1. science
2. physics

Editorial – May 2015
byLivioMapelli
Dear Colleagues,
With the LHC now back in action, all the LHC experiments are
preparing to study the highest-energy particle collisions ever
achieved in the laboratory, and search for clear signs of physics
beyond the Standard Model. Earlier in April the first beams
circulated and the control rooms of all four LHC experiments
have been busy with the commissioning of the detectors. In this issue we complete
the presentation of the Run Coordinators, this time for the ATLAS, LHCb and
TOTEM experiments. In addition you can read more on the upgrade of the ATLAS
Level-1 Central Trigger Processor that took place during the shutdown.
Reflecting CERN's diverse scientific programme, first results from the NA62
experiment are also presented, as well as a report from the workshop on AMS
results that was recently held at CERN. Our laboratory remains an international
centre of excellence, as marked by distinctions that were recently awarded to
members of the ISOLDE experiment. The large community of our department
remains actively involved in outreach and educational projects and we include
articles on CERN's Latin-America and the upcoming European School on HEP, an
outreach group meeting, and contributions from Knowledge Transfer.
I wish you pleasant reading,
LivioMapelli
Focus on the Run Coordinators of the LHC
Experiments (Part 2)
by Panos Charitos
Following two years of maintenance and consolidation work, the Long Shutdown 1
officially ended on 5 April 2015, when the first proton beams circulated the LHC. Now
the LHC experiments are getting ready to operate once more and record the first
collision data. In this task, the role of the Run Coordinators is crucial, as they
manage the commissioning and operation of the detectors, as well as all data-taking
operations.
In the previous issue of the PH Newsletter, we introduced the Run Coordinators of
CMS, LHCf, and ALICE. This time, we will get to know the Run Coordinators of
ATLAS, TOTEM, and LHCb, who talk about their work and the challenges that they
have to face.
Alessandro Polini
After his academic studies in Physics in Bologna, Alessandro moved to Hamburg in
1993, to work on the DAQ and trigger of the Forward Muon Spectrometer of ZEUS,
one of the two large experiments at the HERA electron-proton collider at DESY. He
originally planned to stay a few months, but ended up staying until the HERA
accelerator finished its programme in 2007. During those years at DESY, he studied
diffractive physics and worked on several systems from the new Silicon Microvertex,
to the Uranium calorimeter, and the ZEUS Trigger. After HERA was shut down, he
moved to CERN, joining, along with his colleagues from Bologna, the ATLAS
collaboration, working on the Muon Spectrometer and its Detector Control System.
He followed closely the Run 1 data taking, becoming muon Run Coordinator for the
period 2011-2012. When asked about what he likes in his work, he says he has
always enjoyed and found particularly stimulating the environment of international
collaboration and the research in experiments at the high-energy frontier. Besides
experimental physics, he likes music, plays piano and synthesizers, enjoys cooking
and walking in the mountains. As a Run Coordinator of the ATLAS experiment during
the first Long Shutdown and the restart in 2015, he followed the re-commissioning of
the detectors and the preparation of data taking. He feels very satisfied with such
work, which he likes comparing to the one of a music director who, in view of a new
big project, prepares and rehearses with all of his fellow musicians to bring the whole
ATLAS to work perfectly, having his mind always open for new ideas and
discoveries. Whatever the LHC and Nature is or is not going to reveal during Run 2,
it will be an honour having contributed to this phase.
Mario Delle
Mario’s particle physics career started at the University of Munich, LMU, with his
diploma and PhD thesis work on optimisation and calibration of the Monitored Drift
Tube chambers (MDT) for the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer. After obtaining his
doctoral degree in 2000, he moved to Yale University as a postdoc working on the
Muon g-2 experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), focusing on data
analysis. After returning to CERN in
2003 as a research fellow, Mario
chose
to
join
the TOTEM
experiment,
appreciating
the
complementarity of its physics
programme to that of the other
experiments. Following the end of
his fellowship, he stayed in TOTEM
as CERN staff member. Given that
TOTEM is a small collaboration,
every member has the opportunity
to be involved in all aspects of the
experiment. Thus his tasks have
ranged from participation in the
development
of
the
physics programme, to test beam
coordination before the start of the
LHC, and finally run coordination.
The
TOTEM
experiment
is
characterised by a very particular
configuration,
with
tracking
detectors mechanically integrated
partly in the forward region of CMS,
and partly in Roman Pots –
moveable
LHC
beam
pipe
insertions up to 220 metres away
from Interaction Point 5. Operating
this apparatus safely and to its
fullest potential requires strong ties
with the partner experiment CMS
and with the LHC machine groups. Furthermore, a major part of the TOTEM physics
programme is accomplished in dedicated beam time with special accelerator settings
that need to be defined in cooperation with machine experts and then coordinated
with the other experiments in the LHC Programme Committee. In TOTEM, this
interface role is part of the run coordinator duties that Mario has carried out since the
creation of this position in 2008. On the technical side, Roman Pots are similar to
collimators in their capability to move towards the high-intensity LHC beams,
exposing the machine to the risk of damaging beam losses in case of a too close
approach. These risks and their mitigation strategies are discussed in the LHC
Machine Protection Panel where he is responsible for his experiment's inputs to
the LHC interlock system, designed to extract the beams automatically from
the accelerator ring if a control system detects a dangerous situation. The
collaboration-internal aspects of his Run Coordinator role include the organisation of
the data-taking crews in the TOTEM control room at IP5 and in the LHC control
room (CCC) where the Roman Pot movements are executed (very often by himself).
