The Software behind the Higgs Boson Discovery
In this column, David Rousseau describes the enormous software development effort associated with teasing out evidence for the elusive Higgs boson, a cornerstone of the Standard Model. In keeping with previous Impact columns, everything about this is huge but the application is unique.
Searching the Internet
This column differs somewhat from previous ones in that the software itself isn't shipped-rather, the results of the software are shipped, and in huge numbers. Mike Andrews of Microsoft reveals some of the intricacies and enormous resources required for successful Web search with a fascinating glimpse into the Bing search engine.
Monte Carlo simulations of magnetovolume instabilities in anti-Invar systems
We perform constant pressure Monte Carlo simulations of a spin-analogous model which describes coupled spatial and magnetic degrees of freedom on an fcc lattice. Our calculations qualitatively reproduce magnetovolume effects observed in some rare earth manganese compounds, especially in the anti-Invar material YMn2. These are a sudden collapse of the magnetic moment which is connected with a huge volume change, and a largely enhanced thermal expansion coefficient.