This is a new strategic project within the European research center CERN that will fundamentally change the way scientists study elementary particles.
Particle collisions up to fifty times faster
The FASTTRACK project focuses on developing cutting-edge sensor technologies that will enable experiments such as LHCb, ATLAS, and ALICE to record collisions between elementary particles up to fifty times faster than is currently possible. This technological leap will allow researchers to collect far more—and far more detailed—data on how matter in our universe is structured.
“Thanks to this innovation, we will soon be able not only to make more precise measurements but also to explore entirely new physical phenomena that have so far been out of reach,” says Gerhard Raven, head of the Particle and Astroparticle Physics section at VU. “That could lead to discoveries that fundamentally change our understanding of the laws of nature.”
Dutch expertise at the heart of CERN
As a partner of Nikhef, the national institute for subatomic physics, VU is closely involved in the LHCb experiment at CERN. This experiment investigates so-called ‘flavour physics’—the subtle differences between matter and antimatter. The new sensors will allow researchers to gain even better insight into why the universe is filled with matter, instead of having remained empty after matter and antimatter annihilated each other into radiation shortly after the Big Bang.
Project leader Mara Soares, who is also the national program leader for LHCb at Nikhef, emphasizes the importance of collaboration: “This technology not only gives us an edge in international science, but it also strengthens the position of the Netherlands within global research into the fundamental building blocks of nature.”
Investment in knowledge and innovation
Support from the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Facilities of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) ensures that the Netherlands can remain at the forefront of particle physics for the next ten years. The investment (the program budget exceeds €53 million, of which NWO contributes nearly €22 million) guarantees, among other things, the development of new detector hardware and the continuation of the Dutch contribution to LHCb.
Wouter Hulsbergen, professor by special appointment in Flavour Physics at the LHC, concludes: “With this step, VU - together with our partners- continues to contribute to answering the biggest questions posed by nature. And who knows, we might discover something that turns everything we think we know upside down.”