It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
In the 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed that the velocities of galaxies in the Coma Cluster were too high to be maintained solely by the gravitational pull of luminous matter. He proposed the existence of some non-luminous matter within the galaxy cluster, which he called dark matter. This discovery marked the beginning of humanity's understanding and study of dark matter.
Today, the most precise measurements of dark matter in the universe come from observations of the cosmic microwave background. The latest results from the Planck satellite indicate that about 5% of the mass in our universe comes from visible matter (mainly baryonic matter), approximately 27% comes from dark matter, and the rest from dark energy.
Despite extensive astronomical observations confirming the existence of dark matter, we have limited knowledge about the properties of dark matter particles. From a microscopic perspective, the Standard Model of particle physics, established in the mid-20th century, has been hugely successful and confirmed by numerous experiments. However, the Standard Model cannot explain the existence of dark matter in the universe, indicating the need for new physics beyond the Standard Model to account for dark matter candidate particles, and the urgent need to find experimental evidence of these candidates.
Consequently, dark matter research is not only a hot topic in astronomy but also at the forefront of particle physics research. Searching for dark matter particles in colliders is one of the three major experimental approaches to detect the interaction between dark matter and regular matter, complementing other types of dark matter detection experiments such as underground direct detection experiments and space-based indirect detection experiments.
Recently, the ATLAS collaboration searched for dark matter using the 139 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data accumulated during LHC's Run 2, within the 2HDM+a dark matter theoretical framework. The search utilized a variety of dark matter production processes and experimental signatures, including some not considered in traditional dark matter models. To further enhance the sensitivity of the dark matter search, this work statistically combined the three most sensitive experimental signatures: the process involving a Z boson decaying into leptons with large missing transverse momentum, the process involving a Higgs boson decaying into bottom quarks with large missing transverse momentum, and the process involving a charged Higgs boson with top and bottom quark final states.
This is the first time ATLAS has conducted a combined statistical analysis of final states including dark matter particles and intermediate states decaying directly into Standard Model particles. This innovation has significantly enhanced the constraint on the model parameter space and the sensitivity to new physics.
"This work is one of the largest projects in the search for new physics at the LHC, involving nearly 20 different analysis channels. The complementary nature of different analysis channels to constrain the parameter space of new physics highlights the unique advantages of collider experiments," said Zirui Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan.
This work has provided strong experimental constraints on multiple new benchmark parameter models within the 2HDM+a theoretical framework, including some parameter spaces never explored by previous experiments. This represents the most comprehensive experimental result from the ATLAS collaboration for the 2HDM+a dark matter model.
Lailin Xu, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China stated, "2HDM+a is one of the mainstream new physics theoretical frameworks for dark matter in the world today. It has significant advantages in predicting dark matter phenomena and compatibility with current experimental constraints, predicting a rich variety of dark matter production processes in LHC experiments. This work systematically carried out multi-process searches and combined statistical analysis based on the 2HDM+a model framework, providing results that exclude a large portion of the possible parameter space for dark matter, offering important guidance for future dark matter searches."
Vu Ngoc Khanh, a postdoctoral researcher at Tsung-Dao Lee institute, stated: “Although we have not yet found dark matter particles at the LHC, compared to before the LHC’s operation, we have put stringent constraints on the parameter space where dark matter might exist, including the mass of the dark matter particles and their interaction strengths with other particles, further narrowing the search scope.” Tsung Dao Lee Fellow Li Shu, added: “So far, the data collected by the LHC only accounts for about 7% of the total data the experiment will record. The data that the LHC will generate over the next 20 years presents a tremendous opportunity to discover dark matter. Our past experiences have shown us that dark matter might be different from what we initially thought, which motivates us to use more innovative experimental methods and techniques in our search.”
ATLAS is one of the four large experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The ATLAS experiment is a multipurpose particle detector with a forward–backward symmetric cylindrical geometry and nearly 4π coverage in solid angle. It consists of an inner tracking detector surrounded by a thin superconducting solenoid, high-granularity sampling electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters, and a muon spectrometer with three superconducting air-core toroidal magnets. The ATLAS Collaboration consists of more than 5900 members from 253 institutes in 42 countries on 6 continents, including physicists, engineers, students, and technical staff.
