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Machine learning has become a hot topic in particle physics over the past several years. In particular, there has been a lot of progress in the areas of particle and event identification, reconstruction, generative models, anomaly detection and more. In this conference, we will discuss current progress in these areas, focusing on new breakthrough ideas and existing challenges.

The ML4Jets workshop will be open to the full community and will include LHC experiments as well as theorists and phenomenologists interested in this topic. We explicitly welcome contributions and participation from method scientists as well as adjacent scientific fields such as astronomy, astrophysics, astroparticle physics, hadron and nuclear physics and other domains facing similar challenges.

The program will cover the following topics:

• Tagging (Classification)
• Reconstruction
• Detector simulation & event generation
• Theory
• Astrophysics
• Unfolding
• Uncertainties
• Anomaly detection
• Interpretability

This year’s conference is organised jointly by LPNHE, LPTHE and IJCLab and hosted by LPNHE on the Paris Sorbonne Campus. Registration for both in-person and Zoom-participation is open and free of charge. It will take place from the 4th to 8th of November.

INDICO page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1386125/

One of our PhD students, João Gonçalves, will attend and deliver a talk.

Quark Matter 2025 is the XXXI International Conference on Ultra-relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, which will be held in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. This conference brings together theoretical and experimental physicists from around the world to discuss new developments in high-energy heavy-ion physics. The focus of the discussions is on the fundamental understanding of strongly-interacting matter at extreme conditions, as formed in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, as well as on emergent QCD phenomena in high-multiplicity proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions. The scientific program will cover the following topics:

• Chirality
• Collective dynamics & small systems
• Correlations & fluctuations
• Detectors & future experiments
• Electromagnetic probes
• Heavy flavor & quarkonia
• Initial state of hadronic and electron-ion collisions
• Jets
• Light and strange flavor physics & nuclei
• New theoretical developments
• Physics of ultraperipheral collisions
• QCD matter in astrophysics
• QCD phase diagram & critical point

Quark Matter 2025 consists of six days of scientific program, starting on Sunday, April 6th and ending on Saturday, September 12th. Support of early-career researchers (students and young postdocs) will be provided in the form of a reduction of the registration fee.

The deadline for early-bird registration is December 31st, 2024. For regular registration, it is January 31st, 2025.

INDICO page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1334113/overview

Yesterday, Guilherme Crispim, master’s student at the Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon and member of the Pheno group at LIP, successfully defended his master thesis, entitled “Pre-equilibrium of the Quark-Gluon Plasma”.

This study was focused on the pre-thermal equilibrium stage of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) formed in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC. Guilherme investigated the sensitivity of jets to this extremely short-lived phase by simulating various QGP models and analysing the response of particle angular distributions to quenching effects. The findings presented in this thesis suggest that, with sufficient data, it will be possible to discriminate between different pre-equilibrium models at future high-energy colliders like FCC-hh.

Guilherme’s work was supervised by Liliana Apolinário and Ruben Conceição. The jury for the thesis defense comprised Mário Pimenta (president), Pablo Guerrero (main arguer), and Liliana Apolinário (as the supervisor representative).

Congratulations to Guilherme!

Last week marked a significant achievement for Guilherme Calé, a student at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and member of the Pheno group at LIP. Guilherme successfully defended his master thesis, titled “Particle-Particle and Jet-Jet Angular Correlations at the Parton Level”.

Guilherme’s research, guided by supervisors Grigorios Chachamis and João Pires, was an in-depth exploration of partonic correlations and their manifestation at parton jet level. The study was based on simulations of high-energy collisions for multiple systems (proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus), whose angular correlations were analyzed and compared for two Monte Carlo codes (Pythia and BFKLex). In all of the examined cases, no connection was found between the high-energy QCD dynamics considered (i.e. BFKL evolution) and the enigmatic near-side, long-range correlations observed in data.

The jury for the thesis defense comprised Margarida Cruz (president), Liliana Apolinário (main arguer), and Grigorios Chachamis (as the supervisor representative).

