Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC

Al poco de entrar en el nuevo y reluciente edificio que alberga el Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT), en Madrid, ya hay algo que queda bastante claro. Lo que en otros centros de trabajo serían el Real Madrid y el Barcelona como tema de conversación en éste se lleva la palma el bosón de Higgs, esa partícula cuya existencia confirmó recientemente el Laboratorio Europeo de Física de Partículas, más conocido como CERN. De hecho, el anuncio de su detección entre los miles de millones de datos obtenidos por los gigantescos detectores del acelerador LHC en Ginebra fue seguido en directo con sumo interés por prácticamente todos los miembros de este centro mixto del CSIC y de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, dedicado a la cosmología y la física de partículas, y de lo que pasa en el CERN permanecen pendientes gran parte de sus científicos, que suelen viajar allí a menudo.

TITLE: Cosmology on small scales
Lecturer: Prof. Anatoly Klypin, New México, USA
Dates & times: Friday, May 17, 2013 - 15:00hrs
Venue: Blue Room


Abstract:
The standard cosmological model LCDM had a remarkable success with predicting and explaining many properties of the Universe. However, it faces difficult challenges on small scales with properties and abundances of dwarf galaxies being the most difficult problems. The situation is confusing and fluent because it involves complicated physics and dynamics of smallest galaxies known, which are difficult to observe. I will give a review of the situation and will discuss possible solution for some of the problems.

(CERN Press Release)

An international team at the ISOLDE radioactive-beam facility at CERN has shown that some atomic nuclei can assume asymmetric, "pear" shapes. The observations contradict some existing nuclear theories and will require others to be amended. The results are published in the journal Nature on 9 May 2013.

(CERN Press Release)

The ALPHA collaboration at CERN has published a paper in Nature Communications describing the first direct analysis of how antimatter is affected by gravity. ALPHA was the first experiment to trap atoms of antihydrogen — neutral antimatter atoms held in place with a strong magnetic field for up to 1,000 seconds. The original goal of the experiment was not to study gravity, but the researchers realised that the data they had already collected might be sensitive to gravitational effects.

Es viernes por la tarde y la sala común del Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT) está desierta. Pero ese mismo día por la mañana (como cada viernes a las 11.00) y los lunes por la tarde, acuden 30 o 40 investigadores, de los 70 que hay en el centro, para charlar con un café o un refresco en la mano. Es una costumbre típica de las universidades británicas y estadounidenses para que los científicos salgan del encierro habitual de sus despachos y sus artículos e intercambien opiniones, noticias, trabajos... “Se habla de ciencia, de un resultado interesante, de una conferencia reciente, pero también de política científica, de la crisis...”, comenta Alberto Casas, investigador de este instituto del CSIC en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Hay máquina de café, un microondas, nevera, una mesa larga con sillas, un tresillo y una pizarra en las que quedan aún escritas unas fórmulas matemáticas residuales de la reunión de esta mañana.
Más información

(CERN Press Release)

The LHCb collaboration at CERN today submitted a paper to Physical Review Letters on the first observation of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the decays of the particle known as the B0s. It is only the fourth sub-atomic particle known to exhibit such behaviour.

The Iberian Cosmology Meeting series aim to encourage interactions and collaborations between researchers working in Cosmology and related areas (Particle Physics and Astronomy) in Spain and Portugal. Researchers working abroad, e.g. UK, are also be most welcome. These meetings are designed to encourage the presentation of work in progress in Cosmology. In this same spirit the meetings will not be restricted to a single focused topic, but are open to cosmologists in the broadest sense, from theoretical particle physics to observational astrophysics. Stimulating interactions between theorists and observers is a particular concern of the organizers.
More info here

TITLE: The Standard Model of Nature and its Legacy
Lecturer: Gabriele Veneziano. Collège de France
Dates & times: Friday, April 19, 2013 - 15:00h
Venue: Blue Room

Abstract:
Our present standard model of Nature is based on general relativity for gravity and on a gauge theory for all other fundamental interactions. Its amazing successes --and its puzzles-- may carry some important lessons for our quest of a truly unified theory of space, time, and matter.

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Experiment, in which the UAM and IFT play a role, announced at the American Physical Society meeting this weekend that it has seen possible hints of dark-matter particles in its latest result.

The result is not statistically significant to claim the discovery or even evidence of dark matter, but it is interesting enough to warrant further investigation.

The CDMS collaboration did not issue a press release about this result, but Nature News has already run an article about it (http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/04/another-dark-matter-sign-from-a-minnesota-mine.html), as well as Symmetry magazine (http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/april-2013/underground-experiment-sees-possible-hints-of-dark-matter) and Fermilab Today (http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive/archive_2013/today13-04-15.html). You can also read a statement from the collaboration on the CDMS website (http://cdms.berkeley.edu/).