Pakistan: Youtuber Aun Ali Khosa abducted by intelligence agencies released, says lawyer
Khosa was among the three other social media activists of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party who had recently been picked up allegedly by intelligence agencies
PTI Lahore Published 19.08.24, 06:03 PM
Aun Ali KhosaInstagram/ aunalikhosa
Pakistani YouTuber and comedian Aun Ali Khosa, who was allegedly abducted by intelligence agencies last week for singing a song critical of the Shehbaz Sharif government and its backers, has returned home in Punjab province, his lawyer said on Monday.
Khosa was among the three other social media activists of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party who had recently been picked up allegedly by intelligence agencies.
The other two people were Naeem Ahmad Yasin and Arsalan Akbar. Their families have declared them "missing persons".
The Sharif-led government and the establishment were facing scathing criticism on social media for "abducting" Aun Khosa for singing a parody song on soaring electricity bills.
Days before his abduction, Khosa had sung a song, "Bill Bill Pakistan", a parody of the famous Pakistani song "Dil Dil Pakistan" and released a video on social media criticising the high prices of electricity and extra taxes added to it.
Khosa also took on the worthlessness of the Pakistani passport and the cash-strapped country's loans. The comedian has a following of 137,000 on YouTube.
On Monday, Khosa's lawyer, Advocate Khadija Siddiqi, said on X: “Aun Ali Khosa has been released! He has reached home! Criticising the recurring cases of abductions, she said, “Over the last two months, we have fought all missing persons cases, including Aun's, at the Lahore High Court.” She said that the kidnappers have the same modus operandi; they come in the dark of the night at 2 or 3 am, break down the door, and there are about a dozen men with masks on their faces, carrying weapons.
They take away mobile phones and laptops, and if there’s a CCTV installed, they remove it. They harass the victim and take him away.
"Then, when the high court’s ruling comes, they return the victim to his house in the dark of the night," Siddiqui said, adding that the practice of abduction of citizens should come to an end.
"If someone has violated the law, bring them to court and prosecute them there," she said.
Earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) directed the Punjab police chief to recover Khosa by August 20 and to recover missing PTI activist Arsalan Akbar by August 28.
The PTI has expressed concern over the recent ‘forced disappearances’ of its political workers.
Two brothers of PTI former social media head Azhar Mashwani – Professors Mazhar-ul-Hassan and Zahoor-ul-Hassan – as well as party founder Khan's close aide Shahbaz Gill’s brother Ghulam Shabbir have been missing since June last.
Amnesty International has also demanded the Pakistan government to immediately disclose the whereabouts of missing persons and ensure an effective, independent, and impartial investigation into these disappearances."
Saturday, August 17, 2024
CHANGING THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE
Large Hadron Collider pipe brings search for elusive magnetic monopole closer than ever
University of Nottingham
New research using a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has bought scientists closer than ever before to test whether magnetic monopoles exist.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with an international team have revealed the most stringent constraints yet on the existence of magnetic monopoles, pushing the boundaries of what is known about these elusive particles. Their research has been published today in Physical Review Letters.
Oliver Gould, Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham is the lead theorist for the study, he said: “Could there be particles with only a single magnetic pole, either north or south? This intriguing possibility, championed by renowned physicists Pierre Curie, Paul Dirac, and Joseph Polchinski, has remained one of the most captivating mysteries in theoretical physics. Confirming their existence would be transformative for physics, yet to date experimental searches have come up empty handed.”
The team focused their search on a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the LHC at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Conducted by physicists from the Monopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC (MoEDAL) experiment, the study examined a beryllium beam pipe section that had been located at the particle collision point for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. This pipe had endured radiation from billions of ultra-high-energy ion collisions occurring just centimetres away.
"The proximity of the beam pipe to the collision point of ultra-relativistic heavy ions provides a unique opportunity to probe monopoles with unprecedentedly high magnetic charges," explained Aditya Upreti, a Ph.D. candidate who led the experimental analysis while working in Professor Ostrovskiy's MoEDAL group at the University of Alabama. "Since magnetic charge is conserved, the monopoles cannot decay and are expected to get trapped by the pipe's material, which allows us to reliably search for them with a device directly sensitive to magnetic charge".
The researchers investigated the production of magnetic monopoles during heavy ion collisions at the LHC, which generated magnetic fields even stronger than those of rapidly spinning neutron stars. Such intense fields could lead to the spontaneous creation of magnetic monopoles through the Schwinger mechanism.
