Department of Physics / en Supermassive black hole mergers could be explained by dark matter: Study /news/supermassive-black-hole-mergers-could-be-explained-dark-matter-study <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Supermassive black hole mergers could be explained by dark matter: Study</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-08/SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=KsORTgPY 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2024-08/SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=FWV7Vizw 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2024-08/SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=1OBxOsCR 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-08/SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=KsORTgPY" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-08-06T11:35:00-04:00" title="Tuesday, August 6, 2024 - 11:35" class="datetime">Tue, 08/06/2024 - 11:35</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>A visualization of two supermassive black holes in orbit around each other (image by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Noble; simulation data, d'Ascoli et al. 2018)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-sasaki" hreflang="en">Chris Sasaki</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-and-innovation" hreflang="en">Research and Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/space" hreflang="en">Space</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">A team of researchers that includes a U of T postdoc may have solved the "final parsec problem" of astrophysics<br> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A team of astrophysicists that includes the șüÀêÊÓƔ’s <strong>Gonzalo Alonso-Álvarez</strong> has shown that pairs of supermassive black holes can merge together into a single, larger black hole – a major breakthrough in addressing what is known as the "final parsec problem."</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-left"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-08/Gonazalo-Alonso-Alvarez-crop.jpg" width="300" height="399" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Gonzalo Alonso-Álvarez (supplied image)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>The longstanding astrophysics problem refers to a discrepancy between the detection of gravitational signals permeating the universe – which astrophysicists previously hypothesized had emanated from millions of merging pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) – and theoretical simulations which showed that the approach of SMBHs stalls when they’re roughly one parsec (about three light years) apart.</p> <p>Not only did the final parsec problem conflict with the theory that merging SMBHs were the source of the gravitational wave background, it was also at odds with the theory that SMBHs – each billions of times more massive than our Sun – grow from the merger of less massive black holes.</p> <p>The new research, <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.021401">published in <em>Physical Review Letters</em></a>, has shown that pairs of SMBHs can indeed break through the one-parsec barrier and merge into a single black hole. This is demonstrated by calculations showing that SMBHs continue to draw closer because of previously overlooked interactions with particles within the vast cloud of dark matter surrounding them.</p> <p>“We show that including the previously overlooked effect of dark matter can help supermassive black holes overcome this final parsec of separation and coalesce,” says Alonso-Álvarez, a post-doctoral fellow in the department of physics at U of T’s Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and the department of physics and Trottier Space Institute at McGill University, who is first author on the paper. “Our calculations explain how that can occur, in contrast to what was previously thought.”</p> <p>SMBHs are thought to lie in the centres of most galaxies. When two galaxies collide, the SMBHs fall into orbit around each other; as they revolve around each other, the gravitational pull of nearby stars tugs at them and slows them down, causing them to spiral inward toward a merger.</p> <p>Previous merger models showed that when the SMBHs approached to within roughly a parsec, they begin to interact with the dark matter cloud or halo in which they are embedded. These models indicated that the gravity of spiraling SMBHs throws dark matter particles clear of the system.</p> <p>The new model introduced by Alonso-Álvarez and co-authors&nbsp;<strong>James Cline</strong>, a professor at McGill University and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, and <strong>Caitlyn Dewar</strong>, a graduate student at McGill, reveals that dark matter particles interact with each other in such a way that they are not dispersed.&nbsp;The density of the dark matter halo remains high enough that interactions between the particles and the SMBHs continue to degrade the SMBH’s orbits – clearing a path to a merger.</p> <p>“The possibility that dark matter particles interact with each other is an assumption that we made, an extra ingredient that not all dark matter models contain,” says Alonso-Álvarez. “Our argument is that only models with that ingredient can solve the final parsec problem.”</p> <p>The background hum generated by these colossal cosmic collisions is made up of gravitational waves of much longer wavelength than those&nbsp;first detected in 2015&nbsp;by astrophysicists operating the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Those gravitational waves were generated by the merger of two black holes, both some 30 times the mass of the Sun.</p> <p>The background hum has been detected in recent years by scientists operating the Pulsar Timing Array. The array reveals gravitational waves by measuring minute variations in signals from pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit strong radio pulses.</p> <p>In addition to providing insight into SBMH mergers and the gravitational wave background signal, the new result also provides a window into the nature of dark matter. “Our work is a new way to help us understand the particle nature of dark matter,” says Alonso-Álvarez. “We found that the evolution of black hole orbits is very sensitive to the microphysics of dark matter and that means we can use observations of supermassive black hole mergers to better understand these particles.”