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Europe launches update of strategy for particle physics

by Perrine Royole-Degieux

The year 2012 will be a crucial one for particle physics. Physicists expect the Large Hadron Collider and astroparticle physics experiments to draw a clearer picture of the field so that, at the end of the year, the CERN Council could vote on an update of the European strategy for particle physics and, in this way, announce Europe’s top priorities for the five years to follow.

Feature

Good gradients in seconds flat

Fermilab scientists turn their attention to individual cavities to improve beam stability

by Leah Hesla

A stable particle beam needs a trouble-free path on its way to high energies, and that means providing it with a smooth gradient to ascend. A team of scientists at Fermilab has arrived at a way to control accelerating cavities so they can give particle beams exactly that – a tilt-free path to collision.

Director's Corner

Thanks, Peter!

by Barry Barish

Peter Garbincius, a key member of the ILC Global Design Effort, has left the GDE to undertake a new assignment at Fermilab. His contributions to the ILC design effort have been truly outstanding and he will be sorely missed.

Image of the week

Superconductor scientists

Image: George Joch

Nearly 400 researchers gathered in Chicago last week for the SRF2011 conference.

In the News

  • from The New York Times
    1 August 2011
    Particle Accelerators Full of Spin and Fury, Signifying Something
    Recently physicists have been turning over cards like crazy, most notably at a meeting in Grenoble, France. So far, the ace is still missing, and some of those potential discoveries have disappeared, but some physicists now think they may know which card the Higgs is hiding under — though they disagree on when it will finally be turned over.
  • from Physics Today
    August 2011
    Particle physics, from Rutherford to the LHC
    Our understanding of fundamental particles has developed in ways that were unimaginable 100 years ago, when the atomic nucleus was first glimpsed.
  • from Physics Today
    29 July 2011
    House appropriators approve big cuts to DOE budget in FY 2012
    The House has approved $6 billion in cuts to the Department of Energy for 2012, but the Senate may restore much of that.
  • from Reuters
    27 July 2011
    U.S. team sets end-September target in Higgs chase
    Fermilab Today, its daily bulletin, said James, reported in Grenoble that researchers on the centre’s Tevatron collider — friendly rival to the LHC — were stepping up their experiments in the search for the Higgs.
  • from physicsworld.com
    27 July 2011
    Antiprotons pass latest symmetry test
    The latest breakthrough involves antiprotonic helium and is published in Nature today. This exotic “atom” is formed when one electron in a helium atom is replaced with an antiproton, which is negatively charged.
  • from Discover
    27 July 2011
    The LHC, the Tevatron, and the Higgs Boson
    A huge raft of results has been presented at two large international conferences: the annual European Physical Society meeting on high energy physics in Grenoble, France, and the Particles and Nuclei International Conference (PANIC11) at MIT in Cambridge, MA.