Oxford Particle Physics Online Masterclass

This week some of Caterham’s Lower Sixth Form physicists took part in the Oxford Particle Physics Online Masterclass. Our pupils were treated to a full day learning about how elusive subatomic particles such as the Higgs- and Z-bosons are detected at CERN. This culminated in them having to decipher data using a specialist piece of software called HYPATIA to look for tell-tale signatures of a yet undiscovered particle dubbed the Z-prime. This was an unmissable opportunity to mimic the activities of the phenomenologists and experimental scientists working on the ATLAS collaboration at CERN. Josh B remarked that the day was a ‘fantastic opportunity to learn some advanced physics’ with the ‘practical element’ of sieving through a real-world large data set being a highlight.