There are about 80 Sardinian high school students who on 24 and 25 February and 31 March will be able to have direct experience, also in Cagliari, of how CERN research works thanks to the international Masterclass initiative, coordinated in Italy by National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn) and created in collaboration with the University of Cagliari.

The girls and boys, at the same time as their peers in other countries of the world, will be accompanied on a journey to discover the properties of particles, exploring the secrets of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) of CERN in Geneva, the 27 km long particle accelerator. and positioned at a depth of 100 meters where the particles collide almost at the speed of light and which in July 2012 made it possible to discover the now famous Higgs boson.

This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the masterclasses of February 24 and 25 will take place online, but the program always includes lectures and seminars on the fundamental topics of high energy physics, followed by computer exercises on one of the experiments. of the LHC Particle Accelerator.

In particular, the girls and boys of Sardinia will analyze the data from the LHCb experiments on 24 and 25 February and Alice on 31 March. At the end of each day, just like in a real international research collaboration, there will be a videoconference link between the young participants in the Masterclasses from all over the world to discuss the results of the exercises together.

The initiative, now in its 18th edition, is part of the international Masterclasses organized by Ippog (International Particle Physics Outreach Group) and, in Italy, by Infn.

The Masterclasses are held simultaneously in 60 different countries, involving over 200 of the most prestigious research institutions and universities in the world and more than 13,000 secondary school students.

(Unioneonlline / vl)

© Riproduzione riservata