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Advisory board Luis Alvarez-Gaume, Peter Jenni, Christine Sutton, Claude Amsler, 7 nEWs
Roger Bailey, Philippe Bloch, Roger Forty
• India to become associate Member State Slovenia to •
Laboratory correspondents:
become associate Member State in pre-stage to membership •
•
Argonne National Laboratory (US) Tom LeCompte
Brookhaven National Laboratory (US) Achim Franz Antihydrogen atoms show their colour AWAKE makes waves
• •
Cornell University (US) D G Cassel
DESY Laboratory (Germany) Till Mundzeck Proton–lead run tops record year of LHC operations ATLAS
•
EMFCSC (Italy) Anna Cavallini
Enrico Fermi Centre (Italy) Guido Piragino makes precision measurement of W mass Run 2 promises a
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US) Katie Yurkewicz
•
harvest of beauty for LHCb ALICE zeroes in on cold-matter
• •
Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) Markus Buescher
GSI Darmstadt (Germany) I Peter
IHEP, Beijing (China) Tongzhou Xu effects Protons probe quark–gluon plasma at CMS Electron
IHEP, Serpukhov (Russia) Yu Ryabov
INFN (Italy) Antonella Varaschin
gun shrunk to matchbox size
Jefferson Laboratory (US) Kandice Carter
JINR Dubna (Russia) B Starchenko
KEK National Laboratory (Japan) Saeko Okada 13 sCiEnCEWatCh
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (US) Spencer Klein
Los Alamos National Laboratory (US) Rajan Gupta
NCSL (US) Ken Kingery 15 astrOWatCh
Nikhef (Netherlands) Robert Fleischer
Novosibirsk Institute (Russia) S Eidelman
Orsay Laboratory (France) Anne-Marie Lutz FEaturEs
PSI Laboratory (Switzerland) P-R Kettle
Saclay Laboratory (France) Elisabeth Locci 16 The dawn of a new era
Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK) Jane Binks
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US) Farnaz Khadem
Gravitational waves open a profound new vista on nature.
TRIUMF Laboratory (Canada) Marcello Pavan
closed-loop current transformer technology (Zero Published by European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, 58 rECruitMEnt
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www.
Viewpoint
Instruments
for Advanced Science Unity through global science
CERN’s enlargement policy will help particle physics adapt to an evolving global environment.
associate members. Late last year, agreements with
M Brice / CERN
Slovenia for associate membership in the pre-stage to
membership and with India for associate membership
were signed (see p7). Brazil, Croatia, Lithuania and
Precision Gas Analysis QGA
Russia have also applied for associate membership.
CERN builds on a long tradition of a global
Instruments for residual gas analysis (RGA) engagement. The Organization has formal relations
with non-member states (NMS) via bilateral
Evolved gas analysis International Co-operation Agreements (ICAs),
TPD/TPR currently in force with 47 countries. Out of a total
of about 12,700 users at CERN, the participation of
Vacuum process monitoring NMS users is now almost 40% – the majority of which
are researchers from the US and Russia working
on the LHC. The overall NMS participation in the
non-LHC research programme is currently about
CERN’s geographical By Emmanuel Tsesmelis 20%. Financial resources for research programmes,
enlargement policy of 2010 notably maintenance and operation costs for the LHC
has been turned into a CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and its experiments, are shared between the Member States,
strategy to help secure the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 have launched the associate members and the NMS. In addition,
long-term future of particle a new era of research in particle physics. The LHC there is increasing interest in collaboration on
New Affordable Compact COMPACT SIMS
NEW physics. and its upgrades will chart the course of the field
for many years to come, and CERN is therefore in a
accelerator R&D and related technologies, focusing
on the LHC’s luminosity upgrades and also on the
SIMS Instrument unique position to help shape the long-term future of
particle physics. In view of this, CERN is exploring two
FCC and CLIC studies. The number of states involved
in such activities is already growing beyond the
different and challenging projects: the Compact Linear restricted circle of NMS that contributed to the LHC
for depth profile & interface analysis. Collider (CLIC) and a Future Circular Collider (FCC). accelerator construction. The increasingly global
Small footprint These developments are taking place at a time interest in CERN also translates into a rising demand
when facilities for high-energy physics, as for for CERN’s education and training programmes
Positive SIMS and SNMS other branches of science, are becoming larger and – falling within CERN’s mission of helping build
more complex as well as requiring more resources. capacity in countries that are developing their
Depth Profiling
Funding for the field is not increasing in many particle-physics communities.
3D characterisation and imaging countries and the timescale for projects is becoming The geographical enlargement policy of 2010
longer, resulting in fewer facilities being realised. offers important opportunities for the future of the
Isotopic analysis Particle physics must adapt to this evolving reality by Organization. Now, CERN has developed it into
Analysis on the nanometre scale fostering greater co-ordination and collaboration on a strategy, presented to Council in March 2016, to
a global scale. This goes hand in hand with CERN’s ensure that geographical enlargement consolidates
tradition of networking with worldwide partners. the institutional base and thus reinforces the long-term
In 2010, CERN Council approved a radical shift scientific aspirations of CERN. Enlargement is
Plasma Characterisation EQP in CERN’s membership policy that opened full
membership to non-European states, irrespective of
not an aim in and of itself. Rather, the focus is on
strengthening relations with countries that can bring
their geographical location. At the same time, Council scientific and technological expertise to CERN and
EQP ion mass and energy analyser introduced the status of associate membership to can, in turn, benefit from closer engagement.
RF, DC, ECR and pulsed plasma facilitate the accession of new members, including It is essential that membership and associate
countries outside of Europe that might not command membership are beneficial to particle physics in
Neutrals and neutral radicals sufficient resources to sustain full membership (CERN individual countries, and that governments continue
Time resolved analysis Emmanuel Courier December 2014 p58). to invest in the growth of national communities. At
Tsesmelis is an Geographical enlargement is part of the effort to the same time, enlargement should not hinder the
HPR-60 extends analyses to atmospheric experimental secure the future of the laboratory, and the process has operational efficiency of the laboratory. CERN’s
pressure processes particle physicist been gradual and measured. Israel became CERN’s engagement with prospective members and
who is head of 21st Member State in 2014 while Romania joined as associate members is clearly oriented towards these
relations with associate Member the 22nd Member State in 2016. Cyprus and Serbia objectives, mindful that investigating the unification
States and non-Member States at are presently associate members in the pre-stage to of the fundamental forces of nature requires uniting
CERN. (Image credit: CERN.) membership, while Pakistan, Turkey and Ukraine are scientific efforts on a global scale.
5
W www.HidenAnalytical.com E info@hiden.co.uk
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CERN
agreement with Sekhar Basu, chairman of Director-General
the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Fabiola Gianotti
and secretary of the Department of Atomic (left) signs the
Energy (DAE) of the government of India, to agreement with
admit India as an associate Member State. Sekhar Basu.
1.08.2016
for the LEP collider and one of its four In recognition of these substantial participation of young scientists and
detectors, L3, in addition to the WA93 and contributions, India was granted observer engineers in various CERN projects and
WA89 detectors. The success of the DAE– status at CERN Council in 2002. When it bring back knowledge for deployment in
CERN partnership regarding the LHC has enters into force, associate membership the domestic programmes,” says Basu. “It
also led to co-operation on novel accelerator will allow India to take part in CERN will also provide opportunities to Indian
technologies through DAE’s participation Council meetings and its committees, industries to participate directly in CERN
in CERN’s Linac4, SPL and CTF3 projects. and will make Indian scientists eligible projects.”
CERNCOURIER
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www.
News News
antiMattEr
motivations for CERN’s Antiproton Powerful supercomputer simulations of The international team responsible for the
Antihydrogen
A Petrenko / CERN
a feasibility test in 2012 and an initial soared to 9 × 1029 cm–2 s–1, which is 7.8 times
month-long run in 2013, pPb collisions remain 50
ATLAS/ CMS/ ALICE 2016 the design value set some years ago. The
a novel mode of operation at the LHC. Despite ALICE 2013 luminosity could have been pushed even
In early December, the AWAKE collaboration this novelty, the LHC team was able to deliver further had the intense flux of lead beam
LHCb 2016
made an important step towards a pioneering enormous data sets to the experiments for the fragments from the collisions not risked
LHCb 2013
0
accelerator technology that would reduce the investigation of extreme nuclear matter during 0 1 2 3 4 quenching nearby magnets. On 4 December,
time (weeks from start of physics)
size and cost of particle accelerators. Having the 2016 run. the LHC was switched back to 5.02 TeV for a
commissioned the facility with first beam Asymmetric proton–nucleus collisions Integrated luminosity versus time since the final 20 hours of pPb data taking, delivering
in November, the team has now installed a were originally seen as a means to start of physics, comparing the 2013 run at a further 120 million minimum-bias events
plasma cell and observed a strong modulation disentangle cold from hot nuclear-matter 5.02 TeV (dashed lines) with the 8.16 TeV for ALICE.
of high-energy proton bunches as they pass effects studied in lead–lead collisions. part of the 2016 run (solid lines). That such a complex run could be
through it. This signals the generation of Surprisingly, a more complex picture implemented in such a short time was a
very strong electric fields that could be used emerged following the pPb results of 2012 to increase an earlier collected sample of triumph for the LHC and all those concerned
to accelerate electrons to high energies over and 2013. For 2016, the LHC experiments minimum-bias events. The other experiments with its design, construction and operation.
short distances. Comparison of the proton-bunch longitudinal profile (left, no plasma) with the profile for a requested a variety of apparently also participated, with LHCb studying Every one of the high-priority goals, plus
AWAKE (Advanced Proton Driven bunch passing through plasma (right), showing the strong modulation of the bunch. incompatible operating conditions, collisions between protons and a target of some subsidiary ones, for ATLAS, CMS,
Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment) according to their diverse capabilities and helium gas. As foreseen, the beam lifetimes ALICE and LHCb were comfortably
is the first facility to investigate the use of first experiment to use protons as a driver – is a major challenge. The next step for the physics programmes. Careful analysis of the were extremely long, allowing seven days of exceeded. CMS recorded an integrated
plasma wakefields driven by proton beams. which, given the high energy of the SPS, can AWAKE collaboration is to inject a second beam physics and operational requirements nearly uninterrupted running at a constant luminosity of nearly 200 nb –1 at 8.16 TeV,
The experiment involves injecting a “drive” drive wakefields over much longer distances beam of electrons, the “witness” beam, led to an ambitious schedule comprising levelled luminosity of 0.8 × 1028 cm–2 s–1. A representing a six-fold increase of the sample
bunch of protons from CERN’s Super Proton compared with electron- or laser-based which is accelerated by the wakefield just three different beam modes that could total of 660 million minimum-bias events collected from the first pPb run in 2013 at
Synchrotron (SPS) into a 10 m-long tube schemes,” says AWAKE spokesperson Allen as a surfer accelerates by riding a wave. “To potentially fulfil all requests. were collected, increasing by a factor six the 5 TeV, and allowing the collaboration to
containing a plasma. The bunch then splits Caldwell of the Max Planck Institute for have observed indications for the first time Following a technical stop, the first set-up data set from 2013. One of the first fills also investigate the behaviour of hard probes in
into a series of smaller bunches via a process Physics in Munich. of proton-bunch self-modulation, after just a for pPb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy turned out to be the longest LHC fill ever, high-multiplicity pPb collisions (see article
called self-modulation, generating a strong While it has long been known that plasmas few days of tests, is an excellent achievement. for colliding nucleon pairs of 5.02 TeV started lasting almost 38 hours. on p11). ATLAS recorded a similar data set,
wakefield as they move through the plasma. may provide an alternative to traditional It’s down to a very motivated and dedicated on 5 November and physics data-taking Just one day after the 5.02 TeV run while ALICE and LHCb each received totals
“Although plasma-wakefield technology has accelerating methods based on RF cavities, team,” says Edda Gschwendtner, CERN started on 10 November. This run was mainly ended, the second set-up involving new well over 30 nb –1 at 8.16 TeV in the two beam
been explored for many years, AWAKE is the turning this concept into a practical device AWAKE project leader. dedicated to the LHC’s ALICE experiment high-luminosity beam optics was complete directions.
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News News
LhC EXpEriMEnts B– → D0K*– decays. While B– → D0K– decays the detector performs better than in Run 1. with charged and neutral B-meson decays
have been extensively studied in the past, this Although the statistical uncertainty on γ and a variety of D-meson final states, all
ATLAS makes precision measurement of W mass is the first time the B– → D0K*– mode has been
investigated. The analysis, first presented
from this measurement alone is still large, the
sensitivity will be improved by the addition
performed with Run 1 data, yielded a central
value of 72±7 degrees. LHCb’s ultimate aim,
at CKM2016 (see p52), allows the LHCb of more data, as well as by the use of other following detector upgrades relevant for
A precise was achieved via the large sample of Z-boson collaboration to cross-check expectations D-meson decay modes. This bodes well for LHC Run 3, is to determine γ with a precision
measurement of ATLAS preliminary events and the precise knowledge of the for the increase of signal yields in Run 2 future measurements of γ to be performed in below 1°, providing a powerful test of the
the mass of the LEP comb. Z mass. Accurate predictions of the W-boson using real data. A significant increase, this and other decay modes with the full Run 2 Standard Model.
80376 ± 33 MeV
mw
RpPb
LO kT fact
collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of a large number of interactions per beam experimental systematic uncertainties. colliding system are expected to modify 0.8
7 TeV (corresponding to an integrated crossing and significant contributions to Finally, a better knowledge of the parton the production cross-section and the
1
luminosity of 4.6 fb –1). The measured value, W production from second-generation distribution functions and improved QCD transverse-momentum distribution of colour glass condensate
80.370±0.019 GeV, matches the precision quarks (strange and charm). ATLAS and electroweak predictions of W- and open-charm hadrons. Assessing such 0.4 pQCD NLO with CTEQ6M+EPS09 PDF
Vitev et al.: cold-nuclear-matter effects
of the best single-experiment measurement measured the W mass by reconstructing the Z-boson production are crucial to further effects is thus crucial for interpreting the ± 3.5% lumi, ± 1.3%
BR uncertainty not shown Duke transport model
of the W mass performed by the Tevatron’s kinematic properties of leptonic decays, in reduce the theoretical uncertainties. results from heavy-ion collisions, where 10–1 POWLANG transport model
CDF experiment, and is consistent with which a W produces an electron or muon and a hot and dense medium of deconfined 0 4 8 12 16 0
both the SM prediction and combined a neutrino in the final state. ● Further reading partons – the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) – pT (GeV/c) 0 10 20
measurements (see figure). The analysis required a highly accurate ATLAS Collaboration 2016 CERN-EP-2016-305 & is formed. pT (GeV/c)
Measuring the W mass is more calibration of the detector response, which ATLAS-CONF-2016-113. Previously, ALICE measured D-meson The cross-section for open-charm production in proton–proton data (left) agrees within
production in proton–lead collisions and uncertainties with three different perturbative QCD calculations. The nuclear modification
found no substantial modification relative factor RpPb (right) is compatible with unity within uncertainties, indicating that
Run 2 promises a LHCb preliminary to proton–proton interactions within
the kinematic range of the measurement
cold-nuclear-matter effects are small in this kinematic range.
harvest of beauty B– → D0 K*
–
200
B– → D* (Dγ)K*– (0) (covering a transverse momentum, pT, proton collisions at 7 TeV and in proton– The current precision of the measurement
B– → D* (Dγ)K*– (±1) between one and 24 GeV/c at mid-rapidity). lead collisions at 5.02 TeV. In contrast to does not yet confirm the role of the different
for LHCb
candidates / (7.0 MeV/c2)
Most cold-nuclear-matter effects are previous ALICE publications, the analysis nuclear effects or the possible presence of
– 0 –
B → D* (Dπ )K* (0)
expected to modify charm production at relied on estimating and subtracting the additional hot-medium effects. However,
– 0 –
B → D* (Dπ )K* (±1)
0→ * – *–
B D (Dπ )K (0) low pT, but no measurement of D-meson combinatorial background without having applied to larger data sets in the future, the
B0 → D* (Dπ–)K* (±1)
–
100
combinatorial
production down to zero transverse to reconstruct the D0 decay vertex. This analysis technique will provide insight into
The first b-physics analysis momentum was performed at mid-rapidity at allowed the first measurement of the D0 the physics-rich region close to pT = 0.
