Physics

Since more than two centuries physics knows two categories of super-tiny objects that instruments cannot observe separately, but that obviously occur in huge quantities. If these super-tiny objects form coherent sets, then these sets constitute the objects that we currently consider as fundamental to quantum physics. The super-tiny objects are solutions of homogeneous second order partial differential equations. One of these equations is the well-known wave equation. Solutions of differential equations do not occur spontaneously. A suitable actuator generates them. For example, waves require…

A new analysis by the ATLAS collaboration, based of the data collected in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC in 2016, finds an excess of X-->4 lepton events at a mass of 240 GeV, with a local significance of 3.6 standard deviations. The search, which targeted objects of similar phenomenology to the 125 GeV Higgs boson discovered in 2012, is published in ATLAS CONF-2017-058. Besides the 240 GeV excess, another one at 700 GeV is found, with the same statistical significance.3.6 standard deviations correspond to a "one-in-six-thousand" chance to observe data at least as…

If you look around, then (nearly) all discrete objects are modules or modular systems. Via experiments, we know that a set of elementary modules exist that together constitute all other modules and the modular systems. Physics calls these elementary modules elementary particles. These objects appear to be point-like and at the same time, they can behave as waves. So many scientists consider them as wave packages. That is not a correct interpretation because when they move wave packages disperse and elementary particles do not disperse. However, another explanation exists that allows…

The HBMP starts from the assumption that physical reality has structure and that this structure has a foundation. Many scientists find it difficult to assume that physical reality applies mathematics because they consider math as a human invention. The fact that foundations tend to have a simple structure that is easily comprehensible can counter this attitude. Thus, a large chance exists that intelligent humans already discovered this structure long ago and archived it in their math library. A further assumption is that the foundation of the structure of reality must automatically…

This is the second part of a section taken from Chapter 3 of the book "Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab". The chapter recounts the pioneering measurement of the Z mass by the CDF detector, and the competition with SLAC during the summer of 1989. The title of the post is the same as the one of chapter 3, and it refers to the way some SLAC physicists called their Fermilab colleagues, whose hadron collider was to their eyes obviously inferior to the electron-positron linear collider. For part 1, see here.---Why Don't You Do It? A few days later, the…

Wikiversity Wikiversity is part of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia is known by many people and is another part of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. Wikiversity invites teachers, students, and researchers to join in creating open educational resources and collaborative learning…

Last week-end Padova researchers tested the first calorimeter and tracker prototypes of the iMPACT project at the APSS/TIFPA Proton Therapy Facility in Trento (Italy). iMPACT (innovative Medical Proton Achromatic Calorimeter and Tracker) is a project led by Piero Giubilato, who won an ERC consolidator grant from the European Union. The project aims to develop a high resolution and high rate (>100 kHz/cm2) proton Computed Tomography (pCT) scanner. The scanner will combine a highly-segmented range calorimeter made of PVT scintillators, for energy measurements, and a silicon pixel tracker,…

It is nice when somebody publishes an article and acknowledges your contribution, even when the input or help you gave was really minimal. I found out today that Marco Matone, a theoretical phyisicist and colleague from the University of Padova, published on the arxiv (and submitted to Physics Letters, where it will be published as Phys.Lett. B772 (2017) 435-441) an article titled "Exponentiating Higgs" which quotes me in the acknowledgement section:Well, thanks to Marco for this nice mention, made even more significant by the company of several quite esteemed theorists! I believe he…

The clip below, together with the following few which will be published every few days in the coming weeks, is extracted from the third chapter of my book "Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab". It recounts the pioneering measurement of the Z mass by the CDF detector, and the competition with SLAC during the summer of 1989. The title of the post is the same as the one of chapter 3, and it refers to the way some SLAC physicists called their Fermilab colleagues, whose hadron collider was to their eyes obviously inferior to the electron-positron linear collider.…

Do you remember the infamous "g-2" measurement ? The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon has been for over a decade in the agenda of HEP physicists, both as a puzzle and as a hope for good things to come.  Ever since the Brookhaven laboratories estimated the quantity at a value over 3 standard deviations away from the equally precise theoretical predictions, the topic (could the discrepancy be due to new physics??) has been commonplace in dinner table conversations among HEP physicists.  Similarly, no self-respected "global fit" of standard model observable quantities or scan of…