The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has been the leading research centre in Europe since 1954. Today, it is one of the largest particle physics laboratories in the world and hosts some of the most advanced and interesting research in particle and nuclear physics. It is highly versatile and consists of international collaboration between over 20 member states. Norwegian scientists have contributed to research at CERN from the start and are currently participating actively in several of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The research that the Norwegian community participates in can be divided into two areas: high energy and low energy. The high energy area consists of numerous experiments. ATLAS has its focus on studying the newly discovered Higgs boson as well as searching for new physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, dark matter and other exotic particles. ALICE, on the other hand, is a heavy-ion experiment studying the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities. The Norwegian community also work at
the forefront of computing and detector research for both LHC and the upgraded High-Luminosity LHC and on accelerator research for future accelerators and technologies such as AWAKE and CLIC. In addition to the high energy program, Norwegian scientists are participating in low energy research at CERN. Both at the ISOLDE experiment, which is a unique source of low-energy beams of radioactive nuclides, permitting the study of the vast area of atomic nuclei including the most exotic species and the AEGIS experiment, which studies antimatter. Finally, the theory community in Norway is growing fast and is working closely with CERN to explore open fundamental physics questions such as the origin of dark matter and the life of the Universe. This grant enables Norwegian scientists to work at the frontiers of physics and be at the midst of physics discoveries such as the Higgs boson.
2024 was a very important year for NorCC. The Large Hadron Collider and its experiments is collecting Run 3 data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity exceeding 89 inverse femtobarn for proton-proton collisions at a world-record energy of 13.6 TeV. These events were detected by the completely revamped ALICE detector as well as the ATLAS detector, thus providing new indispensable data to physics researchers. This new data will be pivotal in the search for even rarer processes and even heavier unknown particles. We also see important developments for accelerator R&D with a proposal of new cheaper accelerators and development of a new cooling concept for antimatter research. Effort is made this year in terms finding projects together with industry on various areas where research at CERN present an advantage for Norwegian researchers and in Collaboration with CERN Green Village and the CERN technology transfer group. Last but not least CERN celebrated in 2024 70 years of research !
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has been the leading research centre in Europe since its start in 1954. Now one of the largest particle physics laboratories in the world it is at the centre of some of the most advanced and interesting research in particle and nuclear physics performed today. Norwegian scientists have contributed to research at CERN from the start and are today participating actively in the ATLAS and ALICE experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as well researching and developing novel detectors for the LHC and the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). Whereas the research at ATLAS is focused on studying the Higgs Boson and finding new physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, dark matter or other exotic particles, ALICE is a heavy-ion experiment studying the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities. Norwegian scientists are also working at the forefront of accelerator research in particular for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), which will be essential to design novel accelerators for the future after the HL-LHC, and AWAKE, investigating the use of plasma wakefields driven by a proton bunch to accelerate charged particles. In addition to the high energy program, Norwegian scientists are participating in low energy research at CERN. In particular at the ISOLDE experiment, which is a unique source of low-energy beams of radioactive nuclides, permitting the study the vast area of atomic nuclei including the most exotic species. Last but not least, the theory community in Norway is fast growing and is working closely with CERN to explore open fundamental physics questions such as the origin of Dark Matter or the life of the Universe. The future of CERN related research in Norway is very much dependent on a stable funding situation and this grant enables Norwegian scientists to work at the frontiers of physics and be at the mids of physics discoveries such as the Higgs Boson.
