The ATLAS Experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider - status and outlook (Free Astronomy Public Lectures)

Presented by Prof. Geoff Taylor on 2nd December 2011The Large Hadron Collider is operating beautifully well. Data from the highest energy particle collisions produced in the laboratory is being amassed at rates never before achieved. The big experiments, including the ATLAS experiment, on which Australian scientists collaborate, are operating extraordinarily well considering their complexity. The level of sophistication of analyses achieved with such a short period of operation has surprised the scientific world. Searches for the Higgs boson, Supersymmetry and other exotic phenomena are well underway. This presentation will give the status of these searches in the LHC/ATLAS program.The new ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale ("CoEPP") brings together Australian experimentalist and theorists from Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Monash. It will provide the resources and the focus to fully participate in the LHC program. A description of the CoEPP and its key goals will be covered in the presentation.