Wake patterns: From Sprint Kayaking to Particle Physics

Sport can be a very useful tool to build intuition in regards to more advanced physics concepts. This presentation aims to link sprint kayaking to concepts used in experimental particle physics for the detection and acceleration of elementary particles. In it, I first take a look at the Kelvin wake pattern, the typical triangular wave shape formed by a vessel moving on water and then compare it to other wake patterns: Cerenkov radiation and the plasma wake. Cerenkov radiation plays an important role in the detection of elementary particles, especially in neutrino astronomy, while the plasma wake pattern is at the center of the next generation of particle accelerators.