LHC

A new heat exchange system between the LHC and the French town of Ferney-Voltaire is directing waste heat energy from CERN's accelerator to warm thousands of homes and businesses.

Using the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have found that the quark-gluon plasma that filled the universe just after the Big Bang really was a primordial "soup."

Author(s): S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration)Two different LHC measurements of a novel observable v 0 ( p T ) for the radial flow of quark-gluon plasma again confirms the collective hydrodynamic behavior of the plasma. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 032302] Published Thu Jan 22, 2026

In collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, hotter than the Sun’s core by a staggering margin, scientists have finally solved a long-standing mystery: how delicate particles like deuterons and their antimatter twins can exist at all. Instead of forming in the initial chaos, these fragile nuclei are born later, when the fireball cools, from the decay of ultra-short-lived, high-energy particles.

Science in meter and verse

All experiments broke records in the final full operating year of the third run of the LHC.

A boiling sea of quarks and gluons, including virtual ones—this is how we can imagine the main phase of high-energy proton collisions. It would seem that particles here have significantly more opportunities to evolve than when less numerous and much "better-behaved" secondary particles spread out from the collision point. However, data from the LHC accelerator prove that reality works differently, in a manner that is better described by an improved model of proton collisions.

The supercollider is now being used to explore quantum phenomena, including a “magic” form of quantum entanglement. The post Particle Physicists Detect ‘Magic’ at the Large Hadron Collider first appeared on Quanta Magazine

A novel beam diagnostic instrument developed by researchers in the University of Liverpool's QUASAR Group has been approved for use in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator.

The Standard Model of particle physics is a very well-tested theory that describes the fundamental particles and their interactions. However, it does have several key limitations. For example, it doesn’t account for dark matter or why neutrinos have masses. One of the main aims of experimental particle physics at the moment is therefore to search […] The post Using AI to find new particles at the LHC appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Sergio Barbosa, Matheus Coelho, Sylvain Fichet, Gustavo Gil da Silveira, and Magno MachadoResearchers have proposed that exotic particles emitted by the Large Hadron Collider’s relativistic beams might reveal themselves in collisions of their own. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 181801] Published Thu Oct 30, 2025

Author(s): Marric StephensResearchers have proposed that exotic particles emitted by the Large Hadron Collider’s relativistic beams might reveal themselves in collisions of their own. [Physics 18, s137] Published Thu Oct 30, 2025

Researchers from the ATLAS collaboration have introduced a new neural simulation based-inference technique to analyse their datasets The post Neural simulation-based inference techniques at the LHC appeared first on Physics World.

Particles similar to axions, the leading candidate for dark matter that has long eluded detection, may have already been created in particle colliders – and remained hidden in the data

The CMS collaboration at CERN have searched for evidence of long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model in proton-proton collision events The post The hunt for long-lived particles produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): N. Solieri, A. Lund, A.-P. Bernardes, L. R. Buonocore, A. Cherif, S. De Man, M. Di Castro, S. Di Giovannantonio, G. Dumont, S. El-Idrissi, E. Farina, D. Grenier, E. Grenier-Boley, M. Himmerlich, A. Infantino, A. Lechner, R. Mouret, D. Pazem, A. T. Perez-Fontenla, E. Romagnoli, S. Sgobba, C. Tromel, C. Veiga Almagro, and M. CalvianiAfter nearly a decade of operation under high-intensity proton beams, the LHC beam dumps - measuring 8.5 m in length, 720 mm in diameter, and weighing over 6 t - were dismantled and examined in an unprecedented operation at CERN. The installation of a dedicated facility with remote handling systems, along with the development of a custom cutting strategy, enabled the safe opening of the highly activated duplex stainless-steel vessel to access and inspect the carbon-based core. The results assess the viability of the absorber

Scientists at CERN’s ATLAS experiment have uncovered compelling evidence of Higgs bosons decaying into muons, an incredibly rare event that could deepen our understanding of how particles acquire mass. They also sharpened their ability to detect the even rarer Higgs decay into a Z boson and a photon—a process that might reveal hidden physics beyond the Standard Model.

CMS researchers observe quantum entanglement in top quark–antiquark pairs, revealing new insights into quantum behaviour at the smallest scales The post Probing quantum entanglement in top quark pairs at the LHC appeared first on Physics World.

