From talks by distinguished scientists and exhibitions showing CERN’s cutting-edge research and the diversity of its science and its people, to public engagement initiatives worldwide, everyone will find something to enjoy in this programme.

“CERN’s achievements over the 70 years of its history show what humanity can do when we put aside our differences and focus on the common good”, says Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director-General. “Through the celebrations of CERN’s 70^th anniversary, we will demonstrate how, over the past seven decades, CERN has been at the forefront of scientific knowledge and technological innovation, a model for training and education, collaboration and open science, and an inspiration for citizens around the world. This anniversary is also a great opportunity to look forward: CERN’s beautiful journey of exploration into the fundamental laws of nature and the constituents of matter is set to continue into the future with new, more powerful instruments and technologies.”

CERN came to life in 1954, in the aftermath of the Second World War, to bring excellence in scientific research back to Europe and to foster peaceful collaboration in fundamental research. This collective effort has pushed back the frontiers of human knowledge and of technology. As more powerful accelerators and experiments were built, foundational discoveries and innovations were made: among others, the multiwire proportional chamber was invented in 1968, the neutral currents were discovered in the 1970s, the W and Z bosons were discovered in 1983, the precision measurement of the Z boson and of other parameters of the electroweak theory was made in the 1990s thanks to the Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider, the Large Hadron Collider started up in 2009, and the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012. CERN is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web and has generated technologies that are used in other fields, including medical diagnostics and therapy and environmental protection.

Today, CERN counts 23 Member States, 10 Associate Member States and a vibrant community of 17,000 people from all over the world, with more than 110 nationalities represented. Currently, the Laboratory is home to the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. Building on its remarkable legacy of research and technological development, CERN is already looking to the future, in particular by studying the feasibility of a Future Circular Collider.

“This anniversary year is for everyone and should engage and inspire scientists, policy makers and the public. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone at CERN for the many events being planned, but also to the celebrations in our Member States, Associate Member States and beyond”, says Luciano Musa, coordinator of the CERN 70^th anniversary. “These international events are a testament to CERN's impact on scientific knowledge, technological development and worldwide collaboration.”

CERN extends an invitation to everyone to take part in these inspiring events, which aim to kindle scientific curiosity, honour scientific progress and collaborative efforts, and underscore the role of science in society. Join us in this year of celebration as we honour our glorious past and shape a bright future for CERN and its community.

For the complete CERN70 anniversary events and programme of activities, please visit: cern.ch/cern70.

For more information, read our media kit.

ssanchis Wed, 01/24/2024 - 11:41

Publication Date

Thu, 01/25/2024 - 14:30

CERN inaugurates Science Gateway, its new outreach centre for science education

angerard — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 09:18:41 +0000

CERN inaugurates Science Gateway, its new outreach centre for science education

Geneva, 7 October 2023. Today, CERN inaugurated its new state-of-the-art facility for science education and outreach. In a day-long inauguration event, CERN debuted Science Gateway to the President of the Swiss Confederation, ministers and other high-level authorities from CERN’s Member and Associate Member States, the project’s donors and partners in CERN’s research, education and outreach. Designed by world-renowned Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the new facility is open to visitors from around the world, from the age of five and upwards. It will allow CERN to significantly expand its portfolio of educational and outreach activities. CERN Science Gateway will be open to the public as of tomorrow, 8 October 2023.

The inauguration ceremony began with an address by Fabiola Gianotti, the CERN Director-General, who stressed the value of education and outreach with the public. “Sharing CERN’s research and the beauty and utility of science with the public has always been a key objective and activity of CERN, and with Science Gateway, as of tomorrow, we can expand significantly this component of our mission. We want to show the importance of fundamental research and its applications to society, infuse everyone who comes here with curiosity and a passion for science, and inspire young people to take up careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)” she said. “Science Gateway will be a place where scientists and the public can interact daily. For me, personally, Science Gateway is a dream that has become a reality and I am deeply grateful to all the people who have contributed, starting with our generous donors.”

CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, is the home of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

In his address, the President of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, said: “Those familiar with Venn diagrams will agree that this invisible circle puts CERN at the intersection between Switzerland, France and Europe, thus symbolising its commitment to shared scientific and political values. CERN truly is an exceptional facility and one that enables Switzerland and Geneva to shine on the world stage.”

The iconic building, inspired by the tubular structure of CERN’s accelerators, comprises five areas housing exhibitions, laboratories and an auditorium that can be flexibly configured into different spaces depending on requirements, as well as a shop and a restaurant.

The transparent glass panels and bridges further represent CERN’s commitment to collaboration across borders and culture and open science that is accessible to all.

Renzo Piano, chief architect of the project, said: “This will be a place where people meet: kids, students, adults, teachers and scientists, everybody attracted by the exploration of the Universe, from the infinitely vast to the infinitely small. It is a bridge, in both a metaphorical and a real sense. This building is fed by the energy of the Sun, landed in the middle of a newly grown forest.”

Not only is the building visually striking, but CERN and the architects committed to it being fully carbon neutral, and almost 4000 square metres of solar panels supply more power than the building’s needs. Over 400 trees have been planted, situating the whole campus in a living forest.

While the full project was launched in 2018, construction of the Science Gateway campus took just over two years, with the first stone of the building being laid on 21 June 2021.

This new facility would not have been possible without the generous support of the CERN Science Gateway sponsors, who share the same values and, through their contributions, want to pay tribute to education and knowledge for the benefit of society. The overall cost of Science Gateway was about 100 million Swiss francs, and this was funded exclusively through donations. In particular, the Stellantis Foundation is the largest single donor and contributed 45 million Swiss francs towards the project. John Elkann, Chairman of Stellantis, said: “CERN is an example of how we can work together in harmony, using scientific knowledge and ingenuity for the greater good. Stellantis Foundation is proud to partner with such an institution as it opens to the public the new Science Gateway, which also celebrates a great innovator like Sergio Marchionne. My family and I strongly believe in the power of education, which is the mission of the Fondazione Agnelli : a commitment we reinforce today with conviction and passion.”

