Department of Theory of Elementary Particles

Fifty years since great particle revolution

Abstract

On Monday, December 2, 2024, it was exactly 50 years to the day since a single issue of Physical Review Letters published three articles, announcing a discovery that fundamentally impacted the further development of our understanding of the laws of the microworld. The first reached the editors on November 12, 1974, the second a day later, and the third on November 18. I will get back to this time sequence later.

CERN celebrates its 70th anniversary

Abstract

On 29 September this year, CERN, a European laboratory for particle physics, the place where the web was born in 1989 and the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012, celebrated its 70th anniversary. The impetus came from Louis de Broglie, a French theoretical physicist and 1929 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, who proposed the establishment of a European physics laboratory in 1949 to prevent the outflow of talented physicists to the US. 

Peter Higgs has died

Abstract

Peter Ware Higgs, the British theoretical physicist known for his work on the Higgs boson and the Higgs mechanism, passed away on Monday 8 April at the age of 95.

What direction will the popularization of physics take? Solutions were debated by experts

Abstract

Does it make sense to publish a printed journal that deals with the promotion of physics? With this controversial question, the director of the Institute of Physics, Michael Prouza, opened a discussion on the future of the popularization of physics. The debate took place on Monday, October 24, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Československý časopis pro fyziku journal in a crowded hall of the SOLID21 building, and was followed by expert lectures on the history of physics and its popularization.

Researchers J. Chýla and I. Pelant have accepted the Ernst Mach Honorary Medals for Merit in Physical Science

Abstract

Today the Honorary Medals have been handed over by the president of the Czech Academy of Sciences Eva Zažímalová. The recipients were 11 researchers honoured for their long-lasting contribution to science by the Czech Academy of Sciences. The laureates included two researchers from the Institute of Physics, prof. Jiří Chýla, CSc. and prof. RNDr. Ivan Pelant, DrSc.

For Václav Vrba

Abstract

Václav Vrba, our classmate, friend and colleague passed away after a long illness on Tuesday, December 29. His life’s pilgrimage crossed ours in a number of places and for years in our working as well as personal lives and it is difficult for us to accept that it no longer will be so.

The Lumina Quaeruntur premium for “New Ways in Search for Dark Energy”

Abstract

A total of seven Lumina Quaeruntur premiums for researchers of younger and middle generation have been awarded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic within a programme to support prospective scientists. One of the recognized researchers is Ippocratis Saltas from Centre for Cosmology and Fundamental Physics of the Institute of Physics. The annual ceremony at which laureates are handed over prizes by Eva Zažímalová, the president of the Academy of Sciences, was postponed due to epidemiological measures.