How long does a free neutron really live before it decays? This simple question has annoyed physicists for decades. Moreover, when they searched for an answer, they found not one but two confusing solutions that further deepened this mystery. The solutions come from two experimental methods, known as the beam and bottle techniques. The results … Read more
One of the biggest open questions in particle physics today is how the Higgs boson interacts with itself. This “self-coupling” plays a pivotal role in determining the shape of the energy potential of the Higgs field, influencing both the early Universe evolution and the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles. Physicists at the ATLAS … Read more
The onset of high-energy operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in 2010 heralded a new and transformative era in physics research. A powerful and versatile hadron collider paired with sophisticated particle detectors and worldwide grid computing, all performing beyond expectations, allowed the LHC experiments to chart new frontiers and advance particle physics. … Read more
Despite its wide-ranging success, the Standard Model leaves some of the universe’s deepest mysteries unanswered. What is dark matter? Why does matter dominate over antimatter? Given how no beyond-the-Standard-Model phenomena have yet been observed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a question naturally arises: are physicists searching in the right place? Figure 1: The expected … Read more
Simulation of a vast region of the Universe based on the current cosmological model and performed using supercomputers. In the image, the faint glow of the gas within the cosmic filaments, forming a dense cosmic web, is shown in white. At the intersections of these filaments, the gas within galaxies, which fuels the formation of … Read more