</p> <p>For example, the researchers found that the interactions between dark matter particles they modeled also explains the shapes of galactic dark matter halos.</p> <p>“We found that the final parsec problem can only be solved if dark matter particles interact at a rate that can alter the distribution of dark matter on galactic scales,” says Alonso-Álvarez.</p> <p>“This was unexpected since the physical scales at which the processes occur are three or more orders of magnitude apart. That’s exciting.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 06 Aug 2024 15:35:00 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 308819 at From fighting fungus to improving innovation: U of T researchers lead CIFAR interdisciplinary research programs /news/fighting-fungus-improving-innovation-u-t-researchers-lead-cifar-interdisciplinary-research <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">From fighting fungus to improving innovation: U of T researchers lead CIFAR interdisciplinary research programs </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Untitled-1-vertical.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=TYJWrHFw 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Untitled-1-vertical.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=t5lKAkH_ 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Untitled-1-vertical.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vUObT6TV 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Untitled-1-vertical.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=TYJWrHFw" alt="Photo of Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Dan Breznitz, Leah Cowen and Aephraim Steinberg "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-04-29T12:43:21-04:00" title="Monday, April 29, 2019 - 12:43" class="datetime">Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:43</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(From left) U of T's Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Dan Breznitz, Leah Cowen and Aephraim Steinberg are leading CIFAR research programs </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ontario-impact" hreflang="en">Ontario Impact</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/munk-school-global-affairs-public-policy-0" hreflang="en">Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cifar" hreflang="en">CIFAR</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation-policy-lab" hreflang="en">Innovation Policy Lab</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/molecular-genetics" hreflang="en">Molecular Genetics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Drug-resistant germs like the fungus <em>Candida auris</em> are making their way into hospitals around the world,&nbsp;stumping scientists who are trying to trace their often-mysterious origins.</p> <p>But a group of international researchers from a diverse range of disciplines, including microbiology, evolution, food security and immunology, are hoping that by working together&nbsp;they can address the potential harm to humans, wildlife and agriculture.</p> <p>The newly created program, called <a href="https://www.cifar.ca/research/programs/fungal-kingdom">Fungal Kingdom: Threats &amp; Opportunities</a>, is co-directed by <strong>Leah Cowen</strong>, a professor and chair of molecular genetics at the șüÀêÊÓÆ”, and Joseph Heitman, a professor and chair of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Duke University School of Medicine. It is one of four research programs led by U of T faculty that make up <a href="https://www.cifar.ca/cifarnews/2019/04/08/cifar-announces-new-research-programs-and-ai-chairs">the new 13-program portfolio</a> of&nbsp;CIFAR, a Canadian-based organization that looks to address some of the world’s most pressing issues through interdisciplinary research.</p> <p>“Through CIFAR, șüÀêÊÓÆ” researchers have been able to engage with a global network of scholars across disciplines and borders to tackle complex challenges,” said <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. “This highlights the international demand for U of T’s expertise in a range of areas – from public policy to geochemistry.”</p> <p>The other U of T-led CIFAR research programs include:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.cifar.ca/research/programs/innovation-equity-the-future-of-prosperity">Innovation, Equity and the Future of Prosperity</a>, co-directed by&nbsp;<strong>Dan Breznitz</strong>, who is the co-director of the&nbsp;Innovation Policy Lab at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy, Susan Helper, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University, and&nbsp;Amos Zehavi, a professor at Tel Aviv University and a senior associate at the Innovation Policy Lab.<br> This program is one of two in the social sciences that CIFAR has added this year&nbsp;– the first since 2004.&nbsp;</li> <li><a href="https://www.cifar.ca/research/programs/earth-4d">Earth 4D: Subsurface Science and Exploration</a>, co-directed by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a>&nbsp;<strong>Barbara Sherwood Lollar </strong>in U of T’s&nbsp; department of Earth sciences and John Mustard, a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Brown University.</li> <li><a href="https://www.cifar.ca/research/programs/quantum-information-science">Quantum Information Science</a> – a renewed program, co-directed by <strong>Aephraim Steinberg</strong>, a professor of physics at U of T, and David Poulin, a professor at UniversitĂ© de Sherbrooke.</li> </ul> <p><br> ​&nbsp;Breznitz said the CIFAR program gives his research group a platform to look at innovation in a different light. While there are proven benefits that come with innovation – from economic growth to personal well-being&nbsp;–&nbsp;those benefits are not always&nbsp;distributed equally.</p> <p>The program looks to combine research on innovation technology and distribution – two areas&nbsp;Breznitz said are heavily siloed – in order to create an action plan that leads to meaningful change.</p> <p>Inequality can take many forms in the innovation sphere, said Breznitz, offering the example of how innovation is funded.