Fake Banner
On Progress

The human race has made huge progress in the past few thousand years, gradually improving the living...

The Night Sky From Atacama

For the third time in 9 years I am visiting San Pedro de Atacama, a jewel in the middle of nowhere...

On A Roll

What? Another boring chess game?Buzz off, this is my blog, and if I feel like posting a chess game...

When The Attack Plays Itself

After a very intense day at work, I sought some relaxation in online blitz chess today. And the...

User picture.
picture for Hank Campbellpicture for Heidi Hendersonpicture for Bente Lilja Byepicture for Sascha Vongehrpicture for Patrick Lockerbypicture for Johannes Koelman
Tommaso DorigoRSS Feed of this column.

Tommaso Dorigo is an experimental particle physicist, who works for the INFN at the University of Padova, and collaborates with the CMS and the SWGO experiments. He is the president of the Read More »

 Blogroll
A New Z' Boson At 240 GeV ? No, Wait, At 720!?

A New Z' Boson At 240 GeV ? No, Wait, At 720!?

Aug 03 2009 | comment(s)

Readers familiar with this blog know that I am a die-hard skeptic on the issue of physics beyond the Standard Model. However, today I am wearing my fluctuation-enthusiast hat, and I will be trying to argue in favor of the possible signal of new physics that is coming out of the Tevatron data. Please do not get confused: everything is still in order. Maybe.
Detailed Balance Explained To My Son

Detailed Balance Explained To My Son

Jul 30 2009 | comment(s)

Detailed balance is a simple and powerful rule to describe the dynamics of two-state systems.

If you know the probability of a transition from a state A to the other state B of a physical system (in some appropriate time unit), and you also know the probability of the reverse reaction , then you automatically know what is equilibrium condition for N bodies distributed in the two states:

.
Rudiments Of The Method Of Maximum Likelihood

Rudiments Of The Method Of Maximum Likelihood

Jul 29 2009 | comment(s)

Besides the usual share of random readers who google something and get directed here by mere chance (to be read: by the sheer amount of valuable information I have posted here), this blog is read by an interesting mix of particle physicists, students, experts in other fields of Physics, and Science amateurs -plus a small number of science reporters looking for news.

Of course I love each and every one of my faithful readers like good teachers love their pupils, but among the varied crowd, the readers which I am most happy to host here are students and amateurs, because they provide me with true motivation for spending my time writing popularization articles. Without them, many of my posts would lose their meaning.
The Say of the Week

The Say of the Week

Jul 28 2009 | comment(s)

"Non ho mai chiesto di occuparmi di mafia. Ci sono entrato per caso. E poi ci sono rimasto per un problema morale. La gente mi moriva attorno"

(I never asked to work on mafia. I got to do it by chance. And then I continued because of a moral issue. People around me kept dying.)

Paolo Borsellino (Italian Judge, killed by mafia in 1992)
Two Standard Deviations From Tevatron Results Of Bs Mesons

Two Standard Deviations From Tevatron Results Of Bs Mesons

Jul 26 2009 | comment(s)

One year ago, a paper by a distinguished group of theorists announced first evidence of new physics from measurements of the properties of B_s mesons performed at the Tevatron by the CDF and DZERO experiments. They had combined all the available information, obtaining a result which disagreed with the Standard Model (SM) prediction by more than three standard deviations.
Frankly Embarassing

Frankly Embarassing

Jul 25 2009 | comment(s)

The happy nights of Italy's Premier Silvio Berlusconi, now documented in hot recordings taken by Escort Patrizia D'Addario, have by now circled the free world (in Italy they are only available to readers of a couple of newspapers allegedly "hostile to the government", Repubblica and L'Espresso).