As part of wider society, Stellantis takes action to advance human achievement. Stellantis, through its philanthropic activities and its Foundation, invests in individuals through education projects that spark innovation and excellence.

The Fondation Hans Wilsdorf is also a major donor. Other donors are the LEGO foundation, the Loterie Romande, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Rolex, the Carla Fendi Foundation, the Fondation Gelbert, Solvay, the Fondation Meyrinoise du Casino and the town of Meyrin. CERN thanks the République et Canton de Genève and the CERN and Society Foundation for their support.

The ceremony took place in the new 900-seat auditorium, named after Sergio Marchionne, former CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, who recently passed away. Guests visited the education laboratories and the unique immersive exhibitions and enjoyed the Big Bang Café, the Collider Circle square and other areas of the Science Gateway campus.

Throughout the day, guided by CERN scientists and children of CERN personnel, visitors were able to experience first-hand the range of Science Gateway’s opportunities, from interactive exhibitions to laboratories for hands-on experiments and immersive spaces. They also had the opportunity to appreciate CERN’s scientific breakthroughs and technologies, learn about the history of the Universe and admire the mysteries of the quantum world. Teenagers guided guests through various enquiry-based laboratory activities throughout the afternoon.

Eliezer Rabinovici, President of the CERN Council, speaking on behalf of CERN’s Member and Associate Member States, said: “Today we celebrate the courage and passion to innovate that CERN has always demonstrated and the commitment to share the fruits of its research with people from all countries and of all ages. May the science leaders of tomorrow come from among the curious children who will fill this wonderful place with joy in the coming years.”

The new centre is expected to host up to 500 000 visitors a year from across the world. Science Gateway will be free of charge and open 6 days a week, from Tuesday to Sunday.

Further resources:

Our media kit is available in English, French and Italian.

Watch the inauguration ceremony, and find our Video News Release here (Eurovision), or here (CERN video)

Pictures and speeches of the inauguration day will be gradually added on this link. Captions of the pictures are in the metadata.

Notes for editors:

About CERN
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world's leading laboratories for particle physics. The Organization is located on the French-Swiss border, with its headquarters in Geneva. Its Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia are Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership. Croatia, India, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Türkiye and Ukraine are Associate Member States. Japan and the United States of America currently have Observer status, as do the European Union and UNESCO. The Observer status of the Russian Federation and of JINR is suspended in accordance with the CERN Council Resolutions of 8 March 2022 and 25 March 2022, respectively.

About RPBW
The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) was established in 1981 by Renzo Piano with offices in Genoa, Italy and Paris, France. The practice has since expanded and now also operates from New York. RPBW is led by ten partners, including the founder and Pritzker Prize laureate, the architect Renzo Piano. The practice permanently employs about 130 architects together with a further 30 support staff including 3D-visualisation artists, model makers, archivers and administrative and secretarial staff. RPBW has successfully undertaken and completed over 140 projects around the world. Currently, the main projects in progress include the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles and the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay.

Major projects already completed include: the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; the Kanak Cultural Centre in Nouméa, New Caledonia; the Beyeler Foundation Museum in Basel; the New York Times Building in New York; the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco; the Chicago Art Institute expansion in Chicago, Illinois; the Shard in London; Columbia University’s Manhattanville development project in New York City; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Valletta City Gate in Malta; the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre in Athens; the New Paris Courthouse; and others throughout the world.

Science Gateway has seen Renzo Piano Building Workshop collaborate with Brodbeck Roulet Architectes Associés (Geneva).
Design team: A.Belvedere, J.Moolhuijzen, L.Piazza (partners and associate in charge), N.Grawitz with G.Andrich, A.Karcher, D.Rat and J.P.Azares, M.Daubach, D.Gautrand, A.Manolioux, S.Giorgianni, J.Horcajo Rubi, M.Yildirim; A.Bagatella, T.Garofalo, D.Tsagkaropoulos (CGI); O.Aubert, C.Colson, Y.Kyrkos (models)
Consultants: Arup, EDMS (structure); SRG (MEP); Transsolar (sustainability); Müller BBM (acoustics); Eckersley O‘Callaghan (façades); Scenarchie (A/V, theater equipment); Arup (lighting); Charpente Concept (fire prevention / design phase); ISI (fire safety / construction phase) Atelier Descombes Rampini (landscaping); Sunsoak (solar PV system); Lama (food service); Trafitec (traffic, transporation)

About Stellantis
Stellantis N.V. (NYSE: STLA / Euronext Milan: STLAM / Euronext Paris: STLAP) is one of the world’s leading automakers and a mobility provider. Its storied and iconic brands embody the passion of its visionary founders and today’s customers in its innovative products and services, which include Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep®, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Vauxhall, Free2move and Leasys. Powered by our diversity, we lead the way the world moves – aspiring to become the greatest sustainable mobility tech company, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders as well as the communities in which we operate. For more information, visit www.stellantis.com.

angerard Fri, 10/06/2023 - 11:18

Publication Date

Sat, 10/07/2023 - 12:00

ALPHA experiment at CERN observes the influence of gravity on antimatter

angerard — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:15:15 +0000

ALPHA experiment at CERN observes the influence of gravity on antimatter

Isaac Newton's historic work on gravity was apparently inspired by watching an apple fall to the ground from a tree. But what about an “anti-apple” made of antimatter, would it fall in the same way if it existed? According to Albert Einstein’s much-tested theory of general relativity, the modern theory of gravity, antimatter and matter should fall to Earth in the same way. But do they, or are there other long-range forces beyond gravity that affect their free fall?

In a paper published today in Nature, the ALPHA collaboration at CERN’s Antimatter Factory shows that, within the precision of their experiment, atoms of antihydrogen – a positron orbiting an antiproton – fall to Earth in the same way as their matter equivalents.

“In physics, you don't really know something until you observe it,” says ALPHA spokesperson Jeffrey Hangst. “This is the first direct experiment to actually observe a gravitational effect on the motion of antimatter. It’s a milestone in the study of antimatter, which still mystifies us due to its apparent absence in the Universe.”

