CERN Courier Jul/Aug 2023
Welcome to the digital edition of the July/August 2023 issue of CERN Courier.
Dealing with 1000 proton–proton collisions per bunch crossing is just one of the challenges in designing a detector for the Future Circular Collider (FCC), describes our cover feature (p30). Meanwhile, FCC Week 2023 projected a strong sense of momentum amongst the community toward this visionary proposed facility (p5), a feasibility study for which is in full swing. In line with the way astronomers and other fields of fundamental exploration view their tools, the FCC would be better branded as an international particle “observatory” than a collider, argues this issue’s Viewpoint (p45).
This issue also describes how the discovery of neutral currents at CERN 50 years ago put the nascent Standard Model on solid ground (p35), asks whether the 5σ rule is still the best criterion for discoveries in particle physics (p24), gets up close with event displays (p41) and explores the wonderful world of welding in CERN’s workshops (p51).
Unique measurements of thorium isomers at ISOLDE advance a nuclear clock (p7), CERN shares its expertise in vacuum and materials for gravitational-wave observatories (p18), record precision on key CP-violation observables by LHCb (p8), an interview with physicist and YouTuber Don Lincoln (p47), and much more inside.