Particle physics, 120 Sardinian students to discover the secrets of Cern
Girls and boys will be able to gain direct experience of how scientific research works in large laboratories
Three days organized by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn) with the University of Cagliari to discover the secrets of high energy physics . The appointment is for Tuesday 14, Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 February at the University Citadel of Monserrato.
Around 120 male and female students from Sardinia are participating in the International Masterclasses 2023 in particle physics, organized by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in close collaboration with the University of Cagliari.
Girls and boys will be able to gain direct experience of how scientific research works in large laboratories by analyzing data from real experiments. Accompanied by male and female researchers on a journey to discover the properties of particles, young people will explore the secrets of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) accelerator at CERN in Geneva where, inside a 27 km tunnel 100 meters underground, particles collide almost at the speed of light.
Tomorrow, February 14, the first masterclass on the ALICE experiment, which will be followed by another on Wednesday 22. On February 21, male and female students will instead be able to find out more about the LHCb experiment.
THE ACTIVITIES – The days include activities in the university classrooms divided between seminars on the fundamental topics of particle physics and computer exercises on one of the LHC accelerator experiments. Students will be able to analyze the real data from the LHC to simulate in the exercises the momentous discovery of the Higgs boson, which took place in 2012, but also that of the W and Z bosons (those that earned Carlo Rubbia the Nobel Prize in 1984) and discover the amazing characteristics of elementary particles.
At the end of each day, just like in a true international research collaboration, the young participants in the masterclasses in Italy and in other countries of the world meet up via video link with CERN to discuss the results of the exercises together . In particular, Sardinian girls and boys will connect with their peers in Heidelberg on 14 February, in Valencia, Bari, Ferrara and Genoa on 21, while on 22 February they will connect with Thessalonica.
The initiative (19th edition) is part of the International Masterclasses organized by the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (Ippog) 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 high school students.
(Unioneonline/vl)