At the Large Hadron Collider, scientists from the University of Kansas achieved a fleeting form of modern-day alchemy — turning lead into gold for just a fraction of a second. Using ultra-peripheral collisions, where ions nearly miss but interact through powerful photon exchanges, they managed to knock protons out of nuclei, creating new, short-lived elements. This breakthrough not only grabbed global attention but could help design safer, more advanced particle accelerators of the future.

The universe contains more matter than antimatter, and a paper hints at one reason for that happy disparity Scientists have analyzed data gathered from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider to advance our understanding of why anything exists.…

The LHCb experiment has observed a new difference between matter and antimatter in particles called baryons

In physics, there are two great pillars of thought that don't quite fit together. The Standard Model of particle physics describes all known fundamental particles and three forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Meanwhile, Einstein's general relativity describes gravity and the fabric of spacetime.

An unforeseen feature in proton-proton collisions previously observed by the CMS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has now been confirmed by its sister experiment ATLAS.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) gets a breath of fresh air as it collides beams of protons and oxygen ions for the very first time. Oxygen–oxygen and neon–neon collisions are also on the menu of the next few days.

New approach is already having an impact on the experiment’s plans for future work.

The LHCb experiment has taken a leap in precision physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In a new paper submitted to Physical Review Letters and currently available on the arXiv preprint server, the LHCb collaboration reports the first dedicated measurement of the Z boson mass at the LHC, using data from high-energy collisions between protons recorded in 2016 during the collider's second run.

Medieval alchemists dreamed of transmuting lead into gold. Today, we know that lead and gold are different elements, and no amount of chemistry can turn one into the other.

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider — the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator — have observed a real-life transmutation of lead into gold.

Scientists at Europe’s famous particle collider briefly created gold ions from lead in a modern twist on the alchemical goal

In a paper published in Physical Review C, the ALICE collaboration reports measurements that quantify the transmutation of lead into gold in CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Author(s): S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration)Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have revealed a previously unseen nucleus known as antihyperhelium-4. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 162301] Published Wed Apr 23, 2025

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider found evidence of an unprecedentedly heavy and exotic form of antimatter in the aftermath of a collision between extremely fast lead ions

A report published late last month outlines MATHUSLA, a particle detector named for the longest-lived person in the Bible.

Advances recognized by science’s most lucrative awards include high-energy physics experiments and groundbreaking weight-loss treatments

CERN has responded in new reports to suggestions that its proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) is not technologically feasible, suggesting that the project’s aims to delve further into the mysteries of the universe are attainable. CERN operates the largest machine on Earth – the 27-kilometre, ring-shaped Large Hadron Collider (LHC),  the particle accelerator used to […]

Analysing the aftermath of particle collisions has revealed two new instances of “CP violation”, a process that explains why our universe contains more matter than antimatter

Do top quarks, nature's heaviest elementary particle, obey Einstein's rules at all times of day and night? Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have the answer.

As the carriers of the weak force, the W and Z bosons are central to the Standard Model of particle physics. Though discovered four decades ago, the W and Z bosons continue to provide physicists with new avenues for exploration.

An exotic new approach could shrink kilometer-scale machines into table-top devices.

The staggeringly energetic neutrino likely came from beyond our galaxy, and physicists have two main suspects.

A unique property of quantum systems is on display in one of the LHC's standard particle production methods.

A brotherly research duo has discovered that when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produces top quarks -- the heaviest known fundamental particles -- it regularly creates a property known as magic.

Scientists at CERN's ALICE detector are replicating conditions found during the Big Bang, attempting to get to the bottom of how matter came to dominate over antimatter.

Author(s): Jun Gao, ChongYang Liu, XiaoMin Shen, Hongxi Xing, and Yuxiang ZhaoThis paper presents a global analysis of fragmentation functions for light charged hadrons, which describe the production of these states from partons. The fit includes for the first time jet data from proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The authors find good agreement with data, but note significant differences with previous work and the need for careful experimental definitions for future efforts. [Phys. Rev. D 110, 114019] Published Thu Dec 12, 2024

Using the Large Hadron Collider and the ALICE detector scientists have found the heavist antimatter particle yet, generated in Big Bang like conditions.

In the quest to uncover the fundamental particles and forces of nature, one of the critical challenges facing high-energy experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is ensuring the quality of the vast amounts of data collected. To do this, data quality monitoring systems are in place for the various subdetectors of an experiment and they play an important role in checking the accuracy of the data.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is like an immensely powerful kitchen, designed to cook up some of the rarest and hottest recipes in the universe, like the quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter known to have existed shortly after the Big Bang. While the LHC mostly collides protons, once a year it collides heavy ions—such as lead nuclei—a key ingredient for preparing this primordial soup.

