Physics
Overview, ATLAS LEGO® model (mini), Publications, Students/Teaching,
Outreach, Travelling, Ph.D. thesis, Master thesis, Master studies
Due to my general interest in almost everything that is or is related to physics I decided to study physics back in 2001. After about four years of broad physics education during my master degree studies mainly at Humboldt-University Berlin and Niels Bohr Institute Copenhagen, I finally decided to write my master thesis on Elementary Particle Physics at NBI.
The obviously obvious decision to continue in this field brought me to DESY (Zeuthen site) to write my Ph.D. thesis, which I defended July 12th 2010.
Currently I am a postdoc, at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, working on searches for stable massive particles in ATLAS, the Danish air shower array and various outreach projects.
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ATLAS LEGO® model
LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group.
As part of an outreach project at the Niels Bohr Institute I have recently designed a model of the ATLAS experiment in LEGO® bricks. It illustrates all details, from the muon and magnet system to the innermost pixel detector and will hopefully be a great eye-catcher for all generations. Here's some key features:
- about 9500 pieces
- roughly 1:50 in scale (close to scale with the LEGO® man)
- material cost of about 2000 Euros (payed by the high energy physics group at the Niels Bohr Institute)
- about 1 m x 0.5 m x 0.5 m in size
- approximately 33 hours construction time (spread out over several weekends and after hours)
- around 48 hours to build the 3D model (a one-timer though)
If you wanna know more, feel free to contact me: sascha.mehlhase@nbi.dk.
In case you feel like reading one of the many articles, blogs and whatnot published about the model,
have a look at this little media coverage overview.
I do not have a straight forward construction manual yet, but I am working on it!
Thanks a lot to Jørgen Beck Hansen and Peter Rosendahl for some initial thoughts on the model,
to the NBI workshop at Rockefeller for the showcase and to the high energy physics group in general for financing this idea.
Here's a small gallery showing the construction of the first model:
ATLAS LEGO® mini
LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group.
As a follow up to the 1:50 model of the ATLAS experiment, I designed a slightly smaller and cheaper miniature model in LEGO® bricks. Though it does not illustrate all details, the key features of ATLAS are visible and hopefully it will still be a great eye-catcher for all generations. Here's some key features:
- 560 pieces
- roughly 1:2000 in scale
- material cost of about 75 Euros
- about 22 cm x 11 cm x 11 cm in size
- approximately 90 minutes construction time
- around 7 hours to build the 3D model (a one-timer though)
If you wanna know more, feel free to contact me: sascha.mehlhase@nbi.dk.
As I hope to have this as an official ATLAS LEGO® souvenir at some point, please understand that I wont give out neither a construction manual nor a 3D model in the moment.
Here's a small gallery showing the construction of the first model:
Publications
Below I compiled a selection of publications with personal involvement.
A more complete list of publications as member of the ATLAS collaboration can be found on INSPIRE.
- "Search for Heavy Long-Lived Charged Particles with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV"
ATLAS note - in preparation - "Search for charged long-lived particles with the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC"
internal ATLAS note (ATL-PHYS-INT-2012-011) - March 25th 2012 - "A Summary of Thermal Measurements from the Pixel Commissioning Programm"
internal ATLAS note (ATL-INDET-INT-2011-003) - April 20th 2011 - "The German National Analysis Facility as a tool for ATLAS analyses"
proceedings (ATL-SOFT-PROC-2011-009) to be published in J. Phys.: Conf. Ser in 2011 - January 13th 2011 - "The German National Analysis Facility as a tool for ATLAS analyses"
ATLAS poster (ATL-SOFT-SLIDE-2010-356) - October 8th 2010 - "ATLAS Insertable B-Layer Technical Design Report"
ATLAS technical design report (ATLAS-TDR-019) - October 6th 2010 - "Development of a Data-Driven Algorithm to Determine the W+Jets Background in tT Events in ATLAS"
