UPDATE: some technical considerations on the measurement are available in a followup post I wrote after attending a seminar on the new result today. In particular, one startling consideration emerges - if the reading of the 20 MHz Opera clock were off by just one tick, the result would be compatible with v=c.

UPDATE: you can download the new Opera paper at this link. You will need to use the username and password "neuvel".

It's been a while since my last "guess the plot" posting. The simple explanation is that I did not happen to run into any fancy graph in the last month or so. Now, today I have one for you to guess, but I must add that I believe it is rather easy to understand what it represents. Less obvious is to completely understand the math behind it, and the implications of the construction.

Today I wish to briefly discuss a recent important measurement produced by the LHCb collaboration, a measurement of CP violation in the decay of charmed mesons. Before I do, I think I need to explain some details of the LHCb experimental arrangement, because it is different from what most readers here are familiar with.

And, update: rather than putting it at the end, I prefer to link Resonaances' post on the same subject here this time - he wrote about the matter yesterday and did a much better job than I do below. Sorry for noticing it after posting mine!

Some pedestrian kinematics

These days I am preparing a three-hour course of statistics for particle physicists which I will give at a winter school in a couple of months. This stimulating task forces me to find nice and simple examples of good and bad applications of basic statistics. Stuff with high didactical value, and hopefully also entertaining.