using data from LHC LHC energies. signal in the interval 0 < pT < 1 GeV/c and a
Run 2, which began in Recently the ALICE collaboration significant reduction of the uncertainties in ● Further reading
2015 with proton–proton extended the measurement of the D0-meson the interval 1 < pT < 2 GeV/c compared with ALICE Collaboration 2014 Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 232301.
collisions at an energy of 13 TeV, shows 0 cross-section down to zero pT in proton– previous results. ALICE Collaboration 2016 arXiv:1605.07569.
great promise for the physics programme 4900 5100 5300 5500
of LHCb. During 2015 and 2016, the
experiment collected a data sample
m(DK*) (MeV/c2)
Protons probe quark–gluon plasma at CMS
corresponding to an integrated luminosity The new measurement concerns the process B – → D0K*– (red), where the D0 decays into
of about 2 fb –1. Although this value is two-body final states consisting of charged π and/or K mesons. The powerful background Proton–nucleus collisions be too small and dilute to themselves form Subsequent studies have supported the
smaller than the total integrated luminosity suppression of the LHCb detector allows the signal to be isolated with extremely high purity. provide a crucial tool to a QGP, they have served as a reference hypothesis that a dense, QGP-like medium
collected in the three years of Run 1 (3 fb –1), investigate the quark–gluon in the search for QGP signatures in the may be formed in high multiplicity pPb
the significant increase of the LHC energy particle-identification capabilities. Once doubled the statistics of beauty particles on plasma (QGP), a state of collisions of two heavy ions. Nonetheless, systems. However, several key signatures
in Run 2 has almost doubled the production such an increase is taken into account, along tape with respect to Run 1. nuclear matter with a high in the first-ever pPb collisions at the LHC, of a dense QGP medium, observed in
cross-section of beauty particles. with improvements in the trigger strategy The new analysis is based on 1 fb–1 of energy density spread over a relatively collected in 2013, the CMS experiment PbPb collisions, remain unestablished
Furthermore, the experiment has improved and in the particle identification of the available data, aiming to measure the large volume. Although proton–lead (pPb) observed QGP-like features in very high for pPb events. These unestablished
the performance of its trigger system and experiment, LHCb has already more than angle γ of the CKM unitarity triangle using collision systems have been considered to multiplicity pPb events. signatures include the loss of energy
▲
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News
Sciencewatch
CMS-PHO-E VENTS-2016-009
COMPILED BY JOHN SWAIN, NORTHE ASTERN UNIVERSIT Y
from DESY in Germany and MIT in photocathode, producing a high-density ● Further reading Alzheimer’s in
the US has built a new kind of electron electron bunch inside the gun that is A Aab et al. 2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 192001. mice are reduced ● Further reading
gun that is about the size of a matchbox. immediately accelerated by ultra-intense by exposure to The brain of a mouse I Azarov et al. 2016 Sci. Transl. Med. 8 368ra173.
The new device uses laser-generated single-cycle terahertz pulses to energies flickering LED light after seven days of
terahertz radiation, rather than traditional approaching 1 keV. Statistical mechanics of one-hour per day in the
radio-frequency fields, to accelerate consciousness
at frequencies
of 40 Hz. This dark (top) or exposure
Flying to reduce jet lag
electrons from rest. Since terahertz Science in Hamburg. The electron beams Ramon Guevara Erra of the Université Paris corresponds to the to a 40 Hz flicker Joseph Bass of Northwestern University
radiation has a much shorter wavelength emerging from the device could already be Descartes and colleagues have reported a gamma-frequency (bottom), showing in Chicago and colleagues have made the
than radio waves, the new device measures used for low-energy electron diffraction new insight into the nature of consciousness. range of brainwaves plaques (white arrows). surprising finding that flying can sometimes
just 34 × 24.5 × 16.8 mm – compared experiments, he says, and will also have The researchers recorded the brain activity (25–80 Hz), which The scale bar is 50 μm. reduce jet lag. After observing daily cycles in
with the size of a car for traditional applications in ultrafast electron diffraction of people while they were sleeping, awake, in normal brain blood and tissue oxygen levels in mice kept on
state-of-the-art electron guns. or for injecting electrons into linacs and and having epileptic seizures. They found function is associated with attention, perception a normal light–dark cycle, the team found that
This device reached an accelerating X-ray light sources. that normal wakeful states are characterised and memory. One hour of exposure to the light if the mice were subjected to a six-hour-long
gradient of 350 MV per metre, which the from rest to 0.5 keV with minimal energy by the greatest number of interactions reduced beta-amyloid plaque by an impressive change in light cycle that corresponded
team says is almost twice that of current spread,” explains lead author W Ronny ● Further reading between brain networks, equating to the 40–50%. Levels of abnormally modified Tau to flying east on a jet, those kept in a low
electron guns. “We achieved an acceleration Huang of MIT, who carried out the work W R Huang et al. 2016 Optica DOI:10.1364/ highest entropy values. This means there is protein, also associated with Alzheimer’s concentration of oxygen adapted more
of a dense packet of 250,000 electrons at the Center for Free-Electron Laser OPTICA.3.001209. higher information content in the networks disease, were also reduced. Other frequencies quickly. The mechanism involves changing
associated with conscious states and suggests between 20 and 80 Hz were ineffective. Clinical the amount of HIF1α, which is required for
Les physiciens des particules du monde entier sont invités à apporter leurs CERN Courier welcomes contributions from the international that consciousness could be the result of trials with humans are now being planned. oxygen levels to entrain the circadian clock.
contributions au CERN Courier, en français ou en anglais. Les articles retenus particle-physics community. These can be written in English or French, optimising information processing.
● Further reading ● Further reading
seront publiés dans la langue d’origine. Si vous souhaitez proposer un article, and will be published in the same language. If you have a suggestion for
● Further reading H Iaccarino et al. 2016 Nature 540 230. C Peek et al. 2016 Cell Metabolism DOI:10.1016/j.
faites part de vos suggestions à la rédaction à l’adresse cern.courier@cern.ch. an article, please send proposals to the editor at cern.courier@cern.ch.
R Guevarra Eva et al. 2016 Phys. Rev. E 94 052402. cmet.2016.09.010.
12 13
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Astrowatch
COMPILED BY M A R C TÜ R L E R , I S D C AND O B S E R VATO R Y OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GENE VA, AND C H I P P, U N I V E R S I T Y OF ZURICH
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Volume 57 Number 1 January/February 2017
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CERN Courier J a n u a r y/ F e b r u a r y 2 0 17 CERN Courier J a n u a r y/ F e b r u a r y 2 0 17
The dawn of
a new era
From the extreme dynamics of black holes
to the beginning of the universe itself, the
detection of gravitational waves has opened a
profound new vista on nature.
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Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics / Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes project
arXiv:1410.7832
r c2/GM
102 100
effective one-body theory
|δϕ|
–0.5
ˆ
L1 × (–1)
H1, shifted left by 7.3 msec
–1.0 best-fit waveform, projected on L1
best-fit waveform, projected on H1 101 numerical relativity perturbation theory
unfiltered H1 waveform gravitational self-force
–1.5
0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45
100 10–1
seconds
Fig. 1. The gravitational-wave event GW150914 observed by 100 101 102 103 104 105
m1/m2
aLIGO’s Livingston (green) and Hanford (red) detectors, also 0PN 0.5PN 1PN 1.5PN 2PN 2.5PN 3PN 3.5PN
PN order
showing best-fit templates computed by combining analytical Fig. 3. Current range of validity of the main analytical and
and numerical relativity. Data for H1 are shifted by about 7 ms numerical methods to solve the two-body problem. The horizontal Fig. 4. The 90%-credible upper bounds on deviations in the
to account for the time of travel between the detectors. axis shows the binary mass ratio, while the vertical axis shows the post-Newtonian coefficients from GW150914 and GW151226,
radial separation between the two black holes in the binary. and the joint upper bounds from the two detections.
Einstein field equation and the gravitational radiation in pow-
ers of v/c, but loses accuracy as the two bodies come closer and square degrees. This can be compared with the 0.2 square degrees extract the mass and spin of the final black hole from the data. But
closer). Numerical relativity provides the most accurate solution covered by the full Moon as seen from the Earth, and makes it very we expect that future, multiple gravitational-wave detections with
for the last stages of inspiral, plunge, merger and ringdown, but hard to search for an electromagnetic counterpart to black-hole higher signal-to-noise ratios will shed light on these important the-
such models are time-consuming to produce – the state-of-the-art mergers. Nevertheless, the aLIGO results kicked off the first cam- oretical questions. Despite those limitations, aLIGO has provided
code of the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes collaboration took paign for possible electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational- the most convincing evidence to date that stellar-mass compact
three weeks and 20,000 CPU hours to compute the gravitational wave signals, involving almost 20 astronomical facilities spanning objects in our universe with masses larger than roughly five solar
waveform for the event GW150914 and three months and 70,000 the gamma-ray, X-ray, optical, infrared and radio regions of the masses are described by black holes: that is, by the solutions to the
CPU hours for GW151226. spectrum. No convincing evidence of electromagnetic signals Einstein field equations (see p21).
A few hundred thousand different waveforms were used as tem- Fig. 2. Numerical simulations of the binary black-hole emitted by GW150914 and GW151226 was found, in line with
plates by aLIGO during the first observing run, covering compact coalescence of the gravitational-wave event GW150914. expectations from standard astrophysical scenarios. Deviations From binaries to cosmology
binaries with total masses 2–100 times that of the Sun and mass from the standard scenario may arise if one considers dark electro- During its fi rst observation run, lasting from mid-September
ratios up to 1:99. Novel approaches to the two-body problem that least one of the black holes in GW151226 was rotating at 20% of its magnetic sectors, spinning black holes with strong magnetic fields 2015 to mid-January 2016, aLIGO did not detect gravitational
extend post-Newtonian theory into the strong-field regime and maximal value or faster. Finally, the aLIGO data show that the bina- that need to be sustained until merger, and black holes surrounded waves from binaries composed of either two neutron stars, or a
combine it with numerical relativity had to be developed to provide ries that produced GW150914 and GW151226 were at comparable by clouds of axions (see p45). black hole and a neutron star. Nevertheless, it set the most strin-
aLIGO with accurate and efficient waveform models, which were distances from the Earth and that the peak of the gravitational-wave aLIGO’s observations allow us to test general relativity in gent upper limits on the rates of such processes: 12.6 × 103 and
based on several decades of steady work in general relativity (fig- luminosity was about 3 × 1056 erg/sec, making them by far the most the so-far-unexplored, highly dynamical and strong-field grav- 3.6 × 103 per Gpc3 per year, respectively. The aLIGO rates imply
ure 3). Further theoretical work will be needed to deal with more luminous transient events in the universe. ity regime. As the two black holes that emitted GW150914 and that we expect to detect those binary systems a few years after
sensitive searches in the future if we want to take full advantage of Owing to the signal’s length and the particular orientation of the GW151226 started to merge, the binary’s orbital period varied aLIGO and the French–Italian experiment Virgo reach their
the discovery potential of gravitational-wave astronomy. binary plane with respect to the aLIGO detectors, no information considerably and the phase of the gravitational-wave signal design sensitivity. Observing gravitational waves from binaries
about the spin precession of the system could be extracted. It has changed accordingly. It is possible to obtain an analytical rep- made up of matter is exciting because it allows us to infer the
aLIGO’s first black holes therefore not yet been possible to determine the precise astrophysi- resentation of the phase evolution in post-Newtonian theory, neutron-star equation of state and also to unveil the possible ori-
The two gravitational-wave signals observed by aLIGO have dif- cal production route for these objects. Whereas the predictions for in which the coefficients describe a plethora of dynamical and gin of short-hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) – enormous bursts of
ferent morphologies that reveal quite distinct binary black-hole the rate of binary black-hole mergers from astrophysical-formation radiative physical effects, and long-term timing observations of electromagnetic radiation observed in distant galaxies.
sources. GW150914 is thought to be composed of two stellar black mechanisms traditionally vary by several orders of magnitude, the binary pulsars have placed precise bounds on the leading-order Neutron stars are extremely dense objects that form when massive
holes with masses 36 MSun and 29 MSun, which formed a black hole of aLIGO detections so far have already established the rate to be some- post-Newtonian coefficients. However, the new aLIGO observa- stars run out of nuclear fuel and
about 62 MSun rotating at almost 70% of its maximal rotation speed, what on the high side of the range predicted by astrophysical models tions have put the most stringent limits on higher post-Newtonian collapse. The density in the core
while GW151226 had lower black-hole masses (of about 14 MSun and at 9–240 per Gpc3 per year. Larger black-hole masses and higher terms – setting upper bounds as low as 10% for some coefficients is expected to be more than 1014
8 MSun) and merged in a 21 MSun black-hole remnant. Although the coalescence rates raise the interesting possibility that a stochastic (figure 4). It was even possible to investigate potential deviations Gravitational waves times the density of the Sun, at
binary’s individual masses for GW151226 have larger uncertainties background of gravitational waves composed of unresolved signals during the non-perturbative coalescence phase, and again general provide us with a which the standard structure of
compared with GW150914 (since the former happened at a higher from binary black-hole mergers could be observed when aLIGO relativity passed this test without doubt. pristine snapshot of nuclear matter breaks down and
frequency where aLIGO sensitivity degrades), the analysis ruled reaches its design sensitivity in 2019. The first aLIGO observations could neither test the second law new phases of matter such as
out the possibility that the lower-mass object in GW151226 was a The sky localisation of GW150914 and GW151226, which is of black-hole mechanics, which states that the black-hole entropy the source. superfluidity and superconduc-
neutron star. A follow-up analysis also revealed that the individual mainly determined by recording the time delays of the signals cannot decrease, nor the “no-hair” theorem, which says that a black tivity may appear. All mass and
black holes had spins less than 70% of the maximal value, and that at arriving at the interferometers, extended over several hundred hole is only described by mass and spin, for which we require to spin parameters being equal,
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Following2the examplec of Maxwell, who had found that the 0.5 0.5
collapsing star
electromagnetic-field equations admit propagating waves as solutions, 0.0 0.0 200 cycles and of unimaginable intensity.” The vision of Dyson
Einstein found that the GR field equations admit propagating gravitational 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 has recently been realised thanks, on the one hand, to the experi-
waves (GWs). He did so by considering the weak-field limit (g μν = ημν + h μν) m1 m1 mental development of drastically more sensitive non-resonant
kilometre-scale interferometric detectors and, on the other hand, Fig. 3. (Top) Simulation of a black-hole merger based on
PSR J1141–6545 PSR J0737–3039
of his equations, namely,
to theoretical advances that allowed one to predict in advance the numerical GR. (Bottom) The gravitational collapse of a star
.
