And for those curious what I actually want to do with ATLAS, here’s one hint (a somwhat detailed, but not exhaustive, summary). This is a link to the talk I gave in Jaipur, India a couple of weeks ago. It (briefly, almost cryptically) motivates the utility of “Global observables” in the study of heavy ion collisions, as well as the so-called “minimum-bias” proton-proton collisions we’ll soon be getting at the LHC, and ATLAS. While these observables — counting the number of particles, or measuring the amount of energy dumped into the collisions — sound “simple” on one hand (at least to measure), they are surprisingly resistant to ab initio calculations using the usual perturbative methods common in particle physics. Even weirder, they show surprising commonalities between different collision systems (nucleus-nucleus, proton-proton, even electron-positron), which can lead one (OK, me) in some interesting conceptual directions if you’re willing to follow your nose a bit. More on this later, if anyone’s interested (as if you need to ask!).
And just in case anyone didn’t notice the image, that’s the real ATLAS logo, Lee Lawrie’s status of ATLAS, which has been sitting in front of Rockefeller Center since the Great Depression. One comes up with these things working on talks late into the night sometimes.
Tags: ATLAS, heavy ion physics
