All posts tagged: particle physics

Exploring gravity, fundamental interactions and nuclei using antimatter

Exploring gravity, fundamental interactions and nuclei using antimatter

Published by Miika Tikkanen

After its proof-of-principle study, The Innovation Platform spoke with Dr Ruggero Caravita and Dr Fredrik Parnefjord Gustafsson from the AEgIS Collaboration about the findings and the importance of studying atomic nuclei with antimatter. The mysterious nature of antimatter could help answer some of physics’ most pressing questions by unlocking fundamental insights into how the Universe works. By exploring the properties and behaviours of antimatter, researchers aim to answer critical questions about the forces that govern matter and energy, which could lead to transformative advances in technology and deepen our understanding of our Universe and the principles that govern it. At CERN, the Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, and Spectroscopy (AEgIS) is designed to investigate these topics, particularly how antimatter behaves in relation to gravity. Following a successful proof-of-principle study, we spoke with the AEgIS team to gain insight into the experiment’s goals and the implications of its findings on our understanding of the nature of matter and antimatter. Can you provide an introduction to the AEgIS experiment? What questions or hypotheses does the experiment aim to …

LHC experiments on oxygen and neon collisions show quark-gluon plasma

LHC experiments on oxygen and neon collisions show quark-gluon plasma

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Collaborators at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have all reported signs of quark-gluon plasma, an extreme state of matter, in oxygen collisions experiments. A year after the first collisions of oxygen at the LHC, the main LHC Collaborations – ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb – have each reported signs of the state of matter known as quark–gluon plasma (QGP). This is a state of matter that is believed to have existed in the first millionths of seconds after the Big Bang, meaning this research could lead into valuable findings about the earliest moments of our universe’s existence. It was previously thought QGP could only be observed using heavier ions Under intense pressure and temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun, composite particles break down into quarks and the gluons that hold them together. Lead ions, which are over 200 times heavier than the protons typically collided at the LHC, was thought to be the only way to recreate the conditions needed to form QGP. But this theory was challenged by the ALICE Collaboration, who reported a new sign of …

Pushing the boundaries of laser plasma acceleration

Pushing the boundaries of laser plasma acceleration

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Simon Hooker, Professor of Atomic & Laser Physics at the University of Oxford, highlights the work of his Laser-Plasma Accelerator Group Laser plasma acceleration holds major promise for particle physics, producing an electric field more than three orders of magnitude larger than those found in conventional radiofrequency (RF) accelerators. When an intense laser pulse propagates through a plasma, the ponderomotive force pushes electrons away from the front and back of the pulse, thereby forming a trailing longitudinal density wave. This ‘laser wakefield accelerator’ is particularly promising for generating beams of short pulse, high-energy electrons for applications in femtosecond electron diffraction, medical imaging, and miniature free-electron X-ray lasers. A key challenge associated with these accelerators is the distance over which the intensity of the driving laser can be maintained, which can limit the energy to which particles can be accelerated. This is one of the main issues that the Laser-Plasma Accelerator Group at the University of Oxford has set out to tackle. The group has developed several techniques for channelling laser pulses with peak intensities of …

US supercomputer reveals pion particle in unprecedented detail

US supercomputer reveals pion particle in unprecedented detail

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Researchers at the United States Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have produced the most detailed picture yet of the internal structure of a pion particle, offering new insights into one of the fundamental building blocks involved in the formation of visible matter. The study, carried out in collaboration with scientists from Brookhaven National Laboratory, used the Polaris supercomputer at Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) to simulate the behaviour of quarks inside a pion. The work generated high-resolution three-dimensional images that reveal how these elementary particles are arranged and interact. The findings represent a significant advance in nuclear physics, helping researchers better understand the strong nuclear force that binds atomic nuclei together. The results are also expected to support future experiments designed to probe the structure of matter at an even deeper level. The study was published in the Journal of High Energy Physics and received support from the Department of Energy’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) programme. Argonne team maps the pion in three dimensions The pion particle occupies …

TU/e achieve record-breaking energy transfer between particles

TU/e achieve record-breaking energy transfer between particles

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Scientists at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have achieved a major advance in energy transfer, demonstrating that energy can move between microscopic particles over distances measured in millimetres without being lost as heat or light. The research team, led by Professor Jaime Gómez Rivas alongside researchers Jie Ji and Wouter Holman, developed a surface made of precisely arranged gold nanorods that enables highly efficient energy transfer. Their findings were published in Science Advances and challenge long-held assumptions about the distance over which radiation-free energy movement can occur. The result could have significant implications for quantum communication, solar energy technologies, chemical engineering, and next-generation medical sensors. By extending the range of coherent energy transfer far beyond previously accepted limits, the work opens new possibilities for controlling energy at the nanoscale. The importance of energy transfer In most systems, energy absorbed by a molecule is eventually released into its surroundings as heat or emitted as light. A special phenomenon known as Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) works differently. Instead of radiating away, energy moves directly from one …

