1. Big Questions,
Small Particles and
the Optimism of Curiosity
EPS EDISON VOLTA PRIZE
Como, April 13, 2013
Sergio Bertolucci
CERN

2. The Mission of CERN
 Push forward the frontiers of knowledge
E.g. the secrets of the Big Bang …what was the matter like
within the first moments of the Universe‟s existence?
 Develop new technologies for
accelerators and detectors
Information technology - the Web and the GRID
Medicine - diagnosis and therapy

3. Paradigm shifts …..
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” A. Einstein

4. The Mission of CERN
 Push forward the frontiers of knowledge
E.g. the secrets of the Big Bang …what was the matter like
within the first moments of the Universe‟s existence?
 Develop new technologies for
accelerators and detectors
Information technology - the Web and the GRID
Medicine - diagnosis and therapy
 Train scientists and engineers of
tomorrow
 Unite people from different countries and
cultures

5. Next challenge: to understand
the first moments of our Universe
13.7 Billion Years
Today
1028 cm

6. Big Bang
Proton
Atom
Radius of Earth
Earth to Sun
Radius of Galaxies
Universe
LHC
Super-Microscope
Study physics laws of first moments after Big Bang Hubble WMAP
ALMA
increasing Symbiosis between Particle Physics,
Astrophysics and Cosmology
VLT

7. The Standard Model
Weak 7

8. How does the Higgs mechanism work ? An over-simplified picture …
At the time of the Big Bang particles were all massless ( were moving at
speed of light) and Higgs field was there as an “non-interacting ether”
(minimum of Higgs potential = 0).
10-11 s after Big Bang:
phase transition
About 10-11 s after the Big Bang  temperature became low enough for phase
transition ( minimum of Higgs potential became negative)  ether becomes
“molasses”  particles interacting with ”molasses” acquire a mass and are
slowed down 8

9. Enter a New Era in Fundamental Science
LHCb
CMS
ATLAS
Since March 2010 exploration of a new energy frontier
in p-p and Pb-Pb collisions
ALICE
LHC ring:
27 km circumference

10. Unprecedented energy: 4 TeV per beam particle collision energy = 8 TeV
(1 TeV= 10-7 Joule)
2014  collision energy to 14 TeV
Note: huge amount of energy concentrated in the collision point
(14 TeV corresponds to 20 1-Volt batteries for each star of our galaxy and
to 1014 times the temperature in this room)
However: small energy on macroscopic scale (1 Joule is just enough to swat a mosquito)
The most challenging components
of the LHC are 1232 high-tech
superconducting magnets, providing
a field of 8.3 T (needed to bend
7 TeV beams inside a 27 km ring).
7600 km of NbTi superconducting cable
Work at 1.9K (-270 degrees)
Energy stored in the beams: 350 MJoule
(can melt 500 kg of Cu)
Electrical Melbourne, 10/7/2012 LHC (from French EDF): ~200 MW
F. Gianotti, power to run the
10

11. Lucio Rossi LHC status - INFN Roma1 11

12. Detectors for particle physics
Cover the whole angular range around the
collision point to detect as many particles
produced in the collision as possible.
e
p
Transverse
F. Gianotti, Melbourne, 10/7/2012 slice through CMS
12

13. The LHC experiments:
about 100 million “sensors” each
[think your 6MP digital camera...
...taking 40 million pictures a second]
ATLAS CMS
five-storey building

14. ATLAS: Installation of Barrel Toroid
14
ATLAS cavern (-100 m) in June 2003
F. Gianotti, Melbourne, 10/7/2012 14

15. October 2005: Barrel toroid magnet system in place

16. The CMS experiment

17. Balloon
The LHC data (30 km)
• 40 million events (pictures) per second DVD stack with
1 year LHC data!
• Select (on the fly) the ~500 interesting events (~ 20 km)
per second to write on tape
• “Reconstruct” data and convert for analysis:
• “physics data” [ the grid...]
Concorde
(15 km)
(x4 experiments x15 years) Per event
Per
year
Raw data 1.6 MB 30 PB
Reconstructed data 1.0 MB 20 PB Mt. Blanc
(4.8 km)
Physics data 0.1 MB 2 PB

18. Astronomy & Astrophysics
Civil Protection
Enabling Grids for E-sciencE
Computational Chemistry
Comp. Fluid Dynamics
Computer Science/Tools
Condensed Matter Physics
Earth Sciences
Finance
Fusion
High Energy Physics
Humanities
Life Sciences
Material Sciences
Social Sciences
~285 sites
48 countries
>350,000 CPU cores
>300 PetaBytes disk, >200PB tape
>13,000 users
>12 Million jobs/month
EGEE-III INFSO-RI-222667

19. Comparison: 2010, 2011 & 2012
 2010: 0.04 fb-1
 7 TeV CoM
 Machine commissioning
 2011: 6.1 fb-1
 7 TeV CoM
 … Production & exploration
 2012: 21 fb-1 so far
 Higher energy, 8 TeV
 Smaller *
 Increased bunch current
75% of Design
Luminosity @ Half
design Energy and
Half the number of
bunches!!

