Friday, April 25, 2014
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Have a safe day!

Friday, April 25

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

4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Nhan Tran, Fermilab
Title: The Evolution of Jets at the LHC: Jets, Subjets and Particles

8 p.m.
Fermilab Lecture Series - Ramsey Auditorium
Speaker: Nigel Lockyer
Title: Sticks and Stones, Particles and Batteries: Ben Franklin Would Be Pleased
Tickets: $7

Monday, April 28

7:45 a.m.-5:45 p.m.
12th Meeting of Task Force on Shielding Aspects of Accelerators, Targets and Irradiation Facilities - Curia II
Register in person

9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
New Perspectives on Dark Matter - One West
Registration is free

THERE WILL BE NO PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS SEMINAR THIS WEEK

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

4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topic: Observations with a Carbon-Nanotube Cathode at HBESL

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Friday, April 25

- Breakfast: cherry-stuffed French toast
- Breakfast: chorizo and egg burrito
- Beer-battered fish sandwich
- Smart cuisine: sweet and sour apricot chicken
- Poached salmon
- Turkey and cucumber salad wraps
- Big beef or chicken burrito
- Manhattan skyline clam chowder
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted pizza by the slice

Wilson Hall Cafe menu
Chez Leon

Friday, April 25
Dinner
- Mandarin orange and red onion salad
- Grilled mahi mahi with avocado and tomatillo salsa
- Thai rice pilaf
- Grilled asparagus
- Coconut cake

Wednesday, April 30
Lunch
- Grilled lemongrass beef
- Rice noodle salad
- Almond cake

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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From symmetry

Commentary: Massive thoughts

The Higgs boson and the neutrino fascinate the general public and particle physicists alike. Why is that? Photo: Fermilab

Editor's note: Tonight at 8 p.m., Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer will give a talk on advances in particle physics and the role they plan in energy.

If there are two particles that everyone has read about in the news lately, it's the Higgs boson and the neutrino. Why do we continue to be fascinated by these two particles?

As just about everyone now knows, the Higgs boson is integrally connected to the field that gives particles their mass. But the excitement of this discovery isn't over; now we need to figure out how this actually works and whether it explains everything about how particles get their mass. With time, this knowledge is likely to affect daily life.

One way it could possibly bridge the gap between fundamental research and the commercial market, I believe, is in batteries. The ultimate battery in nature is mass. The expression E=mc2 is a statement of that fact. During the early moments of the universe, all particles were massless and traveling at the speed of light. Once the Higgs mechanism turned on, particles suddenly began interacting with the field and, in this process, converted their energy into what we now refer to as mass. In a recent address to the Canadian Nuclear Society, I suggested that if engineers of the future could learn how to manipulate the Higgs field (to "turn it on and off"), then we would have developed the ultimate energy source and the best battery nature has created. This idea definitely belongs in the science-fiction category, but remember that progress in science is driven by thinking "outside the box!"

Read more

Nigel Lockyer

In Brief

New Perspectives on Dark Matter workshop - next week

From April 28-May 2, the Fermilab Theory Group will host New Perspectives on Dark Matter, a workshop on searches for dark matter directly in the lab. Workshop attendees will review avenues for dark-matter searches with a focus on new directions.

A number of direct-detection dark-matter experiments are based at Fermilab and in the Chicago area, and several of the new ideas are related to the lab's future experimental program.

All are invited to attend. Registration is free.

Wellness Feature of the Month

May wellness offerings and fitness classes

Free wellness offerings include Wednesday Walkers and BuZheng Qigong and Tai Chi Easy classes. Register for any of the following fitness classes beginning in May: Butts and Guts, Zumba Fitness, Martial Arts or Yoga. Don't miss the Hula Hoop Contest, Zumba Toning and Martial Arts open houses, and Employee Health and Fitness Day.

Wellness Offerings

Wednesday Walkers
Wednesdays
Depart from the east side of Wilson Hall at noon. Time, distance and speed are up to you.

BuZheng Qigong and Tai Chi Easy
Mondays and Fridays through May 30, noon-1 p.m.
Ramsey Auditorium

Wednesdays through May 28, 7-8 a.m.
Ramsey Auditorium

Special Events

Hula Hoop Contest
Monday, May 19, noon
Wilson Hall east side, outside

Employee Health and Fitness Day
Tuesday, May 20, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Wilson Hall east side, Main Ring
Walk, run, bike or rollerblade with co-workers. T-shirts, bags, towels and exercise bands go to the first 400 participants.

Fitness Classes

Zumba Toning Open House class and free trial
Tuesday, April 29, 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Fitness Center Exercise Room

Butts and Guts
Wednesdays, April 30-June 11, 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Fitness Center Exercise Room
$55/person/7-week period. Register now.

Fridays, May 2-June 20 (no class May 30), 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Fitness Center Exercise Room
$55/person/7-week period. Register now.

Zumba Fitness
Thursdays, May 1-June 19, 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Fitness Center Exercise Room
$50/person. Register now.

