Large Hadron Collider experiment zeroes in on magnetic monopoles

The late physicist Joseph Polchinski once said the existence of magnetic monopoles is "one of the safest bets that one can make about physics not yet seen." In its quest for these particles, which have a magnetic charge and ...

Scientists capture X-rays from upward positive lightning

Globally, lightning is responsible for over 4,000 fatalities and billions of dollars in damage every year; Switzerland itself weathers up to 150,000 strikes annually. Understanding exactly how lightning forms is key for reducing ...

IRIS beamline at BESSY II gets a new nanospectroscopy end station

The IRIS infrared beamline at the BESSY II storage ring now offers a fourth option for characterizing materials, cells and even molecules on different length scales. The team has extended the IRIS beamline with an end station ...

Hunting for millicharged particles at the LHC

The LHC family of experiments continues to grow. Alongside the four main experiments, a new generation of smaller experiments is contributing to the search for particles predicted by theories beyond the Standard Model, our ...

A new simple scheme for atom interferometry

Atom interferometers are devices that use the wave characteristics of matter to measure the phase between atomic matter waves to separate paths to make high-precision measurements of elements of physics, such as gravitational ...

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