CERN Courier Jul/Aug 2021

The outer barrel of ALICE's new inner tracking system installed in March
The outer barrel of ALICE's new inner tracking system installed in March (Image: CERN)

Welcome to the digital edition of the July/August 2021 issue of CERN Courier.

Since the early 1980s, successive generations of silicon trackers have driven numerous discoveries (p39). The LHC detectors represent the state of the art in particle-tracking applications, delivering high-granularity data at speed under the most extreme operating conditions imaginable. Containing some 12.5 Gpixels, the recently installed upgraded inner tracker for the ALICE detector, pictured on this issue’s cover, is the largest pixel detector ever built and the first at the LHC to use monolithic active pixel sensors (p29). Next year, LHCb will also be equipped with an entirely new pixel tracker, the VELO, while ATLAS and CMS are developing advanced pixel trackers to be installed for future high-luminosity LHC operations (p36).

Silicon-pixel detectors developed for particle physics have also had a major impact on medical imaging, in particular via the CERN-led Medipix and Timepix collaborations (p23). Sticking with societal impact, this issue’s Viewpoint argues for an exascale computing facility based on the organisation of CERN (p49).

Elsewhere in our summer issue: collider neutrinos on the horizon (p7); particle accelerators meet gravitational waves (p18); reducing greenhouse gases in detectors (p20); exploring the Hubble tension (p51); reviews (p55); careers (p59); and much more.

j CERN Courier July/August 2021