Until the first Long Shutdown, most physics data have been collected in dedicated
beam time with often uncertain planning and requiring the presence of the system
experts rather than regular shift crews. Hence the coordination task in TOTEM has
been characterised by flexibility and very short-term planning. Between data-taking
operations, due to the absence of regular shift crews, one of his tasks was to provide
a 24 h on-call service as official TOTEM contact person for the LHC control room and
the other experiments. During the Long Shutdown, he participated in the
consolidation and upgrade of the Roman Pot system to make it compatible with
operation at higher luminosities and pileup levels.
In Run 2, the cooperation with CMS in view of common data-taking will
be strengthened, implying also an intensification of the exchanges with CMS run
coordination. For the CMS-TOTEM high luminosity forward physics programme, a
common project, "CT-PPS", has been created, having its own Run Coordinator. This
task has been taken on by Mario, too. Together with his collaboration, he is looking
forward to the new challenges of Run 2.
Patrick Robbe
After studiying in France at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and at the Ecole
Normale Supérieure in Lyon, where he obtained his Master in Theoretical Physics in
1999, Patrick joined the BaBar experiment at the laboratory for Particle Physics of
Annecy for his PhD thesis. He studied the decay of B mesons into two charm
mesons (decays of the type B → D D K) and measured their branching fractions.
He defended his thesis in 2002 before moving to the LHCb experiment as CNRS
researcher in 2002. As he explains: "I wanted to continue in the area of B physics,
and joined the Laboratoire de l’accélérateur linéaire in Orsay. I took part in the
building of the calorimeter electronics, in particular the electronics devoted to the
hardware trigger (or Level-0 trigger) and its commissioning. This is why, I
was involved in Run 1 data taking". Concerning physics analysis, he worked and
supervised PhD students on the first LHCb J/ψ cross-section measurement and on
the measurement of CP asymetries in B → DK* decays that are sensitive to the
θ angle of the CMK matrix. Ηe is also teaching particle physics at the Universite of
Paris-Sud in Orsay.
Patrick started his two-year mandate as LHCb Run Coordinator in January this year
and he will be assisted in his role by Federico Alessio (PH-LBC) who is the deputy
Run Coordinator. The main challenge for Run 2 at LHCb is to collect data efficiently
in very stable conditions, thanks to a new calibration procedure which will run online.
The deployment and usage of this new feature will be a major event of the restart of
data taking. Moreover, it is important that all LHCb collaboration members have a
chance of participating to the data taking of the experiment at the pit. As he adds: "It
is especially interesting for students, because they have the perfect opportunity to
learn a lot about the detector and the data they use for their data analyses. We will
give a special attention to shifter trainings for this reason".
LHC sees first circulating beams
by Panos Charitos
Long Shutdown 1 officially came to an end on 5 April 2015, when a beam of protons
circulated the LHC for the first time after two years. Following this long period of
upgrades, repairs, and consolidation, the LHC is now ready to restart at 13 TeV,
almost double its previous energy.
In the early morning, a team of technicians and engineers gathered at the CERN
Control Centre to make the final preparations for the big day. "Today, CERN’s heart
beats once more to the rhythm of the LHC,” said CERN Director General, Rolf Heuer,
who arrived at ten o'clock to watch the restart. A sense of anticipation filled the air as
the first beam was injected with an energy of 450 GeV at point 8, the home of LHCb,
and circulated the LHC guided by the 15m-long dipole magnets. It passed through
CMS, ALICE, and ATLAS, whose teams were in the control rooms, carefully
monitoring the detectors to ensure that everything was running smoothly. At eleven
o'clock the beam had completed more than 25 circuits. Then, a second beam was
injected and also circulated successfully all sectors of the LHC.
"The return of beams to the LHC rewards a lot of intense, hard work from many
teams of people," said Head of CERN’s Beam Department, Paul Collier. "It’s very
satisfying for our operators to be back in the driver’s seat, with what’s effectively a
new accelerator to bring on-stream, carefully, step by step.”
After this first proton beam run, the technicians and engineers of the LHC have to
check the machine's hardware and software systems in detail before increasing the
beam energy and restarting the physics programme. Their work includes testing the
beam dump, collimators, beam interlock system, and beam energy tracking devices,
which comprise the Machine Protection subsystem. They also have to confirm that
position, beam-loss, and synchrotron-light monitors operate efficiently and reliably,
and that the vacuum, beam-optics, injection, and radiofrequency systems run
smoothly.
When everything is good and ready, the first particle collisions at the unprecedented
energy of 13 TeV will take place, possibly in June, allowing the LHC experiments to
further extend the frontiers of scientific knowledge and tackle the unsolved mysteries
of the Universe. Of course, measuring the properties of the Higgs will be a priority in
Run 2, but other topics will also be explored, such as searches for Supersymmetry or
other candidates to explain dark matter, and studies of antimatter and the quarkgluon plasma.
There are definitely exciting times ahead for particle physics, as the LHC sets out to
write scientific history once more.
