Noise limits the performance of modern quantum technologies. However, particles traveling in a superposition of paths can bypass noise in communication..
The assembled BGI Beam profile monitor before its installation in the Proton Synchrotron (Image: CERN)
To answer the thorny question of how to monitor a particle beam that threatens to destroy any device that dares cross its path, scientists and engineers from the 1960s came up with a brilliantly simple solution. To collect information about the beam’s size and position, they built a device that detected traces of the few particles that are left in the vacuum of the beam pipe and ionised by the accelerated beam. 60 years later, a team led by James Storey (leader of the Experimental Areas, Electron Beam, Ionisation and Inelastic Collision Profile Monitors section in the Beam Instrumentation group) revived this concept and boosted it with cutting-edge CERN technology. The installation of this new high-resolution beam monitor in the Proton Synchrotron (PS) last month further prepares this venerable LHC injector for future runs and the High-Luminosity LHC
Scientists Are Inching Closer to Figuring Out How Heavy Dark Matter Really Is
TOM METCALFE, LIVESCIENCE
5 FEBRUARY 2021
Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter – the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light – really weighs.
The new estimate helps pin down how heavy its particles could be – with implications for what the mysterious stuff actually is.
The research sharply narrows the potential mass of dark matter particles, from between an estimated 10^minus 24 electronvolts (eV) and 10^19 Gigaelectron volts (GeV) , to between 10^minus 3 eV and 10^7eV – a possible range of masses many trillions of trillions of times smaller than before.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have tried to understand and track SARS-CoV-2 without a proper parts list. Much of the research emphasis has.