The 24th Ockham Lecture - 'Beyond the Higgs Discovery: The Coming of Age of ATLAS and the CERN LHC'

Date: Monday 15 May 2017
Time: 17:00 - 19:00
Venue
TS Eliot Theatre, Merton College

Given by Professor David Charlton FRS (1982), Professor of Particle Physics at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, and Spokesperson for the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN.

The lecture was introduced by Professor Alan Barr, and was followed by a Q&A session.

Watch the lecture

Abstract

Following the early discovery of the 125 GeV Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2012, we are still only just starting to explore the scalar sector of the Standard Model. The LHC has been off for two of the last four years for the repairs needed to achieve close to the full collision energy. During the barnstorming physics run in 2016, the LHC achieved its design luminosity, and the physics programme is now properly underway.  In addition to a deeper elaboration of the Higgs sector, a huge range of measurements, and searches for new physics, are in progress, and will continue for two more decades as the data sample increases a couple more (decimal) orders of magnitude. This lecture will review the current status of the LHC and ATLAS, and look at some challenges on the road ahead.

The Ockham Lecture series

The Merton College Physics Lecture (the Ockham, or Occam, Lecture, so named in honour of one of the greatest—if unattested—alumni of the College and of his philosophical principle of intellectual discipline) started in 2009 and is held once a term. It is organised by the physics tutors of the College to promote both intellectual curiosity and social cohesion of the Merton Physics community.

Attendance is by invitation: All Merton physicists (and sympathisers!) belonging to the three Common Rooms (JCR, MCR and SCR) are invited, as are the Old Members. Their guests are also accommodated, space permitting.