</p> <p>“The main vehicle for financing innovation is venture capital,” he said, adding this&nbsp;usually means giving a small group of people large sums of&nbsp;money in the hopes they can deliver exponential returns.</p> <p>“What you're really creating is an industry completely obsessed with financial access,”&nbsp;he said. “Those who succeed,&nbsp;the people who basically get the lottery ticket, are people who are already extremely well-off.</p> <p>“Ninety per cent of people are left out.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The first step in launching the program will be to create a common language between researchers – a challenge when they come from many different backgrounds like law, engineering, geography, sociology and economics.</p> <p>“That's going to be both hard and the most fun,” said Breznitz. “I've got a very big, new sandbox to play with.”</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar's program, Earth 4D, is taking an innovative approach to studying our own planet. It calls for thinking about Earth as we do other planets in our solar system by&nbsp;taking a closer look at how each of its elements interact with one another&nbsp;–&nbsp;from the interior to the surface and into the atmosphere.</p> <p>“Interestingly, when we think about our own planet, that's not typically the way science has gone about it,” she said. “If you think about the breadth of work we do on this planet, it tends to be: ‘We need to understand this problem over there and that problem over here.’”</p> <p>Sherwood Lollar’s&nbsp;team will be focusing on four themes: water, and how water&nbsp;resources are being altered by climate change; energy, from the need to drive technology to how subsurface life sustains itself without the sun; the origin and evolution of life on this planet; and the concept of time and how it affects the other themes.</p> <p>“We decided we really were at a place and point in time where there was an opportunity to transform how we think about Earth,” said Sherwood Lollar.</p> <p>To do so, she said&nbsp;it was necessary to bring together a group of researchers who&nbsp;not only bring a wide range of expertise, but are at different points in their careers.</p> <p>“Intergenerational exchange is really important in this group,” she said. “One of the things I love about it is we're already seeing people who didn't know each other, and didn’t&nbsp;work together, coming together to do this kind of work.</p> <p>“CIFAR is a very unique and effective agent in the Canadian intellectual and research landscape because their mandate is specifically to try to bring together [researchers in] pursuit of big fundamental questions that have been wrestled with across the board&nbsp;–&nbsp;by society, by science, by engineering, by humanities – but to do it in a new way,” said Sherwood Lollar.</p> <p>Steinberg’s quantum information science program&nbsp;launched in 2002 and has been renewed three times, most recently this year. The group explores the potential of the growing field of quantum information science, including its applications in disciplines like physics, engineering and computer science.</p> <p>“What a program like ours needs to do is not just build a computer and solve the problem that FedEx has already ordered, but rather try to demonstrate what determines which of the right problems to use a quantum computer for,” Steinberg said in a video posted on CIFAR’s website.</p> <p>As for Cowen, her&nbsp;research program coincides with a growing awareness and concern about dangerous fungi, including <em>Candida auris</em>, which was recently covered by the <em>New York Times.</em></p> <p>The fungus first appeared in Japan in 2009 and has since spread&nbsp;across the globe, said Cowen.&nbsp;</p> <p>"It has this amazing ability to survive on surfaces so it's causing outbreaks in hospitals."</p> <p>Human activity – including global trade, modern medicine and climate change – is intensifying the impact of fungi,&nbsp;according to Cowen. “The fungal kingdom includes as many as six million eukaryotic species and is tremendously diverse in terms of the kind of organisms included and also the impact on global health, agriculture, biodiversity, ecology, manufacturing and even biomedical research.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Because the implications are so far-reaching, Cowen said there’s a need to bring&nbsp;together researchers from a number of fields&nbsp;who can look at the fungal kingdom from different angles.</p> <p>“We have brought together these amazing people that are much greater than the sum of the parts,” she said.</p> <p>Cowen’s program will look at a number of&nbsp;challenges related to fungi, including: the emergence and spread of fungi; how fungi are adapting and interacting with their hosts; what makes some fungi resistant to anti-fungal drugs and fungicide;&nbsp;and developing strategies to thwart fungal diseases.</p> <p>“It's the first time ever we've brought together this kind of diversity to do a research program to tackle these challenges,” Cowen said.</p> <p><em>With a file&nbsp;from Perry King</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 29 Apr 2019 16:43:21 +0000 Romi Levine 156378 at U of T researcher and global colleagues demonstrate key element of quantum internet /news/u-t-researcher-and-global-colleagues-demonstrate-key-element-quantum-internet <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T researcher and global colleagues demonstrate key element of quantum internet</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/HoiKwongLo_LabPhoto-Credit-Jessica-MacInnis.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0UPLJv9b 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/HoiKwongLo_LabPhoto-Credit-Jessica-MacInnis.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=3qysyhKE 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/HoiKwongLo_LabPhoto-Credit-Jessica-MacInnis.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=n2C5mTk9 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/HoiKwongLo_LabPhoto-Credit-Jessica-MacInnis.