Image: LHC magnet being assembled. If Particle Physics were a railway, CERN would be in charge of laying and maintaining the tracks and signalling. Image © CERN. This weekend, I’ve been visiting some friends from my university days. While catching up, they asked me a question which I get a lot: are you still workingContinue reading “If Particle Physics were a railway, who would lay the track and who would drive the trains?”
Tag Archives: physics
High Energy Physics is a generational project
Image: The planned location of the Future Circular Collider at CERN. Credit: CERN. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the entire field of particle physics is less than 130 years old. I pick as a starting point the date that we discovered our first fundamental particle: the electron (discovered in 1897 by J. J. Thompson).Continue reading “High Energy Physics is a generational project “
Five things we learned about fundamental particle physics in 2025
Image: Louie preaching to the converted (during a visit of his masters students to ALICE experiment at CERN in December 2025). Credit: Adrien Auriol. I would like to dedicate this post to the memory of Deepak Kar, who passed away tragically last week after a short illness. We co-organised the CHACAL school together, and IContinue reading “Five things we learned about fundamental particle physics in 2025”
“Particle Physics for Babies” reaches new heights!
A mountain ascent, a new print run, and new translations! Image Credit: Alexis HELLAL. “Particle Physics for Babies” at the summit of Gran Paradiso, at over 4000m of altitude. I often joke with students that writing “Particle Physics for Babies” was a high-point of my career. As you can see from the cover photo, someContinue reading ““Particle Physics for Babies” reaches new heights!”
Ooooh, we’re halfway there…!
NB: All opinions expressed below are my own, not necessarily those of the ATLAS collaboration! The LHC started physics-quality collisions in 2009. It is currently due to operate until 2041. The halfway point of its 32-year lifespan is right now: 2025. In other words, we are (already!) halfway through the LHC’s lifespan. So we haveContinue reading “Ooooh, we’re halfway there…!”
A decade of progress in searches
I recently had the pleasure to give an overview talk at the 15th Long-Lived Particle workshop, held in Spain in Valencia (although unfortunately I was not able to be there physically myself). It was a great pleasure because until recently, I was a member of the organising committee for that workshop, which has grown fromContinue reading “A decade of progress in searches”
Winning 0.008% of the Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics
On Sunday, I woke to discover that I had won a major award: the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Well, not me personally, but the four main experimental collaborations of the Large Hadron Collider: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. Together, that’s about 13,500 people, of which I represent about 0.008%. Still, my name is onContinue reading “Winning 0.008% of the Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics”
Bridging the 8.6km gap between ATLAS and CMS with long-lived particles
This week I had a new result out, a bit of an unusual one. This is not strictly speaking a paper, just a set of plots (you can find the complete set here https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PUBNOTES/ATL-PHYS-PUB-2025-002/)summarising the state of “Hidden Sector” neutral long-lived particle searches. What’s really cool about them is that, for the first time forContinue reading “Bridging the 8.6km gap between ATLAS and CMS with long-lived particles”
Open Data/Software in Particle Physics
Image: D. Montage (via Wikipedia) Lyon is perhaps best known for as one of France’s great gastronomical hubs, with the Burgundy wine regions to the north and the fruit basket of the Provence to the south, all linked by the mighty Rhône river. But Lyon is also the home of a major computing hub: theContinue reading “Open Data/Software in Particle Physics”
Creativity in research
If you are reading this post, then hopefully you are already aware that I am a scientific researcher… what you might not know if that my brother is a musician (one could probably describe him as a singer-songwriter). At first glance, you might think that our professions are totally different, but I’m here to tellContinue reading “Creativity in research”
Louie D. Corpe 