Gravity is the attractive force between any two objects with mass. It is by far the weakest of the four fundamental forces of nature. Antihydrogen atoms are electrically neutral and stable particles of antimatter. These properties make them ideal systems in which to study the gravitational behaviour of antimatter.

The ALPHA collaboration creates antihydrogen atoms by taking negatively charged antiprotons, produced and slowed down in the Antimatter Factory’s AD and ELENA machines, and binding them with positively charged positrons accumulated from a sodium-22 source. It then confines the neutral – but slightly magnetic – antimatter atoms in a magnetic trap, which prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating.

Until now, the team has concentrated on spectroscopic studies in the ALPHA-2 device, shining laser light or microwaves onto the antihydrogen atoms to measure their internal structure. But the ALPHA team has also built a vertical apparatus called ALPHA-g, which received its first antiprotons in 2018 and was commissioned in 2021. The ‘g’ denotes the local acceleration of gravity, which, for matter, is about 9.81 metres per second squared. This apparatus makes it possible to measure the vertical positions at which the antihydrogen atoms annihilate with matter once the trap’s magnetic field is switched off, allowing the atoms to escape.

This is exactly what the ALPHA researchers did in their new investigation, following a proof-of-principle experiment with the original ALPHA set-up in 2013. They trapped groups of about 100 antihydrogen atoms, one group at a time, and then slowly released the atoms over a period of 20 seconds by gradually ramping down the current in the top and bottom magnets of the trap. Computer simulations of the ALPHA-g set-up indicate that, for matter, this operation would result in about 20% of the atoms exiting through the top of the trap and 80% through the bottom, a difference caused by the downward force of gravity. By averaging the results of seven release trials, the ALPHA team found that the fractions of anti-atoms exiting through the top and bottom were in line with the results of the simulations.

The full study involved repeating the experiment several times for different values of an additional “bias” magnetic field, which could either enhance or counteract the force of gravity. By analysing the data from this “bias scan”, the team found that, within the precision of the current experiment (about 20% of g), the acceleration of an antihydrogen atom is consistent with the familiar, attractive gravitational force between matter and the Earth.

“It has taken us 30 years to learn how to make this anti-atom, to hold on to it, and to control it well enough that we could actually drop it in a way that it would be sensitive to the force of gravity,” says Hangst. “The next step is to measure the acceleration as precisely as we can,” continues Hangst. “We want to test whether matter and antimatter do indeed fall in the same way. Laser-cooling of antihydrogen atoms, which we first demonstrated in ALPHA-2 and will implement in ALPHA-g when we return to it in 2024, is expected to have a significant impact on the precision.”

CERN’s Antimatter Factory is a unique facility in the world for producing and studying antimatter. Two other experiments at this facility, AEgIS and GBAR, share with ALPHA the goal of measuring with high precision the gravitational acceleration of atomic antimatter. Also at the Antimatter Factory is the BASE experiment. Its main focus is to compare with high precision the properties of the proton with those of its antimatter twin, and it has recently compared the gravitational behaviour of these two particles.

Click here to download the video news release.

Further information:

Collection of videos

Virtual tour of ALPHA

angerard Mon, 09/25/2023 - 17:15

Publication Date

Wed, 09/27/2023 - 17:00

Three teams of secondary school pupils from the Netherlands, Pakistan and the USA win the 10th edition of Beamline for Schools

tkomanyt — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 15:25:28 +0000

Three teams of secondary school pupils from the Netherlands, Pakistan and the USA win the 10th edition of Beamline for Schools

Geneva and Hamburg, 28 June 2023. In 2023, for the second time in the history of the Beamline for Schools competition, the evaluation committee selected three winning teams. The team “Myriad Magnets” from the Philips Exeter Academy, in Exeter, United States, and the team “Particular Perspective”, which brings together pupils from the Islamabad College for Boys, the Supernova School in Islamabad, the Cadet College in Hasanabdal, the Siddeeq Public School in Rawalpindi and the Cedar College in Karachi, Pakistan, will travel to CERN, Geneva, in September 2023 to perform the experiments that they proposed. The team “Wire Wizards” from the Augustinianum school in Eindhoven, Netherlands, will be hosted at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany) to carry out its experiment.

Beamline for Schools (BL4S) is a physics competition open to secondary school pupils from all around the world. The participants are invited to prepare a proposal for a physics experiment that can be undertaken at the beamline of a particle accelerator. A beamline is a facility that provides high-energy fluxes of subatomic particles that can be used to conduct experiments in different fields, including fundamental physics, material science and medicine.

BL4S started in 2014 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of CERN. Following the success of the first edition, the competition continued, reaching its 10th edition in 2023. Since 2014, 22 teams have been awarded as winners in BL4S, while more than 16 000 pupils from all over the world have taken part in the competition. The participation rate has been rising consistently for the past few years, and this year, 379 teams from 63 countries submitted an experiment proposal.

“Congratulations to this year’s winners – may they have good beams, collect interesting data and generally have the time of their lives,” says Christoph Rembser, a CERN physicist at the ATLAS experiment and one of the founders of Beamline for Schools. “Every year I am astonished by how many young people submit very creative, interesting proposals. In 2014, we weren’t sure at all whether this competition would work. Ten years and 16 000 participants later, I am proud to say that it is obviously a resounding success.”

The fruitful collaboration between CERN and DESY started in 2019 during the shutdown period of the CERN accelerators. This year, the German laboratory will host its fifth team of winners.

“I am amazed that this time a record number of nearly 380 applications from school teams worldwide was received! It is fantastic that so many young people are interested in doing hands-on research at our laboratories,” says Beate Heinemann, DESY Director in charge of particle physics. “DESY is very happy to be part of this endeavour together with CERN, and to offer its test beam this year to a team from the Netherlands.”

Preparing a proposal for a particle physics experiment is a very challenging task for secondary school pupils but, when provided with the right support, the participants design very creative experiments. The “Myriad Magnets” team from the United States plans to build and test a permanent magnet with the Halbach geometry that can be configured to produce a dipole or a quadrupole magnetic field.

