Project

Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN

CMS stands for Compact Muon Solenoid: compact because it is “small” for its enormous weight, Muon for one of the particles it detects, and solenoid for the coil inside its huge superconducting magnet. It is a high-energy physics experiment in Cessy, France, part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

CMS is designed to see a wide range of particles and phenomena produced in high-energy collisions in the LHC. Like a cylindrical onion, different layers of detector stop and measure the different particles, and use this key data to build up a picture of events at the heart of the collision.


Scientists then use this data to search for new phenomena that will help to answer questions such as: What is the Universe really made of and what forces act within it? And what gives everything substance? CMS will also measure the properties of previously discovered particles with unprecedented precision, and be on the lookout for completely new, unpredicted phenomena.


With an international structure, more than three thousand physicists and engineers work in CMS, IFCA's contribution has been centered in the development and construction of an alignment system for the muon chambers of the detector. We have also participated in the development of a Tier-2 facility to analyze the huge amount of data produced during collisions, by means of GRID applications. The Physics channels in which our group work are: Higgs, SUSY and top, preferably with two isolated leptons in their final state.


Our involvement in responsability posts start with Prof. Teresa Rodrigo who is nowadays the chairperson of the collaboration Board of the CMS experiment. Furthemore, Dr. Gervasio Gómez is the person in charge of the Global Muon Alignment effort in the colaboration, while Prof. Francisco Matorras is the person in charge of our Tier-2 facility in the LHC Grid Computing.


One of the main goals for the year 2012 is to confirm or reject the possible signals of a Higgs boson observed in 2011 LHC data.

  • Joint Centre with the combined effort of Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and University of Cantabria (UC)

    Instituto de Física de Cantabria
    Edificio Juan Jordá
    Avenida de los Castros, s/n
    E-39005 Santander
    Cantabria, Spain

  • © IFCA- Institute of Physics of Cantabria