The chamber at CERN where measurements were conducted (Image: Hanna Manninen)

A new mechanism was discovered in a study published in the journal Nature, which suggests that nitric acid, sulphuric acid and ammonia can together form aerosol particles and ice nuclei much more efficiently than previously understood. This mechanism is thought to be particularly significant in the cold environments.

More information at https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/mathematics-and-science/nitric-acid-may-influence-formation-aerosol-particles-upper-troposphere

Professor Aleksi Vuorinen. (Image: Veikko Somerpuro)

Aleksi Vuorinen, HIP project leader (High Energy Phenomenology) and professor of theoretical physics from the University of Helsinki was presented the award (prize sum €20,000) by the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation for his successful research on the application of Quantum Chromodynamics to quark matter of finite density or temperature.

More details here: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/space/aleksi-vuorinen-receives-magnus-ehrnrooth-foundation-science-prize

(The LHC tunnel at point 1. Image: CERN)

The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator has restarted after a break of more than three years for maintenance, consolidation, and upgrade work. Today, 22 April, afternoon two beams of protons circulated in opposite directions around the Large Hadron Collider’s 27-kilometre ring at their injection energy of 450 billion electronvolts (450 GeV).

More information:

https://home.cern/news/news/accelerators/large-hadron-collider-restarts

See also the full media updates:

News and Press Releases, University of Helsinki
In English: Large Hadron Collider restarts | University of Helsinki
In Finnish: LHC-kiihdytin käynnistettiin uudelleen | Helsingin yliopisto (helsinki.fi)

(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/

(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.