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0UPLJv9b" alt="photo of Hoi-Kwong Lo "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-01-31T10:04:32-05:00" title="Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 10:04" class="datetime">Thu, 01/31/2019 - 10:04</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">U of T Professor Hoi-Kwong Lo and his collaborators have performed a proof-of-principle experiment on a key aspect of all-photonic quantum repeaters (photo by Jessica MacInnis)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jessica-macinnis" hreflang="en">Jessica MacInnis</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/quantum" hreflang="en">Quantum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A&nbsp;șüÀêÊÓÆ” researcher is among a global group of experts who have demonstrated, in principle,&nbsp;a device that could serve as the backbone of a quantum internet.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Hoi-Kwong Lo</strong>, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, and his collaborators have developed a prototype for a key element of all-photonic quantum repeaters, a critical step in long-distance quantum communication.</p> <p>“An all-optical network is a promising form of infrastructure for fast and energy-efficient communication that is required for a future quantum internet,” says Lo, who is cross-appointed to the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.&nbsp;</p> <p>A quantum internet is considered the Holy Grail of quantum information processing, enabling many novel applications including information-theoretic secure communication. By contrast, today’s internet was not specifically designed for security, and it shows: breaches, break-ins and computer espionage are common challenges. Nefarious hackers are constantly poking holes in sophisticated layers of defence erected by individuals, corporations and governments.</p> <p>In light of this, researchers have proposed other ways of transmitting data that would leverage key features of quantum physics to provide virtually unbreakable encryption. One of the most promising technologies involves a technique known as quantum key distribution, or QKD. QKD exploits the fact that the simple act of sensing or measuring the state of a quantum system disturbs that system. Because of this, eavesdropping by a third party would leave behind a detectable trace, and the communication could be aborted before sensitive information is lost.</p> <p>Until now, this type of quantum security has been only demonstrated in small-scale systems. Lo and his team are among a group of global researchers&nbsp;who are laying the groundwork for a future quantum internet by&nbsp;addressing some of the challenges of transmitting quantum information over great distances&nbsp;using optical fibre communication.&nbsp;</p> <p>Because light signals lose potency as they travel long distances through fibre-optic cables, devices called repeaters are inserted at regular intervals along the line. The repeaters boost and amplify the signals to help transmit the information.</p> <p>But&nbsp;existing repeaters for quantum information are highly problematic. They require storage of the quantum state at the repeater sites, making the repeaters&nbsp;error prone, difficult to build, and very expensive because they often operate at cryogenic temperatures.</p> <p>Lo and his team have proposed a different approach. They are working on the development of the next generation of repeaters, called all-photonic quantum repeaters, that would eliminate or reduce many of the shortcomings of standard quantum repeaters. With collaborators at Osaka University, Toyama University and NTT Corporation in Japan, Lo and his team have demonstrated proof-of-concept of their work <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08099-5">in a paper recently published in <em>Nature Communications</em></a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We have developed all-photonic repeaters that allow time-reversed adaptive Bell measurement,” says Lo.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Because these repeaters are all-optical, they offer advantages that traditional – quantum-memory-based matter – repeaters do not. For example, this method could work at room temperature.”</p> <p>A quantum Internet could offer applications that are impossible to implement in the conventional Internet, such as impenetrable security and quantum teleportation, which takes advantage of the phenomenon of quantum entanglement to transmit information between atoms separated by large distances.</p> <p>“Our work helps pave the way toward this future,” Lo says.</p> <p>The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, among others.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 31 Jan 2019 15:04:32 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 152344 at U of T theoretical astrophysicist among handful of researchers honoured by U.S.-based foundation /news/u-t-theoretical-astrophysicist-among-handful-researchers-honoured-us-based-foundation <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T theoretical astrophysicist among handful of researchers honoured by U.S.-based foundation</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-07-09-pen-china.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5vAnNeuo 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-07-09-pen-china.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=hgfBliIM 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-07-09-pen-china.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=oLgtUb_X 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-07-09-pen-china.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5vAnNeuo" alt="photo of Ue-Li Pen at the FAST radio telescope in China"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-07-09T00:00:00-04:00" title="Monday, July 9, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Mon, 07/09/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Ue-Li Pen, pictured here at the FAST radio telescope in China, is among 16 mathematicians and scientists from across North America and Europe to receive a 2018 Simons Investigators award (photo courtesy of Ue-Li Pen)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/arts-science-news-staff" hreflang="en">Arts &amp; Science news staff</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canadian-institute-theoretical-astrophysics" hreflang="en">Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dunlap-institute-astronomy-astrophysics" hreflang="en">Dunlap Institute for Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Theoretical astrophysicist&nbsp;<strong>Ue-Li Pen</strong>&nbsp;has been selected by the Simons Foundation to receive a <a href="https://www.simonsfoundation.org/mathematics-physical-sciences/simons-investigators/simons-investigators-awardees/">2018 Simons Investigators award</a>.