One of the biggest unanswered questions of particle physics is why the mass of the Higgs boson is relatively small when the Standard Model suggests a more natural value would be many

Over recent weeks, members of the TE-VSC group have been removing seven components of the beam pipe located at the heart of the CMS detector. The delicate operations involved have been performed in several stages as the detector opening work has progressed.

Observing a phenomenon for the first time helps us fine-tune our understanding of the Universe. CMS physicists found such a phenomenon in September 2012 in proton-lead collisions, an observation that has since been reinforced by much more data from such collisions collected in early 2013.

The EPS High Energy Physics Division announces the winners of its 2013 prizes, which will be awarded at the Europhysics Conference on High-Energy Physics (EPS-HEP 2013), Stockholm (Sweden) 18-24 July 2013 (http://eps-hep2013.eu/):

CMS measures production rates up to high transverse momenta

The members of the CMS group at the University of Maryland were impressed when they learned of Sascha Mehlhase’s LEGO model of the ATLAS detector. They were also jealous, and so a group led by Jeff Temple, Marguerite Tonjes, and Jaime Gomez decided to build a matching LEGO model of CMS.

Sometimes, everyday words are co-opted by scientists and used as technical terms. One of these is the word “berry”.

The Special Milner Fundamental Physics Prize is being awarded this week in recognition of the success of the international LHC Project, including the major contributions of the entire CMS collaboration, for the discovery of a Higgs boson as announced in July.

New results on the Higgs boson, Standard Model physics, and searches for exotic physics

New CMS Results at Moriond 2013

New results on the Higgs-like boson, Supersymmetry, and searches for exotic physics

In the early hours of 14 February 2013, the first period of running for the Large Hadron Collider came to an end. After three very fruitful years of collisions at the LHC, the blank screens of LHC Page 1 seem very odd.

LHC access required: Time estimate ~ 2 years

On Saturday at 8.25am the shift crew in the CERN Control Centre extracted the beams from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), bringing the machine’s first three-year running period to a successful conclusion. The following message marked the event on LHC Page 1: "No beam for a while.

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.