Fermilab Today

	Thursday, April 25, 2013

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Have a safe day!

Thursday, April 25

9:30 a.m.
All-Hands Meeting - Auditorium

THERE WILL BE NO THEORETICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR TODAY

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Friday, April 26

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Ryan Hooper, Lewis University
Title: The Zen of Two Z's at DZero

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

Ongoing and upcoming conferences at Fermilab

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Weather

Sunny
53°/34°

Extended forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Current Flag Status

Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Thursday, April 25

- Breakfast: Greek omelet
- Chicken noodle soup
- Chicken fajita sandwich
- Chicken cacciatore
- Smart cuisine: Asian beef and vegetables
- Italian loaf sandwich
- Assorted pizza by the slice
- Tex-Mex grilled-chicken salad

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Friday, April 26
Dinner
Closed

Wednesday, May 1
Lunch
- Jerk chicken
- Red beans and rice
- Coconut flan

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

All-hands meeting - today in Ramsey Auditorium

All staff should plan to attend today's all-hands meeting from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Ramsey Auditorium. The meeting will be webcast.

Topics to be covered include the budget, five-year strategic lab agenda and project updates. The meeting will conclude with a Q&A session.

In Brief

Earth Day Fair - today

The ESH&Q Earth Day Fair takes place today from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Wilson Hall atrium. Swing by to learn how you can be a good steward of the Earth. There will be giveaways and a chance to win raffle items.

Wellness Feature of the Month

May wellness offerings, fitness classes and discounts

Wellness offerings include Employee Health & Fitness Day, Kick-off to 10,000 Steps-A-Day, Weight Management Support Group, Lunch & Learn about Sleep Patterns/Disorders, Coed Softball League signup, fitness classes and employee discount information for May.

Special event:

Employee Health & Fitness Day
Kick-off to 10,000 Steps A Day
Tuesday, May 14, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Main Ring, east side of Wilson Hall

Walk, run, bike or rollerblade with co-workers. Free pedometers, drawstring backpack bags and frozen fruit bars go to the first 300 participants.

Wellness:

Weight Management Support Group
Thursday, May 2, noon to 1 p.m.
Wilson Hall Small Dining Room

Lunch and Learn About Sleep Patterns and Disorders
Tuesday, May 21, noon to 1 p.m.
Curia II
Presented by Chiro One

Athletic league:

Coed Softball League
Season opener May 1.
15 weeks plus double-elimination playoffs.
Wednesday or Thursday, 5:30 p.m.
Fermilab Softball Field in the Village

All are eligible. The league is for men and women. No team? We can place you. For more information, e-mail Dave Hockin.

Fitness classes:

Butts & Guts
Mondays, May 6 to June 10 (no class May 27), noon to 12:45 p.m.
Fitness Center
$40/person

Wednesdays, May 1 to June 12, noon to 12:45 p.m.
Fitness Center
$52/person

Muscle Toning
Tuesdays and Thursdays, May 14 to July 17, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Fitness Center
$82/person

Kyuki-do
Mondays and Wednesdays, May 20 to June 26, 5 to 6 p.m.
Fitness Center Gymnasium
$60/person

Employee discounts:
Six Flags Great America
Chicago Fire

For more discount information, visit the WDRS Employee Discounts Web page.

For more information, contact Jeanne Ecker in the Wellness Office at x2548 or at jecker@fnal.gov.

In the News

Neutrino scientist awarded particle physics prize

From University of Sussex Bulletin, April 19, 2013

Editor's note: Jeff Hartnell's award is due in large part to his work on Fermilab experiments MINOS and now NOvA. See the list of Institute of Physics HEPP Group prize winners as well as other group prizes awarded by IOP.

Sussex physicist Dr. Jeff Hartnell has been awarded a prize by the Institute of Physics "for his contributions to neutrino physics."

Dr. Hartnell—who is currently in the USA helping to set up the largest-ever experiment in neutrinos to be built there—is the 2013 winner of the High Energy Particle Physics (HEPP) Group prize. The prize is awarded annually by the HEPP Group, a subject group in the Nuclear and Particle Physics Division of the IOP, to a researcher in the UK who has made an outstanding contribution to their field of study early in their career (within 12 years of being awarded their first degree).

Frontier Science Result: CDF

Constraining the proton sea

The measured differential cross sections of events with a photon and a heavy b quark as a function of photon energy. The data are compared to four theoretical predictions.

A simple picture of the proton is that it is made out of three quarks: one down quark and two up quarks. The quarks are "glued" together by gluons. However, this picture is incomplete. The so-called "sea" in the proton plays an essential role. The sea is produced by the gluons in the proton—gluons that split continuously into quark and anti-quark pairs or radiate other gluons. The sea quarks can also be quarks from the heavier quark families, for example charm quarks and bottom quarks. The heavy quarks within the proton sea are extremely scarce, so their properties are not well understood. In this experiment CDF physicists have studied these properties using the entire Run II data set.

CDF scientists studied proton-antiproton collisions that produced a photon and a jet from a heavy quark. Photons are measured in the central part of the detector and in the energy range from 30 to 300 GeV. When the photon energy is relatively low, the photon production rate is sensitive to the low-energy heavy quarks in the proton sea and can be used to improve our understanding of those components. When the photon energy is higher, the associated high-energy heavy quarks come from a different source: the gluons produced in the collision that split into quark and antiquark pairs. The events with high-energy photons can provide useful information on the gluon production and its splitting rate into heavy quarks.

The rate of production of a photon and a heavy jet is shown in the top figure. The results are compared with four theoretical calculations. Most of the calculations describe the lower-energy photon production rate well, which indicates a good understanding of the heavy sea quarks. Two of the calculations, k_T factorization and SHERPA, are in reasonable agreement with the measured cross section over the full range of the data. However, some calculations underestimate the rate of higher-energy photons, which indicates it is important to improve the modeling of gluon splitting rate into heavy quarks in these calculations. These results are useful for quantum chromodynamics calculations and searches for new physics.

Learn more

—edited by Andy Beretvas

Physicists Ray Culbertson, Costas Vellidis and Tingjun Yang, all from Fermilab, were responsible for this analysis.

Photo of the Day

Gray comma brings color

A gray comma, which overwinters as an adult butterfly in the woods and may fly during the first warm days of spring, added a splash of color among the brown and gray leaves in the woods between Pine Street and Road B last week. Photo: Tom Peterson, TD

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