research in particle physics

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Particle physics articles from across Nature Portfolio

Particle physics is the study of the elementary building blocks of matter and radiation and their interaction. The fundamental particles are summarised by the standard model. This includes leptons (such as the electron), the quarks that make up protons and neutrons, and gauge bosons, which mediate forces between the other particles.

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• Experimental particle physics
• Particle astrophysics
• Phenomenology
• Theoretical particle physics

Latest Research and Reviews

Developments of a centimeter-level precise muometric wireless navigation system (MuWNS-V) and its first demonstration using directional information from tracking detectors

• Dezso Varga
• Hiroyuki K. M. Tanaka

Search for decoherence from quantum gravity with atmospheric neutrinos

Interactions of atmospheric neutrinos with quantum-gravity-induced fluctuations of the metric of spacetime would lead to decoherence. The IceCube Collaboration constrains such interactions with atmospheric neutrinos.

• M. Ackermann
• M. Zimmerman

Imaging of 3 bright terrestrial gamma-ray flashes by the atmosphere-space interactions monitor and their parent thunderstorms

• Oscar A. van der Velde
• Javier Navarro-González
• Nikolai Østgaard

Anomalies in particle physics and their implications for physics beyond the standard model

The standard model of particle physics describes the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions. We review the status of experimental hints for new physics, which, if confirmed, would require the extension of the standard model with new particles and new interactions.

• Andreas Crivellin
• Bruce Mellado

Novel epoxy-bPBD-BisMSB composite plastic scintillator for alpha, beta and gamma radiation detection

• R. M. Sahani
• Arun Pandya

High-precision regressors for particle physics

• Fady Bishara
• Jennifer Dy

News and Comment

A supercollider glimpses a gathering of three particles never seen together before

Data from billions of proton collisions reveal that subatomic particles called W + and W − bosons keep company with a photon.

China’s giant underground neutrino lab prepares to probe cosmic mysteries

Due to come online this year, the JUNO facility will help to determine which type of neutrino has the highest mass — one of the biggest mysteries in physics.

• Gemma Conroy

How heavy is a neutrino? Race to weigh mysterious particle heats up

Physicists discuss experiments that could improve laboratory measurements of the super-light particle’s mass.

• Davide Castelvecchi

CERN’s supercollider plan: $17-billion ‘Higgs factory’ would dwarf LHC

A feasibility study on the Future Circular Collider identifies where and how the machine could be built — but its construction is far from a done deal.

• Elizabeth Gibney

Entanglement between a pair of top quarks

The ATLAS Collaboration at CERN used data from 13 TeV proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider to observe for the first time entanglement between a pair of top quarks.

• Iulia Georgescu

No sign of sterile neutrinos but anomalies remain

No sign of sterile neutrinos was found in the latest, and most extensive, analysis done on data taken by the STEREO experiment and yet, the case is not closed.

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Particle Physics

Broadly defined, particle physics aims to answer the fundamental questions of the nature of mass, energy, and matter, and their relations to the cosmological history of the Universe.

As the recent discoveries of the Higgs Boson, neutrino oscillations, as well as direct evidence of cosmic inflation have shown, there is great excitement and anticipation about the next round of compelling questions about the origin of particle masses, the nature of dark matter, and the role leptons, and in particular neutrinos, may play in the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe.

The energy scales relevant for these questions range from the TeV to perhaps the Planck scale. Experimental exploration of these questions requires advances in accelerator and detector technologies to unprecedented energy reach as well as sensitivity and precision. New facilities coming online in the next decade promise to open new horizons and revolutionize our view of the particle world. 

