(Image: screen capture from the video posted in European Research Council’s YouTube channel)
Professor Tuuli Toivonen and Associate Professor Mikko Voutilainen from Kumpula Campus and Associate Professor Pekka Katajisto from Viikki Campus were granted competitive ERC Consolidator Grants in the 2021 call.
More information here:
https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2021-consolidator-grants-results
https://flamma.helsinki.fi/s/DFq6V (intranet, requires login)
(Image: James Pinfold, MoEDAL Collaboration)
Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical fundamental particles that are predicted by several theories but have never been detected. MoEDAL experiment at the Large Hadron Collider is designed to search for highly ionizing avatars of new physics, such as magnetic monopoles. In recent paper published in Nature, MoEDAL collaboration presents results on searches for magnetic monopoles utilizing the Schwinger mechanism in Pb–Pb heavy ion collisions producing the strongest known magnetic fields in the Universe.
More information:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04298-1
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00188-2
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-harnessing-strongest-magnetic-fields-universe.html
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2306763-strongest-ever-magnetic-field-fails-to-make-predicted-exotic-particles/
The Open Science Award of 2021 was granted to the Language Bank of Finland and research coordinator Kati Lassila-Perini.
More information: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/university/university-helsinki-gives-recognition-promoters-open-and-reusable-research-data
(Photo CERN)
The new Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT) completed the installation of new subdetectors in ALICE LS2 activities. The main contribution of HIP scientists to the ALICE upgrade is focused on FIT. The FIT project was initiated and is led by Wladyslaw Trzaska from Jyväskylä University with other researchers from HIP and Jyväskylä playing critical roles in the operation, performance simulations, and data analysis.
Read more on FIT from the broad recent coverage in the CERN media:
https://alice-collaboration.web.cern.ch/node/35196
http://bulletinserv.cern.ch/bulletin/564/
https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/new-alice-fast-interaction-trigger
For more information, please visit the DeNuSa project News.
“In early 2019 the CMS Phase-1 Pixel detector was extracted from the underground cavern after successful completion of the LHC Run 2 data taking campaign. Its sub-detectors, the Barrel Pixel (BPIX) and Forward Pixel (FPIX) detectors, were stored cool and dry in a clean room facility on the surface to protect the silicon sensors during the long shutdown (LS2) in 2019-2021. The detectors were refurbished and repaired during LS2 to improve the quality of the collected data and the operational stabiliy in the next period of the data taking (Run 3). At the end of June 2021, the detectors were installed in their habitual location inside the CMS detector.”
More information here.
The Annual Report 2020 has been published.
Please see the online version here.
“The TOTEM collaboration at the LHC and the DØ collaboration at the Tevatron collider at Fermilab have discovered an elusive state of three gluons.”
More information:
https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/uutiset/luonnontieteet/odderon-loytyi-lopultakin (in Finnish)
https://home.cern/news/news/physics/totem-and-do-collaborations-announce-odderon-discovery (CERN)
https://news.fnal.gov/2021/03/totem-and-do-collaborations-announce-odderon-discovery/ (Fermilab)
http://news.ku.edu/2021/03/16/ku-scientists-announce-odderon-observation-hunted-50-years-particle-physicists (The University of Kansas)
Top picture: “Part of the TOTEM installation in the LHC tunnel 220 m downstream from the CMS experiment (Image: CERN)”
“In nuclear physics so-called magic number are such nuclear proton and/or neutron numbers, for which the nucleus is more stable compared to neighboring isotopes on the nuclear chart. Researchers in both experimental and theoretical nuclear physics from University of Jyväskylä, Finland, took part of international research team, which studied the nuclear charge radii of potassium isotopes. Isotopes were studied by using the collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy technique. The results indicated that the potassium isotope with a neutron number of 32 does not conform with criteria of magic neutron number. The results were published in Nature Physics journal on January 2021.”
More information here: Research News @ University of Jyväskylä
Top picture: “The measurements were made using the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy technique at CERN, ISOLDE. Picture: CERN.”
As a joint European effort, the COSINUS experiment will be constructed 1400 meters deep below the Gran Sasso massif to trace the hidden side of the universe, dark matter. Finnish scientist will take part in the theoretical analysis of the measurements.
Italian Gran Sasso-vuoren alle 1400 metrin syvyyteen on päätetty rakentaa yhteiseurooppalainen COSINUS-koelaitteisto jäljittämään maailmankaikkeuden kätkettyä puolta, pimeää ainetta. Suomalaiset tutkijat osallistuvat kokeiden tulosten teoreettiseen analyysiin.
Visit site cosinus.it for more information.
The top photo: The detector, consisting of a sodium iodide crystal, is cooled close to the absolute zero temperature (-273 °C). Credit: COSINUS/Karoline Schäffner.