Ph.D.thesis - July 12th 2010 - "Commissioning of the ATLAS Pixel Optical Readout Link"
internal ATLAS note (ATL-INDET-INT-2010-012) - June 15th 2010 - "Prospects for Top Physics at the start-up LHC"
talk on behalf of the ATLAS and CMS collaborations (ATL-PHYS-SLIDE-2009-275)
at the 22nd International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos, Perugia/Italy - September 15th 2009 - "Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics"
book published as ISBN 978-92-9083-321-5 - December 2008 - "Re-evaluation of the LHC potential for the measurement of mW"
paper published in Eur.Phys.J.C57:627-651,2008 - May 14th 2008 - "Electron Identification with the TRT and the W Boson Mass Measurement at ATLAS"
Master Thesis - February 1st 2007 - "A probability based approach to PID in the TRT detector of ATLAS"
internal ATLAS communication (ATL-COM-INDET-2006-017) - October 7th 2006
Students/Teaching
- "Applied Statistics"
exercise tutor and exchange lecturer (winter semester 2012)
Niels Bohr Institute - "Applied Statistics"
exercise tutor and exchange lecturer (winter semester 2011)
Niels Bohr Institute - Kamilla Trans and Samuel Stokholm Baxter
academic advisor for their first year project (spring 2011)
project title: "Karakteristik af scintillatorer til DUKS projektet" (Characterisation of scintillators for the DUKS project)
Niels Bohr Institute - Karina Bzheumikhova
secondary supervision of her bachelor project (2009)
DESY/Humboldt Universität zu Berlin - Clemens Lange
secondary supervision of his summer student project (2007) and master thesis (2008/09)
thesis title: "Studies of Single Top Production in Proton-Proton Collisions with the ATLAS Experiment"
DESY/Humboldt Universität zu Berlin - "Detektoren in der Elementarteilchenphysik" (Detectors in elementary particle physics)
exercise tutor and exchange lecturer (summer semester 2007)
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Outreach
To convince more and more people of the beauty of physics and our beautiful world in itself and got myself involved in several outreach activities.
Once in a while I give lectures on elementary particle physics for highschool students at DESY in Zeuthen or give tours as an Official CERN Guide at CERN. In the past I took part in the organisation and/or realisation of several projects listed below ...
- "ICHEP Science Exhibition"
taking part in the organisation, Museum Victoria, Melbourne (June/July 2012) - "Building an ATLAS model"
constructing an ATLAS with school children, Museum Victoria, Melbourne (June 2012) - "Tag der Weltmaschine - Science Slam"
participant in the science slam, Urania Berlin, Berlin (23.11.2011) - "ATLAS LEGO model"
designing and building a 1:50 LEGO model of the ATLAS detector (Oct/Nov 2011) - "Kulturnatten"
Guide at Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (14.10.2011) - "Big Bang"
Guide in the "Big Bang" exhibition, Experimentarium, Copenhagen (11.01.2011) - "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften in Berlin und Potsdam"
Guide in the Physics Institute, Humboldt University, Berlin (05.06.2010) - "Tag der Wissenschaften am Marie-Curie-Gymnasium Wittenberge"
Talk about the phyics and technique(s) of the LHC, Marie-Curie-Gymnasium, Wittenberge (13.11.2009) - "MINT-Experimentier-Camp 2009 der Stiftung Deutsche Wirtschaft e.V."
Guide for teachers and students in the exhibition, DESY, Zeuthen (06.11.2009) - Official CERN Guide
(ATLAS, CAST, CMS, Computing Center, LEIR/LEAR, LHCb, Linac2, SM18)
Guide to different CERN experiments, CERN, Geneva (2009) - "Weltmaschine"
Guide in the exhibition, Subway station Bundestag, Berlin (01.-02.11.2008) - "LHC-Startup BMBF Press Conference"
Press Conference, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Berlin (10.09.2008) - "Physik zum Frühstück"
Q&A about physics, DESY, Zeuthen (13.07.2008) - "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften in Berlin und Potsdam"
Guide in the "LHC-Train", S41 LHC-Train, Berlin (14.06.2008) - "CERN Open Day 2008"
ATLAS-Guide, CERN, Geneva (06.04.2008) - "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften in Berlin und Potsdam"
Guide in the Physics Institute, Humboldt University, Berlin (09.06.2007) - "Kulturnatten"
Guide at Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (13.10.2006)
Travelling
My little sum up of scheduled and realised trips in the name of science.
