Image: A graphic I used in my interview for my job as junior professor at Université Clermont Auvergne. It’s an adaptation of “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich, but I photoshopped out the fog in favour of the beautiful Chaîne des Puys which Clermont-Ferrand is nestled in. About a month ago,Continue reading “The ATLAS search community is coming to Clermont-Ferrand!”
Tag Archives: physics
An ode to Moriond
Image: The conference photo for the 60th edition of the “Rencontres de Moriond: Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories”. I’m somewhere on the left side of the zero. Credit: Moriond. This March, I had the pleasure of attending the “Rencontres de Moriond: Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories” conference (“Moriond” for short). It is one of theContinue reading “An ode to Moriond”
If Particle Physics were a railway, who would lay the track and who would drive the trains?
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?”
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”
Louie D. Corpe 