In collisions between protons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), pairs of top quarks—the heaviest known elementary particles—are frequently produced along with other heavy quarks, including bottom and charm quarks. These collision events can provide physicists with valuable insights into quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory that describes the strong force. Precisely determining the production rates (or "cross-sections") of these processes also enables researchers to more effectively distinguish them from rarer phenomena.

An impressive operation recently took place in CERN's magnet test hall. The innovative cold powering system has been successfully installed in the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) Inner Triplet (IT) String test stand.

Author(s): Michael SchirberNew experimental results from the Large Hadron Collider argue against the existence of multiple Higgs bosons, as predicted in certain “beyond-standard-model” theories. [Physics 17, s119] Published Wed Oct 02, 2024

In the early morning of 13 September, the LHC reached a significant milestone, surpassing 100 fb-1 of integrated luminosity delivered to ATLAS and CMS in a single year—a record—and the figure is still rising. Then, LHCb's integrated luminosity target of 8.5 fb-1 was reached one day later.

At the same time, CERN will continue to work on projects already underway with about 270 employees of the Russian Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

Quantum entanglement is a fascinating feature of quantum physics—the theory of the very small. If two particles are quantum-entangled, the state of one particle is tied to that of the other, no matter how far apart the particles are. This mind-bending phenomenon, which has no analog in classical physics, has been observed in a wide variety of systems and has found several important applications, such as quantum cryptography and quantum computing.

Top quarks and antiquarks produced in the Large Hadron Collider are entangled, a study shows.

LHC Run 3 began in 2022, with the recommissioning of the LHC at 6.8 TeV, resulting in the delivery of 39.7 fb⁻¹ of integrated luminosity, surpassing initial expectations. Luminosity is an important indicator of the performance of a collider: it is proportional to the number of collisions that occur in a given amount of time. The higher the luminosity, the more data the experiments can gather to allow them to observe rare processes.

New research using a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has bought scientists closer than ever before to test whether magnetic monopoles exist. Scientists have revealed the most stringent constraints yet on the existence of magnetic monopoles, pushing the boundaries of what is known about these elusive particles.

New research using a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has brought scientists closer than ever before to test whether magnetic monopoles exist.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Despite its immense success in describing the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions, the Standard Model of particle physics is known to be incomplete. Experiments around the globe and in space are therefore searching for signs of new physics phenomena that would guide physicists towards a more comprehensive theory.

Author(s): A. Poyet, A. Bertarelli, F. Carra, S. D. Fartoukh, N. Fuster-Martínez, N. Karastathis, Y. Papaphilippou, M. Pojer, S. Redaelli, A. Rossi, K. Skoufaris, M. Solfaroli Camillocci, and G. SterbiniCurrent-carrying wires in the Large Hadron Collider mimic long-rang beam-beam interactions to reduce the effect of real long-range beam-beam interactions. [Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 27, 071003] Published Tue Jul 23, 2024

Researchers from the School of Physics & Astronomy have been involved in an important new measurement of the top quark made using data provided by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Author(s): Roshan Mammen Abraham et al. (FASER Collaboration)Electron neutrinos produced by proton–proton collisions at the LHC have been experimentally observed. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 021802] Published Thu Jul 11, 2024

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is an exciting and beautiful theory that answers some of the open questions in particle physics. It predicts that all known particles have a "superpartner" with somewhat different properties. For example, the heaviest quark of the Standard Model, the top quark, would have a superpartner called the top squark, or simply the "stop."

On 5 July 2022, protons began colliding again in the LHCb detector after a three-and-a-half-year break known as Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), marking the start of the third run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The LHC family of experiments continues to grow. Alongside the four main experiments, a new generation of smaller experiments is contributing to the search for particles predicted by theories beyond the Standard Model, our current theory of particle physics.

The late physicist Joseph Polchinski once said the existence of magnetic monopoles is "one of the safest bets that one can make about physics not yet seen." In its quest for these particles, which have a magnetic charge and are predicted by several theories that extend the Standard Model, the MoEDAL collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has not yet proven Polchinski right, but its latest findings mark a significant stride forward.

Physicists have made a measurement at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which could expand our understanding beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, questions have remained open in fundamental physics about what lies beyond the Standard Model’s framework which describes all of the particles and forces […]

Scientists used a neural network, a type of brain-inspired machine learning algorithm, to sift through large volumes of particle collision data. Particle physicists are tasked with mining this massive and growing store of collision data for evidence of undiscovered particles. In particular, they're searching for particles not included in the Standard Model of particle physics, our current understanding of the universe's makeup that scientists suspect is incomplete.

