What are experimental physicists up to?

And does it matter?

  • First detections of gravitational waves
  • Synthesis of metallic Hydrogen
  • Discovery of Proxima b
  • (The 750 GeV diphoton excess)

Gravitational waves

10.1103/PhysRevX.6.041015

GW150914 + GW151226

Probability of N>{2, 10, 40} events as a function of space-time volume surveyed. The second and third advanced detector runs are shown

Questions?

Synthesis of metallic hydrogen

10.1126/science.aal1579

H

Questions?

Discovery of Proxima b

10.1038/nature19106

New observations reveal the presence of a small planet orbiting Proxima with a minimum mass of 1.3~Earth masses and an orbital period of ∼11.2 days. Its orbital semi-major axis is ∼0.05 AU, with an equilibrium temperature in the range where water could be liquid on its surface.

Exoplanets discovered/year

Questions?

The curious case of the 750 GeV diphoton excess

arXiv:1605.09401 10.1016/j.physletb.2017.01.027

Questions?

Final questions?

10.1103/PhysRevX.6.041015 10.1126/science.aal1579 10.1038/nature19106