Message from the director: Conferencing and communication
Let me return to the key aspects of a successful conference. Both coffee and wifi are important, no doubt. There are many other things that can affect the impression of participants, e.g. communication and social media. Indico, Zoom, Mattermost, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Slido are just some of the platforms used by ICHEP2020 in the Charles University brand new auditoria building. 
The online conference with slides and shared screens hardly resembles the blackboards of the first ICHEPs. But we are not unprepared - half of the auditoria are equipped with chalk and green boards, the other half with whiteboard and markers. Why is that? Our new building is set up for mathematics and computer science lectures and the requirements of the two communities were just orthogonal. But none of them requested low voltage, pressurised air, or propane distribution, which would be the standard request of physics lecturers.
I must admit I appreciate the usefulness of the social media around us. Yes, they are very useful for outreach - it is much easier to communicate with the younger generation. But there are also examples of the direct benefits for scientific communication. I recall the situation in the Belle II experiment after the devastating earthquake in 2011. KEK remained without power and all the communication channels of the experiment were down. There was no way to find the lists and emails for the members, no indico, no news. Soon, alternative mailing lists became collected via social networks and we started to learn about the local situation.
Today's Highlights
Here we highlight some of the talks that will be taking place during the 16 parallel sessions that we have today:
Neutrino Physics Do not miss the exciting result from Borexino of the first detection of solar neutrinos from the CNO cycle. Gadolinium is now being added to the Super-Kamiokande detector, and they will show Gadolinium data for the first time. Recent results and future prospects for direct neutrino mass measurements and very recent neutrinoless double-beta decay results will be discussed.
Higgs Physics Higgs boson measurements in precision channels and the combined results from ATLAS and CMS experiments will be presented.
Formal Theory Today’s highlights include the presentations on new methods of calculating Feynman integrals and applications to QCD; and energy-energy correlators in the context of IR safe observables and the connection to event shapes in QCD.
Top Quark and Electroweak Physics The third Top/EW session will highlight rare top quark processes from 4t to ttbb; ttV and ttX production; photon-photon physics; and vector boson fusion and scattering.
Operation, Performance and Upgrade of Present Detectors We will hear about MURMUR, an experiment designed to search for neutron interbrane transitions in the context of braneworld scenarios, and the current status and upgrade plans of forward physics detectors and silicon trackers.
Detectors for Future Facilities (incl. HL-LHC), R&D, Novel Techniques We will explore recent developments in the field of calorimetry for the HL-LHC, novel calorimeter technology based on oriented crystals, and a new generation of silicon and gaseous detectors. We will also discuss pileup mitigation, ultra fast MCP-PMTs, detection of highly energetic heavy charged particles in space, and technologies for ultra-low background experiments.
Don’t miss our Poster Sessions starting at 1:30p.m. CEST!
Recommended by... Luciano Musa (CERN), ALICE Collaboration Spokesperson
“I would listen to the Heavy Ions Session III, where ALICE will present many new published results based on the full Run 2 data, for example on open heavy-flavour and quarkonia production from small to large collisions system.”
What You Missed Yesterday
If you missed yesterday’s sessions, never fear - you can watch them in our replay sessions, and via the session recordings that can be found here.
Announcement from the CMS collaboration of evidence of the Higgs decaying to a pair of muons! Listen to the Higgs Physics Session on YouTube or read the details here to learn more. Don't miss the new ATLAS result on the H→ μ μ coupling either!
The social side of ICHEP
Can you spot the difference between ALICE and ATLAS? Between BaBar and Belle? Between CDF and CMS? Take today’s quiz and find out how many experiments you can recognise.
