Taking a hint from the name of the conference, Thursday’s sessions focused on QCD studies. Among the many analyses presented were new measurements that may improve background in Higgs events.
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Wednesday began with presentations by experiments worldwide on their investigations into the intriguing nature of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP).
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Tuesday saw presentations on heavy flavour physics and heavy-ion physics. Among the highlights were an updated scenario for supersymmetry and the latest results on the properties of the quark-gluon plasma.
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The fact that SUSY and other new physics signals do not seem to hide in “obvious” places is bringing a healthy excitement to Moriond. Yesterday’s presentations confirmed that, with the 2012 LHC data, experiments will concentrate on searches for exotic particles that might decay into yet unexplored modes. In the meantime, they are setting unprecedented boundaries to regions where new particles (not just SUSY) could exist. The limits of what particle accelerators can bring to enlighten the mystery of Dark Matter were also presented and discussed.
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Some of the most recent analyses of the Higgs searches were presented on 11 March at the Moriond QCD conference, together with other Standard Model measurements relevant to the Higgs.
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Last Friday at the Moriond conference in La Thuile in Italy, Lisa Randall from Harvard University reminded the audience how all fields are related: electroweak symmetry breaking must take into account flavour physics for example. Every good model should address this intrinsic connection.
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Yesterday at the Moriond conference, several theorists addressed the consequences of the current Higgs boson searches on models going beyond the Standard Model.
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Seeing less than the value predicted by the Standard Model for rare B decays branching ratios would still open the door to new physics. This is the reassuring message David Straub delivered to a relieved audience yesterday morning at the Moriond conference.
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Josef Pradler, a theorist from the Perimeter Institute in Canada presented today at the Moriond conference new calculations that could disprove the main criticism of the DAMA oscillation data: the phenomenon cannot be produced by cosmic muons.
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Today, at the Rencontres de Moriond EW conference, the LHCb Collaboration presented a few important results. They confirm the Standard Model predictions with an unprecedented precision and put limits on possible deviations due to new physics.
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The ICTR-PHE 2012 conference, which closed its doors today after five busy days, sealed the alliance between the physics and medical communities. We have come a long way since 1977, when physicist David Townsend took the first PET images of a small mouse. Today, physicists are developing new detector techniques that medical doctors can transfer to the clinic in fields that are no longer confined to cancer treatment. Several powerful and innovative solutions for better healthcare are on their way.
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As anyone in the press or VIP offices can tell you, CERN is in the spotlight like never before. In the first two months of 2012, we welcomed some 56 VIP visits and 144 media visits on site. Not long ago, those were the kind of numbers we’d have had in six months, and 2012 is not a one-off.
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The giant is waking from its slumbers. For about a week now, protons have been in the injectors: first passing through the LINAC, Booster and PS; and, since last weekend, passing through the SPS. The beam is now knocking at the doors of the LHC.
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On 17 January this year there was a race against time in the CMS cavern. In order to replace a faulty LHC component, members of the Vacuums, Surfaces and Coatings (VSC) Group, in collaboration with the CMS experiment team, had to extract and then reinsert a 2-m long section of vacuum chamber. And they had one hour to do it.
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Over the years, people at CERN have been trying to develop a single theory to explain CERN’s building numbers. Behind these seemingly random numbers there must surely be an ultimate solution: CERN’s second Standard Model, if you will. The CERN Bulletin finds out more…
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Two Pakistani scientists arrived at CERN on 2 February at the height of the cold snap. They will spend the coming year working in collaboration with CERN’s magnet experts, learning the technology and contributing to ongoing projects.
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The Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Iveta Radicova, visited CERN on 28 February, meeting with CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer and going down to the ALICE cavern.
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Imagine the scene: about 20-30 schoolchildren aged 8-11 and about 1.25 m tall; a couple of adults, let’s say on average 1.75 m tall, and then one high-energy physics experiment 15 m tall. This is what you could have seen on 2, 6 and 9 February in the CMS cavern, as two local schools participated in the “ Be a scientist!” programme.
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“Symmetry,” a film about science, truth and identity, is the first arts project to receive the endorsement of the CERN Cultural Advisory Board, following a rigorous peer review process. It unites six artists from different artistic and cultural backgrounds - between their nationalities and current places of residence they cover six countries and three continents. The team visited CERN recently to get an impression of the Organization and to prepare for filming during the shutdown in 2013.
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Are you a CERN cyclist? If so, join the Bike 2 Work competition that has just started! The more kilometres you travel by bike, the closer you’ll get to winning…
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In the 04/05 edition of the Bulletin, we teamed up with the HSE Unit's Safety Inspection Service to launch a “Spot the Mistakes” competition based on 7 mistakes. You had to identify 7 major safety problems in the photo below.
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Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann paid a visit to CERN in January. In this video, he shares his views with Paola Catapano, member of CERN Communication Group.
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Have you ever bought a used laptop on ebay? Try it and you might not only get (hopefully) functional hardware, but also a bunch of personal files, intriguing photos, sensitive documents, etc. Not everybody worries enough to clean the local hard disks properly before selling their equipment or giving it away. So the next owner of the hard disk can comfortably crawl through the remaining data, and use it at his or her convenience...
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In this series, the Bulletin aims to explain the role of the Ombuds at CERN by presenting practical examples of misunderstandings that could have been resolved by the Ombuds if he had been contacted earlier. Please note that, in all the situations we present, the names are fictitious and used only to improve clarity.
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Most of us are familiar with the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart. It spreads from wall to wall and tells you all about decay chains of all known nuclides and isotopes.
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It is with great sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of our former colleague and friend, Paul Bouchardy, on Friday 17 February.
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