Oliver added: “Despite being an old piece of pipe destined for disposal, our predictions indicated it might be the most promising place on Earth to find a magnetic monopole,”
The MoEDAL collaboration used a superconductive magnetometer to scan the beam pipe for signatures of trapped magnetic charge. Although they found no evidence of magnetic monopoles, their results exclude the existence of monopoles lighter than 80 GeV/c² (where c is the speed of light) and provide the world-leading constraints for magnetic charges ranging from 2 to 45 base units.
The research team now plans to extend their search, Oliver concludes: “The beam pipe that we used was from the first run of the Large Hadron Collider, which was carried out before 2013 and at lower energies. Extending the study to a more recent run at higher energies could double our experimental reach. We are also now considering completely different search strategies for magnetic monopoles.”
New research using a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has bought scientists closer than ever before to test whether magnetic monopoles exist.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with an international team have revealed the most stringent constraints yet on the existence of magnetic monopoles, pushing the boundaries of what is known about these elusive particles. Their research has been published today in Physical Review Letters.
Oliver Gould, Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham is the lead theorist for the study, he said: “Could there be particles with only a single magnetic pole, either north or south? This intriguing possibility, championed by renowned physicists Pierre Curie, Paul Dirac, and Joseph Polchinski, has remained one of the most captivating mysteries in theoretical physics. Confirming their existence would be transformative for physics, yet to date experimental searches have come up empty handed.”
The team focused their search on a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the LHC at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Conducted by physicists from the Monopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC (MoEDAL) experiment, the study examined a beryllium beam pipe section that had been located at the particle collision point for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. This pipe had endured radiation from billions of ultra-high-energy ion collisions occurring just centimetres away.
"The proximity of the beam pipe to the collision point of ultra-relativistic heavy ions provides a unique opportunity to probe monopoles with unprecedentedly high magnetic charges," explained Aditya Upreti, a Ph.D. candidate who led the experimental analysis while working in Professor Ostrovskiy's MoEDAL group at the University of Alabama. "Since magnetic charge is conserved, the monopoles cannot decay and are expected to get trapped by the pipe's material, which allows us to reliably search for them with a device directly sensitive to magnetic charge".
The researchers investigated the production of magnetic monopoles during heavy ion collisions at the LHC, which generated magnetic fields even stronger than those of rapidly spinning neutron stars. Such intense fields could lead to the spontaneous creation of magnetic monopoles through the Schwinger mechanism.
Oliver added: “Despite being an old piece of pipe destined for disposal, our predictions indicated it might be the most promising place on Earth to find a magnetic monopole,”
The MoEDAL collaboration used a superconductive magnetometer to scan the beam pipe for signatures of trapped magnetic charge. Although they found no evidence of magnetic monopoles, their results exclude the existence of monopoles lighter than 80 GeV/c² (where c is the speed of light) and provide the world-leading constraints for magnetic charges ranging from 2 to 45 base units.
The research team now plans to extend their search, Oliver concludes: “The beam pipe that we used was from the first run of the Large Hadron Collider, which was carried out before 2013 and at lower energies. Extending the study to a more recent run at higher energies could double our experimental reach. We are also now considering completely different search strategies for magnetic monopoles.”
The late physicist Joseph Polchinski once said the existence of magnetic monopoles is "one of the safest bets that one can make about physics not yet seen." In its quest for these particles, which have a magnetic charge and are predicted by several theories that extend the Standard Model, the MoEDAL collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has not yet proven Polchinski right, but its latest findings mark a significant stride forward.
The results, reported in two papers posted on the arXiv preprint server, considerably narrow the search window for these hypothetical particles.
At the LHC, pairs of magnetic monopoles could be produced in interactions between protons or heavy ions. In collisions between protons, they could be formed from a single virtual photon (the Drell–Yan mechanism) or the fusion of two virtual photons (the photon-fusion mechanism). Pairs of magnetic monopoles could also be produced from the vacuum in the enormous magnetic fields created in near-miss heavy-ion collisions, through a process called the Schwinger mechanism.
Since it started taking data in 2012, MoEDAL has achieved several firsts, including conducting the first searches at the LHC for magnetic monopoles produced via the photon-fusion mechanism and through the Schwinger mechanism.
In the first of its latest studies, the MoEDAL collaboration sought monopoles and high-electric-charge objects (HECOs) produced via the Drell–Yan and photon-fusion mechanisms. The search was based on proton–proton collision data collected during Run 2 of the LHC, using the full MoEDAL detector for the first time.
The full detector comprises two main systems sensitive to magnetic monopoles, HECOs and other highly ionizing hypothetical particles. The first can permanently register the tracks of magnetic monopoles and HECOs, with no background signals from Standard Model particles. These tracks are measured using optical scanning microscopes at INFN Bologna.
