Paris’ 17th arrondissement has become particle physics central. More than 1,000 physicists have descended on the Palais de Congrès conference center to attend the 35th International Conference on High Energy Physics, which kicks off today and continues through next Wednesday. ICHEP is the world’s premier particle physics conference, where scientists present and discuss the newest and most intriguing results from experiments in particle physics, particle astrophysics and cosmology, innovative theoretical approaches and predictions, and concepts for future accelerators and particle detectors.
ICHEP is split into two parts. The conference starts today with the parallel sessions, where more than 400 presentations will take place over a mere three days. Each day at any given time, attendees will choose from six parallel sessions, covering topics from every corner of particle physics. The conference pauses on Sunday to allow attendees to visit the city, catch the arrival of the Tour de France cyclists at the Champs-Élysées, or simply recover from three intense days of presentations and coffee-break discussions.
Monday is the official start of the conference, and the beginning of three days of plenary presentations, where the most important results and topics are summarized and discussed. The first day will focus on the much-anticipated first results from the LHC and newest results of the Tevatron experiments’ searches for the Higgs boson. The second day will include results from heavy-ion collisions, measurements of the electroweak and strong forces, and searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Wednesday, the conference’s last day, will feature new neutrino measurements, searches for the unknown constituents of dark matter, and a discussion of the future of particle physics.
A plane ticket to Paris isn’t necessary to catch the ICHEP presentations and discussion; selected parallel sessions and all of next week’s plenary sessions will be available via webcast. You can also follow symmetry breaking for updates throughout the conference, or read reports from attending physicists on the ICHEP blog.
