Proton-ion collisions: Behind the scenes of a hybrid interaction

Protons to the right, ions to the left: the basic principle of proton-ion collisions at the LHC might seem straightforward. However, this is an almost unprecedented mode of collider operation, certainly unique at the energy ...

The LHC racks up records

An unprecedented number of particles has been reached in record time. Just five weeks after physics resumed, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is already running at full throttle. On Wednesday 28 June 2017 the LHC established ...

ATLAS probes uncharted territory with LHC Run 3 data

Despite its immense success in describing the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions, the Standard Model of particle physics is known to be incomplete. Experiments around the globe and in space are therefore ...

MoEDAL hunts for dyons

A magnetic monopole is a theoretical particle with a magnetic charge. Give it an electric charge, and you get another theoretical beast, dubbed a dyon. Many "grand unified theories" of particle physics, which connect fundamental ...

Producing four top quarks at once to explore the unknown

For several decades, particle physicists have been trying to better understand nature at the smallest distances by colliding particles at the highest energies. While the Standard Model of particle physics has successfully ...

What does 'luminosity' mean in particle physics?

Even on the hottest and driest days, rays from the sun are too weak to ignite a fire. But with a magnifying glass (or, in some unfortunate cases, a glass garden ornament), you can focus sunlight into a beam bright enough ...

Scientists studying nuclear spin make a surprising discovery

In proton-proton smashups, more neutrons scatter to the right than the left relative to the proton spin direction. That was the accepted wisdom, and scientists thought the pattern would hold even when the protons struck larger ...

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