The second system consists of roughly a ton of trapping volumes designed to capture magnetic monopoles. These trapping volumes—which make MoEDAL the only collider experiment in the world that can definitively and directly identify the magnetic charge of magnetic monopoles—are scanned at ETH Zurich using a special type of magnetometer called a SQUID to look for any trapped monopoles they may contain.
In their latest scanning of the trapping volumes, the MoEDAL team found no magnetic monopoles or HECOs, but it set bounds on the mass and production rate of these particles for different values of particle spin, an intrinsic form of angular momentum.
For magnetic monopoles, the mass bounds were set for magnetic charges from 1 to 10 times the fundamental unit of magnetic charge, the Dirac charge (gD), and the existence of monopoles with masses as high as about 3.9 trillion electronvolts (TeV) was excluded.
For HECOs, the mass limits were established for electric charges from 5e to 350e, where e is the electron charge, and the existence of HECOs with masses ranging up to 3.4 TeV was ruled out.
"MoEDAL's search reach for both monopoles and HECOs allows the collaboration to survey a huge swathe of the theoretical 'discovery space' for these hypothetical particles," says MoEDAL spokesperson James Pinfold.
In its second latest study, the MoEDAL team concentrated on the search for monopoles produced via the Schwinger mechanism in heavy-ion collision data taken during Run 1 of the LHC. In a unique endeavor, it scanned a decommissioned section of the CMS experiment beam pipe, instead of the MoEDAL detector's trapping volumes, in search of trapped monopoles.
Once again, the team found no monopoles, but it set the strongest-to-date mass limits on Schwinger monopoles with a charge between 2gD and 45gD, ruling out the existence of monopoles with masses of up to 80 GeV.
"The vital importance of the Schwinger mechanism is that the production of composite monopoles is not suppressed compared to that of elementary ones, as is the case with the Drell–Yan and photon-fusion processes," explains Pinfold. "Thus, if monopoles are composite particles, this and our previous Schwinger-monopole search may have been the first-ever chances to observe them."
The MoEDAL detector will soon be joined by the MoEDAL Apparatus for Penetrating Particles, MAPP for short, which will allow the experiment to cast an even broader net in the search for new particles.
More information: Search for Highly-Ionizing Particles in pp Collisions During LHC Run-2 Using the Full MoEDAL Detector, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2311.06509
B. Acharya et al, MoEDAL search in the CMS beam pipe for magnetic monopoles produced via the Schwinger effect, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2402.15682
New centre specifically focuses on using AI to improve society • Current research is designed to improve transport, health and industry • “There have been a lot of reports focusing on the negative use of AI...this is why the centre is so important now.”
Aston University researchers have marked the opening of a new centre which focuses on harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to improve people’s lives.
Following its official opening, the academics leading it are looking to work with organisations and the public. Director Professor Anikó Ekárt said: “There have been a lot of reports focusing on the negative use of AI and subsequent fear of AI. This is why the centre is so important now, as we aim to achieve trustworthy, ethical and sustainable AI solutions for the future, by co-designing them with stakeholders.”
Deputy director Dr Ulysses Bernardet added: “We work with local, national and international institutions from academia, industry, and the public sector, expanding Aston University’s external reach in AI research and application.
“ACAIRA will benefit our students enormously by training them to become the next generation of AI practitioners and researchers equipped for future challenges.”
The centre is already involved in various projects that use AI to solve some of society’s challenges.
A collaboration with Legrand Care aims to extend and improve independent living conditions for older people by using AI to analyse data collected through home sensors which detect decline in wellbeing. This allows care professionals to change and improve individuals’ support plans whenever needed.
A project with engineering firm Lanemark aims to reduce the carbon footprint of industrial gas burners by exploring new, more sustainable fuel mixes.
Other projects include work with asbestos consultancy Thames Laboratories which will lead to reduced costs, emissions, enhanced productivity and improved resident satisfaction in social housing repairs and a partnership with transport safety consultancy Agilysis to produce an air quality prediction tool which uses live data to improve transport planning decisions.
The centre is part of the University’s College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and its official launch took place on the University campus on 29 February. The event included a talk by the chair of West Midlands AI and Future Tech Forum, Dr Chris Meah. He introduced the vision for AI within the West Midlands and the importance of bringing together academics, industry and the public.
