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Category: particle physics – Page 3

How most of the universe’s visible mass is generated: Experiments explore emergence of hadron mass

Deep in the heart of the matter, some numbers don’t add up. For example, while protons and neutrons are made of quarks, nature’s fundamental building blocks bound together by gluons, their masses are much larger than the individual quarks from which they are formed.

This leads to a central puzzle … why? In the theory of the strong interaction, known as quantum chromodynamics or QCD, quarks acquire their bare mass through the Higgs mechanism. The long-hypothesized process was confirmed by experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and led to the Nobel Prize for Peter Higgs in 2013.

Yet the inescapable issue remains that “this mechanism contributes to the measured proton and neutron masses at the level of less than 2%,” said Victor Mokeev, a staff scientist and phenomenologist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

Hollow glass fiber sensors withstand extreme radiation in particle accelerator tests

A slender glass fiber no thicker than a human hair placed across a particle beam could improve accelerator monitoring. A team is testing the use of hollow-core optical fibers to measure the profile and position of the beams extracted from the Super Proton Synchrotron, CERN’s second-largest accelerator, which feeds the experiments located in the North Area.

Unlike conventional fibers, which guide light through solid glass, hollow-core optical fibers are mostly empty inside but have a microstructure design that guides light through resonance–antiresonance effects on the electromagnetic field.

By filling these fibers with a scintillating gas—a gas that emits tiny flashes of light when struck by particles—scientists can create a simple yet powerful sensor that helps them to adjust the beam profile and position and may even allow them to measure the delivered beam dose in real time.

Physicists drive antihydrogen breakthrough at CERN with record trapping technique

Physicists from Swansea University have played the leading role in a scientific breakthrough at CERN, developing an innovative technique that increases the antihydrogen trapping rate by a factor of ten.

The advancement, achieved as part of the international Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) collaboration, has been published in Nature Communications and could help answer one of the biggest questions in physics: Why is there such a large imbalance between matter and antimatter? According to the Big Bang theory, equal amounts were created at the beginning of the universe, so why is the world around us made almost entirely of matter?

Antihydrogen is the “mirror version” of hydrogen, made from an antiproton and a positron. Trapping and studying it helps scientists explore how antimatter behaves, and whether it follows the same rules as matter.

New monitor now operational in the Large Hadron Collider

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 new device, known as the Beam Gas Curtain (BGC) monitor, addresses one of the toughest challenges in modern accelerator physics: measuring the properties of very high-energy particle beams without disturbing them.

It has now been cleared for continuous operation (~2,000 hours per year).

Water-based plasma forges novel alloy to turn CO₂ into useful chemicals

A new water-based plasma technique is opening fresh possibilities for carbon conversion.

Chinese researchers have created stable high-entropy alloy nanoparticles—containing five metals in nearly equal ratios—directly in solution, thereby overcoming long-standing challenges in nanoscale alloy synthesis.

These particles form a self-protecting, oxidized shell, delivering strong photothermal performance that utilizes visible and infrared light to drive carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide more efficiently than single-metal catalysts.

Cosmic ray puzzle resolved as scientists link ‘knee’ formation to black holes

Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have solved a decades-old mystery about the cosmic ray energy spectrum—which shows a sharp decrease in cosmic rays above 3 PeV, giving it an unusual knee-like shape.

The cause of the “knee” has remained unclear since its discovery nearly 70 years ago. Scientists have speculated that it is linked to the acceleration limit of the astrophysical sources of cosmic rays and reflects the transition of the cosmic ray energy spectrum from one power-law distribution to another.

Now, however, two recent studies—published in National Science Review and Science Bulletin, respectively—demonstrate that micro-quasars driven by black hole system accretion are powerful particle accelerators in the Milky Way and are the likely source of the “knee.” The studies also advance our understanding of the extreme physical processes of black hole systems.

Electrical control of spin currents in graphene via ferroelectric switching achieved

A collaborative European research team led by physicists from Slovak Academy of Sciences has theorized a new approach to control spin currents in graphene by coupling it to a ferroelectric In2Se3 monolayer. Using first-principles and tight-binding simulations, the researcher showed that the ferroelectric switching of In2Se3 can reverse the direction of the spin current in graphene acting as an electrical spin switch. This discovery offers a novel pathway toward energy-efficient, nonvolatile, and magnet-free spintronic devices, marking a key step toward the fabrication of next-generation spin-based logic and memory systems to control spin textures.

The findings are published in the journal Materials Futures.

Nobel Winners Just Proved the Universe Is Quantum — 2025 Physics Prize Explained

#EverythingSpace #Universe.

Nobel Winners Just Proved the Universe Is Quantum — 2025 Physics Prize Explained.

In this episode of Everything Space, we break down the groundbreaking discoveries that earned this year’s Nobel Prize, and what they mean for the way we understand reality itself. From experiments that challenge Einstein’s idea of locality, to the mysterious phenomenon of quantum entanglement, these results show that the universe behaves in ways once thought impossible.

We’ll explore how scientists finally confirmed that particles can influence each other across vast distances — instantaneously — and why this discovery reshapes our understanding of space, time, and the very nature of existence.

Join us as we unravel the science behind the Nobel-winning breakthrough that proves the universe isn’t just strange — it’s quantum.

#QuantumUniverse #Physics2025 #NobelPrize #EverythingSpace #SpaceMysteries.

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