“BL4S supported us to directly explore and apply new skills, particularly in the intersection of physics and engineering. It is hard to find challenging and intellectually fruitful opportunities that tackle research in both; BL4S filled this gap, and we look forward to continuing to build on these areas at CERN and in the coming years,” says Isabella Vesely, one of the “Myriad Magnets” pupils.

The Pakistan team “Particular Perspective” will measure in detail the beam composition of the T10 beamline of the CERN Proton Synchrotron accelerator. The experiment set-up they designed will make it possible to differentiate between different particle species and measure their intensity.

“I am grateful to BL4S for having provided me with an opportunity to represent my country, Pakistan, and its budding community of aspiring physicists. This is a chance for us to experience physics at the highest level and will inspire people with interests similar to ours to reach greater heights,” says Muhammad Salman Tarar from the “Particular Perspective” team.

The “Wire Wizards” team’s experiment focuses on detector development. The Dutch students designed and built a multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC), a gas detector able to measure the position of a particle interacting with it, and they plan to characterise it using the electron beam available at DESY.

“The BL4S competition provides us with a unique educational experience that will be a highlight in our time as students,” says Leon Verreijt from the “Wire Wizards” team.

The winners have been selected by a committee of CERN and DESY scientists from a shortlist of 27 particularly promising experiments. All the teams in the shortlist will be awarded special prizes. In addition, one team will be recognised for the most creative video and 10 teams for the quality of physics outreach activities they are organising in their local communities, taking advantage of the knowledge gained by taking part in BL4S.

Beamline for Schools is an education and outreach project funded by the CERN & Society Foundation and supported by individual donors, foundations and companies and, for this 10th edition, notably by ROLEX through its Perpetual Planet Initiative and the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation.

Further information:

BL4S website: https://beamlineforschools.cern/
2023 edition: https://beamlineforschools.cern/editions/2023-edition
Shortlisted teams in 2023: https://beamline-for-schools.web.cern.ch/sites/default/files/BL4S_2023_shortlist_video_outreach.pdf
Previous winners: https://beamlineforschools.cern/resources/winners
Countries represented among the shortlisted teams: Antigua & Barbuda, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Italy, Japan, Mauritius, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Spain, Türkiye, United Kingdom, United States.
The prizes awarded for the best outreach project have been kindly provided by the Belgian project “Stars Shine for Everyone”.

tkomanyt Tue, 06/27/2023 - 17:25

Publication Date

Wed, 06/28/2023 - 14:37

Improved ATLAS result weighs in on the W boson

gfabre — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 13:38:29 +0000

Improved ATLAS result weighs in on the W boson

Geneva, 23 March 2023. The W boson, a fundamental particle that carries the charged weak force, is the subject of a new precision measurement of its mass by the ATLAS experiment at CERN.

The preliminary result, reported in a new conference note presented today at the Rencontres de Moriond conference, is based on a reanalysis of a sample of 14 million W boson candidates produced in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CERN’s flagship particle accelerator.

The new ATLAS measurement concurs with, and is more precise than, all previous W mass measurements except one – the latest measurement from the CDF experiment at the Tevatron, a former accelerator at Fermilab.

Together with its electrically neutral counterpart, the Z boson, the electrically charged W boson mediates the weak force, a fundamental force that is responsible for a form of radioactivity and initiates the nuclear fusion reaction that powers the Sun.

The particle’s discovery at CERN 40 years ago helped to confirm the theory of the electroweak interaction that unifies the electromagnetic and weak forces. This theory is now a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics. CERN researchers who enabled the discovery were awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in physics.

Since then, experiments at particle colliders at CERN and elsewhere have measured the W boson mass ever more precisely. In the Standard Model, the W boson mass is closely related to the strength of the electroweak interactions and the masses of the heaviest fundamental particles, including the Z boson, the top quark and the Higgs boson. In this theory, the particle is constrained to weigh 80354 million electronvolts (MeV), within an uncertainty of 7 MeV.

Any deviation of the measured mass from the Standard Model prediction would be an indicator of new physics phenomena, such as new particles or interactions. To be sensitive to such deviations, mass measurements need to be extremely precise.

In 2017, ATLAS released its first measurement of the W boson mass, which was determined using a sample of W bosons recorded by ATLAS in 2011, when the LHC was running at a collision energy of 7 TeV. The W boson mass came out at 80370 MeV, with an uncertainty of 19 MeV.

At the time, this result represented the most precise W boson mass value ever obtained by a single experiment, and was in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction and all previous experimental results, including those from experiments at the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP), the LHC’s predecessor at CERN.

Last year, the CDF collaboration at Fermilab announced an even more precise measurement, based on an analysis of its full dataset collected at the Tevatron. The result, 80434 MeV with an uncertainty of 9 MeV, differed significantly from the Standard Model prediction and from the other experimental results, calling for more measurements to try to identify the cause of the difference.

In its new study, ATLAS reanalysed its 2011 sample of W bosons, improving the precision of its previous measurement. The new W boson mass, 80360 MeV with an uncertainty of 16 MeV, is 10 MeV lower than the previous ATLAS result and 16% more precise. The result is in agreement with the Standard Model.

Comparison of the measured value of the W boson mass with other published results. The vertical bands show the Standard Model prediction, and the horizontal bands and lines show the statistical and total uncertainties of the results (Image: CERN)

To attain this result, ATLAS used an advanced data-fitting technique to determine the mass, as well as more recent, improved versions of what are known as the parton distribution functions of the proton. These functions describe the sharing of the proton’s momentum amongst its constituent quarks and gluons. In addition, ATLAS verified the theoretical description of the W boson production process using dedicated LHC proton–proton runs.

“Due to an undetected neutrino in the particle’s decay, the W mass measurement is among the most challenging precision measurements performed at hadron colliders. It requires extremely accurate calibration of the measured particle energies and momenta, and a careful assessment and excellent control of modelling uncertainties,” says ATLAS spokesperson Andreas Hoecker. “This updated result from ATLAS provides a stringent test, and confirms the consistency of our theoretical understanding of electroweak interactions.”