</p> <p>Pen, the interim director of the <a href="http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/">Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics</a> in the șüÀêÊÓÆ”'s Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, joins 15 others honoured from across North America and Europe. He is the second researcher at a Canadian institution – and the first from U of T – to be tapped for the award since the program was introduced in 2012.</p> <p>“Being named a Simons Investigator is a great honour,” said Pen, who is also professor in U of T's department of physics. “I am grateful and humbled to receive this award, which will enable substantial new and innovative astrophysics research opportunities at the șüÀêÊÓÆ”.”</p> <p>Pen is known for developing innovative tools to create new fields of research. His pioneering work on 21 cm intensity mapping opens a new window for the precision study of dark energy and neutrinos.</p> <p>Recently, his use of natural plasma in our galaxy as a giant telescope spawned the field of scintillometry, enabling new glimpses into enigmatic pulsars and unsolved fast radio bursts. The vastly improved precision may improve our understanding of space-time, including gravitational waves.</p> <p>The awards are presented by the New York-based Simons Foundation to outstanding scientists in mathematics, physics, astrophysics and theoretical computer science. They&nbsp;support researchers in their most productive years&nbsp;–&nbsp;when they are establishing creative new research directions&nbsp;–&nbsp;providing leadership to the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists.</p> <p>The award provides $100,000 annually for five years and an additional $10,000 per year is given to the investigator’s department.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 09 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 138397 at Canada gives $12 million to boost power of Large Hadron Collider /news/canada-gives-12-million-boost-power-large-hadron-collider <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada gives $12 million to boost power of Large Hadron Collider</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-06-25-duncan-at-podium-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=wDGke32P 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-06-25-duncan-at-podium-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=D4VHR2nu 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-06-25-duncan-at-podium-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=EPlwXWKy 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-06-25-duncan-at-podium-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=wDGke32P" alt="Photo of Kirsty Duncan"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-06-25T13:51:06-04:00" title="Monday, June 25, 2018 - 13:51" class="datetime">Mon, 06/25/2018 - 13:51</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Science Minister Kirsty Duncan announced in Vancouver today that the federal government will give $10 million to the Large Hadron Collider, with TRIUMF giving another $2 million in kind (photo courtesy of Innovation, Science and Economic Development)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jennifer-robinson" hreflang="en">Jennifer Robinson</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cern" hreflang="en">CERN</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">U of T physicists eager to see what secrets the upgraded particle accelerator will reveal next</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For more than a decade, a small team of high-energy physicists and graduate students from the șüÀêÊÓÆ” have helped push the boundaries of scientific knowledge at the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.</p> <p>Today, the Canadian government and TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, announced a $12-million investment to give a major performance boost to the Large Hadron Collider, known as the most massive and complex scientific experiment in human history.</p> <p>The funding will go towards mission critical components in support of the new High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC or HiLumi), with Vancouver-based TRIUMF leading production of the Canadian components. HiLumi, which had a groundbreaking ceremony earlier this month, is expected to be operational by 2026.</p> <p>“I am pleased to announce support for Canada’s outstanding researchers, engineers and technicians, whose combined efforts will further our reputation as a global leader in particle physics,” said federal Science Minister <strong>Kirsty Duncan</strong> in a news release.</p> <p>The Large Hadron Collider, a high-energy particle accelerator operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), runs in a 27-kilometre circular tunnel buried 100 metres below the surface of the earth underneath France and Switzerland.</p> <p>Since opening in 2008, it has enabled scientists to recreate the conditions that existed a billionth of a second after the Big Bang — and to study them in a controlled way. In 2012, researchers announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle” that gives other particles mass and makes life possible.</p> <p>“Researchers at the șüÀêÊÓÆ” welcome this important support by the Canadian government to help make one of the world’s most important scientific projects possible,” said <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.</p> <p>“For more than a decade, U of T researchers have worked side-by-side with colleagues from universities across Canada, at TRIUMF, and around the world to push our knowledge of the fundamental structure of the universe. We look forward to being a part of even more critical breakthroughs as we continue to play a role with the HiLumi project for decades to come.”