The ATLAS experiment at CERN. Credits: Maximilien Brice/CERN
The Particle physics department (DPhP) is addressing particle physics, astroparticle physics and observational cosmology through five main research topics:
DPhP is involved in the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), with responsibilities in detector operation and in physics analyses, with emphases on standard model precision measurements, on Higgs-boson and top-quark physics, and on the search for new physics. Detector R&D for future ILC and FCC colliders is also actively pursued. In the field of neutrino physics, DPhP physicists participate in the long-baseline T2K experiment in Japan and in reactor experiments such as Double Chooz and NuCLEUS, as well as in prospective studies on bolometric enriched-crystal detectors for the next generation neutrinoless double-beta decay search experiment, CUPID.
Proposed and designed by the DPhP physicists, the GBAR experiment at CERN aims at measuring precisely the acceleration of antimatter in Earth's gravity field. In the field of astroparticles, the DPhP is at the forefront of multi-messenger astronomy with very high-energy probes, including neutrinos with ANTARES and gamma rays with H.E.S.S. and the future CTA observatory. In the field of cosmology, emphasis is put on the characterization of the dark components of the Universe, on determining the mass scale of neutrinos and on constraining models of modified gravity, through the exploitation of the on-going SDSS/BOSS, SDSS/eBOSS and up-coming DESI spectroscopic galaxy surveys, coupled with detailed simulations of large structure formation.