16πG 2.5 . 2.5 . P SO
x B /xA
hμν – ∂μHν – ∂νHμ = – Tμν,
accurate shape of the GW signals emitted by coalescing systems leading to the formation of a BH horizon, a hypersurface in
. P
c4
2.0 2.0
of neutron stars and black holes (BHs). space–time that is everywhere tangent to the light cone and
–
where hμν = h μν – ½h ημν. When choosing the co-ordinate system so as to
s
s scint
satisfy the gravitational analogue of the Lorenz gauge condition, so that 1.5 1.5 r The recent observations of the LIGO interferometers have whose 2D spatial sections approach asymptotically (in the
provided the first detection of GWs in the wave zone. They also
m2
Hμ = ∂ν h– μν = 0, the linearised field equations simplify to the diagonal 1.0 1.0 future) the r = 2GM/c2 2-sphere of a Schwarzschild solution.
inhomogeneous wave equation, which can be solved by retarded provide the first direct evidence of the existence of BHs via the
potentials. 0.5 0.5 observation of their merger, followed by an abrupt shut-off of the cosmologies. Quantitative confirmations of GR on cosmological
There are two main results that derive from this wave equation: first, 0.0 0.0 GW signal, in complete accord with the GR predictions. scales have also been obtained, notably through the observation of
a GW is locally described by a plane wave with two transverse tensorial 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
m1
2.0 2.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
m1
2.0 2.5 BHs are perhaps the most extraordinary consequence of GR, a variety of gravitational lensing systems.
polarisations (corresponding to the two helicity states of the massless spin-2 because of the extreme distortion of space and time that they
graviton) and travelling at the velocity of light; second, a slowly moving, non Fig. 2. Illustration of the 11 tests of relativistic gravity obtained exhibit. In January 1916, Karl Schwarzschild published the first Dark clouds ahead
self-gravitating source predominantly emits a quadupolar GW. in the four known binary pulsar systems. Each curve (or strip) exact solution of the (vacuum) Einstein equations, supposedly In conclusion, all present experimental gravitational data (univer-
in the mass plane corresponds to the interpretation, within GR, describing the gravitational field of a “mass point” in GR. It took sality of free fall, post-Newtonian gravity, radiative and strong-
of some observable timing parameter. The shaded regions about 50 years to fully grasp the meaning and astrophysical plau- field effects in binary pulsars, GW emission by coalescing BHs and
experienced by radio-wave beams connecting the Earth to the correspond to s > 1, which is theoretically excluded. sibility of these Schwarzschild BHs. Two of the key contribu- gravitational lensing) have been found to be compatible with the
Cassini spacecraft when they passed near the Sun) and < 7 × 10 –5, tions that led to our current understanding of BHs came from predictions of Einstein’s theory. There are also strong constraints on
from a study of the global sensitivity of planetary ephemerides to since the discovery of binary pulsars in 1974, providing direct Oppenheimer and Snyder, who in 1939 suggested that a neutron sub-millimetre modifications of Newtonian gravity from torsion-
post-Einstein parameters. proof of the reality of gravitational radiation. Measurements of the star exceeding its maximum possible mass will undergo gravi- balance tests of the inverse square law.
In the regime of radiative and/or strong gravitational fields, by arrival times of pulsar signals have also allowed precision tests of tational collapse and thereby form a BH, and from Kerr 25 years One might, however, wish to keep in mind the presence of two
contrast, pulsars (rotating neutron stars emitting a beam of radio the quasi-stationary strong-field regime of GR, since their values later, who discovered a generalisation of the Schwarzschild solu- dark clouds in our current cosmology, namely the need to assume
waves) in gravitationally bound orbits have provided crucial tests may depend both on the unknown masses of the binary system and tion describing a BH endowed both with mass and spin. that most of the stress-energy tensor that has to be put on the right-
of GR. In particular, measurements of the decay in the orbital on the theory of gravity used to describe the strong self-gravity of Another remarkable consequence of GR is theoretical cosmol- hand side of the GR field equations to account for the current obser-
period of binary pulsars have provided direct experimental con- the pulsar and its companion (figure 2). ogy, namely the possibility of describing the kinematics and the vations is made of yet unseen types of matter: dark matter and a
firmation of the propagation properties of the gravitational field. dynamics of the whole material universe. The field of relativistic “cosmological constant”. It has been suggested that these signal a
Theoretical studies of binaries in GR have shown that the finite The radiation revelation cosmology was ushered in by a 1917 paper by Einstein. Another breakdown of Einstein’s gravitation at large scales, although no
velocity of propagation of the gravitational interaction between the Einstein realised that his field equations had wave-like solutions in key contribution was the 1924 paper of Friedmann that described convincing theoretical modification of GR at large distances has
pulsar and its companion generates damping-like terms at order two papers in June 1916 and January 1918 (see panel left). For many general families of spatially curved, expanding or contracting yet been put forward.
(v/c)5 in the equations of motion that lead to a small orbital period years, however, the emission of gravitational waves (GWs) by known homogeneous cosmological models. The Friedmann models still GWs, BHs and dynamical cosmological models have become
decay. This has been observed in more than four different systems sources was viewed as being too weak to be of physical significance. constitute the background models of the current, inhomogeneous essential elements of our description of the macroscopic universe.
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Résumé
La relativité générale fête ses 100 ans
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Progress of tion theory, and these doubts extend to the whole framework
of quantum field theory (QFT) (with perturbation theory as the
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events/20 GeV
102
6
1
nED = 6, MS = 3 TeV
which case they would not be able to solve the hierarchy problem.
10
The idea is still very much alive, however, and searches will con-
5 10–1 1 tinue as more data are recorded at the LHC.
Even excellent and attractive ideas always need confirmation from
10–1 data, and inevitably the initial high enthusiasm for extra-dimension
4 10–2 theories may have waned somewhat in recent years. Although such
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 confirmation could come from the next generation of colliders, such
3 10–3 ST (GeV) as possible higher-energy machines, there is unfortunately no guar-
Fig. 3. Distributions of the total transverse energy for events antee. It could be that we have to turn to even more outlandish ideas
2 3 4
number of extra dimensions
5 6
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 with eight high-pT objects. Observed data are shown by to progress further.
Mγγ (GeV) points, while the solid blue lines show the main background
Fig. 1. Recent mono-jet searches at ATLAS have pushed estimation along with the uncertainty band. The predictions ● Further reading
possible extra-dimension scales to values beyond 5–7 TeV, Fig. 2. Observed event yields and background expectations as for several semiclassical black-hole signals are also shown. ATLAS results: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/AtlasPublic/
depending on the number of assumed large extra a function of the diphoton invariant mass for an early ExoticsPublicResults.
dimensions available for gravity to expand into. extra-dimension study at the LHC. The simulated performed since the first collisions at the LHC at 7 TeV, but none CMS results: https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/CMSPublic/
distributions for two extra-dimension model signal have been found. If black holes are produced closer to the forma- PhysicsResultsEXO.
13 TeV has extended the search window considerably. Although no hypotheses are shown as dotted (LED) and dashed (RS) lines. tion threshold, these would be expected to decay in a much smaller I Antoniadis 1990 Phys. Lett. B 246 377.
positive signal of the presence of extra dimensions has been observed final-state topology, for instance into dijets. The CMS and ATLAS N Arkani-Hamed et al. 1998 Phys. Lett. B 429 263.
so far, a big leap forward has been taken in excluding large portions assumed to be intrinsically strong, but the warped space between experiments have been looking for all of these final states up until S Dimopoulos and G Landsberg 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 161602.
of the TeV scale phase-space where extra dimensions could live. the two branes makes it appear weak on the brane where we live. the latest 13 TeV data (figure 3), but no signal has been observed so L Randall and R Sundrum 1999 Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 3370.
A particular feature of LED-type searches is the production of The experimental signature of such scenarios is the production of far for black-hole masses up to about 9 TeV.
a single very energetic “mono-object” that does not balance the so-called Kaluza–Klein (spin-2 graviton) resonances that can be Several other possible incarnations of extra-dimension theories Résumé
transverse momentum carried by anything else emerging from the observed in the invariant mass spectra of difermions or dibosons. have been proposed and searched for at the LHC. So-called TeV-type La dimension supplémentaire du LHC
collision (as would be required by momentum and energy conser- The most accessible spectra to the LHC experiments include the extra dimensions allow for more SM particles, for example partners
vation). Examples of such objects are particle jets, very energetic diphoton and dilepton spectra, in which no new resonance signal of the heavy W and Z bosons, to enter in the bulk, and these would La physique des particules ignore généralement la gravité, car elle
photons or heavy W and Z vector bosons. Such collisions only has been found, and at present the limits on putative Kaluza–Klein show up as high-mass resonances in dilepton and other invariant est très faible en comparaison des trois autres forces. Toutefois, les
appear to be imbalanced, however, because the emerging jet or gravitons are about 4 TeV, depending on RS-model parameters. mass spectra. These new resonances have a spin equal to one, and théories mettant en jeu des dimensions supplémentaires de l’espace,
boson is balanced by a graviton that escapes detection. Hence SM Analyses of dijet final states provide even more stringent limits of hence such signatures could be more tedious to detect because they développées à la fin des années 1990, prédisent que la gravité n’est
processes such as the production of a jet plus a Z boson that decays up to 7 TeV. Further extensions of the RS model, in particular the can interfere with the SM Drell–Yan production background. Nev- pas du tout ce qu’elle semble être, et qu’elle pourrait causer des
into neutrinos can mimic a graviton production signal. The absence production of top quark–antiquark resonances, offer a more sensitive ertheless, no such resonances have been discovered so far. phénomènes exotiques dans des collisionneurs, comme des trous
of any excess in the mono-jet or mono-photon event channels at signature, but despite intense searches, no signal has been detected. In so-called universal extra-dimension (UED) scenarios, all noirs microscopiques. La recherche de dimensions supplémentaires
the LHC has put stringent limits on LEDs (figure 1), with 2010 particles have states that can go into the bulk. If this scenario is a été menée dès le début de l’exploitation du LHC, en 2010. Aucun
data already bypassing previous collider search limits. LEDs can Searching in the dark correct, a completely new particle spectrum of partners of the SM signal positif n’a été observé jusqu’ici, mais les expériences ATLAS
also manifest themselves as a new contribution to the continuum At the start of 2000, it was realised that large or warped extra particles should show up at the LHC at high masses. Although this et CMS ont déjà éliminé de grandes parties de l’espace de phase
in the invariant mass spectrum of two energetic photons (figure 2) dimensions could lead to a new type of signature at the LHC: looks very much like what would be expected from supersymme- à l’échelle du TeV, et les recherches se poursuivront à mesure que
or fermions (dileptons or dijets). Here too, though, no signals have microscopic black holes. These can form when two colliding try, where all known SM particles have partners, the Kaluza–Klein davantage de données seront enregistrées au LHC et dans les
been observed, and the LHC has now excluded such contributions partons come close enough to each other, namely to within the partners would have exactly the same spin as their SM partners, futures machines.
for extra-dimension scales up to several TeV. Schwarzschild radius or black-hole event horizon, and can be as whereas supersymmetry transforms bosons into fermions and vice
In 1999, another extra-dimension scenario was proposed by large as a femtometre in the presence of TeV-scale extra dimen- versa. Alas, no new particles either for Kaluza–Klein partners or Albert De Roeck, CERN, and Greg Landsberg, Brown University.
Randall and Sundrum (RS), sions at the LHC. Such microscopic black holes would evaporate
which led to a quite different via Hawking radiation on time scales of around 10 –27 s, way before
phenomenology compared with they could suck up any matter, and provide an ideal opportunity to
The initial high that expected from LEDs. In study quantum gravity in the laboratory.
enthusiasm for its simplest form, the RS idea Black holes that are produced with a mass significantly above
contains two fundamental 3D the formation threshold are expected to evaporate in high-energy
extra-dimension branes: one on which most if not multi-particle final states leading to plenty of particle jets, leptons,
theories has waned. all SM particles live, and one on photons and even Higgs particles. Searches for such energetic
which gravity lives. Gravity is multi-object final states in excess of the SM expectation have been
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Gravitational-wave observatories
More than a billion years ago, two black holes of about 36 and 29 solar masses merged to form a black hole of 62 solar masses. The remaining mass was emitted as gravitational waves, which were detected by the aLIGO detectors (shown is the Hanford site) on 14 September 2015.
induced length changes are tiny: the first detected gravitational of magnitude larger than required, with the seismic noise fall- which can produce density fluctuations of the Earth’s surface
The LIGO experiment has started its second waves, from the merger of two black holes, changed the arm length ing off at higher frequencies. A powerful solution is to suspend close to the interferometer mirrors and result in a fluctuating
observation run, with further upgrades in of the aLIGO detectors by just 4 × 10 –18 m, which is approximately the mirrors as pendulums: a pendulum acts as a low-pass filter, gravitational force on them. While methods of monitoring and
200 times smaller than the proton radius. Achieving the fantasti- providing significant reductions in motion at frequencies above subtracting this noise are being investigated, the performance of
store and several other gravitational-wave cally high sensitivity required to detect this event was the culmina- the pendulum frequency. In aLIGO, a chain of four suspended Earth-based detectors is likely to always be limited at frequencies
tion of decades of research and development. masses is used to provide a factor 107 reduction in seismic motion. below 1 Hz by this noise source.
observatories planned. In addition, the entire suspension is attached to an advanced seis- Thermal noise associated with the thermal energy of the mir-
Battling noise mic isolation system using a variety of active and passive tech- rors and their suspensions can also cause the mirrors to move,
The idea of using an interferometer to detect gravitational waves niques, which further isolate noise by a factor 1000. At 10 Hz, and providing a significant noise source at low-to-mid-range frequen-
Gravitational waves alternatively compress and stretch space–time was first concretely proposed in the 1970s and full-scale detectors in the absence of other noise sources, these systems could already cies. The magnitude of thermal noise is related to the mechani-
as they propagate, exerting tidal forces on all objects in their path. began to be constructed in the mid-1990s, including GEO600 in increase the sensitivity of the detectors to roughly 10 –19 m/√(Hz). cal loss of the materials: similar to a high-quality wine glass, a
Detectors such as Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) search for this subtle Germany, Virgo in Italy and the LIGO project in the US. LIGO At even lower frequencies material with a low loss will ring for a long time with a pure note
distortion of space–time by measuring the relative separation of mir- consists of detectors at two sites separated by about 3000 km – (10 μHz), the daily tides stretch because most of the thermal motion is confined to frequencies
rors at the ends of long perpendicular arms, which form a simple Hanford (in Washington state) and Livingston in Louisiana – and and shrink the Earth by the close to the resonance. For this reason, aLIGO uses fibres fabri-
Michelson interferometer with Fabry–Perot cavities in the arms: a undertook its first science runs in 2002–2008. Following a major A factor-two order of 0.4 mm over 4 km. cated from fused silica – a type of very pure glass with very low
beam splitter directs laser light to mirrors at the ends of the arms and upgrade, the observatory restarted in September 2015 as aLIGO improvement over Another source of low-fre- mechanical loss – for the final stage of the mirror suspension. Pio-
the reflected light is recombined to produce an interference pattern. with an initial sensitivity four times greater than its predecessor. the aLIGO design quency noise arises from mov- neered in the GEO600 detector near Hanover in Germany, the use
When a gravitational wave passes through the detector, the strain it Since the detectors measure strain in space–time, the effective ing mass interacting with the of silica fibres in place of the steel wires used in the initial LIGO
exerts changes the relative lengths of the arms and causes the inter- increase in volume, or event rate, of aLIGO is a factor 43 higher. sensitivity could be detector mirrors via the New- detectors significantly reduces thermal noise from suspension.
ference pattern to change. A major issue facing aLIGO designers is to isolate the detectors achieved. tonian inverse square law. The Low-loss fused silica is also used for the 40 kg interferometer
The arms of the aLIGO detectors are each 4 km long to help max- from various noise sources. At a frequency of around 10 Hz, the dominant source of this noise mirrors, which use multi-layered optical coatings to achieve the
imise the measured length change. Even on this scale, however, the motion of the Earth’s surface or seismic noise is about 10 orders is from surface seismic waves, high reflectivity required. For aLIGO, a new optical coating was
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LIGO Lab
LIGO Lab
quantum noise coating thermo-optic noise we must look for signals from massive black-hole collisions and
other sources that will provide exquisite science results, is only likely
seismic noise substrate Brownian noise
gravity gradients excess gas
suspension thermal noise total noise to be achieved in space. This concept has been on the table since the
1970s and has evolved into the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
coating Brownian noise
10–22
metal masses
(1st and 2nd pendulums) (LISA) project, which is led by the European Space Agency (ESA)
strain (1/√Hz)
ts
en
tional-wave detector based on the same measurement philosophy
ts
em
en
uir
em
“main chain” eq
Fr
as that used by ground-based detectors. The mission has clearly
uir
10–13 LP
(m s–2/√Hz)
req
side
101 102 103
A
demonstrated that we can place test masses (gold–platinum cubes
LIS
frequency (Hz)
10–14 with 46 mm sides separated by 38 cm) into free fall, such that the
The design sensitivity of aLIGO, showing the dominant noise only varying force acting on them is gravity. It has also validated
sources. penultimate mass
(3rd pendulum) a host of complementary techniques, including: operating a drag-
10–15 free spacecraft using cold gas thrusters; electrostatic control of
10–4 10–3 10–2 10–1 100
free-floating test masses; short-arm interferometry and test-mass
LIGO Lab
frequency (Hz)
reaction mass
charge control. When combined, these novel features allow dif-
0.4 mm fused
silica fibres Initial results from LISA Pathfinder show that the technology is ferential accelerometry at the 10 –15 g level, which is the sensitivity
close to meeting requirements for a full gravitational-wave needed for a space-borne gravitational-wave detector. Indeed, if
detector in space (Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 231101). At frequencies Pathfinder test-mass technology were used to build a full-scale
test mass above 60 mHz, its precision is only limited by the sensing noise of LISA detector, it would recover almost all of the science originally
(4th pendulum) the laser measurement system, while at lower frequencies of anticipated for LISA without any further improvements.
