The LHC has just delivered the first pPb (proton-lead) collisions with stable beams of 2013 and CMS is happily running with all sub-detectors on. We are also having common triggers with TOTEM and everything is behaving very well.

The new year brings a new type of collision at the LHC: the accelerator will smash protons and lead nuclei together, allowing CMS and the other LHC experiments to study the cold nuclear matter we expect these collisions to produce.

In 2011, CMS presented early evidence that Upsilon (Υ) particles produced in lead-lead collisions “melt” as a consequence of interacting with the hot nuclear matter created in these heavy-ion interactions

In the vast particle landscape, there are, to borrow a phrase, known knowns (the Standard Model, for example), unknown unknowns (exotic extensions of the Standard Model and beyond), and those ever-interesting known unknowns. A recent CMS observation perfectly fits into this third category.

Collaborations of high-energy physicists often number in the thousands, and this presents some unique challenges. “CMS is a big collaboration, with 3,000 people from diverse backgrounds, speaking different languages,” says Sudhir Malik, co-convener of the CMS Data Analysis School (CMSDAS).

New CMS Results at HCP

Kyoto, Japan on 12–16 November 2012

After three years of very successful operation that led to the discovery of a new boson in 2012, the LHC is scheduled for a series of upgrades that will enhance the experimental potential to study the nature of the new particle, and to extend the searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model

Amongst all known elementary particles, the top quark is peculiar: weighing as much as a Tungsten atom, it completes the so-called 3rd generation of quarks and is the only quark whose properties can be directly measured.

Part of the CMS collaboration’s commitment to the ongoing experiments at the LHC is to participate in the detector shifts which occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

CMS has published its first paper on proton-lead (pPb) collisions, describing the observation of a phenomenon that was previously seen first in nucleus-nucleus collisions but also detected by CMS in proton-proton (pp) collisions.

All of the atoms in our bodies are made of electrons, protons and neutrons, and the protons and neutrons can be further broken down into quarks. Fundamentally, then, we are made of only two types of particles: electrons and quarks. But what do these labels mean?

Visitors to P5 now have a series of seven posters of beautiful 3D drawings of the CMS detector to look at before they go underground to the CMS cavern.

This series of the drawings is called “ZOOOM”.

By Siddharth Sehgal

Our best understanding of the early Universe tells us that a dense medium, known as the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), existed in the first microseconds after the big bang.

Guido Tonelli, CMS Spokesperson 2010–2011, was made 'Commendatore' of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republlic (Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica It

The CMS Letter of Intent was completed 20 years ago this month.

The LHC circulates protons inside its beam-pipes not in a continuous stream but in several very closely packed bunches.

Here is a delightful poem written by Erich Harth, an Emeritus Professor from Syracuse University, in the wake of the discovery announcement from CMS and ATLAS.

I have been a physicist working for CMS for about ten years now, and a guitarist for about twice as long. From time to time I have tried to somehow marry these two worlds, and when I became interested in guitar building I realised that I need to build a “CMS guitar”.

Every year CERN opens its doors to hundreds of high-school students who wish to get an in-depth look at what it is like to be a scientist or engineer at one of the world’s most prestigious research laboratories.

The Quark Matter 2012 conference, held in Washington DC from 13-18 August 2012, brings together experimental and theoretical experts in the area of heavy-ion physics.

CMS has just passed another major milestone, recording more than 10 inverse femtobarns of data at 8 TeV.

Despite higher pile-up creating more complicated events, CMS improved its running efficiency and now regularly achieves efficiencies in excess of 95, 97 or even 98% each day.

31 July 2012, CERN

Version française ci-dessous / French version below

The Prime Minister of France Jean-Marc Ayrault visited CERN on the 30th of July, accompanied by the Minister of Higher Education and Research Mme Geneviève Fioraso.

Jets are the experimental signatures of quarks and gluons produced in high-energy processes such as head-on proton-proton collisions.

Our understanding of physical reality — of everything and nothing — has changed forever. We don't yet know where we are heading, but nothing will ever be the same. As a scientist, I don't know what more I could ask for.

Signaling a likely end to one of the longest, most expensive searches in the history of science, physicists said Wednesday that they had discovered a new subatomic particle that looks for all the world like the Higgs boson, a key to understanding why there is diversity and life in the universe.

Cern scientists reporting from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have claimed the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson.

CMS Experiment, CERN
4 July 2012

4th July Higgs Seminar

On 4th July, at 09:00 CEST, CMS will present their latest results on the search for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson at the LHC.