Tuesday, July 2, 2013
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Have a safe day!

Tuesday, July 2

Noon
Undergraduate Lecture Series - One West
Speaker: Rocky Kolb, University of Chicago
Title: The Cosmic Frontier

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

4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Vladimir Shiltsev, Fermilab
Title: A Phenomenological Cost Model for Big Accelerators in the U.S.

Wednesday, July 3

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

THERE WILL BE NO FERMILAB COLLOQUIUM THIS WEEK

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74°/57°

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Secon Level 3

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Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Tuesday, July 2

- Breakfast: All-American breakfast
- Breakfast: bacon, egg and cheese bagel
- Grilled reuben sandwich
- Braised beef with vegetables
- Beef stew in a bread bowl
- Grilled-chicken Caesar jazz salad wrap
- Pork carnitas soft tacos
- Beef barley soup
- Chef's choice soup
- Assorted pizza by the slice

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, July 3
Lunch
- Grilled chicken and vegetables with mojo sauce
- Grilled cardamom-scented pineapple with vanilla ice cream

Friday, July 5
Dinner
Closed

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

ASTA facility produces first electrons

The new photoinjector gun at the Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator recently produced its first electrons. Photo: Jerry Leibfritz, AD

Around 4 p.m. on June 20, spikes started appearing in data being collected at the Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator facility. They signaled the presence of electrons, and they were lined up exactly with the timing of ultraviolet laser pulses striking the cathode of a new photoinjector gun.

"We saw very clear, very distinct feedback," said Jerry Leibfritz, ASTA project engineer.

The spikes were evidence of a major milestone for ASTA: The photoinjector gun had produced its first electrons, a step six years in the making. When the team was given the go-ahead to turn the machine on, Leibfritz expected it to take a few days before the first electrons were created; instead, it took only hours.

"There are so many complex systems involved, and all it would take is one thing not set properly, and it wouldn't work," Leibfritz said. "The fact that it worked so quickly is really a testament to everyone's hard work and attention to detail. We were quite thrilled. It's a big deal because you can't run an accelerator unless you can generate a beam."

ASTA will use superconducting radio-frequency technology to accelerate electrons down a 140-meter linear tunnel and into a beam dump. SRF allows for highly efficient particle accelerators, achieving more beam acceleration in shorter distances.

ASTA's initial function is as an accelerator research and development facility both for SRF technology and beam dynamics and imaging—proposed accelerators such as Project X and the International Linear Collider would use similar technology. But design elements are in place to allow researchers to eventually use it as a test accelerator for various physics experiments. The beam will eventually accelerate through multiple cryomodules and split off into a low-energy test beam, three high-energy test beams and a storage ring.

"ASTA is Fermilab's first serious foray into electron accelerators," said Elvin Harms, head of the SRF Electron Linac Department. "The big deal to me is that the way we're going to accelerate the electrons is using superconducting radio-frequency cavities. The fact that it's based on superconducting RF technology says that this could be a natural precursor to Project X."

The June 20 milestone saw electrons generated in the gun and accelerated into a Faraday cup, which stops the beam and measures the deposited energy. The next goal for ASTA is to complete the installation of the injector and accelerate the electron beam up to a peak energy of about 50 MeV. Leibfritz hopes this can be accomplished by the end of this year.

"Once it's complete, it will be a unique facility," Leibfritz said. "It uses the newest technology and provides capabilities that other facilities don't have."

Achieving first beam by the end of June was a goal the project team set for themselves, in part to honor Mike Church, the former SRF Electron Linac Department head, who led the project's scientific efforts for three years. He retired on June 28.

Laura Dattaro

Photos of the Day

DASTOW 2013

Jerry Zimmerman, known to his fans as Mr. Freeze, puts on a cryogenics show for this year's DASTOW attendees. Photo: Cindy Arnold
The Fermilab Fire Department demonstrates fire safety for DASTOW families. Photo: Cindy Arnold
Fermilab's Hugh Lippincott (on stepladder) and Mike Cooke talk to kids about gravity at this year's FUNdamentals of Physics show. Photo: Cindy Arnold. View more photos of this year's DASTOW.
In the News

Keeping momentum

From the Black Hills Pioneer, June 28, 2013

LEAD — Federal and project officials want to make sure that plans for an experiment that could extend the Sanford Lab life to the next 40 years maintain worldwide momentum, despite budget concerns in Washington.

