In the news

Here’s what recent DESI measurements suggest — and why it’s too early to update conventional predictions about the Universe’s distant future.

How are cosmology and particle physics connected? Observing the motions of stars and galaxies can reveal the influence of as-yet-undiscovered particles, while studying fundamental particles in the lab can tell us about the birth and evolution of the cosmos.

The Magnet Detectives investigates the story of the assembly of the US-built magnets for the high-luminosity upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider. By doubling the number of protons inside the LHC and improving the beam dynamics, the upgrade will increase experimental datasets by a factor of 10.

The science world is mourning the loss of British theoretical physicist, Peter Higgs who passed away at the age of 94. He was the namesake of the boson that was discovered in 2012. The Higgs boson was a crucial to the theoretical edifice that physicists built known as the standard model of particles and fields.

CERN’s ProtoDUNE has entered a pivotal stage: the filling of one of its two particle detectors with liquid argon. The liquid argon will provide a clean environment for precise measurements in neutrino interactions and allow scientists to detect and study neutrino interactions.

The BREAD experiment has delivered its first results. The table top axion detection system showed how the concept of BREAD iss inexpensive and did not take up a lot of space. BREAD was developed by Fermilab and University of Chicago scientists and aims to study axions to answer the mystery of dark matter.

The ATLAS collaboration measured the W-boson width at the LHC for the first time. The W-boson width had previously been measured at CERN’s LEP collider and Fermilab’s Tevatron collider. This is the most precise measurement to date made by a single experiment, and—while a bit larger—it is consistent with the Standard-Model prediction to within 2.5 standard deviations.

Neutron stars are like huge natural dark matter detectors and might hold a key to helping us understand elusive dark matter. By observing a cold neutron star, physicists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, might have vital information about the interactions between dark and regular matter, shedding light on the nature of this elusive substance. Dr. Sandra Robles of Fermilab is part of the collaboration on this research.

A collaboration between the University of Chicago and Fermilab have developed an axion detector called BREAD. It was built to search for dark photon dark matter and the first results showed that BREAD is very sensitive in its frequency range.

Physicists use particle accelerators to replicate the early Universe’s conditions, revealing insights from the Big Bang to the formation of atoms. Data generated in particle physics experiments and theoretical physics can offer a glimpse into the earliest moments of the cosmos.