Martial Arts
Free open house class on Monday, May 5, 5-6 p.m.
Fitness Center Gym
No registration required. Gym will be open.

Mondays and Wednesdays, May 12-June 18, 5-6 p.m.
Fitness Center Gym
$60/person. Register by May 5.

Yoga
Mondays, May 12-June 23 (no class May 26), noon-12:45 p.m.
WH ground-floor east Training Room
$45/person. Register by May 5.

Thursdays, May 15-June 19, noon-12:45 p.m.
WH ground-floor east Training Room
$45/person. Register by May 8.

Employee discounts can be found at the discounts Web page.

For more information or to register for classes, visit the Wellness Web page.

In the News

Bouncing neutrons probe dark energy on a table-top

From Nature, April 18, 2014

​When a tennis ball bounces off the ground, you could be forgiven for thinking its movement is smooth. But this is just an illusion. The ball is constantly switching between closely packed quantum states of gravitational energy — so quickly that the transition seems smooth. Now, physicists have measured these transitions by bouncing not tennis balls, but ultracold neutrons to test the laws of gravity over scales no one had studied before.

Read more

Frontier Science Result: CMS

The shape of the jet

A jet of water sprayed through water loses energy and changes shape, as illustrated by this Jacuzzi jet. CMS scientists studied a similar phenomenon in an exotic liquid of quarks and gluons.

Despite the complexity of particle colliders and the instrumentation needed to analyze their results, the ultimate aim of most particle physics experiments is to understand something simple. At a fundamental level, most natural phenomena turn out to be simple in profound ways. By contrast, our macroscopic world is teeming with complexity: A bucket of water is by far more complex than an electron. The exact way that water sloshes, curdles in turbulent flow and pinches into droplets when it splashes would be difficult to simulate on the world's biggest supercomputers, even though the basic interactions between individual atoms are pretty well understood.

One part of the quantum world has this kind of complexity, however: the strong force that binds quarks. Unlike the electromagnetic force between atoms, the particles that make up the strong force are themselves attracted via the strong force, which begets more strong force. Physicists call them gluons because they make such a sticky mess. Like the bucket of water, the strong force is notoriously difficult to calculate because some of its properties are emergent — they arise from the interplay of many interactions.

One of these emergent properties is the fact that a lone quark flying away from a collision creates gluons, which create quarks, which create gluons, and becomes a jet of particles flying in roughly the same direction. Another is that if you get enough quarks in a small space (by colliding heavy nuclei), they undergo a phase transition into a new kind of liquid ruled by strong force interactions. Recently, scientists discovered that jets are eaten by the liquid: They are absorbed into the droplet and sometimes disappear entirely.

To get a more complete picture of this phenomenon, scientists have used the CMS experiment to study an in-between case, jets that are partially but not completely absorbed by the strong-force liquid. Like a hose sprayed through water, this results in misshapen jets. The angles among particles that make up the jet are noticeably wider than usual, and the exact amount of broadening tells us a little more about the nature of this new state of matter.

Jim Pivarski

The U.S. physicists pictured above made major contributions to this first-ever jet shape analysis in heavy ion collisions.
Above are members of the Core Computing Division who support videoconferencing, projection systems and Mac and Windows computers in the CMS Remote Operations Center on the first floor of Wilson Hall. They keep software up to date, debug errors, upgrade hardware and perform regular maintenance tasks.
Photo of the Day

Planting trees for Arbor Day

More than 50 volunteers planted native shrubs and trees along Road C for the annual Fermilab Arbor Day event on Tuesday. Photo: Reidar Hahn
In Brief

Upgrades to Internet Explorer version 9 begin April 28

Beginning Monday, April 28, the Core Computing Division will upgrade older Internet Explorer versions to version 9 to supply necessary functionality for upcoming service improvements. This change will not affect servers or Accelerator Division computers.

All affected users will receive email notifications from the Service Desk with upgrade dates and instructions. At the end of the day assigned for your upgrade, please log off your computer, but leave it powered on. Laptops should be left at work, plugged in, with the lid open.

The most notable difference between Internet Explorer 9 and older versions is that the favorites bar is not turned on by default. Read about how you can change this setting.

The Core Computing Division staff will make every attempt to minimize the potential for negative impact by performing this upgrade after work hours. Staff will work as quickly as possible to remediate any issues that occur.

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

2013 FSA claim filing deadline - April 30

Take the train commuting survey by May 9

Fermilab Lecture Series: Nigel Lockyer gives talk today

Butts & Guts Open House - today

Laboratory Directed R&D information session - April 29

National Day of Prayer Observance - May 1

Wilson Street entrance closed starting May 5

Pre-retirement planning Lunch and Learn - May 7

Change in tax practice may affect some visitors

Fermilab Time and Labor URLs changing

A Smart Cuisine purchase earns you 10 bonus points

2014 Fermilab Golf League season is upon us

Wednesday Walkers

Abri Credit Union welcomes spring

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings at Kuhn Barn

International folk dancing meets Thursday evenings at Kuhn Barn

Indoor soccer

Classifieds
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