CERN Visit - Wednesday, 18 May 2005.

Our member, Peggie Rimmer has kindly organised a dinner at CERN for us to visit the new ATLAS experiment there.
The ATLAS detector is a multi-layer cylinder about the size of a 5-story building, 25m diameter, 46m long, weighing 7000 tons. It is being installed at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) due to start operating in 2007/8.

The ATLAS collaboration comprises almost 2,000 participants from over 150 institutes in 34 countries. One of the main goals of the experiment is to try to understand how/why particles of matter get/ have mass; for non-cognoscenti, this concerns the hypothetical Higgs boson.

Programme:

At 19.00, meet at CERN Reception Building; please be on time, the schedule is tight and we will not be able to wait for latecomers. Security is also tight, so latecomers will be invited to wait in reception until the ATLAS visit is over.

After a welcome and introduction by Italian physicist Fabiola Gianotti, Deputy Spokesperson of the ATLAS experiment, we will visit the ATLAS detector currently being installed 100m underground (lift). Flat shoes are recommended as we will be climbing a few short openwork metal stairs.

Two physicists will join us for dinner and will be happy to tell us more and answer any questions, whatever we choose.

At 20.30, dinner in the nearby CERN Restaurant costing CHF 60 per head.
Please pay cash on arrival at Reception, if possible with exact change.