All posts tagged: CERN

Physicists Successfully Deliver First Bottle of CERN Antimatter From the Antimatter Factory

Physicists Successfully Deliver First Bottle of CERN Antimatter From the Antimatter Factory

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech For thirty minutes on Tuesday, a team of researchers white-knuckled it across the CERN campus on the outskirts of Geneva, completing the world’s first haul of antimatter particles ever attempted. Antimatter is incredibly unstable, making it notoriously difficult to store in a solid structure, let along the back of a cabover rig. Yet that’s exactly what they did, after physicists decided it was necessary to move antiprotons away from their CERN production line to another on-campus lab where they’d be free from “experimental noise,” Nature reported. In order to complete the haul, physicists sealed 92 antiprotons in a specially designed vacuum bottle, which was cooled to an astonishing 4 degrees Kelvin, or -452.47 degrees Fahrenheit. Each antiproton is precious, since CERN’s “antimatter factory” — the only place on Earth where antiprotons can currently be produced — are only able to capture a limited amount. Successfully transporting the stuff, at speeds reaching up to 26 miles per hour, is …

CERN achieves first controlled movement of antiprotons

CERN achieves first controlled movement of antiprotons

Published by skeptic

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 …

Antimatter has been transported by road for the first time

Antimatter has been transported by road for the first time

Published by skeptic

CERN’s antimatter-transporting truck CERN Antimatter has finally hit the road. Around 100 antiprotons took a 20-minute trip on the back of a lorry around the CERN particle physics laboratory’s campus near Geneva, Switzerland. This demonstration is the first test of a future antimatter delivery service, which scientists hope will one day see antiprotons transported on demand to laboratories around Europe to study their mysteries. “I’m very happy that we are now at the stage where it’s possible to [transport antimatter],” says Christian Smorra at CERN. “It has been a long journey, and it’s a lot of sweat and tears that went into this to make it work.” All matter has an antimatter counterpart, which is theoretically identical apart from an opposite charge. A positron, for example, is the antimatter version of an electron. When an antimatter particle meets its matter equivalent, they annihilate, creating new particles or a flash of energy, which makes storing and testing the properties of antimatter precarious. Only in the past few decades have scientists at CERN’s Antimatter Decelerator hall, known …

Inside the world’s first antimatter delivery service

Inside the world’s first antimatter delivery service

Published by skeptic

The BASE-STEP transportable trap system Marina Cavazza, Chetna Krishna/CERN Nestled in the heart of CERN’s antimatter factory, surrounded by intensely powerful magnetic fields and within a vacuum sparser than interstellar space, is some of the most sensitive material on Earth. Inside a filing-cabinet-sized box, which weighs a few hundred kilograms less than a Ford Focus, are a handful of antiprotons that have sat for weeks in extraordinary stillness. Most other particles produced in this building might expect to be probed and prodded, but these antiprotons have just one job: to sit tight and wait for their ride. These hundred or so antimatter particles will soon be transported on the back of a truck around a 4-kilometre loop of road around the CERN campus, which will be the first demonstration of a future antimatter delivery service that will one day see antimatter transported to laboratories around Europe. I have come to CERN’s campus, near Geneva, Switzerland, to see the experiment, called the Symmetry Tests in Experiments with Portable antiprotons (STEP), in its final preparations before the …

Scientists at CERN discover new heavy-proton subatomic particle

Scientists at CERN discover new heavy-proton subatomic particle

Published by Jenni Sidey

Over a century ago, Ernest Rutherford discovered the proton by splitting the atom in a laboratory in Manchester. Today, researchers based in Manchester have discovered a new particle that Rutherford would never have imagined: a “heavier” version of the proton that had been theorized but never clearly observed until now, thanks to recent data from CERN’s particle accelerator, which is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. The University of Manchester researchers have played a leading role in the discovery of the subatomic particle that was recently announced at the Rencontres de Moriond Electroweak Conference. It is called the Ξcc⁺ (pronounced “xi double-plus”) particle. The Ξcc⁺ particle has a different structure than the proton. Instead of requiring two up quarks and one down quark to make its basic unit, the Ξcc⁺ is made up of two charm quarks and one down quark. As a result, it weighs more than the ordinary proton and is much less stable. It will only survive a fraction of a second before disintegrating into smaller pieces. The short-lived nature of this …

CERN detects new particle at Large Hadron Collider

CERN detects new particle at Large Hadron Collider

Published by skeptic

Physicists at CERN have reported the observation of a previously unknown new particle, detected during experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The finding, presented at the Moriond conference, marks a significant addition to the growing catalogue of exotic hadrons and provides a new test case for theories describing the strong nuclear force. The particle is classified as a baryon and has a structure broadly comparable to a proton. However, unlike the familiar proton, which consists of two up quarks and one down quark, this newly identified state contains two heavier charm quarks alongside a single down quark. The substitution of lighter quarks with heavier charm quarks results in a particle with roughly four times the proton’s mass. A rare proton-like particle This proton-like particle belongs to a category of matter known as hadrons, composite particles made of quarks bound together by the strong force. Quarks exist in six types – up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom – and combine in specific configurations to form baryons (three quarks) or mesons (quark–antiquark pairs). While protons …

Particle discovered at CERN solves a 20-year-old mystery

Particle discovered at CERN solves a 20-year-old mystery

Published by skeptic

The LHCb experiment cavern at CERN CERN/Brice, Maximilien A new particle has popped into existence at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, a heavier proton-like particle that contains two charm quarks. Protons and neutrons are examples of a class of particles called baryons, which each contain three fundamental subatomic particles called quarks that come in a variety of so-called flavours. In the case of a proton, there are two “up” quarks and one “down” quark that make up the particle. But heavier quarks, like those known as charm quarks, can also combine to make baryons. However, because these unusual quark combinations are heavier and so more unstable, they often have fleetingly short lifetimes and quickly decay into other particles. In 2017, physicists working at CERN’s LHCb experiment glimpsed one of these exotic baryons, memorably named Xicc++, that was made up of two charm quarks and an up quark. This particle lived for only a trillionth of a second. Now, physicists working on the LHCb experiment have spotted the charm-filled sister particle to Xicc++, called the Xicc+particle, which contains a …

CERN cools High-Luminosity LHC magnet system in major upgrade milestone

CERN cools High-Luminosity LHC magnet system in major upgrade milestone

Published by skeptic

Cryogenic tests mark a critical step toward a tenfold increase in collision data at the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. CERN has crossed an important technical threshold in its long-running effort to upgrade the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Engineers have begun cooling a 95-metre-long test installation to just 1.9 kelvin, recreating the extreme conditions under which the future High-Luminosity LHC will operate. The structure, known as the Inner Triplet String, is a full-scale replica of the equipment that will eventually be installed deep underground on either side of the collider’s main interaction points. Its role is simple but crucial: prove that a new generation of superconducting magnets and their supporting systems can work together reliably before they are deployed in the tunnel. This testing phase precedes a major four-year shutdown of the LHC, scheduled to begin this summer, during which the existing machine will be transformed into the High-Luminosity LHC, often shortened to HiLumi LHC. When completed, the upgrade is expected to start operations around 2030. Commenting on the upgrades, Mark Thomson, CERN Director-General, said: …