CERN
Bulletin

Listen to the music… at 3.5 into the recording you will be able to “hear” the sound of the newly discovered boson. That’s the beauty of sonification, a technique that translates dry data into beautiful melodies. >>

In 2010, Fermilab’s DØ experiment reported a one percent difference in the properties of matter and antimatter in decays of B mesons (that is, particles containing beauty quarks) to muons. Saturday, at the ICHEP Conference in Melbourne, the LHCb experiment at CERN presents new results, which do not confirm this anomaly and are consistent with the Standard Model predictions. The same experiment has also presented the first evidence of asymmetry arising in other decays of the same family of mesons. The image becomes clearer but the puzzle has not yet been solved. >>

Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle. Both experiments observe a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV. >>

With strong evidence of a new particle with a mass around 125-126 GeV, will our interpretation of the Universe change? In an interview with the Bulletin, CERN theorist Ignatios Antoniadis explains. >>

“The LHC has been a huge effort over more than 15 years. It’s not always been easy but today it is performing so spectacularly well that the people who built it should be very proud.” Lyn Evans, head of the LHC project since its beginning and until its commissioning in 2011, shares his recollections with us on the day of the long-awaited discovery. >>

Wrestling a 27 km superconducting collider under control is not easy. Throw in high intensity beams and it can sometimes seem a continual, frustrating battle with the vagaries of a hugely complex problem space. >>

Today, the ATLAS and CMS experiments announced that they had observed a new particle. We don’t yet know what that particle is, but it is consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson, and work will soon be underway to positively identify it. Days like this do not come around very often, and it’s a cause for celebration. >>

Why have we tried so hard to find the Higgs particle? How does the Higgs mechanism work? What is the difference in physics between strong evidence and a discovery? Why do physicists speak in terms of "sigmas"? Find out here! >>