All posts tagged: particle physics

Particles seen emerging from empty space for first time

Particles seen emerging from empty space for first time

Published by skeptic

Particle collisions inside the STAR detector at the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC, known as STAR Brookhaven National Laboratory 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 …

We’re solving the fundamental mystery of how reality is glued together

We’re solving the fundamental mystery of how reality is glued together

Published by skeptic

As you read this, every atom in your body is desperately trying to tear itself apart. In fact, that goes for every atom, everywhere, since the beginning of time. Thankfully, those efforts have failed. These self-destructive tendencies relate to the nucleus, a tiny knot of matter at the centre of every atom. Inside, protons are packed shoulder to shoulder, each one bristling with positive charge and frantic to get away from its companions. If atoms obeyed only electricity and magnetism, the universe would have been a brief, bright firework. Instead, something else intervenes, a force so strong it makes electromagnetism look feeble. This maintains the solid furniture of reality by keeping the building blocks of atoms glued together. But the deeper physicists have probed this force, the stranger it has seemed. The equations that describe it look disarmingly simple, yet follow them through and something puzzling happens: a theory built from weightless ingredients somehow produces particles that are unmistakably heavy. Sweeping away this inconsistency wouldn’t just tidy up our understanding of the force that binds …

Desktop particle accelerators are opening new frontiers in physics

Desktop particle accelerators are opening new frontiers in physics

Published by Jenni Sidey

A beam of electrons crossed just a few millimeters of plasma, then helped trigger an effect that usually belongs to massive research sites. In this case, the light produced fell in the extreme ultraviolet range, at wavelengths from 27 to 50 nanometers. The result points toward a future where some accelerator technology may shrink from building-sized systems to something much smaller. “Our work has made several substantial improvements over previous techniques, allowing us to achieve free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths,” lead author Zhan Jin said. Proof-of-concept experimental setup used to generate an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) free-electron laser (FEL) driven by a laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) electron beam. (CREDIT: University of Osaka) Taming a difficult accelerator Traditional particle accelerators, including radiofrequency linear accelerators and synchrotrons, have pushed physics forward for decades. They are also expensive, physically large, and limited in how strongly they can accelerate particles over a given distance. Laser wakefield acceleration offers a very different path. Instead of relying on long conventional structures, it sends a powerful laser through plasma, where it …

Gravitational waves may be responsible for dark matter in the universe

Gravitational waves may be responsible for dark matter in the universe

Published by Jenni Sidey

Dark matter is thought to exist everywhere, wrapping around galaxies and helping to shape the largest things in the universe. But nobody knows what it is made of. Now, a new theoretical study presents a surprisingly unique situation that could provide some of the missing puzzle pieces. Some of the dark matter may have originated from ancient gravitational waves. These waves travelled through the early universe before stars or galaxies had formed. This hypothesis is the product of collaboration between Professor Joachim Kopp from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the PRISMA++ Cluster of Excellence. The work was also in collaboration with Dr. Azadeh Maleknejad from Swansea University. Furthermore, this work was published in Physical Review Letters. Visible matter makes up approximately 4% of our universe. It contains all the planets, stars, and living organisms which we can actually observe. Dark matter is estimated to represent around 23% of the universe. Although astronomers are aware of its existence due to its influence on the formation of galaxies and the structure of the universe as a whole, …

Miniaturised particle accelerators to unlock new areas of science

Miniaturised particle accelerators to unlock new areas of science

Published by skeptic

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 …

A once-fantastical collider could answer physics’ biggest mysteries

A once-fantastical collider could answer physics’ biggest mysteries

Published by skeptic

When it comes to particle physics, Tova Holmes has been there, done that and got the T-shirt – in fact, she designed the T-shirt herself. It all started back in 2022, when she and a few colleagues arrived at a meeting of particle physicists determined to make the case for developing an entirely new kind of particle-smashing machine. They did so by sporting tops emblazoned with a motif representing a circular particle accelerator and a single word: BUILD. “We wanted to find a way for people to visibly show how excited they were about a muon collider,” says Holmes, who is based at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. To its advocates, this newfangled collider would be exactly the shot in the arm that particle physics so desperately needs. The famous Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, wonderful as it is, simply hasn’t delivered any truly new discoveries in years. The answer, say Holmes and her ilk, isn’t to build ever-more powerful successors to the LHC, as some would …

Los Alamos neutron detector boosts accuracy in extreme radiation

Los Alamos neutron detector boosts accuracy in extreme radiation

Published by skeptic

A research team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has unveiled a new neutron detector designed to deliver accurate measurements across a wide range of radiation conditions, addressing long-standing technical and supply challenges in neutron detection. The system, known as the Integrated Composite Optical Neutron Sensor (ICONS), is currently patent-pending and is intended to operate reliably in both low-background environments and high-radiation settings. The development reflects growing demand for tools that can measure neutrons with precision in applications ranging from nuclear security to advanced energy research. Addressing a persistent measurement problem Accurately measuring neutrons has historically been difficult due to the nature of the particles themselves. Unlike charged particles, neutrons do not interact easily with matter, making detection inherently complex. The challenge is compounded by environmental variability: in some scenarios, neutron levels are extremely low, while in others they spike dramatically. Background radiation adds another layer of difficulty. Gamma radiation, which often accompanies neutron emissions, can obscure signals and lead to inaccurate readings in conventional systems. As a result, neutron detection technologies must be both highly …

The compact yet versatile Spanish neutron facility

The compact yet versatile Spanish neutron facility

Published by skeptic

In a world of ever larger international facilities, a medium-sized neutron facility can have an impact on many research fields and applications. Neutrons are nowadays involved in many industrial applications and fields of research. They are indeed very particular; their lack of charge makes them very penetrating radiation for which the electron cloud of the atoms is transparent, thus interacting only with the nucleus. Naturally unstable, they are created by, and also drive, nuclear reactions. Neutrons appear as a result of both fission and fusion reactions, being thus essential in the electricity production in current and future nuclear reactors. This is indeed a trending topic, given the recent advances in Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and the excellent prospects for fusion, with a series of recent records broken in plasma confinement. Besides energy production, the list of research fields and applications requiring neutrons is very extensive and varied. Their absorption by nuclei inside the stars gives birth to the elements of our Universe heavier than iron, and when they induce fission in nuclear reactors they produce …

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 …

Quark-gluon plasma may form in proton collisions

Quark-gluon plasma may form in proton collisions

Published by skeptic

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 …