Congratulations to Guilherme!

ISMD 2024 will be held from September 23 to 27, 2024, in Malargüe, Argentina. This event will bring together physicists from across particle, nuclear, and astrophysics for talks and discussions focused on all aspects and consequences of the strong nuclear force, as well as its complex final states. In order to encourage cross-talk between areas, all presentations at ISMD will be programmed in plenary sessions, organized into the following scientific tracks:

    •  Cosmic ray and astroparticle physics
    •  Multiparticle correlations and fluctuations
    •  Forward physics: Diffraction, Odderon and Pomeron
    •  Hadronic final states in high pT interactions
    •  Collectivity in high energy collisions: jets, flows, and other mechanisms
    •  Proton structure, small-x and large-x physics
    •  Hadronic issues in heavy-flavour physics
    •  Beyond Standard Model Physics and new developments in HEP

Registration deadline: Aug 30th, 2024. Abstract submission deadline: July 15th, 2024.

INDICO page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1371434/

A significant volume of experimental data on jet observables has been accumulated through extensive analyses of heavy-ion collision experiments in the last decades. On the theoretical front, there have been comprehensive discussions regarding the jet structures and QGP medium effects on them, involving new proposals for additional possible observables guided by these experimental findings. Now a key challenge is to establish a coherent understanding of various observables across different momentum ranges and collision energies and systems, which is essential for deepening our insights into the dynamical jet-QGP interactions.

This workshop (satellite workshop of Hard Probes 2024) will take place at the University of Tokyo, from the 28th to the 29th of September 2024. Its main goal is to capturing a full picture of jet phenomena and related observables from theoretical and experimental perspectives. It is intended to identify the most pressing issues broadly significant in dynamical jet-induced phenomena at this time and to provide a pathway to understanding core mechanisms, which will make the next step towards comprehending the jet properties and the QGP medium.

Registration deadline: Jul 15th, 2024. Abstract submission deadline: July 1st, 2024.

INDICO page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1403965/

On Wednesday 17th April at 4pm we will have the privilege to hear Professor Krishna Rajagopal (MIT-USA) discussing the probing the Quark Gluon Plasma, the most perfect liquid ever observed. This colloquium, co-organized by LIP, will take place in Room PA1. Refreshments will be served afterwards.

Heavy ion collisions reproduce droplets of the trillions-of-degrees-hot liquid that filled the microseconds-old universe, conventionally called quark-gluon plasma (QGP) but better thought of as hot quark soup. Over the past twenty years, data obtained via recreating this primordial liquid have shown that it is the most liquid liquid in the universe, making it the first complex matter to form as well as the source of all protons and neutrons. After an extended introduction, beginning from Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus and the discovery of quarks and the laws that govern them, and a look at what we have learned about the formation and properties of the primordial liquid from heavy ion collisions, I will focus on the road ahead, in particular on new probes being developed to answer questions like: How does a strongly coupled liquid emerge, given that what you will see if you can probe QGP with high resolution is weakly coupled quarks and gluons? How can we use jets to see the inner workings of QGP and answer this question? And how does the droplet of QGP ripple after it has been probed by a passing jet?

The ‘Taller de Altas Energias’ (TAE) – Spain’s annual High Energy Physics PhD school -, is an international postgraduate training program aimed at first and second year graduated students who are starting their research on experimental or theoretical High Energy Physics, Astroparticles and Cosmology. TAE 2024 will take place from 1st to 14th September at Centro de Ciencias Pedro Pascual (CCBPP) in Benasque, a beautiful village located in the Spanish Pyrenees. The lecture halls and seminars for discussion sessions are located in the Centre. Computing and electronic communication facilities are available.