Carlo Rubbia: Muon Cooling at CERN
In a talk at the CERN auditorium on 14 April Nobel laureate and Former DG Carlo Rubbia
reviewed the case for a muon-antimuon (µ+µ-) collider.
The interest in building a so-called "second-generation" Higgs factory that would allow
better studying the properties of the recently discovered Higgs particle at 125 GeV has
been revived, following the recent discovery at CERN/LHC.
This comes in analogy with the discovery of the W and Z in the UA1 and UA2
experiments and the subsequent study of the Z resonance in the pure s-channel state
with LEP. A Higgs factory is needed, as the current Higgs measurements from the LHC
detectors allow for a large width to invisible or other exotic decays. In addition, the
coupling measurement precision, even that projected at the HL-LHC, may not be high
enough to pin down physics beyond the Standard Model.
During his talk, Professor Rubbia gave a review of the existing proposals of Higgs
factories: the International Linear Collider, an e+e- collider in a ~30 km tunnel offering the
advantage that it can run at higher energies and allow us to explore the regime beyond
ZH production. However, it would allow for only one detector to be used at a time. The
case for circular ee colliders like the CepC in China or the Future Circular Collider studies
with ee were also reviewed, with the latter also running at the ZH threshold. With multiple
detectors, they would have the potential to provide higher luminosity than at the ILC.
Rubbia proposed a µ+ µ- collider at the modest energy of 62.5 GeV and an adequate
cooled muon intensity of about 6 x 1012 muons of each sign, a repetition rate of 15-50
p/s and L ≈ 1032 cm -2 s -1, corresponding to about 10,000 Higgs bosons detected per
detector per year. With such an arrangement, a precise direct measurement of the Higgs
boson is possible, in contrast to the ee machines, while it could also be upgradable in
energy. The big advantage of this proposal is that it combines the ee circular machine
benefits with a much smaller size.
A muon collider can be realized with a final ring of ~60 m in diameter, which means that
the main ring and all the supporting accelerators can fit at the CERN site without the
need of large scale civil engineering. It is also conceivable that the whole project can be
realized in a shorter timescale than the ILC or circular ee and at a much lower
cost. There are significant challenges for such a project, the most significant being that a
muon cooled beam has not been fully demonstrated.
The next step, Rubbia argued, could be the realization of a muon-cooling demonstrator
and experimentally demonstrating the cooling techniques which are critical for the muon
collider project. Most of the important work is to develop a resonant cooling that may
involve significant and unexpected conditions which are hard to predict without a practical
test. The detectors for such a machine need a very challenging design since μ->e decays
will result in continuous radiation, and extensive shielding must be used. Past R&D
efforts done at CERN and elsewhere could address some of these challenges.
In conclusion, Rubbia stressed that in his view the recent discovery of the Higgs puts us
in the situation of having to investigate its properties in detail. We may not yet know how
a muon collider would work, but if it does work then one can demonstrate its benefits
compared to the other types of colliders for a Higgs factory. The operation of a
demonstrator could initially be explored and demonstrated using existing muon beams,
available at a number of accelerators. The ultimate muon-antimuon collider for a Higgs
factory could be situated in the existing CERN site or elsewhere.
NA62 Experiment records first data
by Panos Charitos
Over the last weeks, while everyone has been excited with the restart of LHC, the
NA62 experiment at CERN has already started producing data, following the
circulation of the first beams in the injector chain in 2014.
The experiment focuses in the study of kaon physics, which has been among the
major protagonists of the field in the second half of the twentieth century, as it played
a key role in the development of the Standard Model and the discovery of the CP
violation: the phenomenon responsible for the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry
in the universe.
Why is studying kaon decays important today, when powerful hadron colliders open
new energy regimes?
The answer is straightforward. The theoretically clean environment of the ultra-rare
kaon decays like K+ -> π+ v vbar or KL -> π0 ν νbar makes them an ideal place to
search for tiny deviations from the Standard Model (SM). Precision studies of this
environment could point to the discovery of indirect effects of new physics that lies
beyond the SM, probing energies scales even higher than those explored by the LHC
via direct searches.
The primary goal of NA62 is the precision measurement of the branching ratio of K+ > π+ v vbar, predicted by the SM to be ~10-10. Since this SM prediction has a
relative uncertainty below 10%, the NA62 detectors are designed to reach equal or
better accuracy with two years of data.
The NA62 experiment is located in the North Area in Prevessin. The 400 GeV proton
beam from the SPS impinges on a fixed beryllium target, producing a beam of
hadrons. A system of collimators, magnets, and absorbers selects a monochromatic
75 GeV beam of positive particles, 6% of which are K+. A series of subdetectors,
provide charged particle tracking and identification while electromagnetic and
hadronic calorimeters complete the experimental setup. NA62 measures both the
incoming kaon and its decay products, allowing for event reconstruction and for
distinguishing the signal from the dominating background events.
The first data-taking took place between October and December 2014. It mainly
aimed at commissioning and calibrating the detectors, checking that the whole
system, including data taking and computing resources, is operating as expected.