Particle theory addresses a host of fundamental questions about particles, symmetries and spacetime. As experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) directly probe the TeV energy scale, questions about the origin of the weak scale and of particle masses become paramount. Is this physics related to new strong forces of nature, to new underlying symmetries that relate particles of different spin, or to additional spatial dimensions that have so far remained hidden? Will this physics include the particles that constitute the dark matter of the universe, and will measurements at the LHC allow a prediction of the observed cosmological abundance? String theory remains the leading candidate for a quantum theory of gravity, but a crucial debate has emerged as to whether its predictions are unique, or whether our universe is part of a multiverse. All of these fundamental questions about particles and spacetime lead to corresponding questions about the early history of the universe at ever higher temperatures. The most compelling links between cosmological observations and fundamental theory involve dark matter, inflation, the cosmological baryon excess and dark energy.

Mina Aganagic

Korkut bardakci, raphael bousso, william frazer, mary k. gaillard, lawrence hall, wick haxton, petr horava, hitoshi murayama, yasunori nomura, geoff penington, benjamin safdi, charles schwartz, mahiko suzuki, raúl briceño, luca victor iliesiu, experimentalists, dmitry budker, gabriel orebi gann, heather gray, barbara jacak, bob jacobsen, yury kolomensky, kam-biu luk, daniel mckinsey, marjorie shapiro, james siegrist, herbert steiner, haichen wang, michael s. witherell.

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Particle Physics

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Why mentoring matters

Professor Bortoletto appointed OBE

Meet...Sparshita Dey

Our world-leading research in experimental particle physics explores the most fundamental constituents of our Universe to understand their makeup and the forces acting between them; our work is underpinned by our novel instrumentation techniques and by the John Adams Institute , an academic centre of excellence for accelerator science and technology.

We use accelerator, non-accelerator-based experiments and quantum technologies and develop instrumentation and novel acceleration techniques to enable our science. Our research groups work:

• at the high-energy frontier to study the Higgs boson and to search for new physics
• at the intensity frontier to understand the matter-antimatter asymmetry, rare phenomena, and new interactions
• to unveil the physics of neutrinos
• to explore the dark Universe (dark energy and dark matter)
• with quantum technologies to explore fundamental physics

High-energy frontier physics

Our research programme at the high-energy frontier focuses on the ATLAS experiment at CERN LHC . In ATLAS, we lead physics analyses on searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model, to understand the Higgs boson and Standard Model precision measurements. Thanks to our groups’ world-leading expertise and specialist technical services, we play a key role in the experiment’s infrastructure from the ITk pixel and strip detector to preparing form the a next-generation electron-positron Higgs factory.

Intensity frontier physics

Experiments at the intensity frontier require very high-intensity beams and advanced instrumentation to search for new physics through virtual particles enhancing rare processes via quantum loops. Our research includes LHCb at CERN to study heavy flavour quarks; Beijing Spectrometer III (BES III) studying quantum-correlated D mesons decays to improve our measurements at the LHCb; and MU3e at the Paul Scherrer Institute building an ultra-low mass tracking system to search for a muon’s ultra-rare decay into two electrons and a positron.

Neutrino physics

Neutrinos, the Universe’s most abundant particles, remain mysterious and understanding their properties is critical to our understanding of the origin of matter and the early evolution of the Universe. Oxford has a long history in neutrino physics dating back many decades, and has played a significant part in the great progress which has been made in the field through our critical contributions to the SNO (2015 Nobel Prize in Physics) and T2K (2016 Breakthrough Prize in Physics) experiments.

Our work in neutrino physics includes:

• T2K : A Long-baseline neutrino oscillation studies to study CP violation in the neutrino sector.
• Super-K : The huge water Cherenkov far detector for T2K is used for oscillation studies with atmospheric neutrinos, astrophysics, and searches for proton decay.
• MINERvA : An experiment using high-intensity beam to study neutrino reactions with different nuclei
• SNO+ : Located at SNOLAB in Canada, this experiment studies neutrinoless double beta decays, which offers a unique probe to understand if neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles.

  Oxford is playing a leading role in developing the next generation long baseline experiments: Hyper-K in Japan and DUNE in the US.

