As physicists gather at Mainz University for the annual meeting of the ATLAS Collaborative Research Center, they are poised to unravel some of the most profound mysteries of the universe. From the intricate dance between particles and their mass to the enigmatic composition of matter and antimatter, researchers at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are pushing the boundaries of human understanding. With the LHC’s recent upgrade to 13.6 tera-electronvolts, scientists are now equipped to probe deeper into the fundamental questions of elementary particle physics and cosmology, leveraging the ATLAS detector’s unparalleled capabilities to uncover hidden secrets of the universe.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, and researchers from around the world are gathering to analyze data from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC, located in Geneva, Switzerland, is a powerful tool that allows scientists to recreate the energetic conditions shortly after the Big Bang, providing insights into fundamental questions of elementary particle physics and cosmology.
The ATLAS detector, one of two multipurpose detectors at the LHC, is an impressive 46 meters long and 25 meters in diameter, weighing 7,000 tons. It was used to discover the Higgs boson in 2012, a groundbreaking finding that has since been researched in more detail by several working groups. The international ATLAS collaboration consists of around 6,000 members from 41 countries, with Germany being one of the key contributors.
Mainz University’s Contribution to the ATLAS Experiment
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is an important part of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence and has been involved in the ATLAS experiment through its Experimental Particle and Astroparticle Physics (ETAP) group at the Institute of Physics. The university is responsible for the construction and operation of high-speed electronics for the trigger system of the ATLAS detector, which decides automatically 40 million times per second which data from the detector will be stored for later analysis.
The research is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within its Exploration of the Universe and Matter (ErUM) framework program. The ETAP group has made significant contributions to the development, construction, and upgrade of all ATLAS detector systems, including the pixel detector, liquid argon calorimeters, muon detectors, and various trigger systems.
Annual Meeting of the ATLAS Collaborative Research Center
Once a year, the members of the ATLAS group meet to discuss results of the ATLAS experiment, analyze recorded data, and coordinate future work. This year’s meeting is taking place at Mainz University for the first time since 2010 and will focus on data analysis from the third run of the LHC (“Run 3”) and the upgrade of the ATLAS detector planned for 2030.
The LHC will be upgraded to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which will allow the beam intensity to be increased almost tenfold, posing new challenges for the ATLAS detector. The meeting provides an opportunity for scientists to discuss these challenges and develop strategies for overcoming them.
The Future of Particle Physics Research
The upgrade of the LHC and the ATLAS detector will provide researchers with a unique opportunity to precisely study the Higgs particle and make new discoveries about the physics of our universe. As Professor Volker Büscher of the JGU Institute of Physics explained, “With the new data from Run 3 and the HL-LHC in particular, we will have the chance to make completely new discoveries about the physics of our universe.”
The meeting at Mainz University is an important step towards achieving these goals, promoting scientific exchange between German ATLAS groups and strengthening international collaborations. As JGU President Professor Georg Krausch emphasized, “Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is grateful to host this workshop to promote scientific exchange between the German ATLAS groups… We will continue to make a strong contribution to the High-Luminosity LHC in the future and, in doing so, promote our university’s international visibility.”
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