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Particle Physics group
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The Particle Physics group at the University of Antwerp has a long and outstanding tradition in experimental and phenomenological research concerning particle collisions as conducted by the largest particle accelerators in the world. Our research focuses on the study of quantumchromodynamics, the search for Higgs boson and the search for extra dimensions of space.
The Particle Physics group participates in two large international experimental collaborations:
- The CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest and most powerfull particle accelerator in the world. The LHC is situated at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.
- The H1 experiment, one of the big experiments taking data with colliding positron-proton beams at HERA. HERA is one of the facilities at the German national laboratory for elementary particle physics DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) in Hamburg, Germany.
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Breakthrough of the Year
The new boson discovery has been named the Breakthrough of the Year by Science magazine.
The cover, editorial and articles - including the ones about CMS and the one signed by the CMS experiment - are linked below:
Cover:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114.cover-expansion
Editorial:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1511.full.pdf
Introduction and Glossary:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1558.full.pdf
Journey in the Search for the Higgs Boson: The ATLAS and CMS Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, M. Della Negra, P. Jenni, and T. S. Virdee
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1560.full.pdf
A New Boson with a Mass of 125 GeV Observed with the CMS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, The CMS Collaboration
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1569.full.pdf
A Particle Consistent with the Higgs Boson Observed with the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider, The ATLAS Collaboration
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1576.full.pdf
December, 2012
Higgs within reach
Our understanding of the
universe is about to change…
The
ATLAS
and
CMS
experiments at CERN presented their latest
results in the search for the long-sought
Higgs boson
on Wednesday 4th of July. Both
experiments see strong indications for the presence of a new particle, which
could be the Higgs boson, in the mass region around 126 gigaelectronvolts
(GeV).
The experiments found hints
of the new particle by analysing trillions of proton-proton collisions from the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
in 2011 and 2012. The
Standard Model
of particle physics predicts that a
Higgs boson would decay into different particles – which the LHC experiments
then detect.
A
proton-proton collision event in the CMS experiment producing two high-energy
photons (red towers). This is what we would expect to see from the decay of a
Higgs boson but it is also consistent with background Standard Model physics
processes. © CERN 2012
Both ATLAS and CMS gave the
level of significance of the result as 5 sigma on the scale that particle
physicists use to describe the certainty of a discovery. One sigma means the
results could be random fluctuations in the data, 3 sigma counts as an
observation and a 5-sigma result is a discovery. The results presented today
are preliminary, as the data from 2012 is still under analysis. The complete
analysis is expected to be published around the end of July.
© Copyright CERN 2012
July 2012
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