CERN Accelerating science

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LHC anomalies hint at possible light Higgs boson signature

In 2012 the ATLAS and CMS collaborations discovered a new particle that – within the present theoretical and experimental uncertainties – is consistent with the predictions for the Higgs boson of the Standard Model (SM) at a mass of about 125 GeV.…

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All the Objects in the Universe (and Some Questions)

When astronauts look at the Earth from orbit, they are often awed by its beauty and isolation. They speak of the overview effect; a cognitive shift to a new larger perspective that gives context and meaning to their lives. For physicists, a similar…

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B anomalies: hopes, disillusions, and future prospects.

Within the Standard Model (SM) the basic constituents of matter are the three "families" (two quarks and two leptons) with different quantum numbers, that completely determine the properties of these particles under the three fundamental forces…

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Departed giants of theoretical physics

July 23rd 2021 was a sad day for the world of theoretical physics, which witnessed the passing of three giants of the field: Steven Weinberg, Toshihide Maskawa and Miguel Virasoro. Weinberg and Maskawa were awarded Nobel Prizes for their…

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The NNLO frontier

The potential of a post-LHC collider to explore for hints of new physics relies on technological advancements but also on theoretical developments that will allow very accurate background determinations. With a concensus growing for a lepton…

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How Many Fundamental Constants Does It Take To Explain The Universe?

At a fundamental level, our Universe is made of particles, forces, interactions, and the fabric of space and time. Spacetime forms the ever-evolving stage on which the play of the cosmos unfolds, while the particles are the players. They can bind…

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The rise of the axions!

Roberto Peccei and Helen Quinn worked together in developing what is today known as the Peccei-Quinn symmetry; a mechanism that addresses the strong CP-violation that consequently led to the invention of axions and inspired an intense experimental…

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Searching for axions: old and new ideas

QCD, the theory of strong interactions allows the violation of CP symmetry that would result in a non-zero value for the neutron electric dipole moment. Current measurements constrain the neutron EDM to be one trillionth of the size predicted by QCD…

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Why is fundamental physics worth researching?

What's the point of investing fortunes into answering questions in advanced physics? 100 years ago, we might have asked the same questions of Schroedinger, Bohr, Heisenberg, Dirac, and the other pioneers of the quantum revolution. After all — what…

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The Lifetime Frontier

It bear repeating that there must be physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). The triumphant discovery of the 125 GeV Higgs Boson sharpens the Hierarch Problem, with naturalness suggesting new particles at the TeV scale. A multitude of interlocking…

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