Great minds in physics set to converge on Melbourne
Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP), headed at the University of Melbourne, are hot on the trail of solving key questions on the nature of the universe. The next twelve months promise to see significant discoveries in particle physics and it all looks set to happen right here, with the Centre as host of the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) in July 2012. Centre Director Professor Geoffrey Taylor, and Melbourne Node Director Professor Ray Volkas (BSc 1982; PhD 1987), are preparing themselves for what Taylor says promises to be “a feast of discovery”.
This conference comes at a time when the global particle physics community expects great discoveries to be announced. Taylor adds “by then there will be some very interesting results”.
One of the major hoped-for discoveries is to find the Higgs particle. The Higgs explains how sub-atomic particles acquire mass and is the one remaining element of the Standard Model that is yet to be discovered. Every day sees scientists involved in the ATLAS experiment refining the Higgs search area and physicists are becoming very, very excited. CERN’s research director, Sergio Bertolucci. says “Discoveries are almost assured within the next twelve months. If the Higgs exists, the LHC experiments will soon find it. If it does not, its absence will point the way to new physics.” [1]
The Centre has been funded by the Australian Research Council to the tune of $25 million over the next seven years and will play a major part in the analysis of data from ATLAS. It also brings together experimental and theoretical particle physicists from across Australia and internationally to work on the ATLAS particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN, Geneva. With a circumference of 27 kilometres, the LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world. The acronym ATLAS takes its name from the particle detector situated at the LHC and stands for A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS.
CoEPP will ensure that the Australian particle physics community has a stake in ensuing discoveries such as where matter comes from and the origins of the universe. Professor Taylor says “the Centre pursues the growing synergy between astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics, the study of the very largest with the very smallest through the model of the big bang” and it does this through international collaboration and cooperation. He also says, “the Centre will achieve that which cannot be achieved individually.” And by all accounts, it looks like the fruits of years of research will be announced in Melbourne in 2012.
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[1] http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2011/PR14.11E.html