1–60 mHz, control over the test masses is limited by the residual The success of Pathfinder, coming hot on the heels of the detec-
Left and above: aLIGO uses a chain of four suspended masses to (and decreasing) small number of gas molecules bouncing off tion of gravitational waves, is a major boost for the international
provide a factor 107 reduction in seismic motion. To achieve this them. Frequencies below 1 mHz exhibit noise as a result of gravitational-wave community. It comes at an exceptional time
level of shielding, each of aLIGO’s 40 kg test masses is keeping the craft’s solar panels pointing towards the Sun, most for the field, with ESA currently inviting proposals for the third
suspended within a 360 kg quadruple pendulum system. of which is removable. of its Cosmic Vision “large missions” programme. Developments
are now needed to move from LISA Pathfinder to LISA proper,
developed comprising a stack of alternating layers of silica and LIGO detector included a thermal compensation system to reduce Advanced Virgo, giving a network of three geographically sepa- but these are now well understood and technology development
titania-doped “tantala”, reducing the coating thermal noise by about thermal lensing effects in the optics, reduced electronic noise rated detectors and thus improving our ability to locate the posi- programmes are planned and under way. The timeline for this
20%. However, at the aLIGO design sensitivity (which is roughly in control circuits and finer polishing of the mirror substrates to tion of gravitational-wave sources on the sky. Discussions are mission leads to a launch in the early 2030s and the success of
10 times higher than the initial aLIGO set-up) thermal noise will be reduce the amount of scattered light in the detectors. also under way for an aLIGO site in India. In Japan, the KAGRA Pathfi nder means we can look forward with excitement to the
the limiting noise source at frequencies of around 60 Hz – close to detector is under construction: this detector will use cryogenic fantastic science that will result.
the frequency at which the detectors are most sensitive. Upgrades on the ground cooling to reduce thermal noise and is located underground to
aLIGO also has much reduced quantum noise compared Having detected their first gravitational wave almost as soon as reduce seismic and gravity gradient effects. When complete, Résumé
with the original LIGO. This noise source has two components: they switched on in September 2015, followed by a further event a KAGRA is expected to have similar sensitivity to aLIGO. Comment attraper une onde gravitationnelle
radiation-pressure noise and shot noise. The former results from few months later, the aLIGO detectors began their second obser- Longer term, in Europe a detector known as the Einstein Tel-
fluctuations in the number of photons hitting the detector mir- vation run on 30 November. Dubbed “O2”, it is scheduled to last escope (ET) has been proposed to provide a factor 10 more sensi- L’expérience aLIGO, qui a réalisé la première détection d’ondes
rors, which is more significant at lower frequencies, and has been for six months. More observation runs are envisaged, with more tivity than aLIGO. ET would not only have arms measuring 10 km gravitationnelles l’année passée, a entamé sa deuxième campagne
reduced by using mirrors four times heavier than the initial LIGO upgrades in sensitivity taking place between them. long but would take a new approach to noise reduction using two d’observation. Des améliorations sont prévues pour le futur, et
mirrors. Photon shot noise, resulting from statistical fluctuations The next major upgrade, expected in around 2018, will see the very different detectors: a high-power room-temperature interfer- d’autres observatoires terrestres sont également en projet dans le
in the number of photons at the output of the detector, limits sen- injection of “squeezed light” to further reduce quantum noise. How- ometer optimised for sensitivity at high frequencies, where shot monde. À cela s’ajoute le succès de la mission LISA, de bon augure
sitivity at higher frequencies. Since shot noise is inversely pro- ever, to gain the maximum sensitivity improvement from squeezing, noise limits performance, and a low-power cryogenic interferome- pour un futur détecteur d’ondes gravitationnelles dans l’espace.
portional to the square root of the power, it can be reduced by a reduction in coating thermal noise is also likely to be required. With ter optimised for sensitivity at low frequencies (where performance La sensibilité extraordinairement élevée qu’il a fallu atteindre
using higher laser power. In the fi rst observing run of aLIGO, these and other relatively short-term upgrades, it is expected that a is limited by thermal noise). ET would require significant changes pour détecter les infimes déplacements causés par les ondes
100 kW of laser power was circulating in the detector arms, with factor-two improvement over the aLIGO design sensitivity could in detector technology and also be constructed underground to gravitationnelles (plus de 200 fois plus petits que le rayon d’un
the potential to increase it to up to 750 kW in future runs. Opti- be achieved. This would allow events such as the first detection to reduce the effect of seismic noise and gravity-gradient noise on proton) a été l’aboutissement de dizaines d’années de recherche et
cal cavities are also used to store light in the arms and build up be observed with a signal-to-noise ratio almost 10 times better than low-frequency sensitivity. de développement dans la réduction du bruit et l’amélioration de
laser power. the initial result. Further improvements in sensitivity will almost l’optique.
In addition to reductions in these fundamental noise sources, certainly require more extensive upgrades or new facilities, possibly The final frontier
many other technological improvements were required to reduce involving longer detectors or cryogenic cooling of the mirrors. Obtaining significantly improved sensitivity at lower frequen- Iain Martin, Christian Killow and Giles Hammond, Institute for
more technical noise sources. Improvements over the initial aLIGO is expected to soon be joined in observing runs by cies is difficult on Earth because they are swamped by local mass Gravitational Research, University of Glasgow, UK.
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M Doser
sit us
ionizing radiation Please vi :
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story. It started with a project at Stanford in 1968 that attempted position to test Einstein’s equivalence principle with antimatter
to measure the free fall of positrons, but a trial experiment with by directly measuring the free fall of antiatoms on Earth. The
MULTIPHYSICS application
electrons showed that environmental effects swamped the effect of
gravity and the final experiment was not performed. In the 1990s,
equivalence principle is the keystone of general relativity and
states that all particles with the same initial position and velocity
FOR EVERYONE the PS200 experiment at CERN’s LEAR facility attempted the
same feat with antiprotons, but the project ended with the termina-
tion of LEAR before any robust measurement could be made. To
should follow the same trajectories in a given gravitational field.
On the other hand, quantum theories such as supersymmetry or
superstrings do not necessarily lead to an equivalent force on
date, indirect measurements have set limits on the deviation from matter and antimatter (technically, the terms related to gravity
The evolution of computational tools for standard gravity at the level of 10 –6. in the Lagrangians are not bound to be the same for matter and
numerical simulation of physics-based Thanks to advances in cooling and trapping technology, and antimatter). This is also the case when Lorentz-symmetry violat-
systems has reached a major milestone. the construction of a new synchrotron at CERN called ELENA, ing terms are included in the Standard Model of particle physics.
Custom applications are now being developed three collaborations are now preparing experiments at CERN’s Any difference seen in the behaviour of antimatter and matter
by simulation specialists using the Application Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility to measure the behaviour of with respect to gravity would mean that the equivalence princi-
Builder in COMSOL Multiphysics®. antihydrogen (a positron orbiting an antiproton) under gravity. The ple is not perfect and force us to understand quantum effects in
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With a local installation of COMSOL Server™, applications can be
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supergravity
e+
Ps In the case of AEgIS, the deflectometer principle that underpins
double laser pulse
accelerating laser pulse the measurement has already been demonstrated with matter
Ps* electric field atoms and with antiprotons, while the time-of-flight measure-
p ment is straightforward in the case of GBAR. The difficulty for
p H beam
the experiments lies in preparing sufficient numbers of antiatoms
p + Ps* → H* + e–
p + Ps → H + e– at the required low velocities. ALPHA has already demonstrated
H + Ps → H+ + e– trapping of several hundred antiatoms at a temperature below
The production of antihydrogen in AEgIS (left) and GBAR (right) 0.5 K, corresponding to random velocities of the order 10 m/s. The
is performed via the interaction of antiprotons with positronium antiatoms are formed by letting the antiprotons traverse a plasma
(Ps). In AEgIS, a plasma of antiprotons at rest in a Penning trap of positrons located within the same Penning trap.
is showered with excited positronium atoms, producing excited A different scheme is used in AEgIS and GBAR to form and
antihydrogen atoms that are accelerated to form a beam. In possibly cool the antiatoms and anti-ions. In AEgIS, antiprotons
GBAR, a dense positronium cloud is traversed by a beam of are cooled within a Penning trap and receive a shower of positro-
antiprotons to produce antihydrogen atoms and ions. nium atoms (bound e+e – pairs) to form the antiatoms. These are
then slightly accelerated by electric fields (which act on the atoms’
to test such quantum effects. Any difference would probably not induced electric-dipole moments) so that they exit the charged
change anything in the observable universe, but it would point to particle trap axially in the form of a neutral beam. For GBAR, the
the necessity of having a quantum theory of gravity. antiproton beam traverses a cloud of positronium to form the anti-
AEgIS plans to measure the vertical deviation of a pulsed hori- ions, which are then cooled to a few μK by forcing them to interact
zontal beam of cold antihydrogen atoms, generated by bringing with laser-cooled beryllium ions.
laser-excited positronium moving at several km/s into contact with In this race towards low energies, ALPHA and AEgIS are located
cold antiprotons, travelling with a velocity of a few hundred m/s. on the beam at the AD, which delivers 5 MeV antiprotons. While
The resulting highly excited antihydrogen atoms are then acceler- AEgIS is already commissioning its dedicated gravity experiment,
ated horizontally and a moiré deflectometer used to measure the ALPHA will move from spectroscopy to gravity in the coming
vertical deviation, which is expected to be a few microns given the months. GBAR, which will be the first experiment to make use of
approximately 1 m-long flight tube of AEgIS. Reaching the lowest the beam delivered by ELENA, is now beginning installation and
possible antiproton temperature minimises the divergence of the expects first attempts at anti-ion production in 2018. ELENA will
beam and therefore maximises the flux of antihydrogen atoms that decelerate antiprotons coming from the AD from 5 MeV to just Forty years after theorists married general In the early 1970s, grand unified theories (GUTs), based on larger
end up on the downstream detector. 100 keV, making it more efficient to trap and store antimatter. Fol- gauge symmetries that include the SM’s “SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1)”
In GBAR, which takes advantage of advances in ion-cooling
–
lowing commissioning first with protons and then with hydrogen relativity with supersymmetry, supergravity structure, did unify colour and charge – thereby uniting the strong
techniques, antihydrogen ions (H+) are produced with veloci- ions, ELENA should receive its first antiprotons in the middle of and electroweak interactions. However, they relied on a huge new
ties of the order of 0.5 m/s. In a second step, the anti-ions will be 2017 (CERN Courier December 2016 p16). Along with precision continues to carve out new directions in the energy scale (~1016 GeV), just a few orders of magnitude below the
stripped of one positron to give an ultra-slow neutral antiatom that tests of CPT invariance, this facility will help to ensure that any search for a unified theory. Planck scale of gravity (~1019 GeV) and far above the electroweak
is allowed to enter free fall. The time of free fall over a height of differences in the gravitational antics of antimatter are not missed. Fermi scale (~102 GeV), and on new particles carrying both colour
20 cm is as long as 200 ms, which is easily measurable. These num- and electroweak charges. As a result, GUTs made the stunning pre-
bers correspond to the gravitational acceleration known for matter Résumé The early 1970s was a pivotal period in the history of particle phys- diction that the proton might decay at detectable rates, which was
atoms, and the expected sensitivity to small deviations is 1% in the L’antimatière tombe-t-elle vers le haut ? ics. Following the discovery of asymptotic freedom and the Brout– eventually excluded by underground experiments, and their two
first phase of operation. Englert–Higgs mechanism a few years earlier, it was the time when widely separated cut-off scales introduced a “hierarchy problem”
The ALPHA-g experiment will release antihydrogen atoms Le principe d’équivalence est au centre de la théorie de la relativité the Standard Model (SM) of electroweak and strong interactions that called for some kind of stabilisation mechanism.
from a vertical magnetic atom trap and record their positions générale ; selon ce principe, testé avec une précision toujours plus came into being. After decades of empirical verification, the theory A possible solution came from a parallel but unrelated devel-
when they annihilate on the walls of the experiment. In a proof- fine au cours des dernières décennies, toute la matière tombe à received a final spectacular confirmation with the discovery of the opment. In 1973, Julius Wess and Bruno Zumino unveiled a new
of-principle experiment using the original ALPHA atom trap, the la même vitesse. Trois collaborations (ALPHA, AEgIS et GBAR) Higgs boson at CERN in 2012, and its formulation has also been symmetry of 4D quantum field theory: supersymmetry, which
acceleration of antihydrogen atoms by gravity was constrained préparent actuellement des expériences auprès du Décélérateur recognised by Nobel prizes awarded to theoretical physics in 1979, interchanges bosons and fermions and, as would be better appreci-
to lie anywhere between –110 g and 65 g. ALPHA-g improves d’antiprotons du CERN afin de vérifier si ce principe est valable 1999, 2004 and 2013. ated later, can also conspire to stabilise scale hierarchies. Super-
on this original demonstration by orienting the trap vertically, également pour l’antimatière, en mesurant la manière dont It was clear from the start, however, that the SM, a spontaneously symmetry was inspired by “dual resonance models”, an early
thereby enabling better control of the antiatom release and les atomes d’antihydrogène tombent sous l’effet de la gravité. broken gauge theory, had two major shortcomings. First, it is not version of string theory pioneered by Gabriele Veneziano and
improving sensitivity to the vertical annihilation position. In the Toute différence par rapport à des atomes d’hydrogène normal a truly unified theory because the gluons of the strong (colour) extended by André Neveu, Pierre Ramond and John Schwarz. Ear-
new arrangement, antihydrogen gravitation can be measured at suggérerait que des effets quantiques entrent en ligne de compte ; force and the photons of electromagnetism do not emerge from a lier work done in France by Jean-Loup Gervais and Benji Sakita,
the 10% level, which would already settle the question of whether nous aurions alors besoin d’une théorie quantique de la gravité. common symmetry. Second, it leaves aside gravity, the other fun- and in the Soviet Union by Yuri Golfand and Evgeny Likhtman,
antimatter falls up or down, but improvements in cooling tech- damental force of nature, which is based on the gauge principle of and by Dmitry Volkov and Vladimir Akulov, had anticipated some
niques will allow measurements at the 1% level. A long-term Patrice Perez, CEA-Irfu Saclay, Michael Doser, CERN, and general co-ordinate transformations and is described by general of supersymmetry’s salient features.
aspiration of the ALPHA-g project is to use techniques that cause William Bertsche, University of Manchester. relativity (GR). An exact supersymmetry would require the existence of
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Supergravity at 40 Supergravity at 40
field of supersymmetry, just like the photon is the gauge field of
internal circle rotations. If one or more local supersymmetries electromagnetic N helicity content
(whose number will be denoted by N) accompany general co- electroweak
1 [(2), ( 2 ( ]
3
ordinate transformations, they grant the consistency of gravitino weak
[(2), 2 ( 2 ( , (1)]
3
interactions. In a subclass of “pure” supergravity models, super-
GUTs ? 2
symmetry also allows one to connect “marble” and “wood” and strong
3 [(2), 3 ( 2 ( , 3(1), ( 2 (]
3 1
therefore goes well beyond the KK mechanism, which does not supersymmetry? SSMs ? SUSY GUTs ?
link Bose and Fermi fields. Curiously, while GR can be formulated [(2), 4 ( 2 ( , 6(1), 4( 2 (, 2(0)]
3 1
4
gravitational
in any number of dimensions, seven additional spatial dimensions,
[(2), 5 ( 2 ( , 10(1), 11( 2 (, 10(0)]
3 1
5
at most, are allowed in supergravity due to intricacies of the Fermi–
supergravity?