We might finally know the size of the proton

We might finally know the size of the proton

Published by Miika Tikkanen

At long last, we have pinned down the size of a proton. More than 15 years after an experiment unexpectedly shook the world of particle physics, researchers are regaining their grip on one of this fundamental particle’s most basic properties. Look around you, and everything you see will be filled with protons. The proton is a fundamental building block of our world – and until 2010, we thought we understood it fairly well. We knew its composition – it is made from three quarks – and we knew its size. Then, a measurement based on an exotic hydrogen atom showed that the proton may actually be about 4 per cent smaller than expected. Physicists scrambled, exploring sources of experimental error as well as theories about new physics phenomena that could resolve this “proton radius puzzle”. In 2019, another experiment strengthened the evidence that the proton’s size had long been overestimated. Now, the issue may have finally been settled by a pair of complementary experiments that make the case for the smaller proton more convincing than …

Particles seen emerging from empty space for first time

Particles seen emerging from empty space for first time

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A pair of rare particles produced in high-energy proton collisions may be the clearest evidence yet that mass can emerge from empty space. The finding could shed light on one of the biggest puzzles in physics: how particles acquire their mass. According to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) – widely considered to be our best theory for describing the strong force, which binds quarks inside protons and neutrons – even a perfect vacuum isn’t truly empty. Instead, it is filled with short-lived disturbances in the underlying energy of space that flicker in and out of existence, known as virtual particles. Among them are quark-antiquark pairs. Under normal conditions, these fleeting pairs vanish almost as soon as they appear. But if enough energy is injected into a vacuum, QCD predicts they can be promoted into real, detectable particles with measurable mass. Now, the STAR collaboration – an international team of physicists working at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state – has observed this process for the first time. The team smashed …

Miniaturised particle accelerators to unlock new areas of science

Miniaturised particle accelerators to unlock new areas of science

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Researchers at the University of Osaka have hit a vital milestone toward creating tabletop X-ray lasers, with the goal of building ultracompact high-energy electron accelerators. Using high-intensity lasers, researchers have taken an important step towards miniaturisation of particle accelerators by demonstrating free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. By generating high-quality, monoenergetic electron beams (i.e., beams in which all electrons have nearly the same energy), they have achieved a key milestone toward compact accelerator technologies. “Our work has made several substantial improvements over previous techniques, allowing us to achieve free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths,” said lead author Zhan Jin. Using wakefield acceleration to generate stronger waves The research team, led by the University of Osaka’s Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (SANKEN), used a technique called laser wakefield acceleration to create plasma waves that generate extremely strong accelerating electric fields, thanks to waves within the plasma that travel at almost the speed of light. These electric fields are more than 1000 times as strong as those in conventional particle accelerators. Jin explained: “We …

CERN achieves first controlled movement of antiprotons

CERN achieves first controlled movement of antiprotons

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A major breakthrough by the BASE experiment could enable precision antimatter research beyond CERN. A team of physicists working on the BASE experiment at CERN has completed the first successful demonstration of transporting antimatter in a controlled environment. The group managed to move a container holding antiprotons across CERN’s main campus while maintaining the particles’ stability – an achievement that marks a significant technical milestone in experimental physics. The test involved relocating a compact trapping system loaded with 92 antiprotons. Researchers disconnected the apparatus from its host facility, transported it by truck, and resumed operations without losing the particles. Given that antimatter annihilates instantly upon contact with ordinary matter, maintaining confinement during motion represents a substantial engineering and scientific advance. Why transporting antimatter could revolutionise science Antimatter remains one of the most puzzling subjects in modern physics. While its properties mirror those of ordinary matter, with opposite charge and magnetic characteristics, the observable Universe is overwhelmingly composed of matter. This imbalance contradicts expectations from early-Universe models, which suggest equal quantities of both should have formed …

Quark-gluon plasma may form in proton collisions

Quark-gluon plasma may form in proton collisions

Published by Miika Tikkanen

New results from the ALICE Collaboration suggest quark-gluon plasma may form in proton collisions, not just heavy-ion experiments. A new analysis from the ALICE Collaboration is reshaping how physicists understand the conditions required to produce quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state of matter thought to have existed moments after the Big Bang. The findings, published in Nature Communications, indicate that even relatively small particle collisions can exhibit characteristics long associated only with large-scale heavy-ion experiments. For decades, QGP has been studied by smashing heavy ions, such as lead nuclei, at extremely high energies. These collisions recreate the intense heat and density needed to free quarks and gluons from their usual confinement inside protons and neutrons. Smaller systems, like proton–proton collisions, were generally considered incapable of reaching those conditions. That assumption is now under increasing pressure. Evidence emerges from proton collisions The ALICE Collaboration analysed data from proton–proton and proton–lead collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), focusing on how particles emerge from these events. A key observable is ‘anisotropic flow,’ a phenomenon where particles are emitted …