The first look at the 2014 data has shown that the performance of the various
subdetectors successfully matched expectations. All the experimental tools to
measure precisely K+ -> π+ v vbar are ready for the upcoming runs. In this respect,
the results reached by two of the most challenging detectors operating for the first
time have been remarkable: the magnetic spectrometer for charged particle tracking
is based on straw-technology entirely placed in vacuum and the 17m long Cherenkov
counter (RICH) for π – μ separation at high energies (see Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 1: A snapshot of the radius of the reconstructed RICH rings as a function of the
particle momentum measured by the spectrometer. Corrections for offline calibration and
alignment are not yet included in these data. The K component at 75 GeV corresponds to
beam particles scattered to the spectrometer. Pions and muons can be separated up to 35
GeV/c momentum.
Figure 2: A snapshot of the m2miss distribution, the missing mass squared of the system(Kπ) measured using the straw spectrometer only (π) and taking the nominal parameters of the
beam (K). The main backgrounds from other kaon decays are shown. The two regions where
to look for the signal are also indicated. Corrections for offline calibration and alignment are
not yet included in these data. The beam tracker information for measuring the kaon
momentum and direction are not yet exploited.
Over the next few months, the collaboration will be busy with the detailed analysis of
the data collected during the 2014 "pilot" run. New calibrations are being derived and
new releases of the software for the reconstruction of the events are being
implemented. By using all the subdetectors at their best capacity, the 2014 data can
reveal a realistic prediction of the sensitivity that the experiment will reach during the
2015 data-taking. The 2015 physics run is scheduled to start at the beginning of July
and will end in mid November. NA62 is ready to explore new physics scenarios in a
complementary way to the LHC experiments by studying the K+ -> π+ ν νbar decay,
and several other kaon decays with new physics interest.
*The author would like to thank Giuseppe Ruggiero and Brigitte Bloch-Devaux for their
thoughtful comments as well as Roberta Volpe for her valuable feedback.
Giuseppe Ruggiero (NA62 Physics Coordinator) delivered a seminar on the NA62
experiment and technical run results at
CERN: https://indico.cern.ch/event/360237/material/slides/1.pdf
AMS Days at CERN
by Panos Charitos
The conference 'AMS Days at CERN' took place from 15 to 17 April at the Main
Auditorium. Its aim was to provide an overview of the latest results of the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer, as well as bring together experts in astroparticle physics to
exchange ideas and discuss the recent developments in the field.
The event included 33 lectures by leading scientists from IceCube, the Pierre Auger
Observatory, Fermi-LAT, HESS and CTA, Telescope Array, JEM-EUSO, and ISS
CREAM, who shared their research results and talked about their theoretical
implications for the future of cosmic ray physics. A distinguished group of some of
the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, including K. Blum (Institute for
Advanced Studies), J. Ellis (King’s College), L. Randall (Harvard University), S.
Sarkar (Oxford University and Niels Bohr Institute), as well as CERN leaders, R.
Heuer and F. Zwirner, and government officials gave presentations and shared their
insights with the audience.
The main topic of the conference was the AMS, the only particle physics experiment
on the ISS. The detector was assembled and calibrated at CERN, but its
components were built in 16 countries all around the world. It was launched in May
2011, on the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavour and, since then, it has
collected more than 60 billion cosmic ray events, providing a wealth of data for
analysis. It will remain on the ISS at least until 2024, with the aim of expanding our
knowledge of dark matter, antimatter, and the origin of cosmic rays.
The experiment produced results on the positron fraction, the electron spectrum, the
positron spectrum, and the combined electron plus positron spectrum, which are
consistent with dark matter collisions. As existing models of the collision of ordinary
cosmic rays cannot explain these results, several new models have been designed,
demonstrating that the results could be explained by new astrophysical sources or
new acceleration and propagation mechanisms.
AMS carries out measurements to distinguish if the observed new phenomena are
from dark matter and determine the rate at which the positron fraction falls beyond its
maximum, as well as the measurement of the antiproton to proton ratio. It was
observed that the antiproton to proton ratio stays constant from 20 GeV to 450 GeV
kinetic energy, a behavior that cannot be explained by secondary production of
antiprotons from ordinary cosmic ray collisions.
The data collected by AMS regarding the positron fraction, the antiproton/proton
ratio, the behavior of the fluxes of electrons, positrons, protons, helium, and other
nuclei give precise and valuable information, shedding new light on our
understanding of these phenomena. The accuracy and characteristics of the data,
simultaneously from many different types of cosmic rays, require a comprehensive
model to ascertain if their origin is from dark matter, astrophysical sources,
acceleration mechanisms, or a combination of these factors.
The conference included two fascinating public lectures by NASA officials: “Human
Space Exploration” by William Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator, and
“The Odyssey of Voyager” by Prof. Edward C. Stone of Caltech. The whole event
was webcast, so as to give everyone a chance to attend.
LS1 Upgrade of the ATLAS Level-1 Central
Trigger Processor
by Thilo Pauly
Triggering at the LHC is a challenge: during Run-1 in ATLAS, the task was to select
out of the 18 million bunch crossings per second the 1000 events most promising for
data analysis. The first of three levels of this selection is the Level-1 trigger system,
which in Run-1 selected 75000 events per second (75 kHz) and initiated the read-out
of the full detector for these events. The Central Trigger Processor system (CTP) is
at the heart of the Level-1 trigger processing chain, where the pre-processed counts
on high-energy muons, electromagnetic and hadronic objects, and energies are
funnelled together and a Level-1 Accept decision is taken according to a pre-defined
trigger menu. It also takes into account the known bunch patterns from the LHC,
allows to pre-scale individual triggers, and takes care of applying dead-time should
the rate become too high. It is also in charge of transmitting timing, trigger, and
control signals to all ATLAS sub-detectors.