- Hadron Collider Physics Symposium 2012
Kyoto (12.11.2012 - 16.11.2012) - ICHEP 2012 & ICHEP Science Exhibition
Melbourne (26.06.2012 - 16.07.2012) - Tag der Weltmaschine - Science Slam
Berlin (23.11.2011) - Hadron Collider Physics Symposium 2011
Paris (14.11.2011 - 18.11.2011) - SMP workshop, Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa (28.10.2011 - 04.11.2011) - Annual meeting of the Danish Physical Society
Nyborg (21.06.2011 - 22.06.2011) - Lundbeck Atlas Group Workshop
Athens (14.06.2011 - 19.06.2011) - CMOS Introduction, Institut de Recherches Subatomiques
Strasbourg (12.06.2011 - 14.06.2011) - ATLAS LLP Workshop, La Sapienza
Rome (07.04.2011 - 08.04.2011) - SUSY Meeting / Pixel Thermal Note Working Meeting, CERN
Geneva (23.01.2011 - 28.01.2011) - CHEP 2010
Taipei (18.10.2010 - 22.10.2010) - Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft
Bonn (17.03.2010 - 19.03.2010) - Pixel Thermal Note Working Meeting, CERN
Geneva (18.01.2010 - 21.01.2010) - ATLAS-D Meeting
Bonn (23.09.2009 - 25.09.2009) - 22nd International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos
Perugia (13.09.2009 - 18.09.2009) - Work in Pixel Group & Shifts, CERN
Geneva (01.04.2009 - 02.07.2009) - ID & ATLAS Week, CERN
Geneva (08.02.2009 - 17.02.2009) - Weltmaschine Exhibition
Berlin (01.11.2008 - 02.11.2008) - Work in Pixel Group & Shifts, CERN
Geneva (28.09.2008 - 20.12.2008) - ATLAS-D Meeting
Munich (17.09.2008 - 19.09.2008) - 2008 Hadron Collider Physics Summer School, Fermilab
Chicago (12.08.2008 - 22.08.2008) - National Analysis Facility and Full Dress Rehearsal Tutorial, DESY
Hamburg (13.05.2008 - 15.05.2008) - CERN Open Day and ATLAS Week, CERN
Geneva (03.04.2008 - 09.04.2008) - Frühjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft
Freiburg (03.03.2008 - 07.03.2008) - LHC-D Top Meeting
Bad Honnef (08.02.2008 - 09.02.2008) - 'Physics at the Terascale' - Kick Off Workshop at DESY
Hamburg (04.12.2007 - 06.12.2007) - EventView Tutorial by Amir Farbin, DESY
Hamburg (12.11.2007 - 13.11.2007) - ATLAS Trigger & Physics week, CERN
Geneva (03.11.2007 - 11.11.2007) - Autumn School for Particle Physics
Maria Laach (04.09.2007 - 14.09.2007) - Inner Detector week & Top working meeting, CERN
Geneva (18.06.2007 - 07.07.2007) - ATLAS Trigger & Physics week, CERN
Geneva (30.10.2006 - 03.11.2006) - European Summer University
Strasbourg (03.07.2006 - 12.07.2006) - Annual meeting of the Danish Physical Society
Nyborg (01.06.2006 - 02.06.2006) - Inner Detector week, CERN
Geneva (26.09.2005 - 30.09.2005) - Summer Student Lectures/Project, CERN
Geneva (05.07.2005 - 18.09.2005) - Annual meeting of the Danish Physical Society
Nyborg (02.06.2005 - 03.06.2005)
Ph.D. thesis
In 2007 I started working on my Ph.D. thesis in elementary particle physics at DESY in Zeuthen and Humboldt-University in Berlin.
I was mainly working on event-selection (trigger) analyses as well as a new/modified approach to estimate backgrounds to top-quark events in a data-driven manner at the ATLAS experiment at CERN. Besides that I worked on Detector-Control-System software for the Pixel Detector of ATLAS and performed studies on the thermal performance of this device.
This all ended up in a thesis titled: "Development of a Data-Driven Algorithm to Determine the W+Jets Background in Top-Antitop Events in ATLAS", which I handed in end of May 2010.
On July 12th 2010 I defended my thesis in a public disputation and finally got my diploma in September 2010.
Full text PDF of my Ph.D. thesis.
Master thesis
Roughly 5.2 years ago, on Februar 23rd 2007, I defended my master thesis in a public colloquium at NBI and thereby recieved the degree Master of Science from the University of Copenhagen (DK).
For my thesis entitled: "Electron Identification with the TRT and the W Boson Mass Measurement at ATLAS", I worked on methods and analyses connected to the electron identification in one of the sub-detectors of the ATLAS experiment, called Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT). And the potential capabilities of the ATLAS experiment to measure the mass of the W boson. For the latter I was mainly trying to characterise the theoretical uncertainties introduced by virtual and real QED FSR.