Further measurements of the W boson mass are expected from ATLAS and CMS and from LHCb, which has also recently weighed the boson.

Further information

Video news release : https://videos.cern.ch/record/2297554

News clip : https://videos.cern.ch/record/2297560

ATLAS images gallery : https://home.cern/resources/image/experiments/atlas-images-gallery

gfabre Tue, 03/21/2023 - 14:38

Publication Date

Thu, 03/23/2023 - 12:00

The Higgs boson, ten years after its discovery

mailys — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 11:29:45 +0000

The Higgs boson, ten years after its discovery

Geneva, 4 July 2022. Ten years ago, on July 4 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced the discovery of a new particle with features consistent with those of the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. The discovery was a landmark in the history of science and captured the world’s attention. One year later it won François Englert and Peter Higgs the Nobel Prize in Physics for their prediction made decades earlier, together with the late Robert Brout, of a new fundamental field, known as the Higgs field, that pervades the universe, manifests itself as the Higgs boson and gives mass to the elementary particles.

“The discovery of the Higgs boson was a monumental milestone in particle physics. It marked both the end of a decades-long journey of exploration and the beginning of a new era of studies of this very special particle,” says Fabiola Gianotti, CERN’s Director-General and the project leader (‘spokesperson’) of the ATLAS experiment at the time of the discovery. “I remember with emotion the day of the announcement, a day of immense joy for the worldwide particle physics community and for all the people who worked tirelessly over decades to make this discovery possible.”

In just ten years physicists have made tremendous steps forward in our understanding of the universe, not only confirming early on that the particle discovered in 2012 is indeed the Higgs boson but also allowing researchers to start building a picture of how the pervasive presence of a Higgs field throughout the universe was established a tenth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

The new journey so far

The new particle discovered by the international ATLAS and CMS collaborations in 2012 appeared very much like the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model. But was it actually that long-sought-after particle? As soon as the discovery had been made, ATLAS and CMS set out to investigate in detail whether the properties of the particle they had discovered truly matched those predicted by the Standard Model. By using data from the disintegration, or ‘decay’, of the new particle into two photons, the carriers of the electromagnetic force, the experiments have demonstrated that the new particle has no intrinsic angular momentum, or quantum spin – exactly like the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model. By contrast, all other known elementary particles have spin: the matter particles, such as the ‘up’ and ‘down’ quarks that form protons and neutrons, and the force-carrying particles, such as the W and Z bosons.

By observing the Higgs bosons being produced from and decaying into pairs of W or Z bosons, ATLAS and CMS confirmed that these gain their mass through their interactions with the Higgs field, as predicted by the Standard Model. The strength of these interactions explains the short range of the weak force, which is responsible for a form of radioactivity and initiates the nuclear fusion reaction that powers the Sun.

The experiments have also demonstrated that the top quark, bottom quark and tau lepton – which are the heaviest fermions – obtain their mass from their interactions with the Higgs field, again as predicted by the Standard Model. They did so by observing, in the case of the top quark, the Higgs boson being produced together with pairs of top quarks, and in the cases of the bottom quark and tau lepton, the boson’s decay into pairs of bottom quarks and tau leptons respectively. These observations confirmed the existence of an interaction, or force, called the Yukawa interaction, which is part of the Standard Model but is unlike all other forces in the Standard Model: it is mediated by the Higgs boson, and its strength is not quantized, that is, it doesn’t come in multiples of a certain unit.

ATLAS and CMS measured the Higgs boson’s mass to be 125 billion electronvolts (GeV), with an impressive precision of almost one per mil. The mass of the Higgs boson is a fundamental constant of nature that is not predicted by the Standard Model. Moreover, together with the mass of the heaviest known elementary particle, the top quark, and other parameters, the Higgs boson’s mass may determine the stability of the universe’s vacuum.

These are just a few of the concrete results of ten years of exploration of the Higgs boson at the world’s largest and most powerful collider – the only place in the world where this unique particle can be produced and studied in detail.

“The large data samples provided by the LHC, the exceptional performance of the ATLAS and CMS detectors, and new analysis techniques have allowed both collaborations to extend the sensitivity of their Higgs-boson measurements beyond what was thought possible when the experiments were designed,” says ATLAS spokesperson Andreas Hoecker.

In addition, since the LHC started colliding protons at record energies in 2010, and thanks to the unprecedented sensitivity and precision of the four main experiments, the LHC collaborations have discovered more than 60 composite particles predicted by the Standard Model, some of which are exotic ‘tetraquarks’ and ‘pentaquarks’. The experiments have also revealed a series of intriguing hints of deviations from the Standard Model that compel further investigation, and have studied the quark–gluon plasma that filled the universe in its early moments in unprecedented detail. They have also observed many rare particle processes, made ever more precise measurements of Standard Model phenomena, and broken new ground in searches for new particles beyond those predicted by the Standard Model, including particles that may make up the dark matter that accounts for most of the mass of the universe.

The results of these searches add important pieces to our understanding of fundamental physics. “Discoveries in particle physics don’t have to mean new particles,” says CERN’s Director for Research and Computing, Joachim Mnich. “The LHC results obtained over a decade of operation of the machine have allowed us to spread a much wider net in our searches, setting strong bounds on possible extensions of the Standard Model, and to come up with new search and data-analysis techniques.”

Remarkably, all of the LHC results obtained so far are based on just 5% of the total amount of data that the collider will deliver in its lifetime. “With this ‘small’ sample, the LHC has allowed big steps forward in our understanding of elementary particles and their interactions,” says CERN theorist Michelangelo Mangano. “And while all the results obtained so far are consistent with the Standard Model, there is still plenty of room for new phenomena beyond what is predicted by this theory.”

“The Higgs boson itself may point to new phenomena, including some that could be responsible for the dark matter in the universe,” says CMS spokesperson Luca Malgeri. “ATLAS and CMS are performing many searches to probe all forms of unexpected processes involving the Higgs boson.”