The CTP was successfully operated during Run-1 and one of its strengths was its
flexibility in defining its trigger logic and the large number of 256 trigger logic items.
Run-2, with its bunch crossing rate of 30 MHz, higher luminosity and energy, requires
the Level-1 trigger to be even more selective, which is a big challenge. In ATLAS, the
decision was made not only to push the Level-1 accept rate to 100 kHz, but to also
introduce a topological trigger processor at Level-1. This required a major upgrade of
the CTP, which includes the rebuild of its core electronics board, the rebuild of 5
output cards and a custom-build backplane, a firmware upgrade of the input cards to
transmit twice the amount of trigger data to the core board, and a firmware update on
a muon trigger interface card, now transmitting topologicial muon information at 40
MHz to the topological trigger processor. The new core board allows to feed in the
latency-critical trigger input signals from the topological trigger processor as well as
the ALFA roman pots. It was also necessary to increase the number of trigger logic
items from 256 to 512 in order to provide enough flexibility.
The Level-1 Central Trigger System is under CERN's responsibility, with currently 9
members from PH-ADT-TR and 3 members from PH-ESE-BE, and with engineering
effort for the new output board from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. During
LS1, the team was very busy designing, testing, and producing the new hardware
and develop the associated software. We also decided to re-design the full online
control software. This was necessary to be able to operate the CTP with up to 3
independent sets of sub-detectors for calibration and test purposes, a useful feature
available with the new hardware. The new online software design also addresses
stability and robustness, taking into account lessons learnt during Run-1. The new
CTP hardware and its associated software was installed before Christmas 2014 and
since then is an integral part of ATLAS commissioning. It was very successfully used
for the first beam splashes around Easter this year and is ready to take on the first
high-energy collisions at 13 TeV.
CERN's Latin-American Schools of High
Energy Physics
by Nick Ellis & Martijn Mulders
The eighth CERN – LatinAmerican School of HighEnergy Physics took place
from 4 to 17 March 2015 in
Ibarra, Ecuador. It was
organized by CERN with the
support of local colleagues
from Escuela Politecnica
Nacional (EPN), Quito, and
Universidad San Francisco
de Quito (USFQ).
The School was hosted in
the beautiful and traditional
Hacienda Chorlavi on the
outskirts of the city of Ibarra.
Edgar Carrera from USFQ,
who is a member of the
CMS collaboration, acted as
local director for the School,
assisted by members of the
local organising committee.
Sixty-nine
students
of
nineteen
different
nationalities attended the
School. Following the tradition of the School, the students shared twin rooms mixing
nationalities, and in particular the Europeans mixed with Latin Americans.
The eleven lecturers came from Europe, Latin America, and the USA. The lectures,
which were given in English, were complemented by daily discussion sessions led by
five physicists coming from Latin America. The students displayed their own research
work in the form of posters in a special evening session during the first week. The
posters were left on display until the end of the School. The students from each
discussion group also performed a project, studying in detail the analysis of a
published paper from an LHC experiment; a representative of each group presented
a brief summary talk in a special evening session during the second week of the
School.
The opening ceremony of the School was attended by high-level representatives of
important organisations and universities in Ecuador. These included Rina Pazos,
General Sub-Secretary of SENESCYT, Jaime Calderon, Rector of EPN, and Carlos
Montufar, President of USFQ, all of whom addressed the participants, as well as
Fernando Albericio, Rector of Yachay Tech University, and Daniel Larson,
Chancellor of Yachay Tech University.
Group photo of participants at the School.
Hosting the School was an important event for the physics community in Ecuador
and many outreach activities were arranged around it, benefiting from the presence
of high-level scientists who were teaching at the School. In particular, a number of
free public lectures were arranged in Quito and Yachay, and there was coverage in
the local, regional, and national press.
In parallel with preparing and organising the School, there are on-going discussions
in Ecuador involving SENESCYT, USFQ, and EPN towards possible national and
institutional involvement in CMS, building on the existing participation at the level of
individual researchers.
An Ecuadorian student answers a question during the Student Projects session.
In addition to the intensive scientific programme, there were three interesting
excursions: an afternoon visit to the spectacular volcanic Cuicocha lake, and the
towns of Otavalo and Cotacachi; a full-day excursion to the “Seven Waterfalls”
reserve and the thermal springs at Chachimbiro; and a second afternoon excursion
to the town of Ibarra followed by dinner at a restaurant with a beautiful panoramic
view of the region.
More details about the 2015 Latin-American School
at:http://cern.ch/PhysicSchool/CLASHEP/CLASHEP2015
may
be
found
The 2015 CERN – JINR European School of Physics will be held in Bulgaria from 2
to 15 September, with a deadline for applications of 8 May.
The authors would also like to thank Kate Ross for her invaluable help and constant
support in the organization of CERN's Summer Schools
2015 European School of
High-Energy Physics
The 2015 European School of High-Energy Physics (formerly the CERN–JINR School
of Physics) will take place from 2 to 15 September 2015 in Bansko, Bulgaria. It is
organised and sponsored by CERN
and the Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia,
together with the University of
Sofia, the Bulgarian Nuclear
Regulatory Agency (BNRA), and
the Institute for Nuclear Research
and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) in
Bulgaria.