20. The BIG challenge in 2012: PILE-UP
Experiment‟s
design value
(expected to be
reached at L=1034 !)
Z μμ event from 2012 data with 25 reconstructed vertices
Z μμ
ATLAS Higgs searches, F. Gianotti, HEPAP meeting, 27/8/2012 20

21. 4 July 2012: “CERN experiments observe particle
consistent with long-sought Higgs boson”

23. It has the properties of a Higgs boson

24. Is this new particle the Higgs boson ?
It looks like it, but it‟s too early to tell whether it is the Standard
Model Higgs or another type of Higgs boson … We will need to
measure its properties in detail in the months to come.
Even if it is the Higgs boson, this is just the beginning,
as this particle raises many other questions !
24

25. A considerable number of key questions…
origin of mass/matter or
origin of electroweak symmetry breaking
unification of forces
fundamental symmetry of forces and
matter
unification of quantum physics and
general relativity
number of space/time dimensions
what is dark matter?
what is dark energy?

26. But What is Wrong with this Picture?

27. Cosmic problems......
Standard Model
THE ENERGY DENSITY BUDGET
BARYONS
B
CDM COLD DARK MATTER
NEUTRINOS
DE DARK ENERGY
TOT
BCDM
DE

28. Solutions?
Technicolor
New (strong) interactions produce EWSB
Extensions of the SM gauge group :
Salam Glashow Weinberg Little Higgs / GUTs / …
Politzer Wilczek Gross Veltman „t Hooft
Reines
For all proposed solutions:
new particles should appear
Friedman
Perl at TeV scale or below van der
Rubbia Higgs
Schwartz Lederman Ting Meer Fitch Cronin
Hofstadter Steinberger
Schwinger Selected NP
Kendall since 1957
Richter Gell-Mann Alvarez Taylor Except P. Higgs
Feynman Yang Lee
Supersymmetry Extra Dimensions
New particles at ≈ TeV scale, light Higgs New dimensions introduced
Unification of forces mGravity ≈ melw Hierarchy problem
Higgs mass stabilized solved
No new interactions New particles at ≈ TeV scale

31. Further ahead: present LHC upgrade plans ATLAS
New Pixel B-layer
+ consolidation
New Muon small wheels
FTK, LVL1 Trigger
New tracker
ATLAS Higgs searches, F. Gianotti, HEPAP meeting, 27/8/2012 31

32. Only abstract speculations???
Cutting edge Research Infrastructures play a key role in a
knowledge driven society

33. Medical Application as an Example of Particle Physics Spin-off
Combining Physics, ICT, Biology and Medicine to fight cancer
Hadron Therapy
Tumour Leadership in Ion
Target Beam Therapy now
in Europe and
Protons Japan
light ions
Accelerating particle beams X-ray protons
~30‟000 accelerators worldwide >70‟000 patients treated worldwide (30 facilities)
~17‟000 used for medicine >21‟000 patients treated in Europe (9 facilities)
Imaging PET Scanner
Clinical trial in Portugal
for new breast imaging
system (ClearPEM)
Detecting particles

34. CNAO in Pavia

36. ClearPEM-Sonic a collaborative
project between physicians and
physicists
ClearPEM METABOLIC information
Ultrasound Probe MORPHOLOGIC and STRUCTURAL information
Objective: Detect 1 to 2mm tumors and define their cancerous status
June 2011 P. Lecoq CERN 36

37. Derenzo phantom
Excellent resolution (< 1.5mm)
compared to
5mm for the best commercial PET scanners
OSEM 3D
2.0 mm
2.5 mm
1.5 mm
3.0 mm
1.2 mm
June 2011 P. Lecoq CERN 37

38. ClearPET-XPAD X-ray tube
 RTW
Mo target, 50 µm spot size, 50 W
Nb/Mo additional filter
Threshold 3-35 keV
 XPAD3/Si Hybrid pixel
camera
X-ray photon counting mode
500 µm silicon sensor thickness
78 x 75 mm² detector
130 x 130 µm² pixel size
 PET FOV
ClearPET/XPAD 55mm axial
111mm transverse
Simultaneous  35 mm transverse FOV
hybrid PET/CT 59mm axial
Courtesy of C. Morel 38mm transverse
imaging system CPPM/CERIMED
June 2011 P. Lecoq CERN 38