</p> <p>One of the areas in which U of T has been involved is the ATLAS detector, one of the main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.</p> <p>Right now, the U of T team on ATLAS comprises six faculty, four postdoctoral researchers and 20 graduate students. In the past decade, approximately 50 U of T students have worked at CERN, said U of T physics Professor <strong>Robert Orr</strong>.</p> <p>In 2012, the U of T Atlas team (which included Orr and colleagues <strong>David Bailey</strong>, <strong>Peter Krieger</strong>, <strong>Pierre Savard</strong>, P<strong>ekka Sinervo</strong>, <strong>Richard Teuscher </strong>and <strong>William Trischuk</strong>) and their 2,500 ATLAS colleagues from 35 countries played a key role in the hunt for the Higgs boson.</p> <p>The ATLAS detector, key components of which were built at U of T, was designed to search for new particles in the highest mass collisions of high-energy proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider.</p> <p>U of T faculty and graduate students sifted through the massive amounts of data from ATLAS using SciNet super computing resources at U of T to identify collisions containing Higgs boson candidates.</p> <p>For HiLumi, the Canadian research community will use its world-leading cryomodule technology to build five new particle accelerator components known as crab cavity cryogenic modules, a TRIUMF news release explained.</p> <p>These sophisticated, ultra low temperature boxes will house crab cavities that “rotate bunches of subatomic particles before they smash together, significantly increasing the number of collisions, or luminosity, of the Large Hadron Collider.”</p> <p>The souped-up particle accelerator “is very good news — something we’ve been waiting for for quite some time,” said Sinervo. “It will ensure Canada has the official status at CERN that it so appropriately deserves given all the contributions Canadians have made to the experiments and the accelerator.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8737 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-06-25-cern-RESIZED2.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>The assembly of the crab cavity housing, a cryostat that will serve as a high-performance coldbox, keeping the cavities at their operating temperature (photo by Maximilien Brice/CERN)</em></p> <p>The discovery of the Higgs boson was huge, confirming the existence of all the particles making up the Standard Model of particle physics, as well as the existence of the mechanism that gives mass to all the fundamental particles, Orr explained.</p> <p>Nevertheless, much remains to be discovered and puzzles resolved, such as: Why the pattern of masses? What is dark matter?</p> <p>&nbsp;“In the context of the Large Hadron Collider, the most important puzzle is the surprisingly small mass of the Higgs,” Orr said.</p> <p>“Our theoretical understanding leads us to believe this small mass of the Higgs implies there should be a whole zoo of ‘supersymmetric’ particles observable at the LHC. They have not been,” he said.</p> <p>“It could be that the intensity of the present LHC is insufficient to observe them. That is the main motivation for the HL-LHC — to increase the intensity of the machine to the point where we can observe these new particles.”</p> <p>On the other hand, Orr said the non-observation of this supersymmetry may also be telling because it “would finally demonstrate that we have to think of some other mechanism that keeps the mass of the Higgs small.</p> <p>“This could lead to a complete sea change in our understanding of the basic structure of matter.”</p> <p><em>With files from Jenny Hall</em></p> <p>&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:51:06 +0000 noreen.rasbach 137740 at 'Heroic calculation': U of T expert on using new supercomputer to shed light on how oceans behave /news/heroic-calculation-u-t-expert-using-new-supercomputer-shed-light-how-oceans-behave <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">'Heroic calculation': U of T expert on using new supercomputer to shed light on how oceans behave</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-03-05-peltier-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=NmtcXA_D 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-03-05-peltier-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FrbuNNsl 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-03-05-peltier-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=LlegiC-s 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-03-05-peltier-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=NmtcXA_D" alt="Photo of Richard Peltier speaking to students"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-03-05T09:35:12-05:00" title="Monday, March 5, 2018 - 09:35" class="datetime">Mon, 03/05/2018 - 09:35</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> “This is pure, curiosity-driven research. We hope the results will warrant publication and be a major coup for Niagara,” says U of T's Richard Peltier (photo courtesy of NSERC)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jennifer-robinson" hreflang="en">Jennifer Robinson</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>To break in Canada’s newest, most powerful research supercomputer, the șüÀêÊÓƔ’s <strong>Richard Peltier</strong> is running a “heroic calculation” – one that is expected to shed new light on how the world’s oceans physically function.</p> <p>It’s unknown how long it will take the more than $18-million machine known as Niagara to crunch the millions of gigabytes in real-time data streaming to it now from the ocean bottom of the Pacific.</p> <p>“It’s never been done before,” said Peltier, a globally renowned climate change expert. “It could be days or even a week depending on the spatial resolution we decide to work at.”</p> <p>Unveiled today, Niagara is a massive network of 60,000 cores – the equivalent of roughly 60,000 powerful desktop computers – that can be tasked to work together simultaneously on a single, humungous problem.</p> <p>This type of setup, known as a large parallel system, is the only one in Canada and is housed in a secure, non-descript location in Vaughan, Ont. It’s open to all Canadian university researchers and is part of a national network of research computing infrastructure.