M-theory ?
Bose matching. 6 [(2), 6 (
3
2 (, 16(1), 26( (, 30(0)]
1
2
Participants of the first workshop on supergravity, held at Stony Last year marked the 40th anniversary of the discovery of superstrings?
[(2), 8 ( 2 ( , 28(1), 56( 2 (, 70(0)]
3 1
8
Brook in September 1979. (From P Van Nieuwenhuizen and supergravity. At its heart lie some of the most beautiful ideas in the-
D Freedman ed 1979 Supergravity. Proceedings, Workshop At oretical physics, and therefore over the years this theory has man- Current attempts to unify the fundamental interactions. The particles of “pure” supergravity theories in four
Stony Brook, 27–29 September 1979 (North-Holland).) aged to display different facets or has lived different parallel lives. dimensions, which coincide for N = 7, 8. Here (0) indicates a
discovery of reformulations where N = 1 4D supersymmetry is scalar, (1/2) a Majorana fermion, (1) a vector, (3/2) a gravitino
superpartners in the SM, but it would also imply mass degenera- Construction begins manifest. This technical step was vital to simplify more general and (2) the graviton. The numbers not within brackets indicate
cies between the known particles and their superpartners. This The first instance of supergravity, containing a single gravitino constructions involving matter, since only this minimal form of particle multiplicities.
option has been ruled out over the years by several experiments at (N = 1), was built in the spring of 1976 by Daniel Freedman, Peter supersymmetry is directly compatible with the chiral (parity-vio-
CERN, Fermilab and elsewhere, and therefore supersymmetry can van Nieuwenhuizen and one of us (SF). Shortly afterwards, the result lating) interactions of the SM. Indeed, by the early 1980s, theorists fundamental consistency condition that is automatically granted
be at best broken, with superpartner masses that seem to lie beyond was recovered by Stanley Deser and Bruno Zumino, in a simpler managed to construct complete couplings of supergravity to matter in the SM by its known particle content.
the TeV energy region currently explored at the LHC. Moreover, and elegant way that extended the first-order (“Palatini”) formal- for N = 1 and even for N = 2. Anomaly cancellation left just five possible versions of string
a spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry would imply the exist- ism of GR. Further simplifications emerged once the significance of The maximal, pure N = 8 4D supergravity was also derived, theory in 10 dimensions: two “heterotic” theories of closed strings,
ence of additional massless (“Goldstone”) fermions. local supersymmetry was better appreciated. Meanwhile, the “spin- via a circle KK reduction, in 1978 by Eugene Cremmer and Ber- where the SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) symmetry of the SM is extended
Supergravity, the supersymmetric extension of GR, came to the ning string” – the descendant of dual resonance models that we have nard Julia. This followed their remarkable construction, with Joel to the larger groups SO(32) or E8 × E8; an SO(32) “type-I” the-
rescue in this respect. It predicted the existence of a new particle of already met – was connected to space–time supersymmetry via the Scherk, of the unique 11D form of supergravity, which displayed a ory involving both open and closed strings, akin to segments and
spin 3/2 called the gravitino that would receive a mass in the bro- so-called Gliozzi–Scherk–Olive (GSO) projection, which reflects a particularly simple structure where a single gravitino accounts for circles, respectively; and two other very different and naively
ken phase. In this fashion, one or more gravitinos could be poten- subtle interplay between spin-statistics and strings in space–time. eight 4D ones. In contrast, the N = 8 model is a theory of unprec- less interesting theories called IIA and IIB. At low energies,
tially very heavy, while the additional massless fermions would be The low-energy spectrum of the resulting models pointed to previ- edented complication. It was built after an inspired guess about the supergravity emerges from all of these theories in its different
“eaten” – much as it occurs for part of the Higgs doublet in the SM. ously unknown 10D versions of supergravity, which would include interactions of its 70 scalar fields (see table) and a judicious use of 10D realisations, opening up unprecedented avenues for linking
the counterparts of several gravitinos, and also to a 4D Yang–Mills generalised dualities, which extend the manifest symmetry of the 10D strings to the interactions of particle physics. Moreover, the
Seeking unification theory that is invariant under four distinct supersymmetries (N = 4). Maxwell equations under the interchange of electric and magnetic extended nature of strings made all of these enticing scenarios free
Supergravity, especially when formulated in higher dimensions, A first extended (N = 2) version of 4D supergravity involving two fields. The N = 8 supergravity with SO(8) gauge symmetry fore- of the ultraviolet problems of gravity.
was the first concrete realisation of Einstein’s dream of a unified gravitinos came to light shortly after. seen by Gell-Mann was then constructed by Bernard de Wit and Following this 1984 “first superstring revolution”, one might well
field theory (see diagram opposite). Although the unification of When SF visited Caltech in the autumn of 1976, he became Hermann Nicolai. It revealed a negative vacuum energy, and thus say that supergravity officially started a second life as a low-energy
gravity with other forces was the central theme for Einstein during aware that Murray Gell-Mann had already worked out many con- an anti-de Sitter (AdS) vacuum, and was later connected to 11D manifestation of string theory. Anomaly cancellation had somehow
the last part of his life, the beautiful equations of GR were for him a sequences of supersymmetry. In particular, Gell-Mann had real- supergravity via a sphere KK reduction. Regarding the ultraviolet connected Einstein’s “marble” and “wood” in a miraculous way
source of frustration. For 30 years he was disturbed by what he con- ised that the largest “pure” 4D supergravity theory, in which all behaviour of supergravity theories, which was vigorously investi- dictated by quantum consistency, and definite KK scenarios soon
sidered a deep flaw: one side of the equations contained the curva- forces would be connected to the conventional graviton, would gated soon after the original discovery, no divergences were found, emerged that could recover from string theory both the SM gauge
ture of space–time, which he regarded as “marble”, while the other include eight gravitinos. Moreover, this N = 8 theory could also at one loop, in the “pure” models, and many more unexpected can- group and its chiral, parity-violating interactions. Remarkably, this
contained the matter energy, which he compared to “wood”. In allow an SO(8) gauge symme- cellations of divergences have since come to light. The case of N = 8 construction relied on a specific class of 6D internal manifolds called
retrospect, Einstein wanted to turn “wood” into “marble”, but after try, the rotation group in eight supergravity is still unsettled, and some authors still expect that Calabi–Yau spaces that had been widely studied in mathematics,
special and general relativity he failed in this third great endeavour. dimensions (see table oppo- this maximal theory be finite to all orders. thereby merging 4D supergravity with algebraic geometry. Calabi–
GR has, however, proved to be an inestimable source of deep Attaining a deeper site). Although SO(8) would Yau spaces led naturally, in four dimensions, to a GUT gauge group
insights for unification. A close scrutiny of general co-ordinate theoretical not suffice to accommodate the The string revolution E6, which was known to connect to the SM with right-handed neutri-
transformations led Theodor Kaluza and Oskar Klein (KK), in the understanding SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) symmetry Following the discovery of supergravity, the GSO projection nos, also providing realisations of the see-saw mechanism.
1920s and 1930s, to link electromagnetism and its Maxwell poten- group of the SM, the full inter- opened the way to connect “spinning strings”, or string theory as
tials to internal circle rotations, what we now call a U(1) gauge sym- of broken play between supergravity and they came to be known collectively, to supersymmetry. Although A third life
metry. In retrospect, more general rotations could also have led to supersymmetry supersymmetric matter soon the link between strings and gravity had been foreseen by Scherk The early 1990s were marked by many investigations of black-hole-
the Yang–Mills theory, which is a pillar of the SM. According to KK, in supergravity found a proper setting in string and Schwarz, and independently by Tamiaki Yoneya, it was only like solutions in supergravity, which soon unveiled new aspects of
Maxwell’s theory could be a mere byproduct of gravity, provided theory, as we shall see. a decade later, in 1984, that widespread activity in this direction string theory. Just like the Maxwell field is related to point particles,
the universe contains one microscopic extra dimension beyond time appears crucial The following years, 1977 began. This followed Schwarz and Michael Green’s unexpected some of the fields in 10D supergravity are related to extended objects,
and the three observable spatial ones. In this 5D picture, the photon today. and 1978, were most productive discovery that gauge and gravitational anomalies cancel in all generically dubbed “p-branes” (p = 0 for particles, p = 1 for strings,
arises from a portion of the metric tensor – the “marble” in GR – with and drew many people into the versions of 10D supersymmetric string theory. Anomalies – quan- p = 2 for membranes, and so on). String theory, being based at low
one “leg” along space–time and the other along the extra dimensions. field. Important developments tum violations of classical symmetries – are very troublesome energies on supergravity, therefore could not be merely a theory of
Supergravity follows in this tradition: the gravitino is the gauge followed readily, including the when they concern gauge interactions, and their cancellation is a strings. Rather, as had been strongly advocated over the years by
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type IIA
Linking waves to particles
duality links. Some were inspired by supergravity, while
M-theory
the others had already surfaced in the late 1980s. They are
beyond its reach but find their rationale in the “T-duality”
heterotic SO(32) type IIB
link between strings in large and small KK volumes,
and in the “orientifold” link proposed by one of us (AS).
Gravitational waves do not just tell us about the largest objects in the universe – they may also
type I shed light on searches for dark matter, new light fields and other microscopic phenomena.
Michael Duff and Paul Townsend, we face a far more complicated foundations lie in the prescient 1973 work of Volkov and Akulov.
soup of strings and more general p-branes. A novel ingredient was Non-linear supersymmetry arises when superpartners are exceed-
a special class of p-branes, the D-branes, whose role was clarified ingly massive, and seems to play an intriguing role in string theory.
by Joseph Polchinski, but the electric-magnetic dualities of the low- The current lack of signals for supersymmetry at the LHC makes
energy supergravity remained the key tool to analyse the system. one wonder whether it might also hold a prominent place in an
The end result, in the mid 1990s, was the awesome, if still somewhat eventual picture of particle physics. This resonates with the idea
vague, unified picture called M-theory, which was largely due to of “split supersymmetry”, which allows for large mass splittings
Edward Witten and marked the “second superstring revolution”. among superpartners and can be accommodated in supergravity
Twenty years after its inception, supergravity thus started a third at the price of reconsidering hierarchy issues.
parallel life, as a deep probe into the mysteries of string theory. In conclusion, attaining a deeper theoretical understanding of
The late 1990s witnessed the emergence of a new duality. The broken supersymmetry in supergravity appears crucial today. In
AdS/CFT correspondence, pioneered by Juan Maldacena, is a breaking supersymmetry, one is confronted with important con-
profound equivalence between supergravity and strings in AdS ceptual challenges: the resulting vacua are deeply affected by quan-
and conformal field theory (CFT) on its boundary, which con- tum fluctuations, and this reverberates on old conundrums related
nects theories living in different dimensions. This “third super- to dark energy and the cosmological constant. There are even signs
string revolution” brought to the forefront the AdS versions of that this type of investigation could shed light on the backbone of
supergravity, which thus started a new life as a unique tool to string theory, and supergravity may also have something to say
probe quantum field theory in unusual regimes. The last two about dark matter, which might be accounted for by gravitinos or Gravitational waves could provide a link between strong gravity (left) and particle physics (right).
decades have witnessed many applications of AdS/CFT outside other light superpartners. We are confident that supergravity will
of its original realm. These have touched upon fluid dynamics, lead us farther once more. Black holes are arguably humankind’s most intriguing intellectual The existence of black holes
quark–gluon plasma, and more recently condensed-matter phys- construction. Featuring a curvature singularity where space–time The standard criterion with which to identify a black hole is
ics, providing a number of useful insights on strongly coupled ● Further reading “ends” and tidal forces are infinite, black-hole interiors cannot be straightforward: if an object is dark, massive and compact, it’s a black
matter systems. Perhaps more unexpectedly, AdS/CFT duality K Becker, M Becker and J H Schwarz 2007 String Theory and M-Theory: properly understood without a quantum theory of gravity. They hole. But are there other objects which could satisfy the same crite-
has stimulated work related to scattering amplitudes, which may A Modern Introduction (Cambridge University Press). are defined by an event horizon – a surface beyond which noth- ria? Ordinary stars are bright, while neutron stars have at most three
also shed light on the old issue of the ultraviolet behaviour of S Deser and B Zumino 1976 Phys. Lett. B 62 335. ing escapes to the outside – and an exterior region called a photo- solar masses and therefore neither is able to explain observations of
supergravity. The reverse programme of gaining information D Freedman, P van Nieuwenhuizen and S Ferrara 1976 Phys. Rev. D 13 3214. sphere, which is able to trap light rays. These uncommon properties very massive dark objects. In recent years, however, unknown phys-
about gravity from gauge dynamics has proved harder, and it is D Freedman and A Van Proeyen 2012 Supergravity (Cambridge University Press). explain why black holes were basically ignored for half a century, ics and quantum effects in particular have been invoked that change
difficult to foresee where the next insights will come from. Above considered little more than a bizarre mathematical solution of Ein- the structure of the horizon, replacing it by a hard surface. In this
all, there is a pressing need to highlight the geometrical princi- Résumé stein’s equations but one without counterpart in nature. scenario, the exterior region – including the photosphere – would
ples and the deep symmetries underlying string theory, which Les multiples vies de la supergravité LIGO’s discovery of gravitational waves provides the strongest remain unchanged, but black holes would be replaced by very com-
have proved elusive over the years. evidence to date for the existence of black holes, but these tiny pact, dark stars. These stars could be made of normal matter under
The interplay between particle physics and cosmology is a Quarante ans après le mariage célébré par les théoriciens entre distortions of space–time have much more to tell us. Gravitational extraordinary quantum conditions or of exotic matter such as new
natural arena to explore consequences of supergravity. Recent la relativité générale et la supersymétrie, la supergravité continue waves offer a unique way to test the basic tenets of general relativ- scalar particles that may form “boson stars”.
experiments probing the cosmic microwave background, and in d’ouvrir de nouvelles voies dans la quête d’une théorie unifiée. La ity, some of which have been taken for granted without observa- Unfortunately, the formation of objects invoking poorly under-
particular the results of the Planck mission, lend support to infla- supergravité, qui repose sur quelques-unes des plus belles idées tions. Are black holes the simplest possible macroscopic objects? stood quantum effects is difficult to study. The collapse of scalar
tionary models of the early universe. An elusive particle, the infla- de la physique théorique, a dévoilé au fil des années plusieurs de Do event horizons and black holes really exist, or is their formation fields, on the other hand, can theoretically allow boson stars to
ton, could have driven this primordial acceleration, and although ses facettes. En particulier, la supergravité s’est révélée être une halted by some as-yet unknown mechanism? In addition, gravita- form, and these may become more compact and massive through
our current grasp of string theory does not allow a detailed analysis manifestation à faible énergie de la théorie des cordes, et un outil tional waves can tell us if gravitons are massless and if extra-light mergers. Interestingly, there is mounting evidence that compact
of the problem, supergravity can provide fundamental clues on this essentiel pour l’étude des objets étendus appelés branes. S’il n’y degrees of freedom fill the universe, as predicted in the 1970s by objects without horizons but with a photosphere are unstable, rul-
and the subsequent particle-physics epochs. a toujours pas de preuve de l’existence de la supersymétrie, la Peccei and Quinn in an attempt to explain the smallness of the neu- ing out entire classes of alternatives that have been put forward.