The School is intended for junior
researchers,
mainly
doctoral
students in the final years of work
towards their PhDs, who specialise
in experimental HEP and have at
least one year of experience as
experimentalists
or
phenomenologists. Approximately
one hundred participants, mainly
from CERN and JINR Member
States, will be selected to attend
the School this year. They will have
the opportunity to focus on the
latest research topics, discuss their
work and exchange ideas with colleagues, and learn about the new developments in
the field.
The current version of the School began in 1993. However, the CERN Schools of
High-Energy Physics were first organised in the early 1960s and, since the beginning
of the 1970s, were held in collaboration with JINR, CERN's sister organisation in the
former Soviet Union. More than forty years later, this successful partnership still
continues, bringing together young researchers from different nations around Europe
to collaborate in harmony for two busy weeks. Besides preparing the participants for
research in experimental HEP, the School also aims to promote cultural exchange
and informal interaction among everyone involved. Hence, students of different
nationalities, cultural background, and language work together, united by a common
interest in science and the desire to expand human knowledge.
The organisers have prepared a rich and varied scientific programme, which includes
33 lectures, each lasting about 75 minutes, with additional time for questions and
discussion. The lectures will cover a wide range of topics, namely cosmology, flavour
physics and CP violation, field theory and the electro-weak Standard Model, QCD,
neutrino physics, Higgs physics, heavy-ion physics, outlook and future prospects for
HEP, practical statistics for particle physicists, and physics beyond the Standard
Model. In addition, discussion sessions will be held most afternoons after the
lectures. The participants will be divided in groups and carry out a collaborative
project that will be presented by a group representative at a dedicated session. S.
Alioli (CERN), A. Bednyakov (JINR), S. Demidov (INR), V. Filev (DIAS, Ireland), M.
Garny (CERN), and E. Ginina (HEPHY, Austria) have been appointed discussion
leaders. Finally, a poster session will be organised during the first week of the
School, giving students the opportunity to discuss their work and ideas with leading
scientists in the field, as well as develop their communication and collaboration skills
in a context very relevant to their future work as practising researchers.
TH Institute on "Neutral Naturalness"
The TH Institute on "Neutral Naturalness", focussing on theories which aim to
address the hierarchy problem and feature color-neutral top partner fields was held
at CERN/TH from 23 to 26 April 2015.
The systematic study of "neutral naturalness": natural theories with SM-neutral states
that are as yet untested by the LHC presents one of the most interesting
challenges for theorists working in HEP.
The institute attracted more than 50 participants. Following a number of talks each of
the three days, participants had the chance to meet and engage in stimulating
discussions that has been one of the main aims of this workshop.
Model building aspects as well as LHC and future collider phenomenology were
covered during the workshop .
All in all it was a well attended workshop and all the participants are looking forward
to the follow up of this meeting.
Two distinctions for ISOLDE scientists
by Panos Charitos
Two ISOLDE scientists have received prestigious awards this year for their research
in the field of nuclear and particle physics.
Kara Marie Lynch was honoured with the GENCO Young Scientist award, which
recognizes outstanding achievements of young scientists in the field of exotic nuclei
and super-heavy elements. The GENCO prize is given to young researchers who
have received their PhD less than five years before their nomination, to encourage
and inspire the next generation of scientists. Kara was awarded for her outstanding
work on the radiation emitted during the radioactive decay of an atomic nucleus,
proving that the nucleus is deformed by the strong force acting between nuclear
constituents. Her research has provided valuable insight into the strong force, a
fundamental constituent of the Standard Model.
"I'm delighted to have received the GENCO Young Scientist award for the work that
I'm involved in at the CRIS experiment. It means a lot to have the new technique of
laser assisted nuclear decay spectroscopy be recognised by the exotic nuclei
community. This method allows the radioactive decay of pure isomeric beams to be
studied, and I look forward to continuing this work with the CRIS collaboration at
ISOLDE," Kara said.
Kara Marie Lynch receives her award by Prof. Munzeberg.
Professor Susanta Lahiri of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India, has
received the 2015 Hevesy Medal “for his outstanding and sustained contribution in
heavy-ion induced radioisotope production, tracer packet technique, converter
targets, and green chemistry”. This award recognizes a rich career, during which
Lahiri has developed and maintained active international collaborations with leading
physics and chemistry institutes, including CERN, notably for the development of
high-power targets in the EURISOL-Design Study and LIEBE projects, and in
research on radiopharmaceuticals and super-heavy elements. Amongst his long list
of achievements, Prof. Lahiri launched the conference series on Application of
RadiotraCers and Energetic Beams in Sciences (ARCEBS). He received the award
at the tenth International Conference on Methods and Applications of Radioanalytical
Chemistry (MARC X), another major conference in the field that took place 12 – 17 of
April in Hawaii.
Photo from the HMA ceremony: Professor A. Chatt, Chair of the Hevesy Medal Award
Selection Panel bestowed the award in a special session of the conference. The award was
given on 12th April, in Kona, Hawai in tenth International Conference on methods of
application of radio analytical chemistry.