The journey that still lies ahead

What’s left to be learned about the Higgs field and the Higgs boson ten years on? A lot. Does the Higgs field also give mass to the lighter fermions or could another mechanism be at play? Is the Higgs boson an elementary or composite particle? Can it interact with dark matter and reveal the nature of this mysterious form of matter? What generates the Higgs boson’s mass and self-interaction? Does it have twins or relatives?

Finding the answers to these and other intriguing questions will not only further our understanding of the universe at the smallest scales but may also help unlock some of the biggest mysteries of the universe as a whole, such as how it came to be the way it is and what its ultimate fate might be. The Higgs boson’s self-interaction, in particular, might hold the keys to a better understanding of the imbalance between matter and antimatter and the stability of the vacuum in the universe.

While answers to some of these questions might be provided by data from the imminent third run of the LHC or from the collider’s major upgrade, the high-luminosity LHC, from 2029 onwards, answers to other enigmas are thought to be beyond the reach of the LHC, requiring a future ‘Higgs factory’. For this reason, CERN and its international partners are investigating the technical and financial feasibility of a much larger and more powerful machine, the Future Circular Collider, in response to a recommendation made in the latest update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics.

“High-energy colliders remain the most powerful microscope at our disposal to explore nature at the smallest scales and to discover the fundamental laws that govern the universe,” says Gian Giudice, head of CERN’s Theory department. “Moreover, these machines also bring tremendous societal benefits.”

Historically, the accelerator, detector and computing technologies associated with high-energy colliders have had a major positive impact on society, with inventions such as the World Wide Web, the detector developments that led to the PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scanner, and the design of accelerators for hadron therapy in the treatment of cancers. Furthermore, the design, construction and operation of particle physics colliders and experiments have resulted in the training of new generations of scientists and professionals in other fields, and in a unique model of international collaboration.

Further information

Video news release : https://videos.cern.ch/record/2296228

Pictures of the 4 July 2022 event will be added here.

Higgs boson background information can be found here.

mailys Fri, 07/01/2022 - 13:29

Publication Date

Mon, 07/04/2022 - 08:00

Three teams of high-school students from Egypt, France and Spain win the CERN Beamline for Schools competition

ochriste — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 09:18:12 +0000

Three teams of high-school students from Egypt, France and Spain win the CERN Beamline for Schools competition

Geneva and Hamburg, 29 June 2022. Three teams of high-school students – from the Club de Física Enrico Fermi (Vigo, Spain), the Elsewedy Technical Academy (STA) (Cairo, Egypt) and the École du Sacré-Coeur (Reims, France) – have won the 2022 edition of the CERN Beamline for Schools competition. The prize for these talented students is a trip to CERN for the Spanish and Egyptian teams, and to DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany) for the French team, in autumn 2022, to perform their proposed experiments with the support of scientists from the two scientific research centres.

Beamline for Schools (BL4S)is a physics competition open to high-school students from all over the world. The participants are invited to submit their proposals for an experiment that uses a beamline. Beamlines are facilities that provide fluxes of subatomic particles that scientists use to conduct experiments in different fields spanning fundamental physics, medicine and material science. Operating a beamline requires particle accelerators like those running at CERN and DESY.

In 2022, for the first time since the beginning of the competition, three teams will have the opportunity to perform their proposed experiments: two teams at CERN and one at DESY. The fruitful collaboration on BL4S between the two institutions started in 2019, when CERN’s accelerators were shut down for maintenance and upgrades, and DESY hosted the winners and made it possible for the competition to continue. Even though CERN’s second long shutdown is now over, the German laboratory decided to continue supporting the competition by hosting an additional team that will run its experiment in parallel to their colleagues at CERN.

“I continue to be impressed by the quality of the students’ proposals, and this year I am particularly happy that CERN will again be able to welcome two of the three winning teams,” says Joachim Mnich, Director for Research and Computing at CERN. “Thanks to the strong engagement and innovative ideas of all the participants, this competition has once again created a unique environment that brings together science and high-school students."

Beamline for Schools was launched in 2014 to celebrate CERN’s 60th anniversary and, since then, more than 14 000 students from across the world have participated. The number of proposals submitted to the competition has been growing steadily in recent years, and this edition saw the participation of 304 teams representing 71 countries. A committee of scientists from both CERN and DESY carefully evaluated the experiment proposals and shortlisted 25 teams, from among which the winners were selected. In addition, one team won the prize for the most creative video proposal and six teams were recognised for the quality of the outreach activities they organised in their local communities, taking advantage of what they were learning through their participation in the competition. “Taking part in Beamline for Schools offers a unique opportunity to learn about particle physics and take the first steps in scientific research at a very early stage of a student’s career,” says Margherita Boselli, BL4S project manager. “By organising outreach activities, the teams are able to share their knowledge with different communities all around the world.”

The quality of the winning proposals shows that, with the right support, high-school students can tackle modern physics topics and develop a research plan. The Club de Física Enrico Fermi team from Spain intends to study the charge induced by the passage of ultra-relativistic charged particles in a class of gas detectors called multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPCs). They are interested in the relationship between the charge produced in the detector, the particles’ mass and the angle between the particle beam and the detector plane.

“Winning the competition not only demonstrates the hard work of our team in preparing the proposal,” says Iago Campos from the Club de Física Enrico Fermi, “but it also will give us the opportunity to be part of the particle physics community at CERN and perhaps start a career in research.”

The STA team from Egypt, the first Middle Eastern country to win this competition, will also work on MRPCs, but focusing on a different phenomenon. They will analyse the detection efficiency of the MRPCs when the gas usually used by these detectors is replaced by a more environmentally friendly one.

“This competition has changed my approach to school and taught me how to write a scientific proposal,” says Mohab Mahmoud Ezzat Mahmoud Mohamed Ramadan from the STA team. “Winning the competition gives us further motivation to continue what we started.”

The Supercooling team from France decided to test an innovative particle detection technique that relies on the phase transition between liquid and solid water. Inspired by the detection principle used in cloud and bubble chambers, the students will investigate the detection efficiency of water in the supercooled state, where the passage of highly energetic particles could induce a phase transition from liquid to solid.