Supersymmetry was inevitably broken in a de Sitter-like supergravité se porte toujours à merveille. tron electric-dipole moment, and more recently by string theory. Gravitational waves might soon provide a definite answer to such
inflationary phase, where superpartners of the inflaton tend to Ultralight fields affect the evolution of black holes and their grav- questions. Although current gravitational-wave detections are not
experience instabilities. The novel ingredient that appears to Sergio Ferrara, CERN and INFN Frascati, and Augusto Sagnotti, Scuola itational-wave emission in a dramatic way that should be testable proof for the existence of black holes, they are a strong indicator that
get around these problems is non-linear supersymmetry, whose Normale Superiore and INFN Pisa. with upcoming gravitational-wave observatories. photospheres exist. Whereas observations of electromagnetic
▲
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BH spin
0.6
non-symmetric cloud to form around the black hole, emitting
GW signal
0.2 ringdown V Cardoso et al. 2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 171101.
radiation 0.4
from 0.2 EM periodic gravitational waves like a gravitational “lighthouse”. S Giddings 2016 Class. Quant. Grav. 33 235010.
0.0 photosphere GW This would not only mean that black holes are not as simple as we P Pani et al. 2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 131102.
–0.2 0.8 spin–1 thought, but lead to a definite prediction: some black holes should N Yunes et al. 2016 Phys. Rev. D 94 084002.
be emitting nearly monochromatic gravitational waves whose
BH spin
0.6
0.4
exotic compact object
0.4 frequency is dictated only by the field’s mass. This raises terrific Résumé
0.2 opportunities for gravitational-wave science: not only can gravi- Lier les ondes aux particules
tational waves provide the first direct evidence of ultralight fields
GW signal
0.2
radiation ringdown
0.0 from 0.8 spin–2 and of possible new effects near the horizon, but they also carry La découverte des ondes gravitationnelles par LIGO fournit
photosphere detailed information about the black-hole mass and spin. If light l’indice le plus probant jusqu’ici de l’existence des trous noirs, mais
BH spin
0.6
–0.2 GW echo 0.4 fields exist, the observation of a few hundred black holes should ces distorsions de l’espace-temps ont bien d’autres choses à nous
0.2 show “gaps” in the mass-spin plane corresponding to regions apprendre. Elles nous offrent un moyen sans égal de vérifier si les
–10 0 10 20 30 40 0.0 where spinning black holes are too unstable to exist. trous noirs sont les objets macroscopiques les plus simples possible,
time (ms) 100 102 104 106 108 1010 This is a surprising application of gravitational science, which si les horizons des événements existent vraiment, et si les gravitons
BH mass (M )
Fig. 1. Typical gravitational-wave signal generated by a small can be used to investigate the existence of new particles such n’ont effectivement pas de masse. Élément peut-être encore plus
star falling into a massive compact object with (top) and without Fig. 2. Exclusion plots in the black-hole mass-spin plane for as those possibly contributing to the dark matter. The idea of surprenant, les ondes gravitationnelles pourraient révéler la nature
(bottom) a horizon. In the latter case, “echoes” of gravitational ultralight scalar (top), vector (middle) and tensor (bottom) fields, using observations of supermassive black holes to provide new de la matière noire et l’existence de champs scalaires légers – ce qui
waves appear at late time and provide a smoking gun for showing electromagnetic (black) and gravitational-wave (red) insights not accessible in laboratory experiments would cer- établirait un lien entre la physique des particules et les objets les
putative quantum effects that halt the gravitational collapse. observations. Above each curve (grey), superradiance would tainly be exciting. Perhaps these new frontiers in gravitational- plus extrêmes de l’Univers.
spin the black hole down to the threshold, whereas below the wave astrophysics, in addition to probing the most extreme
processes in the vicinities of black holes only probe the region curve accretion is dominant and there is no spin-down effect. objects, will also give us a clearer understanding of the micro- Vitor Cardoso, Universidade de Lisboa, and Paolo Pani, Sapienza
outside of the photosphere, gravitational waves are sensitive to the scopic universe. en page 1 18/09/12 17:17 Page 1
CERN_125x193:Mise University of Rome.
entire space–time and are our best probe of strong-field regions. hole’s kinetic energy, causing the spin of the black-hole to decrease.
A typical gravitational-wave signal generated by a small star fall- Not only electromagnetic waves, but also gravitational waves and
ing head-on into a massive black hole looks like that in figure 1. any other bosonic field can be amplified by a rotating black hole. In
As the star crosses the photosphere, a burst of radiation is emitted addition, if the field is massive, low-energy fluctuations are trapped
and a sequence of pulses dubbed “quasinormal ringing” follow, near the horizon and are forced to interact repeatedly with the black
determined by the characteristic modes of the black hole. But if the hole, producing an instability. This instability extracts rotational
star falls into a quantum-corrected or exotic compact object with energy and transfers it to the field, which grows exponentially in www.goodfellow.com
no horizon, part of the burst generated during the crossing of the amplitude and forms a rotating cloud around the black hole. For a
photosphere reflects back at the object surface. The resulting signal one-million solar-mass black hole and a scalar field with a mass of
in a detector would thus initially look the same, but be followed by 10 –16 eV, the timescale for this to take place is less than two minutes.
lower amplitude “echoes” trapped between the photosphere and the
surface of the object (figure 1, lower panel). These echoes, although
tricky to dig out in noisy data, would be a smoking gun for new phys-
Therefore, the very existence of ultralight fields is constrained by
the observation of spinning black holes. With this technique, one
can place unprecedented bounds on the mass of axion-like particles,
Metals
ics. With increasing sensitivity in detectors such as LIGO and Virgo,
observations will be pushing back the object’s surface closer to the
another popular candidate for dark matter. For example, we know
from current astrophysical observations that the mass of dark pho- and materials
for research
horizon, perhaps even to the point where we can detect the echo of tons must be smaller than 10 –20 eV, which is 100 times better than
quantum effects. accelerator bounds. The technique relies only on measurements of
the mass and spin of black holes, which will be known with unprec-
Dark questions edented precision with future gravitational-wave observations.
Understanding strong-field gravity with gravitational waves can Superradiance, together with current electromagnetic obser-
Goodfellow Cambridge Limited ON-LINE CATALOGUE
also test the nature of dark matter. Although dark matter may vations of spinning black holes, can also be used to constrain
interact very feebly with Standard Model particles, according the mass of the graviton, since any massive boson would trig-
Ermine Business Park
to Einstein’s equivalence principle it must fall just like any other ger superradiant instabilities. Huntingdon PE29 6WR UK
particle. If dark matter is composed of ultralight fields, as recent Spin measurements of the Tel: 0800 731 4653 or +44 1480 424 800
studies argue, then black holes may serve as excellent dark-matter supermassive black hole in gal- Fax: 0800 328 7689 or +44 1480 424 900
detectors. You might ask how a monstrous, supermassive black Gravitational waves axy Fairall 9 requires the mass info@goodfellow.com
hole could ever be sensitive to ultralight fields. The answer lies in can also test the of the graviton to be lighter
superradiant resonances. When black holes rotate, as most do, they than 5 × 10 –23 eV – an impres-
display an interesting effect discovered in the 1970s called superra-
nature of dark sive number which is even
diance: if one shines a low-frequency lamp on a rotating black hole, matter. more stringent than the bound 70 000 PRODUCTS SMALL QUANTITIES FAST DELIVERY CUSTOM MADE ITEMS
the scattered beam is brighter. This happens at the expense of the recently placed by LIGO.
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LCC
ESO / F J Carrera
Observatory (ESO), which builds and head of operations in CERN’s Beams
SINTEF Minalab MPW service offers prototyping
of silicon detectors including strip detectors, pixel
We offer: operates some of the world’s most powerful Department, effective from 1 January 2017.
ground-based telescopes, has appointed He takes over from Mike Lamont, who has
detectors and PIN diodes. Xavier Barcons as its next director general. been in the role since 2009 and oversaw
• Strip detectors The 57 year-old astronomer will take up his operations from the LHC’s rollercoaster
By combining the orders from different customers into • Pixel detectors new position on 1 September 2017, when start-up to its latest record performance.
a single wafer run, the fabrication costs are reduced • PIN diodes the current director general Tim de Zeeuw Lamont remains deputy group leader of the
completes his mandate. He began his career as Beams Department.
significantly. The cost savings start at around 50 % and • From 1 to 6 wafers a physicist, completing a PhD on hot plasmas.
can be as high as 80 %. • 5-layer process incl. passivation
N Steerenberg
• Detector thickness 300 µm to 1 mm Xavier Barcons will become the new
Individual wafers and a separate photomask set are ESO director later in the year.
• 50 to 80 % savings on fabrication cost
used for each customer, thereby ensuring flexibility and
confidentiality. Between 1 and 6 wafers can be ordered
per customer.
Next theory leader for Jefferson Lab
In October 2016, Jianwei Qiu joined the
JL AB
The detectors are fabricated on high-quality 150 mm An unique opportunity to benefit from Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator
diameter FZ silicon wafers. Wafer thicknesses from Facility as its new associate director for
300 µm to 1 mm are available for individual selection.
SINTEF’s 35 years experience in the field theoretical and computational physics.
Our full field wafer size lithography allows maximum of silicon radiation detector development, Qiu, whose research focus is QCD and its
applications in both high-energy particle
flexibility for the layout. Different detector types prototyping and production! and nuclear physics, will oversee a broad
and test structures can be combined onto a single programme of theoretical research in
photomask set. support of the physics studied with the
Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator
Facility (CEBAF).
Prices and time schedule on request : mpw@sintef.no Qiu, who previously led the nuclear theory Rende Steerenberg, previously deputy
group at Brookhaven National Laboratory. operations group leader.
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aWarDs
Neutrino physicist Russian Academy of Sciences elects
Heuer given highest French honour
CERN
takes up Pascal Chair theorists as latest new members
Former CERN Director-General Rolf-Dieter SESAME Council, among other roles, was
Heuer has been appointed Chevalier de la presented with the medal on 22 November Fumihiko In late 2016, theorists Mikhail Danilov, from the University of California in Santa Barbara
Getty images
Breakthrough Prize
The 2017 Breakthrough Prize in
Fumihiko Suekane of Tohoku University,
Japan, has been awarded a 2016 Blaise Pascal
Reach new heights
Fundamental Physics has been awarded to
Joseph Polchinski, University of California
Chair to further his research into neutrinos.
Established in 1996, and named after the in magnetic field
at Santa Barbara, and Andrew Strominger
and Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University.
The three winners, who received the $3
17th-century French polymath Blaise Pascal,
the ¤200,000 grant allows researchers from
abroad to work on a scientific project in an
measurement
million award at a glitzy ceremony in San institution in the Ile-de-France region. Suekane
Francisco on 4 December, have made Andrew Strominger, Joseph Polchinski and Cumrun Vafa (left to right) at the award ceremony. will spend a year working at the Astroparticle The Metrolab PT2026 sets a new
important contributions to fundamental and Cosmology Laboratory in Paris, where he standard for precision magnetometers.
physics including quantum gravity and Ronald Drever and Kip Thorne of Caltech Berkeley); Simone Giombi (Princeton will focus on R&D for novel neutrino detectors
and Rainer Weiss of MIT, who were University) and Xi Yin (Harvard University);
Leveraging 30 years of expertise building
string theory. Polchinski was recognised and measurements of reactor neutrinos.
in particular for his discovery of D-branes, recognised in May along with the entire and Frans Pretorius (Princeton). the world’s gold standard magnetometers,
while the citation for Strominger and Vafa LIGO team for the discovery of gravitational This year’s Breakthrough Prize, which Visits it takes magnetic field measurement to
included their derivation of the Bekenstein– waves – were also present. A further prize, was founded in 2012 by Sergey Brin, Anne
M Brice / CERN
unified the laws of thermodynamics and Prize, went to six early-career physicists: Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, saw $25 better resolution.
black-hole dynamics. Asimina Arvanitaki (Perimeter Institute), million in prizes awarded for achievements
Recipients of the previously announced Peter Graham (Stanford University) and in the life sciences, fundamental physics and
Special Prize in Fundamental Physics – Surjeet Rajendran (University of California, mathematics.
The PT2026 offers unprecedented flexibility
in the choice of parameters, interfacing
Humboldt award for Atomic pioneer wins presidential medal and probe placement, as well as greatly
improved tolerance of inhomogeneous
Brookhaven physicist US physicist and science policy adviser President of the Republic of Poland, fields. And with Ethernet & USB interfaces
S Bennett / CERN
National Laboratory and Stony Brook to civilians. Garwin was recognised for
University. The ¤60,000 award recognises his long career in research and invention,
Venugopalan’s achievements in theoretical which saw him play a leading role in the
nuclear physics, and comes with the opportunity development of the hydrogen bomb, and for
to collaborate with German researchers at his advice to policy makers.
Heidelberg University and elsewhere. Introducing Garwin, President Obama
remarked: “Dick’s not only an architect of
the atomic age. Reconnaissance satellites,
BNL
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S Ritt / PSI
and searches for exotic interactions. The
Triangulating in Mumbai future European Spallation Source in
Sweden will also allow a new and much
improved search for neutron–antineutron
From 28 November to 2 December, more oscillations. Atomic physics and related
processes are much higher than those that a factor four. Longer term, the Belle II Penning-trap mass and g-factor measurements and CP and CPT tests with B mesons were sometimes involving industry, and useful
da
γ
t CL
>0
can be directly probed at the LHC, due to the experiment based at the SuperKEKB were presented with impacts on CPT tests, reported. The field of low-energy precision products emerge and evolve over time and
Δmd & Δms
.95
presence of quantum loops that mediate many bound-state QED tests and more. physics has grown fast over the past few place. Credit should have been more fairly
sin 2β
– 0
collider recently enjoyed its first beam, and
0
of the processes of interest, such as B(s) – B(s) εK
Δmd
will begin its full physics programme in Major international efforts are under way years, and participants plan to meet again at attributed to reflect the history of these
mixing. Compared with the absence of new 2018. By 2024, Belle II should have collected at PSI (μ → eγ, μ → eee), FNAL and J-PARC PSI in 2019. important CERN devices.
α
γ β
particles so far at the energy frontier, LHCb α 50 times more data than Belle, allowing
and other B factories already have significant unprecedented tests of rare B-meson decays
Nanotechnology meets HEP in Darmstadt
Vub α
GSI
of the decay products of the rare 10 compared to Run 1 and Run 2. Plans nanotechnology are quickly evolving, with
flavour-changing neutral-current process The sides, angles and height of the for a second LHCb upgrade presented at discoveries frequently reported across
B0 → K*0 μ+ μ–, first reported by the LHCb unitarity triangle constitute a highly the meeting would allow LHCb, given the a wide range of applications including
collaboration in 2015. A highlight of overconstrained system where small long-term future of the LHC, to run at much nanoelectronics, sensor technologies, drug
CKM2016 was the presentation of first deviations from predictions would indicate higher instantaneous luminosities to yield an delivery and robotics, in addition to the
results of the same distributions from the presence of non-SM physics. enormous data set by 2035. energy and healthcare sectors.
the Belle experiment in Japan, which With more data the puzzles of flavour At an academia–industry event on 20–21
also included the related but previously time-dependent CP violation in the decay physics will be resolved thanks to the October at GSI in Darmstadt, Germany,
unmeasured process B0 → K*0 e+ e –. The of Bs0 mesons in two separate final states, ongoing programme of LHCb, imminent co-organised by the technology-transfer
+
Belle results are more compatible with those D s K– and K+ K–. The latter involves loop results from rare-kaon-decay experiments network HEPTech, delegates explored novel
of LHCb than the SM, further supporting the diagrams allowing a new-physics-sensitive (KOTO and NA62), and the Belle II/LHCb connections between nanotechnology and
idea that new physics may be manifesting determination of a UT angle (γ) that can be upgrade projects. No doubt there will be high-energy physics (HEP).
itself, via interference effects, in these compared to a tree-level SM determination more revealing results by the time of the next The forum included an overview
observables. Progress on measuring CP in the decay B– → D0 K–. CKM workshop, to be held in Heidelberg in of the recent experiments at DESY’s
violation in B decays was also reported, For the first time, LHCb also presented September 2018. hard X-ray source PETRA III, which
with LHCb presenting the first evidence for results with data from LHC Run 2, which is ● www.tifr.res.in/~ckm16. allows the investigation of physical and 70 participants from 11 countries attended the event and 30 bilateral meetings took place.
chemical processes in situ and under
working conditions and serves a large the core of which are nano-structured Characterisation of Grenoble.