A current environmental assessment to determine the impact the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment will have if it is built at the Sanford Lab is part of an ongoing effort to make sure the project continues to move forward. This week, officials from the Department of Energy, as well as representatives from the Sanford Lab and the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment collaboration, met with about 80 people in Lead, and 28 people in Rapid City to explain the project plans and the environmental assessment.

Read more

Director's Corner

All-hands meeting video

On June 28, Fermilab's next director, Nigel Lockyer, met with laboratory employees and users at an all-hands meeting. A video of the meeting is now online.

Milestone

Fermilab employees receive Best Paper award from ICMC

Six Fermilab employees received the Best Structural Materials Paper Award from the International Cryogenic Materials Conference. From left: Lance Cooley, TD Head Giorgio Apollinari, Director Pier Oddone, Robert Schuessler, Donna Hicks, Chad Thompson, Eileen Hahn. Not pictured: Alexander Romanenko. Photo: Reidar Hahn

Six Fermilab employees recently received the Best Structural Materials Paper Award from the International Cryogenic Materials Conference. Lance Cooley, Eileen Hahn, Donna Hicks, Alexander Romanenko, Robert Schuessler and Chad Thompson authored the paper, titled "Annealing to Mitigate Pitting in Electropolished Niobium Coupons and SRF Cavities." The award includes a $1,000 check, which, in accordance with the director's policy on honoraria, was given to Fermi Research Alliance.

ICMC Best Paper awardees were selected from the ICMC papers presented at the 2011 Conference in Spokane, Wash., published in the Advances of Cryogenic Engineering, vol. 58 (2012).

Construction Update

Guide rails installed at the NOvA Near-Detector Cavern

Steel guide rails have been installed in the NOvA Near-Detector Cavern. Photo: Cindy Arnold

Since Kiewit Infrastructure completed the construction of the NOvA Near-Detector Cavern, Fermilab personnel have been busy preparing for the arrival of detector components. Steel channels have been installed on the concrete floor and will be used as guide rails while pulling the large detector blocks into their final configuration.

Special Announcement

Batavia Road gate closed Friday and Saturday, July 5-6

From July 5 to 6, a 48-inch culvert under Batavia Road near the laboratory's east gate will be replaced. This will require the gate to be closed all of Friday, July 5, and possibly all of Saturday, July 6. Employees, users and visitors must use the Pine Street entrance for these two days to enter or exit the laboratory.

Warning signs will be posted in both directions at the gate and on the bike path. If you need more information, please contact Roads and Grounds at x3303.

In the News

On the hunt for neutrinos: Physicist seeks new ways to detect and measure the elusive particles

From Phys.org, June 26, 2013

Every second, trillions of particles called neutrinos pass through your body. These particles have a mass so tiny it has never been measured, and they interact so weakly with other matter that it is nearly impossible to detect them, making it very difficult to study their behavior.

Since arriving at MIT in 2005, Joseph Formaggio, an associate professor of physics, has sought new ways to measure the mass of neutrinos. Nailing down that value—and answering questions such as whether neutrinos are identical to antineutrinos—could help scientists refine the Standard Model of particle physics, which outlines the 16 types of subatomic particles (including the three neutrinos) that physicists have identified.

Read more

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

NALWO potluck supper - July 19

What's Your Financial IQ Challenge runs from July 1 - 31

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings in Ramsey Auditorium

Closure on Main Ring Road - July 2-3

International folk dancing canceled July 4; in Auditorium for summer

Batavia Road gate closed July 5-6

Registration for FEMA assistance due July 9

Behavioral interviewing course scheduled for July 18

Fermilab Prairie Plant Survey (Quadrat Study) - July 19

Chris Lintott: How to Discover a Planet From Your Sofa - July 19

Summer intern Friday tours

Housing Office accepting requests for fall & spring on-site housing

10K Steps drawing winner

Martial arts

BuZheng Qigong & Tai Chi Easy

Outdoor soccer at the Village

Join the Tango Club

English country dancing at Kuhn Barn