The dark Universe

Most of the gravitating matter in the Universe does not emit detectable radiation. Recent research has focused on discovering dark matter (DM), which forms a window on new physics. In addition to invisible DM, most of the Universe’s energy is also invisible. This dark energy (DE) has been one of the foci of modern cosmology over the last 15 years.   Our dark Universe programme research includes direct searches for DM with LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) , indirect searches for DM with ATLAS and the study of DM and DE with the Rubin Observatory where we have contributed to the construction of the world’s largest digital camera providing a field-of-view of 9.6 square degrees.

Quantum technologies to explore fundamental physics

Technologies such as quantum sensors have the potential to radically change our approach to understanding the Universe. With the AION project, we are building the first large-scale atom interferometer in the UK to search for light dark matter particles and we are also part of MAGIS-100 , which will construct a 100 m tall device at Fermilab in the US.

Instrumentation

Oxford has a long and proud history in instrumentation and our world-class facilities include the Oxford Physics Microstructure Detector facility (OPMD) equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation to evaluate sensors in the laboratory before and after irradiation and build detector assemblies and Thermo-Mechanical Characterization (CTMC), a semi-clean, high bay, assembly and test lab. Our specialist researchers and technicians work with leading research facilities around the world and we play a particularly significant role at CERN.

John Adams Institute

The John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science sits within the Department of Physics at Oxford and is a centre of excellence in the UK for advanced and novel accelerator technology. The institute provides expertise, research, development and training in accelerator techniques, and promotes advanced accelerator applications in science and society.

Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Denys Wilkinson Building Keble Road Oxford OX1 3RH UK

+44 (0) 1865 273333

Postgraduate study

Dphil: particle physics.

A DPhil (PhD) in Particle Physics covers a wide range of topics from the study of new particles produced at high energy accelerators to neutrinos, dark matter and dark energy in the Universe and experiments are carried out at facilities around the world.

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Particle physics, experimental.

The experimental  High Energy Physics group  is active in a range of experiments studying the fundamental constituents of matter. The work includes accelerator-based experiments, studies using nuclear reactors, and the detection of new particles from astrophysical sources. This research takes place within the  Enrico Fermi Institute  and in many cases is joint with faculty in other departments. Faculty also work in close collaboration with researchers at  CERN , the  Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  and  Argonne National Laboratory . The University of Chicago manages the latter two laboratories for the Department of Energy. Current research in high-energy physics includes studies of p-p interactions using the LHC at CERN; searches for weakly interacting and/or long-lived particles at dedicated experiments near accelerators like the LHC; development of new technologies, sensor concepts, collider facilities, and accelerator concepts for future high-energy experiments; searches for supersymmetric particles, dark sectors, and other unobserved forms of matter; precision tests of electroweak theory through measurements of the properties of the top quark and the W and Z bosons; searches for dark matter, both in collider experiments and from astrophysical sources; study of neutrino oscillations; studies of the highest energy cosmic rays; high-precision measurement of CP violation in K decays and high-sensitivity search for rare K decays. - View the experimental particle physics faculty .

Theoretical

The Particle Theory Group, part of the  Enrico Fermi Institute  and associated with the Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics,  and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics carries out research on a wide range of theoretical topics in formal and phenomenological particle physics, including field theory, string theory, supersymmetry, the standard model and beyond, cosmology, and mathematical physics. Among the many research topics are string theory and unification, duality in gauge theory and string theory, solitons and topological structures, D-branes, non-commutative geometry, the AdS/CFT correspondence, inflationary cosmology, the cosmological constant problem, CP violation, B physics, baryogenesis, supersymmetric model building, precision electroweak measurements, low-energy supersymmetry, heavy quark physics, confinement in QCD, quantum theory of black holes, large extra dimensions, fermion mass hierarchy, and integrable systems. There are strong ties to the  Fermilab Theoretical Physics Group , the  Argonne Theoretical High Energy Group , and the  High Energy Experiment group at Chicago . Detailed information about the Particle Theory Group can be found here .  -  View the theoretical particle physics faculty . 

Experimental Particle Physics Faculty

Edward blucher.

Professor. Co-Spokesperson, DUNE Collaboration; Director, Enrico Fermi Institute.

