Scientific Highlights
In search of new physics
With the high-intensity proton accelerator HIPA, the Paul Scherrer Institute generates elementary particles to clarify how the universe is structured. Using pions, muons, and neutrons, the researchers conduct experiments to test the standard model of particle physics.
To the sun and beyond
PSI takes part in space research projects. This not only expands knowledge about our astronomical home, but also reinforces Switzerland's reputation as a reliable developer of sophisticated space equipment.
Long-lived pionic helium: Exotic matter experimentally verified for the first time
Exotic atoms, in which electrons are replaced by other particles, allow deep insights into the quantum world. After eight years, an international group of scientists have succeeded in a challenging experiment conducted at PSI’s pion source: they created an artificial atom called “pionic helium”.
Tracking down the mystery of matter
At the ultracold neutron source at PSI, researchers have measured a property of the neutron more precisely than ever before: its electric dipole moment. That's because the search is still on for an explanation of why, after the Big Bang, there was more matter than antimatter.
Detailed polarization measurements of the prompt emission of five gamma-ray bursts
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the strongest explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang. They are believed to be produced either in the formation of black holes at the end of massive star evolution or the merging of compact objects.
Solid deuterium surface degradation at ultracold neutron sources
Solid deuterium (sD2) is used as an efficient converter to produce ultracold neutrons (UCN). Itis known that the sD2 must be sufficiently cold, of high purity and mostly in its ortho-state in order to guarantee long lifetimes of UCN in the solid from which they are extracted into vacuum.
Observation of ttH Production
The observation of Higgs boson production in association with a top quark-antiquark pair is reported, based on a combined analysis of proton-proton collision data at center-of-mass energies of √s = 7,8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 5.1, 19.7, and 35.9 fb-1, respectively. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC.
Searching for New Physics with b → sτ+τ-
In recent years, intriguing hints for the violation of lepton flavor universality (LFU) have been accumulated in semileptonic B decays, both in the charged-current transitions b → cl-ν-l (i.e., RD, RD∗, and RJ/Ψ and the neutral-current transitions b → sl+l- (i.e., RK and RK∗.
The Charpak-Ritz Prize 2018 is awarded to Roland Paul Horisberger
The Charpak-Ritz Prize 2018, jointly awarded by the French Physical Society and the Swiss Physical Society, has been bestowed to Roland Paul Horisberger for his numerous contributions to the development of precision silicon vertex detectors for particle physics experiments as well as for the application of these technologies in X-ray photon sciences.