The list of topics and speakers of TAE 2024 is:

• Quantum FIeld Theory/Standard Model, Rodrigo Alonso (Durham U., UK)
• Effective Field Theories, Martin Gonzalez-Alonso (IFIC, Valencia, Spain)
• Flavor Physics, Jorger Martin-Camalich (U. La Laguna, Spain)
• LHC Physics, Maria Cepeda (CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain)
• Lattice QCD, Assumpta Parreño (U. Barcelona, Spain)
• Cosmology, Jacobo Asorey (IPARCOS-U. Complutense, Madrid, Spain)
• Gamma Rays, M.A. Sanchez Conde (IFT, Madrid, Spain)
• Axions, Theopisti Dafni (CAPA, U. Zaragoza, Spain)
• Dark Matter, Diego Blas (IFAE, Barcelona, Spain)
• Neutrino physics, Sergio Pastor (IFIC, Valencia, Spain), Patricia Sanchez (Granada U., Spain)
• Gravitational waves, Miguel Zumalacárregui (Max Planck Institute, Potsdam, Germany)
• Statistical Methods, Glen Cowan (Royal Holloway, London, UK)
• Machine Learning, Arantza Oyanguren (IFIC, Valencia, Spain)
• Detectors, Mary Cruz Fouz (CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain)
• Quantum detectors, Gemma Rius (CNM, Barcelona, Spain)
• Quark Gluon Plasma, Carlos Salgado (IGFAE,Santiago de Compostela U., Spain), Ana Marin (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany)
• Beyond the Standard Model, Mariano Quiros (IFAE, Barcelona, Spain)
• Hadron Physics, Raquel Molina (IFIC, Valencia, Spain)
• String Theory, Miguel Montero (IFT, Madrid, Spain)

Registration and abstract submission deadline: June 30th.

Relevant info will be gradually updated at: https://www.benasque.org/2024tae/

The 12th International Conference on Hard and Electromagnetic Probes of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions (Hard Probes 2024, HP2024) will take place in Nagasaki, Japan from 22nd September until 27th September 2024. The student lectures will take place on Sunday, September 22nd. The conference is in-person only.

The conference is focused on experimental and theoretical developments on perturbative probes of hot and dense QCD matter as studied in high-energy nucleus-nucleus, proton-nucleus and proton-proton collisions. Specifically, topics for discussion will include:

• Jets and their modification in QCD matter
• High momentum hadrons and correlations
• Heavy quarks and quarkonia
• Electromagnetic and electroweak probes
• Early time dynamics and nuclear PDFs
• Future experimental facilities

The registration and abstract submission period is scheduled to start on April 15.

INDICO page: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1339555/

Two of our PhD students (Nuno Olaves and João Silva) as well as one of our researchers (Andrey Sadofyev) will attend and deliver talks. Click on their names to see their respective contributions!

The International Doctorate Network in Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology (IDPASC, https://idpasc.lip.pt) is an interdisciplinary network whose aim is to train a new generation of high-level experts in the fields of Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology.

The 13th edition of the IDPASC school will be held in Palermo (Italy) from 17th to 27th September 2024, organized by the Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Italy in collaboration with INFN Catania and National South Laboratory (LNS), with organizational support from Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, Portugal (LIP) and IDPASC Committee.

This school aims at training the next generation of physicists that will investigate open questions in the PASC domains in the coming decades. The school offers a multi-disciplinary approach that will help each student, which starts to specialize in one domain, to keep a broad view on the different PASC domains. This will be a key skill to optimally use the complementarity between different approaches to shed light on the same problems with a different angle such as Dark Matter, physics beyond the Standard Model or multi-messenger physics. On top of the main courses, the school will also propose some hands-on session in specific domains such as ML for PASC problems. A two day visit to INFN Laboratory in Catania and KM3NET infrastructure in Porto Palo di Capo Passero are foreseen.

The fee is 800€ and it includes accommodation, coffee-breaks, lunches, school dinner, excursion and is to be paid via bank transfer. A very limited amount of grants covering half of the fee will be available for selected students registered in the IDPASC network. The grant will not cover travel expenses. To apply for such a grant please upload in additional application form the letter of recommendation from your supervisor until 1st June 2024. The evaluation of the application for grant support will be communicated until 15th June 2024.

Registration deadline: 1st June 2024

INDICO page: https://indico.lip.pt/event/1710/