First ATLAS search for highly ionizing particles published
First ATLAS R-hadron search published
My fascination with Nature and desire to better understand its underlying principles eventually led me to my current research activities in particle physics, briefly described below.
How can we investigate the particles and forces of the Universe at their most fundamental level? One possible way is to build large accelerators and collide particles at very high energies. During the past 50 years, this has been a very successful way to both discover new particles (as well as their possible sub-structure) and quantify their interactions. We recently built a machine able to accelerate protons to unprecedented energies: the Large Hadron Collider. I am a member of the ATLAS collaboration, a large experiment whose aim is to discover and study physics phenomena in high-energy proton-proton collisions. I significantly contributed to the analysis and coordination of various searches for new massive long-lived particles in ATLAS, presently concentrating on one highly intriguing hypothetical object: the magnetic monopole.
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Who first told me that? It must have been my grand-mother... Anyway, the Large Hadron Collider enterprise is worth billions of Swiss francs and involves thousands of physicists, all doing physics with the same damn little protons. The discovery of the Higgs boson might very well be worth it, but still, what if no other new physics show up at these energies? What if new physics are there somewhere under our noses, accessible to small-scale experiments, undiscovered only because we lack imagination and didn't look? I think we should also follow other strategies and come up with original ideas outside of the mainstream. That is why I also nurture research interests and projects outside of the ATLAS collaboration.