Prof. Lahiri is an expert on production and separation of clinically important
radionuclides by heavy ion and light ion induced nuclear reaction. He has also driven
important studies on the bio-accumulation of radionuclides, as well as in atomic mass
separation (AMS) related chemistry of astrophysical interest. He has fostered the
search for new bio-reagents for green chemistry and production and application of
tracer packets. He is also a specialist in detection of toxic elements at trace level. His
fruitful collaboration with the ISOLDE target group spans more than a decade. This
notably includes the speciation and harvesting of various radio-metals produced in
liquid spallation target materials. This information has been of prime importance to
benchmark modern Monte Carlo simulation codes, to design future spallation source
facilities and propose new isotopes for medicine.
The medal is named after George de Hevesy, who received the Nobel Prize in
chemistry in 1943 for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of
chemical processes. The Hevesy Medal was established 25 years later as the
premier international award of excellence in radio analytical and nuclear chemistry.
KT group publishes its annual report
by Panos Charitos
As every year, the KT annual report was published in March. The present version of
the report was implemented 4 years ago evolving from a standard report to CERN’s
Finance Committee to a glossy form, reflecting how CERN transfers knowledge
through many different channels and the results achieved. Over 1000 copies are
requested every year.
Numerous knowledge transfer activities take place at CERN, even without the
involvement of the KT group. This annual report showcases the efforts of the
organisation to transfer its knowledge to society, and it presents an opportunity for
everyone involved in KT activities at CERN to discuss and show their efforts to the
key stakeholders, no matter whether they have already appeared in other
communication channels or the KT group was involved.
There are many ways to do knowledge transfer: one is through the activities of the
KT group; another is through procurement; and last but not least, through people.
The latter refers to the fact that CERN offers a lot of training and education to all
persons on site, and certainly to the young people who come to CERN, spend two or
three years on the job, are trained, and then leave. One of the responsibilities of the
KT group is to evaluate the impact of their stay.
Furthermore, KT is trying to introduce a similar system for people working longer
term at CERN since they often participate in certain committees or seminars. KT’s
Group Leader, Giovanni Anelli, explains: “There are many people, who spend
considerable time giving lectures outside CERN or are involved in committees that
make decisions which affect daily aspects of our lives.” Consider, for example, a
person who participates in a working group who defines a new international
standard. This shows how knowledge from CERN has an impact outside.
Regarding procurement, companies that supplied to CERN over the past years
profited from the acquired knowledge and expertise. There are also examples of
companies who developed new techniques and improved their line of production
after working in close collaboration with CERN experts to meet the CERN’s
specifications. Procurement, Anelli believes, is a way to do KT that the Group should
further invest on in the future and collect more success stories. A prime example of
how working with a lab like CERN creates innovation and a return for our
stakeholders is an Italian company, who, thanks to the R&D they did before
delivering the final parts for the LHC magnets, significantly improved precision in the
production line. As a result, it now qualifies as exclusive supplier for Citroen-Peugeot.
Anelli says: “I see more and more synergies between KT and various groups around
CERN. I think that the report demonstrates the number of opportunities arising every
year and steadily increasing, as the activities of the group become more known
within the Organisation. It is important to exploit these internal communication
channels and get more staff involved in knowledge transfer. Still, one of the problems
we face is how to get more from the experiments, especially as the intellectual
property is shared and owed by many different groups of the collaborations. This is a
priority for us and we are making significant efforts to address it, collaborating closely
with colleagues from both CERN and outside institutes.”
Read also in this issue of the PH newsletter an article on the Entrepreneurship Meet-Ups
organized by the KT group and learn how you can get involved
Joining efforts to reach out with
particle physics
by Catarina Espirito Santo
After the Higgs, how to best communicate LHC as a discovery machine? How to
bring the masterclasses to new countries, age groups and settings? What makes a
good educational game? How to join efforts in the existing national cosmic ray
detector programs in order to take them further? These were some of the questions
addressed at the 9th IPPOG meeting, held in Paris from the 16th to the 18th April 2015.
The International Particle Physics Outreach Group, IPPOG, is a network of scientists,
science educators and communication specialists working across the globe in
informal science education and outreach for particle physics. IPPOG’s purpose is to
raise standards of public outreach and science education efforts. IPPOG brings new
discoveries in this exciting field to young people and conveys to the public that the
beauty of nature is indeed becoming understandable from the interactions of its most
fundamental parts - the elementary particles.
IPPOG meetings are intense days. There are panel discussions, working groups,
and all must lead to wrap ups that enlarge the discussion to the whole of IPPOG.
Brainstorming is the name of the game, and ideas are shared in the same way no
matter if they are for a common project or for an activity going on in one of the
countries. In between meetings, homework is carried on by the working groups and
ideas are tested: does it work with real students and teachers?
Other topics in the agenda included discussions on how to boost the educational use
of the CERN open access data, how to bring science education and outreach to
particle physics conferences in a more effective way, as well as news on web
resources, exhibits or programs for teacher and students existing in the different
countries.Looking around, one can see the will to communicate science can take off
rather early in the career. And the young people in IPPOG are special in their
creativity and strong awareness of the social role of science.
The International Masterclasses (IMC) on Particle Physics, IPPOG's flagship
initiative, are now hold in 42 countries. Data from ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCB is
used. Improvements, new measurements and new data are always being added.