PSI event probes the low-energy frontier user community in many fields including
nanotechnology. Thermal-scanning probe
tungsten-carbide-based coatings that have
promising applications in HEP and vacuum
The meeting addressed how collaboration
between academia and industry in the
lithography, an increasingly reliable method engineering. Industry also presented nanotechnology arena can best serve the
While there are many conferences focusing PSI2016, took place from 16–21 October anomalies presently seen in B decays. On the for rapid and low-cost prototyping of 2D ion-track technology, which is being used needs of HEP, with CERN presenting
on physics at the high-energy frontier, the and attracted more than 170 physicists. experimental side, several new results were and quasi-3D structures, was also discussed. to synthesise 3D interconnected nanowire applications in gaseous detectors using the
triennial PSI workshop at the Paul Scherrer Theoretical overviews covered: precision presented. Much attention was paid to the production networks in micro-batteries or gas sensors, charge-transfer properties of graphene.
Institute (PSI) in Switzerland concerns QED calculations; beyond-the-Standard- Fundamental neutron physics and application of nanostructures, where among other applications. Neutron-research The technology-transfer office at DESY
searches for new phenomena at non-collider Model implications of electric-dipole- featured prominently, ranging from the achievements of the Ion Beam Center at infrastructures and large-scale synchrotrons also shared its experience in developing
experiments. These are complementary to moment (EDM) searches; axions and other cold-neutron-beam experiments to those with Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf in are emerging as highly suitable platforms for a marketing strategy for promoting
direct searches at the LHC and often cover a light exotic particles; flavour symmetries; stored ultracold neutrons at facilities such as surface nanostructuring and nanopatterning the advanced characterisation of micro- and the services of the DESY NanoLab to
parameter space that is beyond the reach of the muon g-2 problem; NLO calculations of ILL, PSI, LANL, TRIUMF and Mainz. Key were introduced. nano-electronic devices, and the audience companies. Both academia and industry
the LHC or even future colliders. the rare muon decay μ → eeeνν; and possible experiments are measurements of the neutron UK firm Hardide Coatings Ltd presented heard the latest developments from the representatives left the event with a set of
The fourth workshop in this series, models to explain the exciting flavour lifetime, searches for a permanent EDM, its advanced surface-coating technology, IRT Nanoelec Platform for Advanced contacts and collaboration arrangements.
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Super future for medical accelerators Hard probe for QCD matter
On 24–25 November, academics and leading presented medical accelerators such as the The 8th International Conference on Hard
PSI
Xi-Chang Chen
companies in the field of superconductivity MEVION S250 – a proton-therapy system and Electromagnetic Probes of High-energy
met in Madrid, Spain, to explore the based on a gantry-mounted 250 MeV Nuclear Collisions (Hard Probes 2016)
technical challenges of applying new superconducting synchrocyclotron that was held in Wuhan, China, on 23–27
accelerator technology to medicine. weighs less than 15 tonnes and generates September. Hard and electromagnetic
Organised by CIEMAT in collaboration magnetic fields in excess of 10 T. Global probes are powerful tools for the study of
with HEPTech, EUCARD2, CDTI, GSI medical-technology company IBA the novel properties of hot and dense QCD
and the Enterprise Europe Network, the described its two main superconducting matter created in high-energy nucleus–
event brought together 120 participants cyclotrons for particle therapy: the nucleus collisions, and have provided much
from 19 countries to focus on radioisotope Cyclone 400 for proton/carbon therapy important evidence for the formation of
production, particle therapy and gantries. and the S2C2 dedicated to proton quark–gluon plasma (QGP) in heavy-ion Hard Probe 2016 attracted a record number of participants.
Superconductivity has a range of therapy, with a particular emphasis on collisions at RHIC and the LHC.
applications in energy, medicine, fusion their superconducting coil systems. IBA Hard Probe 2016 attracted close to 300 excitations; jet properties in small ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, PHENIX and STAR
and high-energy physics (HEP). The latter also introduced the latest developments participants from 28 countries. The main systems; heavy flavour hadrons and collaborations, together with many new
are illustrated by CERN’s high-luminosity concerning ProteusONE – a single-room topics discussed were: jet production quarkonia; photons and dileptons and exciting theoretical and phenomenological
LHC (HL-LHC), now near construction system that delivers the most clinically and modification in QCD matter; high initial states and related topics. The most developments, were discussed. The next
with superconducting magnets made from advanced form of proton-radiation transverse-momentum hadron spectra recent experimental progress on hard and Hard Probe conference will be held in Aix
advanced Nb3Sn technology capable of therapy. Researchers from MIT in the US and correlations; jet-induced medium electromagnetic probes from the ALICE, Les Bains, France, in 2018.
12 T fields. The HL-LHC demands greatly presented a novel compact superconducting
advanced superconducting cavities with synchrocyclotron based on an ironless
more efficient and higher-gradient RF
systems, plus the development of new
A proton-therapy gantry facility at the
Paul Scherrer Institute.
magnet with a much reduced weight, while
the TERA Foundation in Italy is developing
Exotic nuclei and super-heavy elements
devices such as crab cavities that can deflect superconducting technology for “cyclinacs”
or rotate single bunches of protons. these isotopes in addition to Ga. Antaya
68
– accelerators that combine a cyclotron The International Symposium on EXOtic is an experiment on the synthesis of element
JINR
On the industry side, new Science and Technology, meanwhile, injector and a linac booster. Nuclei (EXON-2016), took place from 117 held at the cyclotron of JINR. Recently,
superconducting technology is ready to go reported on the development of a portable Finally, the session on gantries covered 5–9 September in Kazan, Russia, attracting the International Union of Pure and Applied
into production for medical applications. high-field superconducting cyclotron for developments such as a superconducting around 170 nuclear experts from 20 Chemistry approved the discovery of the
A dedicated session presented novel the production of ammonia-13N in near bending-magnet section for future countries. The scientific programme focused new elements with atomic numbers 113
developments in cyclotron production, proximity to the PET cameras. The meeting compact isocentric gantries by researchers on recent experiments on the synthesis (“nihonian”), 115 (“moscovium”), 117
illustrated by the AMIT project of also heard from MEDICIS, the new facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute, and a and study of new super-heavy elements, (“tennessine”) and 118 (“oganesson”).
CIEMAT (based on a cyclotron with a under construction at CERN that will superconducting rotating gantry for carbon the discovery of which demonstrates the Five laboratories, which are the
compact superconducting design that will extend the capabilities of the ISOLDE radiotherapy designed by the Japanese efficiency of international co-operation. co-founders of the symposium, are now
be able to produce low-to-moderate rates radioactive ion-beam facility for production National Institute of Radiological Sciences. Interesting results were obtained in joint creating a new generation of accelerators for
of dose-on-demand 11C and 18F) and the of radiopharmaceuticals and develop With demand for medical isotopes and experiments on chemical identification of the synthesis and study of new exotic nuclei.
French industry–academia LOTUS project new accelerator technologies for medical advanced cancer therapy rising, we can elements 112 and 114 performed at JINR Projects such as SPIRAL2, RIKEN RI Beam
system, which features a compact 12 MeV applications (CERN Courier October look forward to rich collaborations between (Russia), the GSI (Germany) and the Paul Factory, FAIR, DRIBs, NICA and FRIB will
superconducting helium-free magnet 2016 p28). accelerator physics and the medical Scherrer Institute (Switzerland). A vivid Participants of the VIII International allow us to delve further into the upper limits
cyclotron suitable for the production of Concerning particle therapy, industry community in the coming years. example of co-operation with US scientists Symposium on EXOtic Nuclei. of the periodic table.
Tamas Thaler
The fifth in the series of Higgs Couplings
workshops, which began just after the
Higgs-boson discovery in 2012 to bring
together theorists and experimentalists, was
held at SLAC on 9–12 November and drew
148 participants from five continents. Higgs experts from theory and experiment at Higgs Couplings 2016.
Discussions focused on lessons from the
current round of LHC analyses that could be Two new themes emerged at the meeting. also debated the application of effective field
applied to future data. Modelling of signal The first was the possibility of exotic decays theory as a framework for parametrising
and background is already limiting for some of the 125 GeV Higgs boson. These include precise Higgs measurements. The CERN Accelerator School (CAS) and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics jointly organised an introduction-to-accelerator-physics
measurements, and new theoretical results not only Higgs decays to invisible particles The 6th Higgs Couplings meeting will be course in Budapest, Hungary, from 2–14 October, attended by more than 120 participants spanning 28 nationalities. This year, CAS will
and strategies were presented. Other key but also decays to lighter Higgs particles, light held in Heidelberg on 6–10 November 2017. organise a specialised course on beam injection, extraction and transfer (to be held in Erice, Sicily, from 10–19 March) and a second
issues were the use of vector-boson fusion quarks and leptons (possibly with flavour We look forward to new ideas for the creative specialised course on vacuum for particle accelerators (near Lund, Sweden, from 6–16 June). The next course on advanced-accelerator
production as a tool, and the power and violation) and new, long-lived particles. A use of the large data samples of Higgs bosons physics will be held in the UK in early September, and a Joint International Accelerator School on RF technology will be held in Hayama,
complementarity of diverse searches for number of searches from ATLAS and CMS that will become available as the LHC Japan, from 16–26 October (www.cern.ch/schools/CAS).
heavy Higgs bosons. reported their first results. The workshop programme continues.
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Gökhan Ünel
National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), interrupt connections with Dubna: Abdinov on 7 September. A veteran of Russian participated in the ATLAS experiment. His
died on 29 October at the age of 72, after a was a staff member of JINR, deputy of experimental high-energy physics and group was active in the preparation of the
long illness. He was born in Belokan city, authorised representative of the government long-time leader of the ITEP team in Letter of Intent, working on the concept of
Azerbaijan, graduated from Baku State of Azerbaijan Republic in JINR, and a ATLAS, he will be remembered not only radiation-resistant forward calorimeters,
University in 1966, and defended his PhD member of JINR Scientific Council. as an energetic contributor to the CERN and, from 1995 to 2009, worked on the
thesis in 1972. The creation of Azerbaijan’s first neutrino and LHC programmes, but also as construction and commissioning of the
It is impossible to overstate the impact that Worldwide LHC Computing Grid segment an honest and principled person who loved ATLAS liquid-argon forward calorimeters,
Abdinov had in the creation and development also owes its thanks to Abdinov. science and life. providing the major part of the tungsten
of high-energy physics in Azerbaijan. His Abdinov was a famous scientific Valery was born in Sverdlovsk in the electrodes.
wide knowledge, inexhaustible energy, representative of the Azerbaijan former USSR, and received his PhD From 1995 to 2012, Valery was the leader
talent in organisation and search for young intelligentsia. He was an organiser and (for the study of cumulative effects of the neutrino-physics laboratory at ITEP. He
specialists led to the creation of his own invited speaker at international conferences, in πN-interactions) at the Institute of served on the LHCC from 1992 to 1994 and
school in this field that serves as an example Ovsat Abdinov had a major impact on a presenter of high-level reports and the Experimental and Theoretical Physics Khovanskiy at CERN in the late 1990s. for a long period on the Russian government’s
for future generations. high-energy physics in Azerbaijan. winner of numerous research grants both in (ITEP, Moscow) in 1969. Since then, his commission on fundamental research. He was
Scientifically, Abdinov’s main interest was the former Soviet Union and in Azerbaijan. main scientific interests were in the fields of interactions to validate the then very young also one of the founders and lecturers of the
the theoretical description of hadron-nuclear for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna and He dedicated almost 20 years of his neutrino physics, novel particle-detection quark-parton model. In the late 1970s, famous ITEP Winter School of Physics.
interaction processes. He was the first the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) scientific activity to investigations carried methods and hadron collider physics. Valery joined the CERN experimental Valery had a vivid individuality and was
to propose a hypothesis of the cluster in Serpukhov, both in Russia, followed by out within the ATLAS collaboration. We In the first Russian accelerator neutrino neutrino programme at the SPS and PS, invariably good humoured. His many pupils,
formation in light nuclei, which was later CERN. hope that his work will be continued by experiment at the Serpukhov 70 GeV proton and became one of the senior scientists colleagues and friends admired him and he
experimentally proven. The laboratory The creation and expansion of relations his scientific heirs and further benefit synchrotron (IHEP-ITEP, 1970–1978), of the CHARM, PS-181, CHARM-2 will be very much missed.
he headed at ANAS Institute of Physics between Azerbaijan and CERN paved the Azerbaijan high-energy physics. Valery lead the detector construction and CHORUS experiments devoted to a ● His friends and colleagues, ITEP and
collaborated initially with the Joint Institute way for the participation of Azerbaijan ● His colleagues. and studied neutrino and antineutrino systematic study of neutral currents, and ATLAS.
Alex Wilson
ANL
the Argonne high-energy physics (HEP) direct result of these early experiments. in the world of particle accelerators and During the days of SPS construction he ran
division, passed away on 31 October After the closure of the ZGS programme, former director of the CERN Accelerator a series of courses on accelerator theory for
after a long illness. Born in Hull, UK, in Malcolm initiated Argonne participation School (CAS), died after a short illness on members of the 300 GeV laboratory, which
1933, Malcolm received his BSc and PhD in two important experiments: HRS at the 3 November. evolved into the book An Introduction
degrees in physics from the University PEP collider at SLAC, where he proposed The son of a schoolteacher in to Particle Accelerators. Following his
of Birmingham. After working on the using the superconducting magnet of the Liverpool, UK, he graduated in physics appointment as CAS director in 1992, he
cyclotron at Carnegie Tech, he moved to 12 foot bubble chamber as the solenoid at the University of Oxford in 1959 and was responsible for organising 25 schools,
Oxford University in 1962 to help establish for the HRS spectrometer, and the ZEUS immediately joined the nearby Rutherford in addition to special schools in India,
a bubble-chamber group working at CERN. experiment at the HERA collider in DESY. Appleton Laboratory. His first stay at China and Japan. He also coauthored a
In 1963 he moved to Argonne National Malcolm took sabbatical leave at University CERN was in 1962–1963 and he returned fascinating book on the history of particle
Laboratory to work on the 12 GeV ZGS College London and later at DESY, where in 1967 as a fellow, working in Werner accelerators and their applications: Engines
synchrotron then in construction. he served as physics chairman and oversaw Hardt’s group on the design of the of Discovery, a Century of Particle
While working on several bubble-chamber such activities as physics publications. A booster for the new large synchrotron: Accelerators.
experiments with the 30 inch chamber, gifted speaker, he served on several review the “300 GeV” machine, later to become Accelerator physicist Ted Wilson. On his retirement, Ted renewed his
Malcolm’s main interest was in establishing Malcolm Derrick was a long-time CERN committees and was a HEPAP member the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). He association with Oxford University by
a programme of neutrino physics using the collaborator. and an active participant in the Snowmass became the right-hand man of John Adams essential for the smooth commissioning of becoming a guest professor at the John
12 foot bubble-chamber then being built. Conferences. He retired in 2006. in 1969, helping him to prepare the project the SPS, for which he was responsible a few Adams Institute of Accelerator Physics,
He was spokesman for the first experiment supported the division's collaboration Besides being a brilliant physicist, for approval by CERN Council, which years later. Following the approval in 1978 where he taught and supervised students. He
using the deuterium-filled chamber, which with the University of Minnesota to Malcolm had a knack for entertaining his was given in 1971. He became one of the of the bold proposal of Carlo Rubbia to turn has helped to bring on a new generation of
produced several important results including build an underground detector to search guests with stories about his life and endless first staff members of the new “300 GeV the SPS into a part-time proton–antiproton machine builders.
the first measurement of the axial-vector form for proton decay in the Soudan Mine anecdotes about history and philosophy. His laboratory” set up for the construction of collider, Ted started working on how to Ted Wilson will be sorely missed by the
factor in muon neutrino–neutron quasi-elastic in Minnesota. This resulted in a rich spare time was spent reading good books, the SPS. convert the machine from a synchrotron to a world’s accelerator community. He will
scattering. This result was verified by later programme of neutrino physics with a fine dining and listening to classical music. In 1973–1974, at the request of Adams, storage ring. He later worked on the design always be remembered for his impish smile
BNL and FNAL experiments. series of multi-kiloton detectors and in new Malcolm leaves behind his wife Eva and his Ted spent a sabbatical year at Fermilab to and construction of CERN’s antiproton and his dry sense of humour. He is survived
Malcolm served on two occasions as HEP underground laboratories at Soudan, using many children and grandchildren. He will be work on the commissioning of the “main complex: first the antiproton accumulator, by his wife Monika, his three children and
division director and was always a source both atmospheric neutrinos and Fermilab missed by all who knew and loved him. ring”, a machine very similar to the SPS. to which a second ring, the antiproton five grandchildren.
of good career advice. He enthusiastically neutrino beams. The important physics ● His colleagues. The lessons he learnt there would prove collector, was later added. ● His friends and colleagues.
