As Run 2 at the LHC gains momentum, a combined analysis of data sets from Run 1 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations has provided the sharpest picture yet on the Higgs boson properties (ATLAS 2015, CMS 2015).  Three years after the announcement in July 2012 of the discovery of a new boson, the two collaborations are closing the books on measurements of Higgs properties by performing a combined Run 1 analysis, which includes data collected in 2011 and 2012 at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. This analysis follows hot on the heels of the combined measurement of the Higgs boson mass, m_H = 125.09±0.24 GeV, published in May by ATLAS and CMS (ATLAS and CMS 2015). Continue reading CERN: Zeroing in on Higgs boson properties →

Fig. 1.

Improvements in detector technology often come from capitalizing on industrial progress. Over the past two decades, advances in photo-lithography, microelectronics and printed circuits have opened the way for the production of micro-structured gas-amplification devices. By 2008, interest in the development and use of the novel micro-pattern gaseous detector (MPGD) technologies led to the establishment at CERN of the RD51 collaboration. Originally created for a five-year term, RD51 was later prolonged for another five years beyond 2013. While many of the MPGD technologies were introduced before RD51 was founded (figure 1), with more techniques becoming available or affordable, new detection concepts are still being introduced, and existing ones are substantially improved. Continue reading CERN: coupling micro electronics & advanced PCB manufacture, RD51 →

While the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity sets no theoretical bound on how high T_c can be, the highest up to now has been 133 K at ambient pressure and 164 K at high pressure in copper oxide. The new surprise is in sulphur hydride, where a T_c of 80 K had been predicted. Continue reading Surprising superconductor →