http://science.energy.gov/hep/highlights/The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total funding for this vital area of national importance. It oversees - and is the principal federal funding agency of - the Nation's research programs in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy sciences.en{CC0FE014-A577-4967-B6A4-74FFF60B273A}http://science.energy.gov/hep/highlights/2012/hep-2012-10-a/<img src='/~/media/hep/images/highlights/2012/10/bella-laser-thumb.jpg' align='left' style='height:75px;width:135px;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:10px;'/>Laser Delivers One Petawatt of Power in a Pulse only 40 Femtoseconds Long Every SecondMon, 18 Mar 2013 10:33:11 -0400 <p>Because BELLA’s laser has such high power and a high repetition rate, it will allow users to optimize the system in ways that can’t be done with lasers that fire a single shot a few times a day, which means that producing 10 GeV electrons is well within BELLA’s grasp. And because BELLA’s power and repetition rate are so high, a new door will open that will allow experiments with laser plasma wakefield acceleration to proceed with better controls and at a faster rate. The stage is set for the future development of compact particle accelerators for high energy physics and table-top free electron lasers to investigate materials and biological systems.</p> {5DB91B1A-0628-431B-892B-B56297DC32D5}http://science.energy.gov/hep/highlights/2012/ascr-2012-10-b/<img src='/~/media/ascr/images/highlights/2012/10/91212-supercomputer-universe-thumb.jpg' align='left' style='height:75px;width:135px;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:10px;'/>Simulating the evolution of the universe on the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s IBM Blue Gene/Q.Fri, 10 May 2013 15:47:16 -0400 <p>Cosmology—the science of the origin and development of the universe—is entering one of its most scientifically exciting phases. Two decades of surveying the sky have culminated in the celebrated Cosmological Standard Model. While the model describes current observations to accuracies of several percent, two of its key pillars, dark matter and dark energy—together accounting for 95% of the mass energy of the universe—remain mysterious. Scientists would love to be able to rewind the universe and watch what happened from the start. Since that's not possible, researchers must create their own mini-universes inside computers and unleash the laws of physics on them, to study their evolution. Using the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s IBM Blue Gene/Q, researchers have simulated the evolution of the universe through the first 13 billion years after the big bang. The simulation tracks the movement of trillions of particles as they collide and interact with each other, forming structures that transform into galaxies. This simulation is part of a project led by physicists Salman Habib and Katrin Heitmann of Illinois' Argonne National Laboratory resolving galaxy-scale mass concentrations over observational volumes representative of state-of-the-art sky surveys. This initiative targets an approximately two- to three-orders-of-magnitude improvement over currently available resources. The simulation is based on the new HACC (Hardware/Hybrid Accelerated Cosmology Code) framework aimed at exploiting emerging supercomputer architectures such as the IBM Blue Gene/Q at the ALCF. HACC is the first (and currently the only) large-scale cosmology code suite worldwide that can run at this scale and beyond on all available supercomputer architectures. To achieve this versatility, the researchers had to build the code from scratch working closely with advanced computing researchers. One of the main mysteries they hope to solve with the simulations is the origin of the dark energy that's causing the universe to accelerate in its expansion.</p> {4AFCFAE0-6729-491C-ACAA-C36D4D7C5E75}http://science.energy.gov/hep/highlights/2012/hep-2012-10-b/<img src='/~/media/hep/images/highlights/2012/10/higgs-thumb.jpg' align='left' style='height:75px;width:135px;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:10px;'/>Particle may help explain the origins of mass.Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:45:03 -0400<p>The Standard Model of Particle Physics predicts that the Higgs boson, once made, will decay in a number of ways. Some of these decay modes are easier to observe at the LHC than others, in particular the mode in which the Higgs decays to two photons and the mode in which it decays two pairs of electrons or muons or one pair of each. These decay modes are most easily observed because their backgrounds&mdash;events that may look like they came from the decay of a Higgs but don&rsquo;t&mdash;are very well understood. (Other modes were investigated as well.) Any events above the number of background events then may be statistically significant and a signature for a new particle. The accompanying figure shows CMS data for the di-photon decay mode. One can easily observe the excess of events around 125-126 GeV. Both ATLAS and CMS have similar plots for other decay modes as well.&nbsp;If the new particle proves to be the Higgs boson then this implies the existence of the Higgs field as the mechanism by which gauge bosons, such as the W and Z bosons, and quarks and charged leptons gain rest mass.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Higgs field has been likened to a giant vat of molasses spread throughout the universe through which particles wade. If a specific elementary particle is heavier than another, then it is more strongly coupled to the Higgs field. The strength of this interaction decides the particles mass. If the new particle is not the Higgs, then some other explanation for electroweak symmetry breaking must be found. </p>{1DEB4A1B-A989-4458-A291-F76301B4A096}http://science.energy.gov/hep/highlights/2012/hep-2012-10-c/<img src='/~/media/hep/images/highlights/2012/10/nobel_saul_perlmutter-thumb.jpg' align='left' style='height:75px;width:135px;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:10px;'/>Astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter wins Nobel “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae.”Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:33:09 -0400 <p>Because Type 1a supernovae form in the same way and explode with the same mass, their absolute light output is the same regardless of where and when they explode. That makes them “standard candles” – useful reference points in the night sky.  By measuring their apparent luminosity here on Earth, and comparing that with what we know to be their absolute luminosity, scientists can calculate how far away these supernovae are. And the farther away they are, the older they are because it takes light a longer time to arrive here if emitted from an object farther away than another. By comparing the redshifts of older supernovae with younger ones, scientists were able to determine conclusively that the rate of expansion of the universe is speeding up. This finding was contrary to the conventional wisdom, which held that the rate of expansion of the universe would slow down due to universal gravitational attraction.  Instead, physicists were forced to contemplate a radically different view of the universe. Physicists speak of the total matter-energy of the universe. The world that we see and touch, the world that we are made of, physicists now believe is only about 5% of the total matter-energy of the universe. Twenty percent is thought to be dark matter, which leaves approximately 75% of the universe’s matter-energy to be dark energy.</p> {7470F555-55F6-45D3-817C-95F69468597C}http://science.energy.gov/hep/highlights/2012/hep-2012-10-d/<img src='/~/media/hep/images/highlights/2012/10/rd100-lapd-thumb.jpg' align='left' style='height:75px;width:135px;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:10px;'/>Argonne National Lab wins prestigious 2012 R&D 100 award for development of Large Area Microchannel Plate DetectorsMon, 18 Mar 2013 10:33:09 -0400 <p>Many modern physics experiments require very large detectors to “see” either very rare processes or particles that, although abundant, are difficult to detect. Large detectors increase the probability of catching these particles and improving experimental results. But with size comes cost. A large detector often means a large volume filled with, for example, tons of water or liquid argon. Around this must be an array of hundreds and often thousands of individual photomultiplier tubes (PMT) pointed inward, each hoping to detect a glimmer of light. These PMTs are costly, bulky, and require lots of cabling to operate.  Argonne National Lab, however, has developed coatings for a new MCP substrate made of cheaper borosilicate glass with the appropriate capillary structure for secondary electron emission. These are supplied by InCom. These substrates are then coated via atomic layer deposition (ALD) with two thin coats, a resistive coating and an emissive coating, in order to optimize secondary electron emission. This is done at Berkeley Space Science Laboratory. The composition of these coatings can vary depending on the application.  This new technology provides an opportunity to significantly reduce the cost of large-scale experiments. But because large-area detectors are needed in other areas as well, they should find homes in national security and medical imaging as well.</p>