Current research in sectors such as traffic management, social robotics, bioinformatics, health, and virtual humans was highlighted, followed by industry talks from companies Smart Transport Hub, Majestic, DRPG and Proximity Data Centres.
The centre’s academics work closely with West Midlands AI and Future Tech Forum and host the regular BrumAI Meetup.
Artificial intelligence to reconstruct particle paths leading to new physics
THE HENRYK NIEWODNICZANSKI INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
IMAGE:
THE PRINCIPLE OF RECONSTRUCTING THE TRACKS OF SECONDARY PARTICLES BASED ON HITS RECORDED DURING COLLISIONS INSIDE THE MUONE DETECTOR. SUBSEQUENT TARGETS ARE MARKED IN GOLD, AND SILICON DETECTOR LAYERS ARE MARKED IN BLUE.
Artificial intelligence to reconstruct particle paths leading to new physics
Particles colliding in accelerators produce numerous cascades of secondary particles. The electronics processing the signals avalanching in from the detectors then have a fraction of a second in which to assess whether an event is of sufficient interest to save it for later analysis. In the near future, this demanding task may be carried out using algorithms based on AI, the development of which involves scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the PAS.
Electronics has never had an easy life in nuclear physics. There is so much data coming in from the LHC, the most powerful accelerator in the world, that recording it all has never been an option. The systems that process the wave of signals coming from the detectors therefore specialise in... forgetting – they reconstruct the tracks of secondary particles in a fraction of a second and assess whether the collision just observed can be ignored or whether it is worth saving for further analysis. However, the current methods of reconstructing particle tracks will soon no longer suffice.
Research presented in Computer Science by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow, Poland, suggests that tools built using artificial intelligence could be an effective alternative to current methods for the rapid reconstruction of particle tracks. Their debut could occur in the next two to three years, probably in the MUonE experiment which supports the search for new physics.
In modern high-energy physics experiments, particles diverging from the collision point pass through successive layers of the detector, depositing a little energy in each. In practice, this means that if the detector consists of ten layers and the secondary particle passes through all of them, its path has to be reconstructed on the basis of ten points. The task is only seemingly simple.
“There is usually a magnetic field inside the detectors. Charged particles move in it along curved lines and this is also how the detector elements activated by them, which in our jargon we call hits, will be located with respect to each other,” explains Prof. Marcin Kucharczyk, (IFJ PAN) and immediately adds: “In reality, the so-called occupancy of the detector, i.e. the number of hits per detector element, may be very high, which causes many problems when trying to reconstruct the tracks of particles correctly. In particular, the reconstruction of tracks that are close to each other is quite a problem.”
Experiments designed to find new physics will collide particles at higher energies than before, meaning that more secondary particles will be created in each collision. The luminosity of the beams will also have to be higher, which in turn will increase the number of collisions per unit time. Under such conditions, classical methods of reconstructing particle tracks can no longer cope. Artificial intelligence, which excels where certain universal patterns need to be recognised quickly, can come to the rescue.
“The artificial intelligence we have designed is a deep-type neural network. It consists of an input layer made up of 20 neurons, four hidden layers of 1,000 neurons each and an output layer with eight neurons. All the neurons of each layer are connected to all the neurons of the neighbouring layer. Altogether, the network has two million configuration parameters, the values of which are set during the learning process,” describes Dr Milosz Zdybal (IFJ PAN).
The deep neural network thus prepared was trained using 40,000 simulated particle collisions, supplemented with artificially generated noise. During the testing phase, only hit information was fed into the network. As these were derived from computer simulations, the original trajectories of the responsible particles were known exactly and could be compared with the reconstructions provided by the artificial intelligence. On this basis, the artificial intelligence learned to correctly reconstruct the particle tracks.
“In our paper, we show that the deep neural network trained on a properly prepared database is able to reconstruct secondary particle tracks as accurately as classical algorithms. This is a result of great importance for the development of detection techniques. Whilst training a deep neural network is a lengthy and computationally demanding process, a trained network reacts instantly. Since it does this also with satisfactory precision, we can think optimistically about using it in the case of real collisions,” stresses Prof. Kucharczyk.
The closest experiment in which the artificial intelligence from IFJ PAN would have a chance to prove itself is MUonE (MUon ON Electron elastic scattering). This examines an interesting discrepancy between the measured values of a certain physical quantity to do with muons (particles that are about 200 times more massive equivalents of the electron) and predictions of the Standard Model (that is, the model used to describe the world of elementary particles). Measurements carried out at the American accelerator centre Fermilab show that the so-called anomalous magnetic moment of muons differs from the predictions of the Standard Model with a certainty of up to 4.2 standard deviations (referred as sigma). Meanwhile, it is accepted in physics that a significance above 5 sigma, corresponding to a certainty of 99.99995%, is a value deemed acceptable to announce a discovery.
