Important recent advances led with the support of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, are revealing deeper insights into the fundamental nature of our universe.
Ongoing experiments at CERN aim to explore the smallest building blocks of matter and the forces that drive them. Uncovering the dynamics of these forces is allowing scientists to achieve a better fundamental understanding of the origin, structure and behavior of the universe.
An intergovernmental organization, CERN is home to the largest and most advanced particle physics laboratory anywhere in the world. It also houses the famous Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets that researchers working at the facility use to boost the energy of particles, enabling experiments that cannot be achieved anywhere else on Earth and that reveal insights into some of the most intriguing questions physicists have about the nature of matter and energy.
In recent weeks, an ongoing series of breakthroughs made possible by CERN has marked important steps toward solving these lingering questions about the cosmos. In April, researchers working at the facility announced a new milestone in measuring the weak mixing angle, in new findings that will further refine scientists’ understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics.
The achievement, part of an ongoing collaboration with researchers from the University of Rochester and global members of the particle physics community, will help shed light on the conditions immediately following the explosive birth of our universe and shed new insights in the continuing mysteries of particle physics.
Led by University of Rochester experimental particle physicist Arie Bodek, the work was carried out with the support of Europe’s leading particle physics laboratory and the famous Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN facility and was part of the Compact Muon Solenoid Collaboration ( CMS).
A key element of the Standard Model, the electroweak mixing angle, also called the Weinberg angle, is used by physicists to describe the relative strength of the electromagnetic and weak forces, and how they combine to form the electromagnetic interaction. Measuring this is useful in understanding the fundamental forces of the universe and how they work together on extremely small scales, which scientists hope will provide deeper insights into the properties of matter and energy.
Such insights could greatly improve our understanding of the Standard Model, which describes our current best understanding of particle interactions and predicts numerous phenomena in physics and astronomy.
Electroweak theory has its roots in 19th-century observations that first linked electricity and magnetism, leading to the connection of the weak force within atomic nuclei that is now responsible for radioactive decay and stellar energy production. According to the electroweak theory, all these forces are essentially seen as weak manifestations of a single force.
“Recent measurements of the electroweak mixing angle are incredibly precise, calculated from proton collisions at CERN, and strengthen our understanding of particle physics,” Bodek said recently in a statement. The work of Bodek and his team builds on the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle that plays a key role in helping to unravel the origin of mass in the universe.
The Rochester team’s recent research produced one of the most precise measurements of the weak mixing angle ever derived from studies at CERN or elsewhere. Recent measurements are also consistent with the Standard Model, unlike past measurements that raised more questions than answers.
Graduate student Rhys Taus and postdoctoral associate Aleko Khukhunaishvili used new techniques to greatly increase the accuracy of the recent measurements. This allowed the team to significantly reduce the systematic uncertainties that have hampered past measurement efforts.
“The Rochester team has been developing innovative techniques and measuring these electroweak parameters since 2010, applying them to the LHC,” Bodek said. By using a deeper understanding of the weak mixing angle, future efforts will be able to command a greater understanding of the underlying forces, giving physicists a deeper understanding of matter and energy in their manifestations. very small.
The new electroweak mixing angle measurements are just one of the latest advances made possible by CERN that are giving physicists important new clues about the inner workings of nature and the cosmos.
Last week, Debrief reported the first successful demonstration of quantum entanglement in top quarks, marking another breakthrough that sheds new light on the behavior of fundamental particles and their interactions at distances unreachable by light-speed communication.
The breakthrough announced last week, led by Professor Regina Demina, also with the University of Rochester, extends the puzzling phenomenon known as “tremorous action at a distance” to some of the heaviest known particles and provides new insights into the mechanics high energy quantum.
“These new techniques have heralded a new era of tests of the accuracy of Standard Model predictions,” Bodek said of the latest research undertaken at CERN.
Micah Hanks is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Debrief. He can be contacted by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and in X: @MicahHanks.
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