TOTEM is joining in, and there are plans for astroparticle physics experiments such
as the Fermi satellite, IceCube or the Pierre Auger Observatory. The new challenges
are many and varied. The province of South New Wales, in Australia, wishes to have
particle physics masterclasses in all high schools. The so called virtual
masterclasses, based on virtual training tools and in which the communication
between researchers, teachers and participants goes on for a longer time scale, may
became particularly important. On the other end of the spectrum are the
“masterclasses in a box”, based on printed imagers and foreseen for settings with no
computers available.
Also presented at the meeting were activities such as the most recent edition of the
international cosmic day or the international muon week. These, as the schools for
teachers held at CERN in native languages, are crucial when the goal is to have
more modern and experimental physics in high schools, and there is a lot to learn
from sharing ideas and experiences.
Described by the participants as very rewarding, the meeting included inspiring visits
to the LAL accelerator complex, classified as EPS historical site, and to the Collider
exhibition now at the science museum Palais de la Découverte. The final session
was closed with an applause to Kate Shaw, ATLAS representative in IPPOG and
recently awarded the 2015 EPS Outreach Prize, for “her contributions to the
International Masterclasses and for her pioneering role in bringing them to countries
with no strong tradition in particle physics“, as Palestine and Nepal. Congratulations
to Kate, to the International Masterclasses team, and to IPPOG!
IPPOG's membership includes a rare mix of scientists and researchers, science
educators and explainers from prominent laboratories and institutions engaged in
particle physics. Current member come from the 21 member states of CERN,
Ireland, Romania, South Africa, the USA, and from DESY, CERN and five of the
major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Marge Bardeen (FNAL) and
Hans Peter Beck (University of Bern) are presently the co-chairs of IPPOG.
Entrepreneurship Meet-Ups: Drive your
creativity
by Marthe Dehli & Vetle Nilsen‎
To inspire and encourage CERN people to entrepreneurship and innovation, the
Knowledge Transfer Group recently launched a concept called Entrepreneurship
Meet-Ups. The idea is to provide those interested in innovation and entrepreneurship
with an informal arena where they can meet to learn about and discuss related
topics. Some meet-ups will be mostly to discuss and inform, while others will have
presentations from external experts.
“Entrepreneurship can be considered a craftsmanship. Hopefully, the meet-ups will
provide the participants with valuable tools that will inspire and encourage them to
move on and form their own companies. From our point of view, the meet-ups are a
useful platform for getting input on how we can best help and assist CERN people
who wish to bring CERN technology to society”, said Vetle Nilsen from the
Knowledge Transfer Group.
Such a person is Kenneth Hole, co-founder of the CERN spin-off company TIND
Technologies, who shared his experiences at the second CERN Entrepreneurship
Meet-up. After a feasibility study, conducted in October of 2012, Hole and the rest of
TIND Technologies decided to deliver a commercial service for the Invenio
software(link is external), without much prior knowledge of neither the software, nor
the library business. The challenges of starting a new company, finding a business
model, and securing funding were among the topics Hole talked about at the meetup. He was met with many intriguing questions from the participants, who were
clearly inspired by TIND’s story.
Kenneth Hole making a presentation at the second Entrepreneurship Meet-up
“We have three UN libraries on our customer list now, and that is thanks to CERN
and the CERN network. The spin-off agreement gives us the right to use the CERN
brand that is renowned internationally and gives us credibility. We continue to work
closely with the Invenio developers which makes our everyday operations a lot
easier”, Hole said.
Future meet-ups, which will take place every other Wednesday at 18.00, are open for
anyone connected to CERN and interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. The
next meet-up will be on 13 May and take place in 61/1-009 – Room C. Upcoming
topics include business models, financing and business plans. If you want to be
informed about the meet-ups in the future, you can sign up for the mailing list.
CERN and Swiss joint Famelab final
FameLab was started in 2005 in the UK by Cheltenham Science Festival(link is
external) and has quickly become established as a diamond model for successfully
identifying, training and mentoring scientists and engineers to share their enthusiasm
for their subjects with the public. Working in partnership with the British Council this
global competition has already seen more than 5000 young scientists and engineers
participating in over 23 different countries from Hong Kong to South Africa, USA to
Egypt.
Since 2012 CERN is partner of FameLab in Switzerland and since 2014 also in
France. If you are a French scientist or you work for a French institute, you can enter
the FameLab competition organized in France(link is external); if you are a Swiss
scientist or you work for a Swiss institute, you can enter the FamLab competition
organized in Switzerland(link is external).
This year, CERN will host the Swiss final and the CERN competition. The jury will
have to select the two winners who will go on to participate in the International
Science Festival in Cheltenham (UK). There will also be extra prizes decided only by
the audience.
The joint Famelab final will take place in CERN's restaurant 1 (reserved area toward
building 40) at 5.30 PM on 8 May. Members of the public coming from outside CERN
are requested to register here(link is external). Steve Goldfarb and Claire Lee will host
the event, and Piotr Traczyk will play live music. There will be nine contestants from
Switzerland and five from CERN. The contestants will be judged according to the
Famelab’s main criteria, which are: Content, Clarity and Charisma plus Timing.
Enter the CERN competition NOW!