The significance of the discrepancy indicating new physics could be significantly increased if the precision of the Standard Model's predictions could be improved. However, in order to better determine the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon with its help, it would be necessary to know a more precise value of the parameter known as the hadronic correction. Unfortunately, a mathematical calculation of this parameter is not possible. At this point, the role of the MUonE experiment becomes clear. In it, scientists intend to study the scattering of muons on electrons of atoms with low atomic number, such as carbon or beryllium. The results will allow a more precise determination of certain physical parameters that directly depend on the hadronic correction. If everything goes according to the physicists' plans, the hadronic correction determined in this way will increase the confidence in measuring the discrepancy between the theoretical and measured value of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment by up to 7 sigma – and the existence of hitherto unknown physics may become a reality.
The MUonE experiment is to start at Europe's CERN nuclear facility as early as next year, but the target phase has been planned for 2027, which is probably when the Cracow physicists will have the opportunity to see if the artificial intelligence they have created will do its job in reconstructing particle tracks. Confirmation of its effectiveness in the conditions of a real experiment could mark the beginning of a new era in particle detection techniques.
The work of the team of physicists from the IFJ PAN was funded by a grant from the Polish National Science Centre.
The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently one of the largest research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A wide range of research carried out at IFJ PAN covers basic and applied studies, from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly publication output of IFJ PAN includes over 600 scientific papers in high-impact international journals. Each year the Institute hosts about 20 international and national scientific conferences. One of the most important facilities of the Institute is the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB), which is an infrastructure unique in Central Europe, serving as a clinical and research centre in the field of medical and nuclear physics. In addition, IFJ PAN runs four accredited research and measurement laboratories. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Kraków Research Consortium: “Matter-Energy-Future”, which in the years 2012-2017 enjoyed the status of the Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics. In 2017, the European Commission granted the Institute the HR Excellence in Research award. As a result of the categorization of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Institute has been classified into the A+ category (the highest scientific category in Poland) in the field of physical sciences.
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS:
“Machine Learning based Event Reconstruction for the MUonE Experiment”
The principle of reconstructing the tracks of secondary particles based on hits recorded during collisions inside the MUonE detector. Subsequent targets are marked in gold, and silicon detector layers are marked in blue. (Source: IFJ PAN)
A team of physicists at Rice University led by Wei Li has been awarded a five-year, $15.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Physics, marking a significant leap forward in the realm of high-energy nuclear physics.
This prestigious grant will pave the way for a new frontier of scientific discoveries within the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) program.
The CMS experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European organization for nuclear research located on the border of France and Switzerland.
The team from Rice includes co-principal investigator Frank Geurts and researchers Nicole Lewis and Mike Matveev.
Under Li’s guidance, a collaborative effort between Rice, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oak Ridge National Lab, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Kansas will embark on the development of an ultra-fast silicon timing detector named the endcap timing layer (ETL). This cutting-edge technology forms a crucial component of the CMS experiment’s upgrades and is poised to revolutionize our understanding of fundamental physics.
“The ETL will enable breakthrough science in the area of heavy ion collisions, allowing us to delve into the properties of a remarkable new state of matter called the quark-gluon plasma,” said Li, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice. “This, in turn, offers invaluable insights into the strong nuclear force that binds particles at the core of matter.”
Key features of the ETL include two disks on each side of the CMS detector accounting for half of the entire international ETL project and boasting a time resolution of 30 picoseconds per particle.
The detector will enable unprecedented particle identification capabilities through precise time-of-flight measurements, contributing to the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), an upgrade to the LHC that is scheduled to launch in 2029. The HL-LHC will operate at about 10 times the luminosity of the collider’s original configuration.
Increasing luminosity produces more data, allowing physicists to study known mechanisms in greater detail and observe rare new phenomena that might reveal themselves. For example, HL-LHC will produce at least 15 million Higgs bosons per year compared to around three million collected during LHC operation in 2017.
Upon completion, the ETL will enable the investigation of a wide range of physics, including not only the study of quark-gluon plasma and the search for the Higgs boson, but also for extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter.