“Beamline for Schools helped us to create a close-knit team and to match everyone’s ability to achieve the best version of ourselves,” says Brewen Le Grand from the Supercooling team. His teammate Clémence Calvet adds: “This competition is an incredible experience to acquire new skills, new knowledge and dive into the world of physics.”

“I am thrilled that we will again host a school this autumn in the context of the Beamline for Schools initiative at DESY,” says Beate Heinemann, Scientific Director for Particle Physics at DESY. “We look forward to the visit of the French school that will explore a new way of tracking charged particles at our test beam at the DESY II accelerator. I congratulate all three of the winning teams!”

Beamline for Schools is an education and outreach project funded by the CERN & Society Foundation and supported by individual donors, foundations and companies. The ninth edition is supported by the Arconic Foundation and the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation, with additional contributions from Amgen Switzerland.

Next year, Beamline for Schools will celebrate its 10th edition: the participation rate and the success of recent editions show that the competition is an inspiring project for young generations of students.

Further information:

BL4S website: https://beamlineforschools.cern/
2022 edition: https://beamline-for-schools.web.cern.ch/editions/2022-edition
Special mention teams 2022: https://beamlineforschools.cern/bl4swinners2022
Previous winners: https://beamlineforschools.cern/bl4s-competition/winners
Countries represented by the shortlisted teams: Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Thailand, Türkiye, United States and Zimbabwe.
Countries represented by the teams awarded for the best outreach project: India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Romania, Sri Lanka, Türkiye and United Kingdom.
The prizes for the team awarded for the best outreach project are kindly offered by the Belgian project “Stars Shine for Everyone”.

About CERN

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world's leading laboratories for particle physics. The Organization is located on the French–Swiss border, with its headquarters in Geneva. Its Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia are Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership. Croatia, India, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Türkiye and Ukraine are Associate Member States. Japan and the United States of America currently have Observer status, as do the European Union and UNESCO. The Observer status of the Russian Federation and of JINR is suspended in accordance with the CERN Council Resolutions of 8 March 2022 and 25 March 2022, respectively.

About the CERN & Society Foundation

The CERN & Society Foundation is a non-profit charitable foundation that supports projects in the fields of scientific education and outreach, innovation and knowledge exchange and culture and creativity. The Foundation operates thanks to the generous contributions from individuals, foundations and companies that make these projects happen and spread the CERN spirit of scientific curiosity for the benefit of society.

About DESY

DESY is one of the world’s leading particle accelerator centres. Researchers use the large-scale facilities at DESY to explore the microcosm in all its variety – ranging from the interaction of tiny elementary particles to the behaviour of innovative nanomaterials, the vital processes that take place between biomolecules and the great mysteries of the universe. The accelerators and detectors that DESY develops and builds at its locations in Hamburg and Zeuthen are unique research tools. DESY is a member of the Helmholtz Association and receives its funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (90 per cent) and the German federal states of Hamburg and Brandenburg (10 per cent).

ochriste Wed, 06/29/2022 - 11:18

Publication Date

Wed, 06/29/2022 - 18:30

Brazil to become an Associate Member State of CERN

ssanchis — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 06:58:27 +0000

Brazil to become an Associate Member State of CERN

On 3 March 2022, CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti and Brazilian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Marcos Pontes signed an agreement admitting Brazil as an Associate Member State of CERN¹. The Associate Membership will enter into force once Brazil has completed all necessary accession and ratification processes. Brazil will be the first country in Latin America to join CERN as an Associate Member State.

“We are very pleased to welcome Brazil as an Associate Member State. Over the past three decades, Brazilian scientists have contributed substantially to many CERN projects. This agreement enables Brazil and CERN to further strengthen our collaboration, opening up a broad range of new and mutually beneficial opportunities in fundamental research, technological developments and innovation, and education and training activities,” said Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director-General.

“The accession of Brazil to CERN Associate Membership creates a robust framework for collaboration in research, technology development and innovation. The Brazilian scientific community has collaborated with CERN since its creation. Being an Associate Member State will foster novel opportunities for our scientists and engineers to participate in activities developed at CERN. Our industry will benefit as well through the participation in contract bids for both R&D and the supply of services and materials. I am certain that this partnership will take the Brazilian science, technology and innovation sector to a whole new level of development,” said Marcos Pontes, Brazilian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation¹.

Formal cooperation between CERN and Brazil started in 1990 with the signature of an International Cooperation Agreement, allowing Brazilian researchers to participate in the DELPHI experiment at the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP). Today, Brazilian institutes participate in all the main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb. They are also involved in several other experiments and R&D programmes, such as ALPHA, ProtoDUNE at the Neutrino Platform, ISOLDE, Medipix and RD51. Brazilian nationals also participate very actively in CERN training and outreach programmes, including the Summer Student programme, the Portuguese-Language Teacher programme and the Beamline for Schools competition.

Over the past decade, Brazil’s experimental particle-physics community has doubled in size. At the four main LHC experiments alone, more than 180 Brazilian scientists, engineers and students collaborate in fields ranging from hardware and data processing to physics analysis. Beyond particle physics, CERN and Brazil’s National Centre for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) have also been formally cooperating since December 2020 on accelerator technology R&D and its applications.

As an Associate Member State, Brazil will attend meetings of the CERN Council and the Finance Committee. Brazilian nationals will be eligible for limited-duration staff positions, fellowships and studentships. Brazilian companies will be able to bid for CERN contracts, increasing opportunities for industrial collaboration in advanced technologies.

¹Marcos Pontes served as Brazilian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation until 31 March 2022.

ssanchis Tue, 04/12/2022 - 08:58

Publication Date

Tue, 04/12/2022 - 15:00

CERN Quantum Technology Initiative unveils strategic roadmap shaping CERN’s role in next quantum revolution

sandrika — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 11:31:09 +0000

CERN Quantum Technology Initiative unveils strategic roadmap shaping CERN’s role in next quantum revolution

Geneva, 14 October 2021. The CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (CERN QTI) reaches its next milestone today, with the unveiling of a first roadmap defining its medium- and long-term quantum research programme. The roadmap details the CERN QTI goals and strategy, and outlines its governing structure and the composition of its international advisory board, as well as the activities to support the exchange of knowledge and innovation with the high-energy physics community and beyond in the extensive field of quantum technologies. Through CERN QTI, CERN is disseminating its enabling technologies – such as quantum state sensors, time synchronisation protocols, and many more from the cryogenics, electronics, quantum theory and computing domains – to accelerate the development of quantum technologies.

