Highlights from our blog
LHC experiments eliminate more Higgs hiding spotsAugust 22, 2011 Two experimental collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced that they have significantly narrowed
the mass region in which the Higgs boson could be hiding. The ATLAS and CMS experiments excluded with 95 percent certainty the existence of a Higgs over most of the mass region from 145 to 466 GeV. |
|
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment begins taking dataAugust 16, 2011 The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has begun its quest to answer some of the most puzzling questions about the elusive elementary particles known as neutrinos. The experiment’s first completed set of twin detectors is now recording interactions of antineutrinos as they travel away from the powerful reactors of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group in southern China. |
|
KIPAC researchers track binary black holesAugust 4, 2011 Two scientists from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology have been testing a method to look past the intense radiation pouring out of merging galaxy pairs
to see the supermassive black holes at their cores. The researchers want to track how black holes located in the
centers of merging galaxies
spiral in toward each other until they also join, forming a single even-more-massive black
hole. This can give astronomers valuable information about galactic evolution. |
|
Antiproton mass measured with unprecedented precisionJuly 28, 2011 A new, precise measurement of the mass of the antiproton
by the ASACUSA experiment at CERN will help scientists understand why matter
dominates our universe when
theory says the big bang
created matter and antimatter in equal amounts. |
|
Tevatron experiments close in on Higgs particleJuly 27, 2011 The CDF and DZero collaborations at Fermilab continue to increase the sensitivity of their Tevatron experiments to the Higgs particle, leaving a narrow window where the particle may be hiding. The experiments are on track to collect enough data by the end of September to close this window if the Higgs does not exist. |
|
More than one way to search for SUSYJuly 26, 2011 Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have yet to find signs of supersymmetric particles, but physicists will significantly improve their knowledge of SUSY in the coming year through indirect methods, which could include the discovery of the Higgs boson. |
|
Fermilab experiment discovers a heavy relative of the neutronJuly 20, 2011 Fermilab’s CDF experiment announced the observation of a new particle, a heavy relative of the neutron. While the Standard Model predicted its existence, the observation is significant because it strengthens the understanding of how matter forms. |
|
CERN brings hardware into the openJuly 15, 2011 Hardware and software go hand in hand—one doesn’t work without the other. Despite being so closely linked, the two industries operate very differently. Javier Serrano, a hardware designer for accelerator systems at CERN, set out to change that. |
|
SLAC X-rays help discover new drug against melanomaJuly 12, 2011 Accelerators at three national laboratories contributed to
the development of a drug designed to disrupt malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The new drug was so successful in its latest round of testing in humans that the tests were halted so patients in the trial who were receiving other treatments could receive the new medicine. |
|
A particle physics private eye takes on the great interaction caperJuly 11, 2011 While giving a tour of Fermilab
to his aunt and grandmother,
a neutrino scientist faces the question that puts almost every particle physicist to the test—
“What do you do?” (In English, please.) |
|
Particle accelerator reveals what the first birds looked likeJuly 1, 2011 With the help of a particle accelerator at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists took a big step in determining what the first birds looked like more than 100 million years ago, when their relatives the dinosaurs still ruled the Earth. |
|
An ear for science: The Particle Physics Wind ChimeJune 23, 2011 Like particle physicists the world over, Stanford’s Matt Bellis is always looking for ways to share his research with the public.
“I had the idea of the BaBar detector as an instrument,” Bellis said, but not one played by human hands. It would be played by the particles gusting through it, like wind through
a wind chime. |
|
Pledges of support keep Mideast SESAME project on trackJune 22, 2011 The latest report on SESAME, a synchrotron light source that will be the first big international science center in the Middle East, says it is progressing both technically and financially on the road to its scheduled opening in 2015. At the spring meeting of the SESAME Council, member nations pledged both money and in-kind donations
to help bridge a $35 million budget gap that stands in the way of completing the project and putting it into operation. |
|
Japan's T2K experiment observes candidates for electron neutrino appearanceJune 15, 2011 The T2K experiment in Japan observed six particle events that indicate the oscillation of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos, a long-sought signal that allows scientists to better understand a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. |
|
Endeavour launch lifts search for dark matter, antimatter to new heightsMay 16, 2011 On May 16, the Endeavour launched from the Florida coast on its final mission. The NASA shuttle will deliver to the International Space Station the largest physics experiment
to blast into space, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. |
Click here to download the pdf version of this article.
Email Update List
Receive email notifications of the release of future issues of symmetry:
As symmetry celebrates its 50th issue, big changes are afoot at Fermilab. The lab’s Tevatron Collider, once the most powerful particle collider in the world, is shutting down, and a new project is on the horizon: Project X. This proposed $1.8 billion accelerator complex would keep Fermilab at the forefront of high-energy physics, this time at the Intensity Frontier—a realm in which scientists bring incredible numbers of particles into collision to search for extremely rare processes with a big physics impact. It’s exactly the kind of place where discoveries may lie. See “Solving for X”. Photo illustrations: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab and Sandbox Studio
Cargo Scanning
Aug 2010
A growing number of ports and border crossings are turning to high-energy X-rays generated by particle accelerators to keep cargo safe and block contraband from entering the country...
Dark Energy
Oct/Nov 2007
In fall 1997, the High-z Supernova Search Team calculated the mass of the universe and discovered that the universe was expanding faster and faster. How could that be?
Z boson
Aug 2008
The Z boson is a heavy particle that is one of the carriers of the weak force. Its discovery completed the Standard Model of particle physics...