Beyond its impact on the LHC, the results of the ETL project hold tremendous potential for synergy with other leading-edge facilities like the electron-ion collider at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York. The project is set to shape the scientific landscape in the coming decade.
Li received his Ph.D. in experimental particle and nuclear physics at MIT in 2009. Following a postdoc position at MIT working on the first relativistic heavy ion physics program on the CMS experiment at the LHC, he joined the Rice faculty in 2012. His work has been recognized with a White House Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, an Early Career Award from the DOE and a Sloan Research Fellowship.
This grant is administered by the DOE (DE-SC0024846).
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
PAKISTAN
May 9 riots: How is carrying out rallies akin to terrorism, asks Justice Mandokhail
This photo combo shows Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Jamal Khan Madokhail and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi. — SC website
As the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to five suspects detained in a case pertaining to the May 9 riots, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail wondered how carrying out rallies was equivalent to terrorism.
While the protests were under way, social media was flooded with footage of rioting and vandalism at various spots, including the Lahore Corps Commander’s residence and General Headquarters, the army’s head office in Rawalpindi.
In August last year, the Rawalpindi police added section 21(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to three first information reports (FIRs) registered in the wake of attacks on military installations.
The next month, they arrested 36 PTI activists and detained them in the Adiala jail under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) despite the Lahore High Court (LHC) granting them bail.
They have nominated around 150 unknown suspects in the Hamza Camp attack and another 100 in the Museum attack case.
Today, a three-member bench — led by Justice Mandokhail and including Justices Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Musarrat Hilali — took up a bail petition of suspects involved in a case filed by the New Town police for the Hamza Camp attack.
Sardar Abdul Razzaq appeared as the counsel for the petitioners while the investigation officer (IO) and the Punjab government’s lawyer were also present.
During the hearing, Justice Mandokhail asked, “How is carrying out rallies [equivalent to] terrorism?”
The bench censured the police and the prosecution for their poor investigation of the case. The hearing
At the outset of the hearing, Justice Mandokhail asked, “Is carrying out rallies or being a worker of a political party a crime?”
Observing that banning student unions and political parties had resulted in “this destruction”, he asked: “Should we accept a former prime minister as a traitor based on the statement of a head constable?
“Have some fear of God. Where are we heading?”.
Here, Justice Rizvi asked what evidence was present against the suspects and whether they had been identified from the CCTV footage.
The IO replied, “The protestors had broken the [CCTV] cameras of the venues, including the Hamza Camp.” Justice Mandokhail then noted, “This means there is no evidence against the suspects; only the police statements.”
The judge went on to ask the reason for including terror charges in the cases, to which the Punjab government lawyer replied that the suspects had “attacked” a camp of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Here, Justice Mandokhail remarked, “Then you do not even know what terrorism is. Terrorism took place in the Army Public School Peshawar incident and the Quetta court.”
“How is carrying out rallies [equivalent to] terrorism?” he asked.
The Punjab counsel informed the court that a head constable of the Lahore Special Branch was also a “witness” in the case, at which Justice Mandokhail remarked, “The incident took place in Rawalpindi and the witness is from Lahore?”
“Is it a huge crime to burn a tyre [in protest] against the government?” the judge wondered. He observed that the government and the state had the “importance of one’s parents”, adding, “If parents slap their children, they later convince them, not kill them.”
“Detaining everyone is not the solution to the problem,” he asserted.
Justice Rizvi then noted that there was no other evidence than the police testimony. The IO informed the court that first the case was registered and then the suspects were arrested, at which Justice Mandokhail asked how the names of the suspects were known before their arrest.
“The police themselves damage the entire case,” the judge remarked.
Here, petitioner’s lawyer Razzaq said his clients were returning to their homes after closing their shops and “got stuck while on their way”.
Justice Hilali noted that the FIR did not mention any attack on an ISI office, adding that “sensitive installations are many”.
Justice Rizvi then said, “CCTV recordings are safe. People also make videos from their mobile phones.” The Punjab counsel then claimed, “Petrol bombs have been recovered from the suspects. There is also the allegation of firing.”
At this, Justice Rizvi asked, “Who brought the petrol bombs and from where? One cannot bring them from their homes. What does the investigation say?” The lawyer responded that the probe “did not reveal this aspect”.
Justice Rizvi then noted, “The suspects are also alleged of firing [but] neither were any arms recovered nor were the police injured.”
Justice Mandokhail then remarked, “The investigation officer is concocting stories on his own.”
