On my way back home from the place where we found the Higgs exactly 12 years ago.
Happy 12th Anniversary Higgs Boson
Higgs particle, a secret agent?
In reaction to a weird post on the whiteboard of our grad student office.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21972-agent-higgs-game-turns-real-particle-hunt-on-its-head/
London – Dinner at the National Gallery
What an exciting meeting with my FCC colleagues. London was a blast, conference dinner at the National Gallery. Look at the scenery.
Just found this one with the rag tag band of young guns waiting inline to get entry to the dinner.
On my way to London
This is one of the few trips so far this year. The department asked me whether I could come and give a speach in London at a bank of America event. I was going to talk about, the Higgs and how it will continue from here…. I will really very quickly summarize what the Higgs means and how we have found it and then make the case why we have to look for dark matter. It should be a fun event.
Nevertheless, I find myself reluctant to leave home. After having traveled way too much in the last 16 years I am very comfortable at staying home and not travel. Events like this though are very important.
Ivan, What exactly is the Hix?
Ivan’s take on Hix.
It was the winter conferences of 2011/12 when there were first hints of something appearing in our (CMS) and also ATLAS data. Some even smaller and masswise less precise excess also existed from the Tevatron experiments. The preferred mass of the excess was about 125/6 GeV. The community in particular the theorists went with the excess and had a ball why the experimentalists caved in and overhauled their analysis adding more data and in a blind fashion re-optimizing the process trying to get the best out of it….
By now that is history and the new particle was announced at CERN (July 4, 2012) and simultaneously broadcast to Melbourne (ICHEP the big conference was there this year) . The media had a field day and for once High Energy Physics was making the front page headlines. I even had a little release at MIT. The Boston Globe though completely missed it. The reported called me 2 days later if I remember correctly and tried to find an angle. Her angle was: “who understands/cares about this Higgs anyway?” And I told her that many did for example my son, Ivan. She liked the idea and after talking with Ana and after seeing what she would write we let her interview Ivan….. I think the article (July 12, 2012, Beth Teitell) came out pretty well and it is the first time any of our kids was in a major newspaper.
My Morning Walk in Seattle to the Workshop
After ironing my shirt and my pants, very odd habit I have started to develop here in Seattle, and after catching up with Ana and the kids I am on my way through the fresh morning here to the physics building at the university of Seattle just a few blocks from my hotel, the Watertown. This morning I take some time and take a few photographs to leave a little bit of an impression of my visit here.
I am wondering about what Bernd Surrow, one of my ex-colleagues from MIT, told me that he took his oldest son with him to workshops as early as his son turned eight years old. I should take Ivan with me for my next trip. The next trip I will go as it seems to Aspen 😉 Ivan needs to start learning how to ski.
Seattle – City of Coffee
First morning in Seattle, it is different from Boston…. Not yet sure though what it is. It seems somehow more Asian and somehow more modern. Need to see how I can make that more precise. Anyway…. enjoying my coffee in the Pineapple Cafe this morning.
Pineapple Cafe on 43rd StreetThe picture shows a nice wall drawing in the cafe which is part of the general atmosphere here in the area. As the cab driver assured me, it is not always as foggy here (they had fog for four days in a row already) and the city is very expensive, he moved from Los Angeles and was hoping for better prices on real estate but he had to pay even more. Let’s see whether I can figure out what the difference is between Boston and Seattle while I am here. It feels quite different!
Just found this interesting discussion and I mostly agree with the general statements that Boston has better public transport, is dirtier, has better education opportunities, feels more urban and is more stressed out. Weather of course is more intense in Boston and the laid back west coast folks like that. Both have really nice sides it seems, I love to live in Boston feel the seasons, enjoy the dirty city and take advantage of the excellent universities.
Here is another impression from a coffee shop in Seattle, not a chain but one of these more unique ones you find a lot of at the west coast.
Solstice Coffee on University Avenue
Workshop in Seattle
Convenership transitions are not really step functions. The effects taper off with some time constant. I am now on my trip to a workshop I had agreed on being at well before the end of the year. I have never been to Seattle but from a number of Facebook friends I know that the area is gorgeous. Maybe almost as nice as Boston. I guess the mountains are more impressive over there.
In the past I have been several times in Vancouver which is very close and said to be quite similar. Let’s see how it is over in the west this time of a year.
My flight goes through Newark and the flight is overbooked. I am writing this all from my comfortable 10A seat using the new mobile wordpress app. They tried to rebook some people to the direct flight, but that would have brought me into Seattle later (1hr20mins) and implied also a long wait at Logan. I decided to stick with my flight…. it seems to be going fine. This week in Seattle I have to use to get ahead workwise so I can make good use of the last week with the family. It is called a workshop, so working is somehow implied. Lots of house projects lined up so good to have a free back when coming back to Boston.