56 57
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To apply to this position, please visit neutrons.ornl.gov/careers and reference posting # NB50608623
16-G01844/gim
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle for the US Department of Energy.
WE ARE HIRING
The Institute of Physics of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile invites applications for two tenure-track
faculty positions at the Assistant Professor level, to begin as early as August 2017.
A Ph. D. degree in physics is required and postdoctoral experience is expected. The successful candidate is
expected to establish a leading research program in the areas relevant to the Plasma Physics group, as well as
teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels. One of the selected candidates is expected to develop research in
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Applications should include a letter of application, curriculum vitae, list of publications, and statements of past and
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Call to scientific institutes for collaboration in the context of the For further information, interested institutes may contact:
Beamline for Schools competition at CERN markus.joos@cern.ch
In 2017 CERN will, for the fourth time, organize a Beamline for Details about the competition itself can be found at:
Schools (BL4S) Competition that invites high school students www.cern.ch/bl4s
from around the world to make a proposal for an experiment at
a beam line of the PS accelerator.
In the framework of this project, CERN invites scientific institutes
to participate in the organization of the competition by
contributing the expertise of two young researchers (physicist,
computer scientist or engineer) for the period from 1 February
2017 to 30 September 2017, subject to a possible extension.
A detailed description of the project and the qualification and
skills required from the young researchers can be found at:
http://cern.ch/go/tdD8
The modalities of the proposed collaboration will be set
out in a dedicated agreement between CERN and the
institute(s) concerned.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L S E L E C T I O N P R O C E S S F O R E L I B E A M L I N E S F A C I L I T Y I N C Z E C H R E P U B L I C
The suitable candidate will be responsible for the delivery of X-ray sources driven by ultrashort laser pulses and their integration into the
ELI Beamlines facility.
March 2017
The candidates are expected to comply with the following requirements:
1. PhD in the field of laser plasma physics
Target the best candidates for your
2. Post-doc in laser driven X-ray sources would be a plus
3. Working experience of minimum 5 years in the field of laser driven X-ray sources with an excellent record of publications in this field in
graduate vacancy
international peer-reviewed journals
4. Working experience in management of a larger research group Contact Natasha Clarke today to find out
5. Willing to travel and English language on a very good level (written and spoken)
how to get your vacancy noticed.
Location: ELI Beamlines, Institute of Physics ASCR, Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic E-mail natasha.clarke@iop.org
Applicants should provide their CV and cover letter (in English) along with a complete list of publications. They should single out 5 most important publications with the description of their
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Bookshelf
COMPILED BY VIRGINI A GRECO, CER N
Particle Physics in the LHC Era scattering, the quark–parton model and
By G Barr, D Devenish, R Walczak and T Weidberg neutrino interactions, and concludes its first
Oxford University Press part with electron–nucleon deep inelastic
This book’s aim, as stated in the scattering. This is a departure from standard
introduction, is to provide a practical practice in most textbooks. The second
introduction to particle physics in the LHC part of the chapter is on the introduction of
era at the level of an advanced undergraduate colour, QCD, parton distribution functions
or introductory graduate course. Indeed, and hadron–hadron collisions, and the
Technology at your fingertips in its almost 400 pages, it covers a wide Drell–Yan process. The material, which is
range of topics, from instrumentation extensive but presented quite briefly, is more
and detector technologies to some appropriate for undergraduates.
mathematical techniques and the traditional Chapters 10 (oscillations and CP
particle-physics topics that are usually violation in meson systems) and
included in similar textbooks. It hovers, by 11 (neutrino oscillations) are great
▲
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textbooks, the author has also formulated more advanced topics, including Liouville’s and materials science, but also of formulations of the theory. However, the
125 eV FWHM
55
Fe
and solved a large number of exercises that theorem and perturbation theory. In the interdisciplinary courses such as biophysics, risk is that the book is then not sufficiently
Counts
are provided at the end of each chapter, third part of the book, the modern theory of biomedicine and photochemistry. clear and explanatory to be an easy read 25 mm2 x 500 µm
together with a detailed bibliography. chaos is introduced. The author describes In this second revised edition, new for non-experts, nor technical and detailed 11.2 µs peaking time 6.4
Despite its title, the book is not a chaotic motion using the tools of discrete sections on quantum interference, Fano enough to appeal to students. P/B Ratio: 20000/1 keV
substitute for comprehensive textbooks maps and Poincaré sections, along with resonances, optical magnetism, quantum
Energy (keV)
in medical-radiation physics, rather it the Poincaré–Birkhoff and Kolmogorov– computation, laser cooling of solids, and Exactly Solvable Models in Many-Body
Resolution vs Peaking Time
complements them. It is therefore of interest Arnold–Moser (KAM) theorems and their irreducible representation of magnetic Theory 180
to experienced medical physicists who The last theme, tumour control and normal applications. interactions have been included, along with By N H March and G G N Angilella
25 mm2
considered an advanced topic in medical physicists in general who – as the author The author opts for an scales – so small that, unfortunately, we bosons – with specific reference to Efimov
radiation therapy, is approached in a comments – “like understanding”. unconventional approach. Rather than cannot directly test it with experiments. trimers in nuclear and condensed-matter
somewhat easier way. Starting from an ● Saverio Braccini, AEC-LHEP, University of Bern, providing an exhaustive treatment, he Although string theory is built on assemblies – to anyon statistics. 1,000
historical introduction, emphasis is given Switzerland. introduces a single analytic tool – the a very solid mathematical basis and The second group of chapters is 1,000 10,000 100,000
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to accelerators and to dose-distribution density matrix – to analyse complex optical allows rigorous calculations, the author dedicated to models for selected
systems, with a glimpse of future phenomena and applies it to a wide range of uses almost no equations. Rather than a many-body systems in condensed matter,
developments. It is a pity that carbon-ion Books received problems. Among the many mathematical textbook, this is a book on the history, where particular attention is given to
therapy is not mentioned and that active Lectures in Nonlinear Mechanics and tools available to treat nonlinear and science and philosophy lying behind a superconductivity and superfluidity, and to
dose-distribution systems are not discussed Chaos Theory quantum optics, he chooses the density fascinating and speculative theory. isolated impurities in a solid. Pair-potential
in more detail. By Albert W Stetz matrix because it is extremely versatile In the first part, the theory of and many-body force models for liquids are
The two topics that follow address World Scientific and applicable virtually to any problem. quantum-mechanical relativistic strings also discussed, as well as disorder and its
the daily work of the medical physicist. This concise book provides a In particular, it is well suited for dealing is placed within the broader context of implications for transport in solids.
Dose-computation algorithms are treated rigorous introduction to the with coherence in isolated or interactive theoretical particle physics, and ultimately The authors then deal with more general
following a careful mathematical formulation theory of nonlinear mechanics systems, and allows researchers to ignore science in general. It is then discussed why topics, in particular statistical field theory Please see our web site for complete
complemented by examples and references and chaos, suitable for students parts of a problem that appear irrelevant. there is still a need for ideas and paradigms (discussing some specific models and
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transport is introduced, starting from the engineering. quickly passes to more sophisticated why string theory is a candidate for being theory. Open problems in quantum gravity
basic quantities used in medical radiation Nonlinear dynamics treats problems topics. It starts with the simplest systems a global theory that includes all others. are also briefly reviewed in the concluding
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64 65
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CERN Courier Archive: 1974
A LOOK BACK TO CERN COURIER VOL. 14, F E B R U A R Y 1974, COMPILED BY PEGGIE RIMMER
nEWs
SL AC
Frascati
6 GeV Bevatron at Berkeley in February • Removable fan unit including air filter
1954, the particle population explosion • Mpod Mini crate for 4 LV or HV modules
defied understanding. Then came a beautiful
application of unitary symmetry theory, • LV and HV modules freely combinable
which grouped particles in an orderly way • MPOD-Controller with Ethernet, CAN-bus, USB
with well-defined relationships between
them. Noting an absent member in one of • Web-ready + SNMP, OPC server , EPICS
these groups, the omega minus was predicted
and, in February 1964, Brookhaven
• Low Voltage: 8 channels 0..8V to 0..120V
identified this particle, crowning one of the The detection system surrounding a beam The ADONE storage ring at Frascati, where range,
great achievements of high-energy physics. collision region at SPEAR, used in gathering combined electron–positron energies of up low noise (<2mVpp 20MHz)
The famous quark hypothesis is one the new astonishing results on hadron to 3 GeV had already indicated that the
attempt to explain the particle grouping and production. hadron-production cross-section was high.
relationships. It postulates three types of
fractionally charged particles [up, down and covered at the electron–positron storage ring measurements can be explained by no quark
strange] coming together in different ways to [SPEAR] at Stanford. Experiments there model, no matter how coloured. They show WIENER Mpod LV parallel module
build up the multitude of discovered hadrons have resoundingly confirmed the Cambridge the ratio rising with increasing energy and by
(which respond to the strong interaction). measurements and completely overthrown 5 GeV it has reached a value of about 6. • Mpod module with 4 low voltage DC channels, up
However, quarks have never been isolated our understanding of what is going on. The results can also be applied to 120V and 100W/channel
as separate entities despite a multitude of The total cross-section for the production subversively to another revered concept – combinable with 50W channels for example
searches, and some results do not line up of hadrons is about 25 nb and is virtually scaling. Scaling makes it possible to predict
precisely with predictions. constant over energies up to 5 GeV. This is in the energy distribution of the hadrons at
2x100W and 4x50W output channels/module
The past 10 years have seen no let-up in complete contradiction to the prediction of the any energy once they have been measured • lowest noise and ripple <3mVPP, high stability
the accumulation of fresh information. This quark model, which says that the cross-section at another energy. It has worked beautifully 0,2%/10k ; voltage or current controlled
has been particularly true of recent years should fall off as the square of the energy. in studies of lepton–hadron interactions, for operation , 0,5mA/0,5mV resolution
when the opening up of new energy ranges The quark model gets another jolt when example the elastic scattering of electrons off
has produced fascinating results. The 76 GeV the total cross-section for producing hadrons nucleons. Why then does scaling not apply • all channels are individually controlled, floating
proton synchrotron at Serpukhov, the CERN is compared with that for producing pairs for electron–positron collisions? and sensed programmable trip points, ramps,
Intersecting Storage Rings [ISR], and the of muons. The simple quark model says the It is also intriguing that the hadron failure action and group behavior
400 GeV proton synchrotron at NAL Batavia ratio should be constant at 2/3, independent energy distribution from electron–positron
have all contributed something new. Fresh of energy. ADONE results had already upset collisions looks like that in very high energy
surprises from experiments on electron– the apple cart but they were still compatible proton collisions, such as pion production
positron storage rings were reported by with a more complicated variant of the data at 90° in the centre of mass at NAL and
B Richter (SLAC) at the American Physical quark model involving “coloured” quarks the ISR. It is as if the electron is sensitive to
Society Meeting in Chicago, 4–7 February. (introducing a property for the quarks like an the strong interaction within a tiny radius of
The high-energy collision of an electron ultra-strangeness). The coloured variant still 10 –16 cm. So, is even the best-known lepton VME 475 Mini
and a positron brings matter and antimatter insisted on a constant value for the ratio, this really a hadron at heart?
together, resulting in annihilation into time of 2. But the Cambridge and SPEAR ● Compiled from texts on pp39–42.
• 7 slot monolithic backplane
energy. This energy (photons) can convert VME/VME64, cPCI/PXI backplane, 250
into hadrons (predominantly pions). Thus or 500W total power
hadrons emerge from lepton collisions. Compiler’s Note
The first inkling that things were going • Very compact design, variable cooling
In 1964, Gell-Mann and Zweig proposed a quark model of hadrons,
adrift came from experiments at the options (front to rear, side to side)
purely for bookkeeping purposes. But increasing accelerator energies
electron–positron storage ring ADONE
at Frascati. Measurements indicated the
brought growing evidence that the hypothetical up, down and strange • WIENER CML Shelf Manager for local
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quarks were in fact real and point-like. For example, particles with high and remote monitoring and control,
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expected. A few measurements with electrons the ISR, reminiscent of the large-angle scattering of alpha particles that remote on/off, SYSRES, thermal
and positrons at energies up to 5 GeV centre led to Rutherford’s discovery of the atomic nucleus. The GIM mechanism, monitoring, user I/O programming, with
of mass then came from the Cambridge proposed by Glashow, Iliopoulos and Maiani in 1970, required the
Ethernet (SNMP V3) and USB interface
bypass. They were very much higher than existence of a fourth, heavier quark, and by the end of 1974 it had been
predictions, but the accelerator was closed identified, by Richter at SLAC and Ting at BNL, in the charm/anticharm
down before they could be checked. In recent J/ψ meson. And with real quarks, there was no need for hadronic leptons.
months the same energy range has been W-IE-NE-R, Plein & Baus GmbH – Linde 18, D51399 Burscheid (Germany)
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Contents
5 V i ew p o i n t F e at u r e s 39 Does antimatter fall up?
16 The dawn of a new era CERN experiments to test the free-fall of antiatoms.
7 N ew s Gravitational waves open a profound new vista on nature.
• India to become associate Member State • Slovenia to become 41 The many lives of supergravity
40 years at the forefront of attempts to unify nature’s forces.
associate Member State in pre-stage to membership • Antihydrogen 21 General relativity at 100
atoms show their colour • AWAKE makes waves • Proton–lead Testing Einstein’s masterpiece with ever increasing precision.
45 Linking waves to particles
run tops record year of LHC operations • ATLAS makes precision Gravitational waves could also shed light on the microscopic world.
measurement of W mass • Run 2 promises a harvest of beauty
27 Gravity’s quantum side
Quantum gravity continues to confound theorists.
for LHCb • ALICE zeroes in on cold-matter effects • Protons 4 9 F a ce s & P l a ce s
probe quark–gluon plasma at CMS • Electron gun shrunk to 31 The LHC’s extra dimension
matchbox size Searches at ATLAS and CMS constrain models of extra dimensions.
58 R ec r u i t me n t
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