A new paper produced by the
DZERO collaboration got me quite interested today, for several reasons. The analysis is based on a large data sample: over seven inverse femtobarns of proton-antiproton collisions! This is a huge dataset, the result of about 500 trillion proton-antiproton collisions! In fact, the measurement these data has made possible is extremely precise and it exposes quite strikingly the shortcomings of our present modeling of the production of vector bosons.
The Standard Model of particle physics has been under attack since its original formulation, in 1967, and yet it has so far resisted every assault; in so doing it has become one of the most thoroughly tested physical theories. Like it or not, the construction has stood the test of time so well that theorists and experimentalists alike feel threatened by the chance that the Large Hadron Collider, too, will fail to find new physics beyond what the model predicts.
Last week in Tesero, in front of an audience of 150 interested laypersons, I spoke about the marvels of particle physics (the poster of the conference I gave is below, click to enlarge). My first slide made clear what I believe is the most important gift of a researcher -theorist or experimentalist- in fundamental science:
I am not a believer of any faith, and the most common prayer you can hear from my voice is "pass the salt". However, I claim I have the right to have my own opinion on what is worth praying for.
Praying for oneself or one's beloved relatives or friends is too selfish an occupation to deserve my attention. Praying for the world in general, for world peace, or for the human race, on the other hand, sounds a bit too ambitious for any single voice. There must be a middle ground.
On Friday evening I was in Tesero, where a crowd of 150 interested laypersons attended my talk on particle physics, organized by the very active
Gruppo Astrofili Fiemme. There, among other things, I discussed the challenge that is on between the Fermilab experiments in the United States and the CERN experiments in Europe. I will discuss elsewhere the successful evening; here I just want to show the status of data collection by the two challengers.
The physics news in August have so far disappointed me, with the only remarkable one being the sad departure of Nicola Cabibbo. After ICHEP 2010, with the frenzy of paper production that has characterized the month of July in all major particle physics experiments, it was easy to predict a slower pace. So I did not lose too much, apparently, by spending four weeks in Greece and one week in the Italian Alps.
But effective today, I am back in business. This means no more four-day hiatuses in updates of my blog (due to the trouble with accessing the web from the remote locations I have confined myself in), and a more effective coverage of news from the world of High-Energy Physics.
Move Over - The Talk I Will Not Give
Shaping The Future Of AI For Fundamental Physics
On Rating Universities
Goodbye Peter Higgs, And Thanks For The Boson