Full text PDF of my master thesis.
Master studies
Just for completeness I put up a little table with my course plan for my MSc degree ...
| Winter semester '06/'07 | |
|---|---|
| Master thesis (supervisor: Dr. Troels Petersen, advisor: Prof. John Renner Hansen) |
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| Summer school '06 | |
| European Summer University "Particles and the Universe" in Strasbourg (FR) | |
| Summer semester '06 | |
| Master thesis (supervisor: Dr. Troels Petersen, advisor: Prof. John Renner Hansen) |
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| Winter semester '05/'06 | |
| Introduction to the Standard Model of particle Physics (Dr. W. Bietenholz) |
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| X-ray crystal optics (Prof. R. Köhler) |
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| Introduction to astrophysics (Prof. Kolanoski) |
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| Seminar in experimental physics (Prof. Fussmann, Prof. Kolanoski, Prof. Lohse, Prof. Pavel) |
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| Laboratory work in the surface science group (Dr. M. Busch, Prof. Winter) |
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| Summer school '05 | |
| CERN Summer-Student Lectures '05 I designed the 2005 Summer Student t-shirt front :) See it here! |
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| "Particle identification at TRT/ATLAS"-project at CERN in the high energy physics-group of the Niels Bohr Institutes in Copenhagen (DK) (Dr. T. Petersen, Prof. J.D. Hansen) |
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| Summer semester '05 | |
| Strong interaction in theory and experiment (Prof. F. Sannino, I. Bearden) |
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| Neutron scattering in theory, simulation and experiment incl. experimental week at the Paul Scherer Institute (PSI) in Villingen, CH (Dr. K. Lefmann) |
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| "Particle identification at TRT/ATLAS"-project at CERN in the high energy physics-group of the Niels Bohr Institutes in Copenhagen (DK) (Dr. T. Petersen, Prof. J.D. Hansen) |
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| Danish module 3 (Kamma) |
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| Winter semester '04/'05 | |
| Physics and chemistry of nanostructures (T. Björnholm, A.-P. Jauho, S. Helvig, O. Södermann, L. Montelius, S. Mørup, A. Menin, K. Flensberg, a.o.) |
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| Biophysics of non-equilibrium processes in biology and evolution (Dr. Heimburg) |
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| Many body physics (Prof. K. Flensberg) |
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| Experimental methods in high energy physics (Prof. J.D. Hansen) |
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| Elementary particle physics (Prof. P.H. Damgaard) |
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| Danish module 2 (Elinborg) |
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| Summer school '04 | |
| Danish module 1 (Jeppe) |
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| Summer semester '04 | |
| Statistical physics and quantum statistics (Prof. Sokolov) |
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| Introduction to plasma physics (Prof. Fußmann) |
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| Introduction to surface physics (Prof. Winter) |
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| Applied optics and holography (Dr. Wernicke) |
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| Advanced laboratory course | |
| Winter semester '03/'04 | |
| Quantum theory II (Prof. Ebert) |
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| Structure of matter A: Atomic and molecular physics (Prof. Rabe) |
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| Structure of matter B: Solid state physics (Prof. Manzke) |
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| Advanced laboratory course | |
| Summer semester '03 | |
| Quantum theory I Quantum mechanics, experimental introduction to quantum physics (Prof. Ebert / Prof. Köhler) |
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| Thermodynamics (Prof. Lüst) |
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| English for students of natural sciences | |
| Winter semester '02/'03 | |
| Physics III Electrodynamics, wave optics (Prof. Keiper / Prof. Köhler) |
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| Analysis III (Prof. Bank) |
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| Complex analysis (Dr. Meyer) |
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| Applied computer science I (Prof. Coy) |
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| Basic laboratory course III Electricity, magnetism, geometrical and wave optics |
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| Summer semester '02 | |
| Physics II Analytical mechanics, electro and magneto statics, geometrical optics (Prof. Keiper / Prof. Köhler) |
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| Analysis II (Prof. Bank) |
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| Linear algebra (Dr. Tuschik) |
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| Physical chemistry with laboratory course (Prof. Rademann) |
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| Basic laboratory course II Mechanics, vibrations, thermodynamics |
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| Winter semester '01/'02 | |
| Physics I Mathematical tools, classical mechanics (Prof. Keiper / Prof. Köhler) |
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| Analysis I (Prof. Bank) |
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| Basic laboratory course I Measurement methods, error calculation, critical result assessment |
