It’s time to go to CERN. The LHC has been delivering beam for a few weeks now, with a record 8 TeV center-of-mass energy having been achieved. The ATLAS detector stands ready for for first proton-proton collisions at this energy. This week is the ATLAS Physics and Performance week, and I am taking some time away from teaching to travel to CERN and focus on research.
Our SMU ATLAS group has been exploring some new directions in the search for and measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson. Our students and post-docs have been leading this effort so far, and my hope is to leap into the fray for a week and get my feet wet on the analysis. We’ve been partnering with physicists from outside of SMU, so this has been a very rewarding study for a new direction. I am also hoping to catch up on my own interests in the electrically charged Higgs Boson; our publication on last year’s data is imminent, and it’s time to think about new directions in that search as well. This week is an opportunity to step away from teaching and research – thanks to my co-professor in my course – and focus on research.
For now, though, this trip is just a lot of sitting in airports and waiting to get to CERN. This is the part I hate; the flights are just long enough to make me impatient and just short enough to prevent me from getting a really good night’s sleep on the plane. When I wake up tomorrow, I’ll be in Switzerland, ready to clear passport control and get my rental car. I don’t mind so much the arriving . . . but the waiting to arrive gets on my nerves.
Well, I guess I cannot complain too much. I have a Ph.D. thesis draft to read and markup in preparation for the thesis defense of one of our SMU graduate students. I also have at least two paper drafts to read and edit. It’s nice to be focused on physics papers for a change. Besides, if they are detailed enough and I am tired enough, I might just get more sleep than I originally planned for.
