Generating power Klystrons are surging in importance thanks to growing interest in Higgs factories. In the pictured LHC klystron, the black ribs of the solenoid encasing the klystron vacuum tube are ...

Vacuum fluctuation The fine details of “hadronic vacuum polarisation” could be the difference between reinforcing the SM and challenging it. Credit: D Zemba, Pennsylvania State University Fundamental ...

What’s in a name? Reflecting their mystery, the first exotic states were named X, Y and Z. Later on, the proliferation of exotic states required an extension of the particle naming scheme. Manifestly ...

Strange pentaquark Molecular (top) and compact (bottom) interpretations of the P ccs (4338) pentaquark discovered by the LHCb collaboration in 2022. Credit: D Dominguez Breakthroughs are like London ...

Threading the needle The LHCb experiment at CERN sparked a renaissance in charm physics with two intriguing measurements that challenge theorists to improve the precision of their predictions. Credit: ...

Accelerating into the future Seventy years after construction began on CERN’s still-operational Proton Synchrotron (above, left), a new generation of researchers is being called upon to help conceive ...

Precision rising The CMS detector. Credit: CERN The Standard Model – an inconspicuous name for one of the great human inventions. It describes all known elementary particles and their interactions, ...

Accelerators on a chip Forty long and thin mesas increase in length from 100 to 500 μm on a silicon chip the size of a cent coin. Each mesa supports a micron-wide dual colonnade of silicon pillars ...

No trivial pursuit Six ultra-rare decays stand out for their potential to reveal new physics this decade. Credit: D Dominguez/CERN Thanks to its 13.6 TeV collisions, the LHC directly explores distance ...

Misfits Massive neutrinos are not part of the Standard Model. Credit: Symmetry After all these years, neutrinos remain extraordinary – and somewhat deceptive. The experimental success of the ...

Credit: IHEP To uncover the fundamental laws of the universe and its evolution is a great human endeavour. The most effective way to achieve this goal in particle physics is via powerful, high-energy ...

Intense The Petawatt High-Energy Laser for Heavy Ion EXperiments (PHELIX) at GSI Darmstadt. Credit: GSI Spin-polarised particle beams are commonly used in particle and nuclear physics to test the ...