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 slotted in the final missing piece of the Standard Model puzzle. Yet, it left lingering questions. What lies beyond this framework? Where are the new phenomena that would solve the universe's remaining mysteries, such as the nature of dark matter and the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry?

Accelerator engineer John Weisend is our podcast guest The post Superfluid helium: the quantum curiosity behind huge experiments like the LHC appeared first on Physics World.

LHCb sees increased baryon production at low transverse momenta The post Evidence for ‘quark coalescence’ found in LHC collisions appeared first on Physics World.

Excerpts from the Red Folder The post Fermilab’s guest composer is inspired by neutrinos, poetry and physics collide at the LHC appeared first on Physics World.

Since the 1960s, scientists have discovered more than a dozen fundamental particles. They all have fit perfectly into the theoretical framework known as the Standard Model, the best description physicists have of the subatomic world.

CERN's proposed $17 billion particle collider would search for new and unknown physics, but it has drawn fire for its hefty price tag.

CERN has revealed further plans for the Future Circular Collider, which will dwarf the Large Hadron Collider in size and power to hunt for dark energy and dark matter.

CERNquadbot can go off the rails – unlike science org's existing inspector bots Vid  A four-legged robot dog has successfully performed a radiation protection test at CERN by patrolling and inspecting equipment in a small section of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).…

A feasibility study on CERN’s Future Circular Collider identifies where and how the machine could be built—but its construction is far from assured

Author(s): M. D’Andrea, O. Aberle, R. Bruce, M. Butcher, M. Di Castro, R. Cai, I. Lamas, A. Masi, D. Mirarchi, S. Redaelli, R. Rossi, and W. ScandaleCrystals are now used for collimation in LHC operation. [Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 27, 011002] Published Thu Jan 25, 2024

Author(s): G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration, CMS Collaboration)The Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS and CMS collaborations have analyzed data of a rare Higgs-boson decay, finding a hint of a disagreement with standard-model predictions. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 021803] Published Thu Jan 11, 2024

Scientists working on CERN’s Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment have published the latest data in their search for a long-lived exotic particle known as the dark photon. Read more...

There are many open questions about the Standard Model of particle physics (SM), which is currently the best description we have of the world of particle physics. Experimental and theoretical physicists vie with each other in a healthy competition to scrutinize the SM and identify parts of it that require further explanation, beyond the model's well-known shortcomings, such as neutrino masses.

Author(s): Luca Buonocore, Simone Devoto, Massimiliano Grazzini, Stefan Kallweit, Javier Mazzitelli, Luca Rottoli, and Chiara SavoiniSignificant reduction in the perturbative uncertainty due to the first second-order QCD calculation of the hadroproduction of a W boson in association with a top-antitop quark pair could lead to stringent tests of the standard model. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 231901] Published Tue Dec 05, 2023

If dark matter is made from "dark" versions of the basic building blocks of ordinary matter, the world's largest particle accelerator should be able to pin it down, a new study suggests.

A new study helped scientists better constrain the possible properties of dark matter particles.

Lead-208 has an intriguing nucleus. It is neutron rich, containing 82 protons and 126 neutrons. One of its more interesting properties is its structure: its center is composed of both protons and neutrons, but at its edge, there is a diffuse shell of mostly neutrons. Scientists call this the neutron "skin."

Scientists have created the world's first nanophotonic electron accelerator, which speeds negatively charged particles with mini laser pulses and is small enough to fit on a coin.

Scientists have created the world's first nanophotonic electron accelerator, which speeds negatively charged particles with mini laser pulses and is small enough to fit on a coin.

Physicists have used the famous particle smasher to investigate the strange phenomena of quantum entanglement at far higher energies than ever before

A petabyte or more a day? No problem, pal In preparation for its latest round of ion-smashing tests, CERN boosted its storage array for the experiments to more than one million terabytes in total size.…

The LHC requires a variety of different types of magnets to direct the beams around its circular shape. Currently installed in the LHC's interaction regions are 9.45-m-long double-aperture magnets of 2.8 T, manufactured by BNL for the RHIC.

The LHC is back delivering collisions to the experiments after the successful leak repair in August. But instead of protons, it is now the turn of lead ion beams to collide, marking the first heavy-ion run in five years.