UPSC Essentials: One word a day – CERN

Subject: Science and Technology (Space)

(Relevance: Recent discoveries especially in the area of space are important for UPSC. Do not forget to look into the organisation behind it. A brief idea about related terms, discoveries etc. will be beneficial. Also, solve the MCQ at the end of the article.)

Why in news?

— Scientists at CERN observe three “exotic” particles for first time.

What is CERN?

— European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory.

— CERN is based in Geneva on the French-Swiss border. It has 23 member states.

CERN’s mission is:

— to provide a unique range of particle accelerator facilities that enable research at the forefront of human knowledge.

— to perform world-class research in fundamental physics.

—to unite people from all over the world to push the frontiers of science and technology, for the benefit of all.

What are certain key achievements of CERN?

1. The Higgs boson

2. The W boson

3. The Z boson

4. The Large Hadron Collider

5. The Birth of the web

6. Antimatter

What is the latest from CERN?

— Scientists working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have discovered three subatomic particles never seen before as they work to unlock the building blocks of the universe, the European nuclear research centre CERN said on Tuesday.

— The 27 kilometre-long (16.8 mile) LHC at CERN is the machine that found the Higgs boson particle, which along with its linked energy field is thought to be vital to the formation of the universe after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

— Now scientists at CERN say they have observed a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks”, adding three members to the list of new hadrons found at the LHC.

— Quarks are elementary particles that usually combine in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons such as the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei.

— Rarely, however, they can also combine into four-quark and five-quark particles, or tetraquarks and pentaquarks.

— “The more analyses we perform, the more kinds of exotic hadrons we find,” physicist Niels Tuning said in a statement.

— “We’re witnessing a period of discovery similar to the 1950s, when a ‘particle zoo’ of hadrons started being discovered and ultimately led to the quark model of conventional hadrons in the 1960s. We’re creating ‘particle zoo 2.0’.”

How is India and CERN associated?

— India in 2016 became an associate member of the CERN.

— India’s association with CERN goes back decades with an active involvement in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components/systems and its commissioning and software development and deployment in the machine.

— Indian scientists have played a significant role in the ALICE experiment, which is a dedicated experiment for search and study of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP).

— Indian scientists have played a major role in the CMS experiment, which is one of the two experiments that discovered the Higgs Boson.

Note: ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) are two general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). They investigate a wide range of physics, from the search for the Higgs boson to extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter.

(source: cern, Reuters)

MCQ

Which of the following terms are associated with CERN or its achievements?
1. ATLAS
2.The Higgs boson
3. The Large Hadron Collider
4. World Wide Web
5. Antimatter

a) 2, 3, 5             b) 1, 2, 3, 5

c) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5      d) 1, 2, 3

Answer for the previous MCQ –

UPSC Essentials: One word a day – Artemis– (b)