39. Why grids for e-Health?
Enabling Grids for E-sciencE
• Sharing computing resources and algorithms
– Research (populations studies, models
design, validation, statistics)
– Complex analysis (compute intensive image processing, time
constraints...)
•Data
•Procedures
•Seq1 >
dcscdssdcsdcdsc
bscdsbcbjbfvbfvbvfbvbvbhvb
hsvbhdvbhfdbvfd
•Seq2 >
•Algorithms
bvdfvfdvhbdfvb
bhvdsvbhvbhdvrefghefgdscg
dfgcsdycgdkcsqkc
•…
•Seqn >
bvdfvfdvhbdfvb
bhvdsvbhvbhdvrefghefgdscg
dfgcsdycgdkcsqkchdsqhfduh
dhdhqedezhhezldhezhfehfle
zfzejfv
•Computing power
EGEE-III INFSO-RI-222667 •39

40. ThIS: Therapeutic Irradiation
Enabling Grids for E-sciencE Simulator
•Cancer treatment by irradiation
of patient with beams of
photons, protons or carbons
•CT image (482x360x141)
•3D dose distribution, 700h CPU
• Offer an open platform to researchers for Monte Carlo
simulations optimisation
• Offer a fast and reliable simulation tool for researchers
in medical physics and medical imaging for treatment
control
• Produce a reference dataset for non-conventional
therapies (hadrontherapy).
EGEE-III INFSO-RI-222667 Grid usage for eHealth, EGEE life sciences activity, January 2010 40

41. Health-e-Child Network
 4 paediatric hospitals
• 7 technical sites
 IGG - Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
• 4 clinical sites
 GOSH, London, UK
 NECKER, Paris, France (+1 clinical site in the US:
 OPBG, Rome, Italy Johns Hopkins)
 Strong interdisciplinary team across
 Countries and languages
 Technical and clinical fields
 Research on three paediatric areas
 Arthritis
 Cardiac Disorders
 Brain Tumours
41 Health-e-Child

42. Decision Support
Virtual
Physiological
Child
42 Health-e-Child

43. Cern as the central hub of a network
CERN is our laboratory:
how can we maximize its benefits for the member states?
Create/maintain at the national level research infrastructures
and integrate them in a network, enabling:
 Brain circulation
 Knowledge and Technology Transfer
 Industrial applications
 Training
 Cross fertilization

44. How Do We Manage This?
Contrary to popular belief, our community is rather elementary:
 It has simple rules, honed by centuries of practice
 It shares a common vision and a common set of values
 It is based on collaboration AND competition
Science is intrinsically not democratic (can‟t decide who is
right by vote!) and therefore it has to be performed with the
most democratic tools:
 Freedom of expression
 Peer reviewing
 Independency from political orientation, religion, social
status, etc…

45. A peculiar ant colony, probably worth of a closer look

46. The scientists/engineers
Despite the usual cinematographic representation, in general
we DO NOT
 Wear white lab coats
 Live in ivory towers
 Find a revolutionary result every second day (scientist=genius)
We are a pragmatic community capable to address in a
very material way grand and (apparently) immaterial
questions, knowing that for every answer we might find, we
will open more and unpredicted questions.
(we definitely prefer to be Ministers of Doubt than Kings of
Truth: ubi dubium, ibi libertas)

47. How can you manage such a community?
Need individualized, enabling and integrated structures
within supporting infrastructure to:
 Allow everybody to keep his/her 5% of dream (i.e. the own
original contribution to the advancement of Science), while
operating in a very large symphony orchestra.
 Encourage the emergence of gifted performers/soloists
 Foster a leadership based on credibility and consensus more
than on authority

48. In conclusion
 The historic observation of a new particle compatible
with the Higgs boson opens a new era in the
understanding of nature.
 We are just at the beginning of a long journey into
uncharted territories.
 CERN is a paradigmatic example of the powerful
synergy of “pure” and “applied” science.
 The exploitation of this synergy is possibly the only way
to enable a sustainable future.

49. To conclude….
 The relationship between basic research and
sustainable progress is fundamental (contrary to
common belief, technology does not sustain itself on
the long term)
 In a globalized world, knowledge is becoming the
most important asset.
 Developed countries are about to make a major
strategic error by underestimating the value of
fundamental research ( whereas emerging countries
are doing the opposite and catching up fast)

50. Paradigm shifts are a necessity!
Refining candles
would not have led
candles into electric
bulbs …

51. THANK YOU!