Diego BaronParticle Physicist-Data Scientist-Developer
Portfolio
About me!
I am a particle physicist, currently based in Manchester (UK), where I finished my PhD. I am analysing and calibrating data and simulation for the ATLAS collaboration. My work mainly focus on final states containing tau leptons.
Additionally, I have experience using C++, Python, Git and Linux OS. During my research I have acquired experience in data science and ML. In this page, your can check my projects and get to know me a little bit more. Have fun!
This code is used for analysing the data and simulation from the ATLAS experiment. It does many things such as producing histograms, re-weighting of kinematic distributions, calculating data-driven backgrounds, performing fits, producing plots, submitting jobs to a condor server and much more. It is just here to show an example of the code that I write when I want to do analysis.
Service:
Physics Analysis
Agenda
This is an agenda written in C++! The data is stored in a SQLite database.
Service:
C++ Development
My Research
My research is in the field of experimental high energy physics. First, my review for experts. You can skip the next paragraph if you are not familiar with physics but you can come back to it later.
I am currently working in the ATLAS collaboration, measuring the performance of the tau identification algorithm. I will derive the corresponding scale factors to correct the Monte Carlo simulations to better model the real data. My research is motivated by the independence of this measurement from lepton universality violation effects, because we use Z boson decays as source of our events. The other part of my PhD was dedicated to a standard model precision measurement. We observed VBF Z production in tau-tau final states. Our final goal is to use this measurement as a probe for beyond standard model physics in the high-mass di-tau spectrum.
Let's start by clarigying what is the field of experimental high energy physics (HEP). At school, we were all told that matter is made of fundamental pieces called atoms. Unfortunately (fortunately for physicists I would say), this is not the whole story. Atoms have a nucleus formed of protons and neutrons, sorrounded by a cloud of electrons. However, since the 1930s physycists discovered more particles besides the proton, the neutron and the electron. Now, we even know that protons and neutrons are composed of other fundamental particles called quarks and gluons!
Scientists have embarked theirselfs into the enterprise of discovering new particles, measuring their properties and stablishing the set of laws and relations between the fundamental pieces of our universe. This is what we call HEP.
Now, let's explain, why experimental HEP? In raw terms, the field of HEP is split in two big branches. First, theoretical physicists, the scientists in charge of proposing the models (theories), predicting the values for physical quantities, like the mass of the particles or the electric charge, and modelling the phenomena that particles undergo when they interact with detectors. Complementary to this big effort, we have experimental physicists, the branch that I belong to. We build the detectors; we study the interaction between the particles and the machines; and we record, calibrate and analyse the data produced by the detectors.
At the moment, we know that there are 63 fundamental particles, we do not have time to talk about all of them here! Therefore, I will focus on the most important ones from the point of view of my research. These days, our understanding of elementary particles is described by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. This is the common framework of HEP and the most explicative and predictive physics theory we currently have. Phenomena like the interaction of electrons with light, and the radioactivity are explained by the SM.
The SM states that every particle that is electrically charged, like the electron or the proton, interacts with light - this is what we call electromagnetic interactions. Light itself can be described as being composed of particles which are called photons.
In atoms, the electric interaction between protons in the nucleous and electrons around, can be undertand as if the charged particles were exchanging photons (ligth particles).
Radioactivity in atoms, which weak forces are responsible for, can be explained by the exchange of other particles named the W and the Z bosons. But not only electrons are involved in weak and electromagnetic interactions.
Electrons have bigger brothers! They are called the muon and the tau. The muon is 200 times more masssive than the electron and the tau is 3500 times more massive! Myy research focus on the tau particles!
In the SM the only difference between taus, muons and electrons is their mass.
In part because of their mass, taus are short-lived particles and they can decay into lighter particles like the muon or the electron. This is the way we actually "see" taus in our detectors, we infere that they were there because we can see their decay products.
I work with the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) detector. This is a BIG particle detector located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the biggest and most energetic particle accelerator/collider on earth!
Me, inside the ATLAS cavern! The detector is approximately 30m long and is as tall as a nine storeys building!
In the ATLAS collaboration, I have been involved in a cuple of activities. I will make a list here
During my PhD -> Physicists have developed deep neural networks algorithms which can identify tau particles. These algorithms have been trained on simulations and my research focused in measuring the performace of these algorithms in the real data from the collisions. I derived correction factors for the simulation.
During my PhD -> I am leading an analysis to search for new physics beyond the SM, using taus. The taus are produced in the Vector Boson Fusion process and we are designing a measurement in the high-mass di-tau range.
I am also helping in the development and testing of new analysis tools for Run 3. I will use the new tools to derive a simultaneous calibration of the efficiencies of the new b-tagging Graph Neural Network used in ATLAS.
I am also working in producing simulation for new physics processes that could produce a signature of two b-jets and two tau leptons in the LHC collisions.
Service:
Review of my work.
More about me
I am a Colombian particle physicist. I did my BSc. and my MSc. in one of the top Colombian universities - Universidad de Antioquia. For my undergrad, I worked in theoretical physics. Specifically, my thesis was a review of path integrals in curved space-time - which included an application to the Sagnac effect.
In 2017, I started to work with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment. There, I learnt the basics about high-energy physics. My dissertation was about a feasibility study for the HL-LHC and a trigger proposal for a dark matter search.
In the very recent past, I held a Sciences and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) scholarship for my Ph.D. I studied at the University of Manchester, working with the ATLAS experiment. My research is focused on physical processes where tau leptons are produced in the final states. If you want to know more, go to my work project tab! During this time I also joined Electronic Arts, a videogames company, where I completed a six month internship. At EA I developed a simulation of plasticity and destruction, and also documented and created a lot of example code for game creators to learn how to use the physics engine. Now it's time to leave physics aside...
In my free time, I love cooking. I consider myself a good cook. I am very social, I love to talk with my people while I make food for them!
My favourite food is ceviche, made by me!
I am really passionate about technology, I can spend hours watching tech-related videos! Recently, I got very interested into software development for industry applications. In consequence, I have started to learn about some non-physics related tools and I will link more of these projects in this webpage!
Me and my partner in a beautiful, Colombian island called San Andres
