Large collaborations of physicists have a consolidated habit of meeting three or four times per year for a full week of discussions and talks. This has multiple purposes, one of them being the possibility to bring together members who live and work off-site (which may mean several thousand miles away from CERN). So, to alleviate a little the lab-centered life of experiments, one of these events every year is typically held away from the lab, in the site of one of the institutions participating in the experiment.
So that's why I am in Lisbon this week. A "CMS Week" has just started this morning at the LNEC center, where several hundred collaborators have gathered in the main auditorium and are listening to the news by our spokesperson. I expect this to be an interesting time, where I can get filled in with what is going on in CMS which I have overlooked so far - believe me, there is a lot to get updated on!
Perhaps the most important piece of news that I can share with you here today is that the 2012 data taking is proceeding quite successfully. The LHC is running with initial instantaneous luminosities consistently at 7E33 cm^{-2} s^{-1}, and CMS has collected already 140% more statistics of 8 TeV collisions with respect to that which was used for the July 4th discovery announcement. Will we see updated plots of the H->ZZ and H->γγ mass distributions with these new data ? Well, not very soon - the target is winter conferences, so we will have to all be patient.
Of course, Lisbon is also a quite pleasant city, especially at this time of the year. I am not too familiar with the place though, so if you know it well and have suggestions for places to dine or hang around, and things to see which are not in the typical guides, please do let me know!
So that's why I am in Lisbon this week. A "CMS Week" has just started this morning at the LNEC center, where several hundred collaborators have gathered in the main auditorium and are listening to the news by our spokesperson. I expect this to be an interesting time, where I can get filled in with what is going on in CMS which I have overlooked so far - believe me, there is a lot to get updated on!
Perhaps the most important piece of news that I can share with you here today is that the 2012 data taking is proceeding quite successfully. The LHC is running with initial instantaneous luminosities consistently at 7E33 cm^{-2} s^{-1}, and CMS has collected already 140% more statistics of 8 TeV collisions with respect to that which was used for the July 4th discovery announcement. Will we see updated plots of the H->ZZ and H->γγ mass distributions with these new data ? Well, not very soon - the target is winter conferences, so we will have to all be patient.
Of course, Lisbon is also a quite pleasant city, especially at this time of the year. I am not too familiar with the place though, so if you know it well and have suggestions for places to dine or hang around, and things to see which are not in the typical guides, please do let me know!
Enjoy it! Normally people are very nice, and they do understand a little of italian, even if they don't understand a word of english ;)