For more information about Professor Blucher, please visit his webpage .

Juan Collar

Professor; experimental astrophysics.

For more information about Professor Collar, please visit his webpage .

David DeMille

For more information about Professor DeMille, please visit his webpage .

Karri DiPetrillo

Assistant Professor

For more information about Professor DiPetrillo, please visit her webpage .

Bonnie Fleming

Professor; Deputy Director and Chief Research Officer, Fermilab

For more information about Professor Fleming, please visit her webpage .

Henry Frisch

For more information about Professor Frisch, please visit his webpage .

Luca Grandi

Associate Professor.

For more information about Professor Grandi, please visit his webpage .

Young-Kee Kim

Professor; APS President-Elect.

For more information about Professor Kim, please visit her webpage .

David Miller

For more information about Professor Miller, please visit his webpage .

Mark Oreglia

For more information about Professor Oreglia, please visit his webpage .

James Pilcher

Professor Emeritus.

For more information about Professor Pilcher, please visit his webpage .

Paolo Privitera

For more information about Professor Privitera, please visit his webpage .

David Schmitz

For more information about Professor Schmitz, please visit his webpage .

Melvyn Shochet

For more information about Professor Shochet, please visit his webpage .

For more information about Professor Wah, please visit his webpage .

Theoretical Particle Physics Faculty

Marcela carena.

Professor (Part-time); Head of the Theory Division, Fermilab.

For more information about Professor Carena, please visit her webpage .

Clay Córdova

Assistant Professor.

For more information about Professor Córdova, please visit his webpage .

Luca Delacrétaz

For more information about Professor Delacrétaz, please visit his webpage .

Keisuke Harigaya

For more information about Professor Harigaya, please visit his webpage .

Jeffrey Harvey

For more information about Professor Harvey, please visit his webpage .

David Kutasov

For more information about Professor Kutasov, please visit his webpage .

Emil Martinec

For more information about Professor Martinec, please visit his webpage .

Jonathan Rosner

Professor Emeritus

For more information about Professor Rosner, please visit his webpage .

Savdeep Sethi

For more information about Professor Sethi, please visit his webpage .

University Professor.

For more information about Professor Son, please visit his webpage .

Carlos Wagner

Professor (Half-time); Head High-Energy Physics Theory Group, Argonne National Lab.

For more information about Professor Wagner, please visit his webpage .

LianTao Wang

For more information about Professor Wang, please visit his webpage .

CERN Accelerating science

At CERN, we probe the fundamental structure of the particles that make up everything around us. We do so using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments.

Physicists and engineers at CERN use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – fundamental particles. Subatomic particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives us clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. We want to advance the boundaries of human knowledge by delving into the smallest building blocks of our universe.

The instruments used at CERN are purpose-built particle accelerators and detectors . Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before the beams are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN laboratory sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe's first joint ventures and now has 23  member states .

What does “CERN” stand for?

At an intergovernmental meeting of UNESCO in Paris in December 1951, the first resolution concerning the establishment of a European Council for Nuclear Research (in French Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire)  was adopted.

Two months later, an agreement was signed establishing the provisional Council – the acronym CERN was born.

Today, our understanding of matter goes much deeper than the nucleus, and CERN's main area of research is particle physics. Because of this, the laboratory operated by CERN is often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics.

What is the LHC?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator . It first started up on 10 September 2008, and remains the latest addition to CERN’s accelerator complex . The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way.

The beams inside the LHC are made to collide at four locations around the accelerator ring, corresponding to the positions of four particle detectors – ATLAS , CMS , ALICE and LHCb.

Why do physicists mention “five sigma” in their results?

Cern and the higgs boson, facts and figures about the lhc, how do we help society.

Accelerators

Behind these three pillars of technology , lies a great number of areas of expertise: from cryogenics to ultra-high vacuums, from particle tracking and radiation monitoring to superconductivity and many more.

These technologies and the human expertise associated with them are translated into positive impacts on society in many different fields.