Today’s information and communication technology grew out of the knowledge and development of quantum mechanics during the last century. CERN QTI will see the CERN community play their part in a global effort to bring about the “next quantum revolution” – whereby counterintuitive phenomena such as superposition and entanglement are exploited to build novel computing, communication, and sensing and simulation devices.

“As an international, open and neutral platform, and building on its collaborative culture and proven track record of innovation, CERN is uniquely positioned to act as an “honest broker” between CERN Member States and to foster innovative ideas in the field of high-energy physics and beyond,” says Professor Joachim Mnich, CERN Director for Research and Computing. “This is underpinned by several concrete R&D projects that are already under way at CERN.”

Composed of prominent international experts nominated by the 23 CERN Member States, the recently formed advisory board contributed to the roadmap being published today.

“The roadmap builds on high-quality research projects already ongoing at CERN, with top-level collaborations, to advance a vision and concrete steps to explore the potential of quantum information science and technologies for high-energy physics,” reported Kerstin Borras and Yasser Omar, co-chairs of the CERN QTI advisory board, in a statement unanimously approved by the board members. “CERN can play a key role as a facilitator of cross-disciplinary discussions about the role of quantum technologies in science, advancing the development of use cases and enabling technologies, promoting co-development, as well as being a key early-adopter of quantum technologies. The members of the advisory board will promote the collaboration between the quantum technologies and the high-energy physics communities in their respective countries, with CERN and its roadmap being a very important forum and instrument to develop fruitful cross-fertilisation.”

The board will work together with the CERN QTI management team to guide the activities and create as many synergies as possible with national and international initiatives related to quantum technologies.

A year on from its launch, CERN QTI has already established collaborations and projects to explore how quantum technologies can best benefit high-energy physics and beyond in four main quantum research areas: quantum computing and algorithms; quantum theory and simulation; quantum sensing, metrology and materials; and quantum communication and networks. The current projects span multiple research topics and target applications such as quantum graph neural networks for track reconstruction, quantum support vector machines for particle classification, quantum anomaly detection for beyond the Standard Model searches, quantum generative adversarial networks for physics simulation, new sensors and materials for future detectors, and secure quantum key distribution protocols for distributed data analysis.

Education and training are also at the core of CERN QTI. Building on the success of its first online course on quantum computing, CERN QTI will be extending its academia–industry training programme to accelerate the process of cultivating competencies across various R&D and engineering activities for the new generation of scientists, from high-school students to senior researchers.

“CERN has demonstrated excellence in scientific research for many years, and has fostered great innovation in computing technologies. Building on its unique expertise and strong collaborative culture, CERN is in a distinctive position today to foster quantum developments in the European high-energy physics community and beyond,” concludes Alberto Di Meglio, Coordinator of the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative.

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About CERN QTI

The CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (CERN QTI) is a comprehensive R&D, academic and knowledge-sharing initiative to exploit quantum advantage for high-energy physics and beyond. Given CERN's increasing information and communications technology and computing demands, as well as the significant national and international interest in quantum-technology activities, CERN QTI aims to provide dedicated mechanisms for the exchange of both knowledge and innovation.
Find out more at quantum.cern and on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Link to roadmap: https://zenodo.org/record/5571809#.YWldmdlBw6E

sandrika Wed, 10/13/2021 - 13:31

Publication Date

Thu, 10/14/2021 - 14:44

Professor Eliezer Rabinovici elected as next President of the CERN Council

mailys — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:58:03 +0000

Professor Eliezer Rabinovici elected as next President of the CERN Council

Geneva, 24 September 2021. The CERN Council has today announced the election of Professor Eliezer Rabinovici as its 24^th President, for a period of one year, renewable twice, with a mandate starting on 1 January 2022. He will be taking over from Dr Ursula Bassler, who concludes her three-year term at the end of December 2021.

“Professor Rabinovici is a brilliant theorist in the most advanced fields of research. During my presidency, I very often had the occasion to exchange with Professor Rabinovici, whose advice and contributions have always been very helpful to steer the ongoing discussions. I am confident that the Council is welcoming an excellent President, whose concern for science is of the utmost importance,” said Dr Bassler.

Professor Rabinovici is currently professor at the Racah Institute of Physics of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Louis Michel visiting chair at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES). He received his PhD in high-energy physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1974. In the following years, he worked as a research associate at Fermilab and at Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, before returning to Israel and the Hebrew University as a senior lecturer in 1977, where he served as Director from 2005 to 2012.

Professor Rabinovici’s main field of research is theoretical high-energy physics and, in particular, quantum field theory and string theory. He has made major contributions to the understanding of the phase structure of gauge theories, which are the building blocks of the Standard Model, and the uncovering of the phases of gravity. Throughout his career, he has held positions within several councils and committees, such as member of the HEP-EPS Board (from 1996 to 2011), Chair of the Israeli Committee for SESAME (since 1997) and Chair of the Israeli High-Energy Committee (from 2004 to 2020). In 2004, he was appointed as one of Israel’s delegates to the CERN Council, where he served as Vice President from 2016 to 2018.

“CERN is a special place where science and collaboration meet to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the world we live in. Throughout my 16 years as a member of the CERN Council, I have time after time been captivated by the commitment, collaboration and knowledge of people who work together towards the same mission. I am honoured that the Council chose me as their next President, and thankful that I get the opportunity to serve CERN’s scientific community, Member States and Associate Member States,” said Professor Rabinovici.

mailys Fri, 09/24/2021 - 11:58

Publication Date

Fri, 09/24/2021 - 13:15