A little art project, inspired by particle physics collisions, that I have been fiddling around with for a while now. Here you can see “Collision #7”, one of the results of the current setup.
Just like in a collision in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, particles of colour collide at high energy and create a seemingly chaotic pattern in the detector. Admittedly, the energies are nowhere near those at the LHC and unlike in (real) high-energy collisions the outgoing ‘particles’ are still those that went into the collision, but yet there is a few commonalities. It is also coloured particles that collide in the LHC and the conservation of energy and momentum holds also in the Colliding Colours setup (even on a classical level).
Today we published a 360-degree guided video tour to the ATLAS Experiment I recorded already back in February and recently finished editing. You won’t need a helmet or solid shoes for this tour and you’re welcome to bring your kids along. This special tour will even take you places you wouldn’t be able to see on a regular tour on site, and you’ll have the chance to look around by yourself. Last but not least, you can get yourself a Google Cardboard, put your mobile phone into it and enjoy the tour in virtual reality, making it an even more immersive experience.
Going back to the Niels Bohr Institute as a postdoc, I started working on searches for unconventional signatures and long-lived particles and got stuck with that ever since.
I started out looking for heavy, charged long-lived particles, an analysis I continued also after moving to LMU Munich in 2014. Since then, I had the pleasure of leading two ATLAS physics subgroups – supersymmetry with R-parity-violating and long-lived signatures as well as exotics with unconventional and exotic Higgs decays – and joined a community effort in documenting the current status and harmonise searches for long-lived particles at the LHC. Amongst other things, I am currently also working on searches for Soft Unclustered Energy Patterns as signatures of strongly coupled Hidden Sectors and just finished my habilitation.
Besides physics analysis, especially looking for long-lived particles, I was always interested in science communication and education and have been involved in outreach projects since 2006. Highlights were and are certainly the design of the ATLAS LEGO model in 2011, the creation of the ‘Build Your Own Particle Detector‘ programme in 2013 and running it since, the coordination of the ATLAS contribution to the 2019 CERN Open Days, and the still ongoing work on a new ATLAS Visitor Centre. Since 2018, I am also an Education & Outreach coordinator for the ATLAS Collaboration.
I hope to have quite a few more years within ATLAS and other collaborations …
Yesterday, I officially finished my habilitation at LMU Munich by picking up my diploma. So from now on it’s not just Dr. rer. nat. it’s also Dr. habil.
My last deed in the process, I did already on 5 February with a scientific debate about my main research topic: “Searches for new physics in signatures of long-lived particles”. Hopefully soon, following some more paperwork, I will also have my venia legendi and be a Privatdozent for experimental physics at LMU Munich.
Luckily I also had multiple chances to see ATLAS this year, due to the Open Days preparations as well as several outreach projects we are working on, from more professional underground virtual visits to a 360 degrees virtual visit to the cavern.
And in the spirit of the holidays and competing with lasts year’s pictures, also this year we put together some season-inspired pictures … you’ll see more of that in the coming days ;)
(c) ATLAS/CERN
(c) ATLAS/CERN
(c) ATLAS/CERN
Last but not least, I also handed in my habilitation report a few weeks before Christmas. Let’s see if that helps in finding a new job net year …
