Lhc Update

[jim360]

For those who were interested, here's my (brief... ish) summary of 2016 at CERN:

- Last year saw a bit of excitement as there appeared to be signs of a "bump" in certain decays that could have been a new particle. 2016 saw this bump disappear. Ah, well.

- This year has seen the continued discovery of what might be called "minor" new stuff -- things that are of interest to the specialists, but still exciting nonetheless. A few new decays that were expected but never before seen, that sort of thing.

- In 2015 one of the experiments, LHCb, announced the potential discovery of a new class of particle known as a "pentaquark" state -- that's 5 quarks (well, really 4 quarks and an antiquark) in a single particle. Previously we'd only ever observed two- and three-quark states, conclusively at least. 2016 followed up with the potential discovery of tetraquark starts. These have yet to be totally confirmed but they're vital to understand if we want to get how the Standard Model turns quarks into actual matter, so it's exciting stuff (sort of).

- There are a few results that look "interesting", although not yet robust enough to be "exciting" or even "definite" signs of new physics. Most of these are in certain decays of B mesons; for the time being we need to wait for yet more experimental data to see where things go, and the interpretation is subtle, but 2016 seems to me to have seen this strengthen rather than weaken so it's exciting times!

However, in terms of the really new stuff 2016 hasn't seen anything turn up yet, that I'm aware of. Most of the experimental papers on New Physics searches, from the ATLAS and CMS experiments, tend to include the line "No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed..." We're testing the Standard Model -- the current best explanation for all particle physics -- to its limits, and it essentially continues to hold up stronger and stronger, with increasingly little room for the New Physics we were hoping, or expecting, to find.

Having said that, a lot of the analysis of 2016 data will really start to roll out next year, so there may be a few surprises yet. So far, though, the LHC is suggesting that it will soon be time for theorists to go back to the drawing board...

[murraymints]

and a happy Christmas to you Jim xx for that surely is a Christmas address ?

[gness]

Merry Christmas, Jim..........Gx

[jim360]

Well it's nice to see new faces in the Science pages, at least! Merry Christmas to all.

[melv16]

Merry Xmas, jimbob. I'm going for a lie down after reading that :-)

[gness]

Well I must admit, Jim.....I only looked in because I thought Lhc stood for....

Learn Hanoverian Crochet...... :-(

[HansUrbancka]

It's all too complicated for me to understand. There was I thinking that LHC stood for 'Light Hearted Chat'.

Sorry about my misunderstanding.

Hans.

[HansUrbancka]

In actual fact jim360, I know that the letters Lhc are the abbreviation for 'Large Hadron Collider' and my posting above was me trying to be humerous.

To be serious, I've seen your name on numerous occasions in AB but never realised that you are engaged in Science at a very high level.

Best wishes to you for Christmas and the New Year

Cheers.....Hans.

[gness]

But you do know Jim refers to me for advice and information, Hans.....☺

[douglas9401]

Fascinating. It would be even moreso if I understood better than every third word. Respect. :)

[murraymints]

Jim is the clever professor on AB...all..maths and physics and stuff beyond my understanding..but G and I adore him...keep threatening to take him up Arthur's Seat for he is in my ain toon...but he keeps running away ..can't understand why...

[douglas9401]

Not everyone likes a brisk breeze of the hillside about their large hadron, MM. :)

[HansUrbancka]

@douglas9401......I almost reported you for what you said above to MM on her birthday. However, when I re-read your posting and realised that your last word was Hadron, it became obvious to me that I was the bad minded one and had transposed the D and R. It's a case of needing to go to Specsavers.

Hans. ☺☺☺

[murraymints]

HANS !!! roooooooood !!! lol xx

[Buenchico]

Thanks for all that, Jim. Are you merely an observer of all this stuff or a participant?

(Merry Christmas, BTW!)

[jim360]

A bit of both, Chris. In theory, at least... cited a couple of times by LHCb.

[Buenchico]

A friend of mine has been involved in the work on the LHC. I wonder if your paths have crossed at any time?
http://www.phys.virginia.edu/People/personal.asp?UID=sc2k

[jim360]

Nope. But then the community is big enough for us to miss each other rather easily.

Seems he's based at or around CMS, whereas most of the physics I work on (using "work" in the broadest possible sense, of course) is at LHCb.

[Buenchico]

OK. I thought that it was probably a long shot but I know that Sergio (or 'Boby' to his friends) was a participant at the LHCb 20th Anniversary event in 2015 and that he's attended some events in Geneva since then.

I daren't ask him about physics. I just know that he's brilliant at solving crosswords ;-)

[jim360]

Thanks for the compliments Douglas, Hans, and Chris by the way. (And also no apology necessary Hans!) If only all the other people who purport to respect my "engagement in Science at a very high level" bothered to pay actual attention to what I said about science... but never mind.

Happy Christmas all!