Back to work

Today I am back in my office and physics, that I never stopped to think of, is unfriendly urging in my mind. Besides my work as a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews that I try to do at my best, I have not forgotten to look around in the blogosphere. In these days there is a lot of fuss about a recent paper by Fermi Collaboration (see here). You can find some discussion here but it is not the only blog discussing this matter: An inflamed discussion is also here. Is loop quantum gravity dead? I can only spend a few words here by saying that is really too early to draw such conclusions but the results from Fermi Collaboration are really beautiful and open the premises for a bright future in the observation of gamma ray bursts. I would like to remember here the point of view of Steven Weinberg claiming that we finally hit exact truths on Nature (the bitch not the journal as  Tommaso Dorigo uses to say ). These truths are special relativity and quantum mechanics. I share this idea and the more beautiful idea that we are indeed able to reach such exact truths, the same mathematicians are able to achieve. On the same ground, if some experiment should come out claiming that these theories should be modified, I would be glad for one thing: A great opportunity for my generation to put hands on a deeper truth.

I am still working on a perturbation analysis of a non-perturbative Higgs field interacting with a fermion. I am solving Heisenberg equations of motion with a very large coupling for the Higgs. I hope to get some further time to complete the computations that may become really involved.

About QCD there is few to say. I have got my paper accepted for publication as you may know that implied a nice correspondence with Terry Tao. We can say that, after the very good Terry’s intervention, the proof of the mapping theorem is indeed complete. Another paper hit my interest and arose from a Japanese group working on lattice (see here). I have had an email exachange with Hideo Suganuma and surely their results are something to think about in depth. I hope to see other papers in the near future as this area of physics is very active indeed.

Finally, great expectations are for LHC. It will start on November and we hope to see results very soon. Infancy problems should be overcome and it is time to see the face of Higgs (the particle not the professor). Good luck, folks!

LHC will start at 3.5 TeV

A communication to press was released by CERN about the start-up of the collider after repairs. You can find it here. LHC will start at half of the promised beam energy on November this year and this only after all the tests on the connections will be ended with success. I have read a recent article on the New York Times here and my personal view is that all will be up and running on the promised time. Meantime, we can only wish the best of lucks at people working on LHC.

Too hilarious to not cite

I have found this very nice piece of humor about Higgs particle at Cosmic Variance (see here). This text is a combination of quotes from famous movies. E.g., the last paragraph is taken from Ocean’s eleven and runs like this:

Terry: All right. Now I have complied with your every request, would you agree?
Rusty: I would.
Terry: Good, ’cause now I have one of my own. Run and hide, asshole. Run and hide. If you should be picked up next week buying a hundred-thousand dollar sports car in Newport Beach, I am going to be supremely disappointed. Because I want my people to find you, and when they do, rest assured we are not going to hand you over to the police. So my advice to you again is this: run and hide. That is all that I ask.

The first paragraph is taken from The Matrix and runs like this:

Neo: I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

Nobody at Cosmic Variance was able to hit the citation for the second paragraph. It is very well accustomed to LHC situation so not that easy to identify. If you know it please, share your knowledge.

Movie quotes are from Internet Movie DB.

LHC will stop for at least eight months

The damages following LHC accident, occurred last month, are more serious than expected. Some design errors have been identified into the valves that should regulate the quantity of helium flowing in such cases. Helium entered inside the ring and the valves were underdimensioned for the aims. Bad news is that repairing damages will require at least eight months. Optimistically one can hope starting of operation on May or June 2009. An article can be read in Nature about (see here). Dynamics of the accident is given by CERN here.

Dumbness does not pay

Today I have read on New York Times (see here) that the lawsuit to halt LHC has been dismissed by a federal judge in Honolulu. A wasting of time and resource against missing of common sense and serching for limelight. Very bad. A story to be forgotten as fastly as possible.

Some delays at LHC

An incident happened at LHC while operations were in course to reach 5 TeV aim. You can read here and read Jester’s blog for other links and comments.

This will imply some delays in the initial optimistic schedule.

Update: The question is rather serious. News talk of about two months delay with respect to scheduled program. I have found another article about on New York Times.

Further update: CERN press release is here.

The bet and the furious

It is time to bet. There is a beatiful post by Jester with a lot of very interesting comments. Lubos has convinced Jester to bet about supersymmetry to be seen at LHC. What is really interesting is the definition of the terms of the bet. For details check the post above and the comments.

My grandpa used to say “always insist, never bet”, one cannot know how far a betting fever can lead you and your bank account. LHC, as I see it, is a Pandora’s jar. The opening is just a few months ahead.

Meanwhile Jester and Lubos are fixing the terms of the wage by email. We’ll wait and see.

LHC: Cheers!

I was not there today but this photo at CERN says all:

Bravi!

LHC: First circulating beam!

CERN announced today the successful run of the first circulating beam in the 27 km ring of the LHC. You can find a communication here. There was a lot of excitement about this event but my view that this success is really tiny with respect to the findings will come out from CERN next years with this machine.

Blogosphere is rather active due to this. See the blog of Tommaso Dorigo that is there at CMS control room. Also Cosmic Variance has a real time report about this event. Tommaso’s blog has also some link to follow the event through video streaming (see here).

Update: A must read is the beatiful report given by Jester.

LHC and media

I cannot avoid to write down this post as a lot of friends and colleagues are asking me about the next doomsday on September 10th. Indeed, our newspapers in Italy are now plenty of horrible misinformation about claiming the possibility that in that day a black hole will be produced and World will be finally eaten up.

As for us physicists we know that nothing of this is really possible even if a story about a PhD student producing our universe for her thesis is recurring. We are aware that the injected beams on that date will be at very low energy, 0.45 TeV, but anyhow I have found a beautiful article by Matthew Chalmers in Physics World (see here) explaining all the matter. The interested reader should go through it.

Finally, I am pleased to think that Hawking would be in the verge of receiveing a Nobel prize wherever we see an evaporating black hole. As this theory is really fascinating, it would be also a big hit if it would be proved true in such a controlled way.