Subsequently, the SC approved the petitioners’ bail pleas against surety bonds worth Rs50,000.
Pure science, from a capitalist point of view, is a bit like kissing frogs. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before one turns into a handsome princely profit. Sometimes – rarely – a technical project offers a large and obvious return on investment (ROI), even though the payout might be years or even decades away. With nuclear fusion, for example, the potential ROI is enormous and alluring, but while the boffins swear the idea works in theory, the technical challenges of putting the sun in a box are immense and not always known in advance, which usually means spiralling costs. The €5bn price tag for the experimental Iter fusion plant in southern France has more than quadrupled to €22bn, and now the schedule has been put back a further ten years. This puts European state investors in something of a sunk-cost bind. The risk of fusion never working is not as bad as it working, and China or Russia getting the jump on it. The British state recently managed to Brexit itself out of the Iter project, but Euro-governments generally see no option but to continue shovelling money into it.
Nothing about science is guaranteed. Even if it works, it might never result in any marketable technology. One project that paid off is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland, the rarest kind of all-level success story. As is commonly known, protons and neutrons are not fundamental particles, but are made up of combinations of quarks. Such combinations go by the name of hadrons, and smashing them together at super-high speed to see what pops out seemed like a very good idea, from the boffins’ point of view. From a government funding point of view, the ultimate composition of matter promised no ROI that mattered, but since one can never be sure, and because this was leading-edge research, they rolled the dice anyway.
CERN proved to be a smashing success, discovering more than 50 new hadrons, not to mention the Higgs boson in 2012 (tinyurl.com/yeyn92vk). It also unexpectedly spawned a side-bonanza for capitalism that had nothing to do with hadrons, or even physics. Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist working at CERN, came up with the worldwide web, which revolutionised capitalism.
So, CERN has become the poster child for capitalist science in Europe. But the hard questions of physics remain intractable. The ‘standard model’ has gaping holes. Assuming that Einstein’s theory of gravity is correct even at the largest scales, there should be around another 30 percent of ‘stuff’ in the universe to explain why galaxies don’t spin themselves to bits. No current device can detect this ‘dark matter’. Furthermore, nobody can explain why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, except with a putative ‘dark energy’ which represents 70 percent of ‘stuff’ but also can’t be detected.
Since smashing stuff together seems to work, experimental physicists have proposed an obvious solution – smash even more stuff together even more violently with a vastly bigger installation. They want to build the Future Circular Collider (FCC), a €20bn monster that would make the LHC look like a desktop pinball game (tinyurl.com/mr2vj67j). But this proposal to find fundamental answers raises fundamental questions about what investors are willing to stump up for.
The problem is, if the FCC enthusiasts are saying €20bn now, and if Iter is anything to go by, the actual cost could end up being multiples of this estimate. Euro ministers are choking on their lattes at the idea, and even some physicists are calling it ‘reckless’ and questioning whether ‘bigger, faster, harder’ is the best way to go. The biggest possible Earth-based collider could anyway never achieve more than a fraction of the colossal energies released in cosmic rays, meaning such exotic conditions will always be out of reach. And what if dark matter turns out not to exist, and is instead, like phlogiston, a supposition based on a wrong theory? Then, obviously, the FCC won’t find it. Would the boffins then demand even bigger and more expensive colliders, one after another, until they’ve got one the size of the solar system? Besides, with the climate crisis, pandemics, AI and other more immediate concerns, aren’t there bigger priorities for science budgets right now?
Government money comes from taxes on profits, which the rich get by exploiting us workers. We don’t get any say in how governments spend this cash, but the rich certainly do have an influence. And it’s a moot question how much the nature of reality actually matters to them, especially when the costs keep going up. Will they get tired of stuffing coins into the fruit machine of physics and watching the lemons whizz by?
Workers, meanwhile, have a more pressing concern, to get rid of capitalism and the rule of the rich. But a socialist society will still have to answer the fundamental question, which is how badly we want to know and how hard we are collectively prepared to work to find out. There’s always the possibility that people in socialism will not be willing to construct mega-colliders, despite what physicists say, and will decide to put their creative efforts into other things like space exploration, or undersea cities, or transhumanism, or rewilding the planet, or creating great art. But there’s no doubt that human beings do value the quest for knowledge for its own sake, in any society that claims to be civilised. The specific problem for science in capitalism is that it has to follow capitalism’s skewed money-agenda, where lofty goals may be celebrated, but the decisive factor is usually the bottom line, the factional advantage, and that all-important ROI.