</p> <h3><a href="/news/new-u-t-supercomputer-most-powerful-research-machine-canada">Read more about new supercomputer Niagara</a></h3> <p>Up and running for a week, the SciNet team has started feeding the data for Peltier into Niagara. He came up with the idea of running a heroic calculation on it after discussing with colleagues how best to strenuously test the power of the large parallel system.</p> <p>“By devoting the entire machine, not only a portion of it, to this one calculation – that’s why it’s ‘heroic,’” said Peltier, a U of T <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a> of physics and scientific director of SciNet. “This is pure, curiosity-driven research. We hope the results will warrant publication and be a major coup for Niagara.”</p> <p>Running a similar calculation on the old SciNet supercomputer would have taken roughly 20 times longer.</p> <p>The calculation, done in partnership with researchers at the University of Michigan and the Jet Propulsion Lab at Caltech, is attempting to answer a fundamental research question that holds great interest for researchers in a number of fields.</p> <p>In the 1970s, oceanographers Chris Garrett and Walter Munk famously theorized the world’s oceans are filled with internal waves ricocheting back and forth from the ocean bottom to the surface and predicted the shape of the power spectrum that should be observed in these waves.</p> <p>The waves are generated by the barotropic tide causing the water in the oceans to slosh back and forth horizontally in response to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. Their intensity is magnified by bumps along the ocean floor – the bumpier the bottom, the stronger the wave, Peltier explained. When waves break, turbulence is generated and causes friction, which makes the ocean dissipative and “sticky.”</p> <p>But for more than four decades, scientists have lacked an accurate, high resolution model of the detailed physics of this interaction to actually see whether the theoretical arguments are correct, he said.</p> <p>To conduct the Niagara calculation, his team of collaborators are using data from ocean sensors called McLane profilers in selected patches of the Pacific Ocean – one near the Hawaiian islands, which has a very bumpy ocean bottom, and one in the open ocean of the central-west Pacific, which has a smoother ocean floor.</p> <p>This information will then be coupled with atmospheric data to model the formation, intensity and life span of these waves as they dissipate over time.</p> <p>“I’d like to think that we’ll be able to verify at very high spatial resolution the internal wave spectrum,” said Peltier. “Hopefully we’ll be able to shout, ‘Eureka, we’ve not only seen wiggles, we’ve seen wiggles of the right set of [wave] phase speeds that the ocean should be filled with” – as predicted by Garrett and Munk.</p> <p>This calculation will “assure us that when we do put an ocean model to work in the context of a global warming calculation, for example, that we can feel secure that the physical process is properly represented,” he added.</p> <p>University of Michigan oceanographer Brian Arbic said understanding the actions of internal waves more fully will also have a profound impact on the study of ocean temperatures, salinity, circulation and marine biology, which are “crucial for Earth’s climate, marine resources and uptake of carbon and heat by the Earth’s oceans.”</p> <p>“This is a first for our community and implies that we have the potential for modelling internal gravity waves more realistically than ever before,” he said.</p> <p>“The U of T supercomputer is extremely important to this work. It is a very large and cutting-edge machine. We would not be able to do this calculation right now without access to it.”</p> <p>For Peltier, breaking internal waves caused by flow over bumps – whether mountain tops on the surface of the continent or on the ocean floor at great depth beneath the ocean surface – has been an area of intense interest for him since the beginning of his career.</p> <p>He’s already planning how he’ll apply Niagara’s heroic calculation results to Ice Age conditions, when the level of water in the oceans was much lower and waves broke further offshore away from the continental slopes.</p> <p>“The spectrum of waves in the oceans and the dissipation of waves should be dramatically different,” he said. “I’m expecting the stickiness of the ocean will change dramatically.”</p> <div> <div> <div id="_com_1" uage="JavaScript">&nbsp;</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 05 Mar 2018 14:35:12 +0000 noreen.rasbach 130760 at In Geneva, where U of T scientists are on the frontier of physics with world’s largest particle accelerator /news/geneva-where-u-t-scientists-are-frontier-physics-world-s-largest-particle-accelerator <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">In Geneva, where U of T scientists are on the frontier of physics with world’s largest particle accelerator</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Atlas%20detector%20July%202011%20%28web%20version%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=e3cY-RsP 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Atlas%20detector%20July%202011%20%28web%20version%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qwFOlb7n 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Atlas%20detector%20July%202011%20%28web%20version%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-m2q6en_ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Atlas%20detector%20July%202011%20%28web%20version%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=e3cY-RsP" alt="photo of particle accelerator"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-08-30T00:00:00-04:00" title="Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 00:00" class="datetime">Wed, 08/30/2017 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">CERN, the international lab near Geneva, is home to the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator (photo by Claudia Marcelloni/CERN) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/geoffrey-vendeville" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Vendeville</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Geoffrey Vendeville </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-physics" hreflang="en">Department of Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cern" hreflang="en">CERN</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>GENEVA – Working on a small piece of the world's largest experiment, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture.</p> <p><strong>Kyle Cormier</strong>, a șüÀêÊÓÆ” grad student in particle physics, is a member of U of T's research group at CERN, the&nbsp;sprawling international lab on the French-Swiss border that is home to the largest particle accelerator, the <a href="https://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider">Large Hadron Collider</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>His job? Researching a silicon microchip for a planned upgrade to the 7,000-tonne&nbsp;Atlas detector, one of four major experiments at the LHC. He has designed, tested and redesigned the chip to withstand extreme cold and radiation exposure – all so that it can read data from proton collisions without needing a tune-up for at least a decade.</p> <p>It may not sound glamorous, but it's the type of precise, exacting work that led CERN researchers to the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle that had been theorized in the 1960s.&nbsp;</p> <p>“If you’re on a big hike up a mountain, you’re stepping over root branches working your way up,” Cormier&nbsp;says.</p> <p><img alt="Pekka Sinervo and students at CERN" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5438 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/170718%20-%20Pekka%20and%20students%20%28web%20version%29.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p><em>Professor Pekka Sinervo and U of T students, including&nbsp;Vincent Pascuzzi,&nbsp;Joey Carter, Laurelle Veloce,&nbsp;Kyle Cormier (seated right), at CERN outside Geneva (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)</em></p> <p>At first glance, CERN, a collection of low-slung concrete buildings on the outskirts of Geneva, doesn't look like a state-of-the-art, multibillion-dollar research facility. But deep underground, the&nbsp;accelerator races protons around a 27-kilometre ring until they are travelling nearly the speed of light and then smashes them together. Like crash scene investigators looking for clues in rubble, scientists analyze the debris from the collisions, which send subatomic&nbsp;particles flying in every direction.</p> <p>CERN scientists used this method to detect the Higgs boson in 2012, a particle explaining why others have mass. Now they're digging even deeper, investigating questions such as the nature of dark matter.</p> <p>The mysterious type of matter, which makes up more than a quarter of the universe, has puzzled scientists since the first clues about its existence arose in the 1930s through astronomical observation and calculations.</p> <p>“We’re at the point where we’ve looked where the light’s brightest,” says&nbsp;<strong>Pekka Sinervo</strong>, a professor of experimental high energy physics at U of T. “Now we’re looking in all the dark corners that are hard to investigate.”</p> <p><img alt="Physics sticker " class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5796 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/20170830%20-%20Physics%20humour%20on%20wall%20at%20CERN%20%28web%20embed%29.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Physics humour on a wall at CERN (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)</em></p> <p>Researchers may still be a long way off from answering the dark matter riddle, but some breakthrough is just a matter of time, says <strong>Laurelle Veloce</strong>, who is also studying particle physics at U of T and working at CERN.</p> <p>“You just put one foot in front of the other and eventually you know someone will find something,” she says.</p> <p>The U of T research group is the largest Canadian team working on the Atlas experiment, with 17 graduate students, four postdocs and six faculty members. Over the summer, undergraduate students <a href="https://summerabroad.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/PHY396Y0-Switzerland.pdf-.pdf">can take a summer course</a> at CERN.</p> <p><strong>Olivier Arnaez</strong>, now a U of T postdoc, spent years searching for the Higgs.&nbsp;When CERN researchers had gathered enough statistical evidence to confirm the discovery of a new particle, there was no eureka moment, he recalls&nbsp;– just relief.</p> <p>“We were happy because we knew we could sleep soon,” he says,&nbsp;“which didn’t happen because we then had to investigate more properties of the Higgs.” The celebrations involved litres of champagne and Nobel prizes for the theorists who proposed the Higgs mechanism decades earlier.</p> <p>Years of research at CERN haven’t been without setbacks, however. Only nine days after the first successful beam tests in 2008, a soldering error caused an accident that put the project behind schedule by more than 18 months. And last year, researchers who thought they had discovered another new particle admitted they had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/science/cern-large-hadron-collider-particle.html">misinterpreted the data</a>.</p> <p>But researchers are still hopeful and morale remains high, says Sinervo.</p> <p><img alt="Atlas control room " class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5441 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/170718%20-%20Pekka%20Sinervo%20in%20the%20ATLAS%20control%20room%20%28web%20version%29.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Sinervo in the Atlas control room where scientists monitor proton collisions&nbsp;(photo by Geoffrey Vendeville).&nbsp;</em></p> <p>“We’re trying to do things every day that nobody has ever done before,” he says.</p> <p>Engineering a microchip to work for 10 years without the need for repair, as his student Cormier is doing, is no small feat, he adds. “That’s like how you build spaceships for a moonshot.</p> <p>“We know that there is going to be some discovery over the horizon,” Sinervo says. “How far do we have to go to reach it? That’s something we don’t know.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 30 Aug 2017 04:00:00 +0000 geoff.vendeville 111892 at