EP Vacancies: Opportunities in CERN’s Experimental Physics (EP) Department
A word from the EP Department Head – Autumn 2026
Dear Colleagues,
Autumn is transforming nature by giving it new colours, shortening daylight and changing the temperature. Similarly, the start of Long Shutdown 3 has transformed our experimental facilities into busy construction sites…
Interviews & Features
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In discussion with Alan Guth
Alan Guth reflects on the origins of inflationary cosmology, the uncertainty surrounding its earliest models and the observations that could shape its future. He also discusses eternal inflation, the measure problem and the enduring connections between cosmology and particle physics.
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Past and Present of the LHC Physics Programme: A Viewpoint
Before the LHC began operations, expectations were immense. It was not perceived simply as CERN’s next machine after LEP, but as “the next machine after everything”—a collider expected to settle how electroweak symmetry is broken.
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CERN STEAM Academy puts the future of scientific software centre stage
C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup returned to CERN for a packed STEAM Academy seminar on the future of scientific software. From safer programming and simpler code to new language features and the demands of long-lived research infrastructure, he explored how C++ can continue to evolve alongside the computing challenges of modern science.
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Four of a kind: exploring quadruple-Higgs boson production at the HL-LHC
Four Higgs bosons from a single LHC collision would be a remarkable sight. The Standard Model puts an observation out of reach at the High-Luminosity LHC. Yet events containing four Higgs bosons could still matter for today’s experimental search strategies—and become much more abundant if new scalar particles exist.
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A Hundred Gigabits per Fibre: Silicon Photonics Links for the Detectors of Tomorrow
The High-Speed Links Work Package (WP6) of the EP R&D programme is developing the radiation-tolerant, high-bandwidth optical links needed for future particle detectors. Combining custom ASICs, Silicon Photonics and FPGA-based back-end systems, the team is now moving towards integrated demonstrations in an experimental context.
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From beam dumps to missing energy: the SPS search for hidden particles
For more than four decades, CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron has served as a testing ground for new ways to search for particles that interact only feebly with ordinary matter. In a recent lecture, NA64 co-spokesperson Paolo Crivelli traced the evolution of this programme – from the first beam-dump experiments to missing-energy and missing-momentum searches, precision…
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Designing for the unusual: LLP2026 and the lifetime frontier
LLP2026 brought around 80 theorists and experimentalists to Cambridge at a moment of transition for the lifetime frontier. From new searches using Run 3 LHC data and unconventional signatures to prototype detectors and new experimental concepts, the workshop showed how long-recognised blind spots are being turned into concrete experimental capabilities.
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One summer, a world of possibilities: CERN’s Summer Student Programme 2026
More than 320 students from over 90 nationalities spent the summer at CERN, contributing to research, exploring new ideas and building friendships. As the 2026 Summer Student Programme concludes, discover the people, projects and experiences behind an unforgettable summer of science.
Results & Developments
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Investigating the origin of elements with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the international Space Station
Drawing on 15 years of observations and more than 260 billion cosmic-ray events, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is helping scientists investigate how elements are produced and propagate through our Galaxy. Its latest measurements of phosphorus, chlorine, argon, potassium and calcium reveal distinct patterns among primary and secondary cosmic-ray nuclei, contributing to a more comprehensive model…
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A radioactive crossroads: n_TOF measurement validates a key reaction in the molybdenum-94 puzzle
The first experimental determination of neutron capture by niobium-94 at energies relevant to stellar nucleosynthesis confirms the scale of earlier theoretical predictions, rules out this reaction as the source of a longstanding discrepancy and strengthens our understanding of molybdenum production in ageing stars.
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Looking for soft unclustered energy patterns from dark matter in CMS and ATLAS
CMS and ATLAS are exploring unconventional signatures of dark matter at the LHC. New searches target soft unclustered energy patterns—nearly spherical sprays of low-energy particles that can evade conventional detection strategies—and extend sensitivity to previously unexplored regions of the dark sector.
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ANUBIS: from prototype to Letter of Intent
The proANUBIS demonstrator has completed data taking in the ATLAS cavern, showing that its detector technology delivers the efficiency and timing precision required to search for long-lived particles. These results strengthen the case for the full ANUBIS experiment, which would extend ATLAS’s reach into a largely unexplored region of new physics.
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ISOLTRAP measures cadmium isotope masses for the first time, probing a key nuclear shell gap
With only about 40 detected ions, ISOLTRAP has measured the mass of cadmium-96 for the first time. Together with improved measurements of cadmium-97 and cadmium-98, the results shed light on nuclear shell structure near the doubly magic nucleus tin-100 and provide new benchmarks for nuclear theory.
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colibri: CERN VHDL Common Library released for Everyone to Use
CERN has released colibri, an open-source library designed to make FPGA gateware more portable, reliable and independent of individual vendors. Developed with support from the CERN EP R&D programme, it provides more than 100 verified VHDL components and is already used by over ten projects within and beyond CERN.
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Key4hep: A software framework for future collider studies
Key4hep brings future-collider communities together around a shared software framework for detector design and physics studies. By integrating tools for event generation, simulation, reconstruction and analysis, it reduces duplication, facilitates comparisons and allows each project to adapt the software to its own detector and scientific goals.
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Bundling Forces for Future Online Computing: Introducing the CDO Projec
Discover the Control Acquisition and Online Computing (CDO) Project, an initiative of the Experimental Physics Department that brings together diverse expertise, ideas and perspectives to strengthen collaboration across the community.
Special Features
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Inside CMS’s LS3 decommissioning challenge
CMS has begun one of the most demanding interventions in its history: the carefully planned removal of around 600 m³ of legacy services. Empty racks and cable trays now reveal the first stage of the detector’s transformation for the High-Luminosity LHC.
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Taking ATLAS apart to build its future
In the first weeks of Long Shutdown 3, ATLAS entered a decisive new phase. Over the next four years, the collaboration will dismantle major parts of the detector and install new tracking, timing, trigger and infrastructure systems for the High-Luminosity LHC. Its technical coordination team reveals the intricate planning, tension and unexpected joy behind this…
More stories from the FCC
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The last beam tests before LS3 boost FCC-ee detector technologies
The last beam tests before LS3 boost FCC-ee detector technologies by Hector Garcia Morales (CERN, FCC-PED group) In one of the last opportunities to test detector prototypes before CERN’s accelerator complex enters Long Shutdown 3, a beam test campaign brought together different teams from across the world to test FCC-ee detector technologies. To date, six
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FCC Physics, Experiments and Detectors: from Strategy Update to Project Preparation
From detector concepts to future experiment collaborations, the FCC Physics, Experiments and Detectors programme is entering a new phase. Patrick Janot outlines how the Reference Design Phase will bring together physics ambitions, detector R&D and international collaboration to prepare FCC-ee for project approval and delivery.
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FCC Week 2026: from scientific ambition to an integrated design
FCC Week 2026: from scientific ambition to an integrated design by Panos Charitos (CERN) This year’s annual conference brought together 656 participants in Helsinki to examine how the Future Circular Collider study can move from feasibility demonstration towards a coherent reference design. With its primary focus on FCC-ee, the meeting presented a project in which
