Fermilab TodayTuesday, May 4, 2004  
Calendar
Tuesday, May 4
3:30 p.m. DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m. Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - 1 West
Speaker: S.G. Tantawi, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Title: Multimoded RF Systems for X-Band Future Linear Colliders

Wednesday, May 5
3:30 p.m. DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m. Fermilab Colloquium - 1 West
Speaker: D. Hofstadter, Indiana University
Title: How Analogy Drives Physics

Cafeteria
Wilson Hall Cafe
Tuesday, May 4
Golden Broccoli & Cheese soup
Hickory Smoked BBQ Pork $4.75
Japanese Breaded Pork Cutlet $3.75
Hawaiian Marinated Chicken w/Grilled Pineapple $3.75
Toasted Almond Chicken Salad on Low Carb Bread $4.75
Portabella Mushroom Baked Pizza Wrap
Chicken Fajita Tacos $4.75
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
Chez Leon
Weather
Weather Chance Thunderstorms 69º/44º

Extended Forecast

Weather at Fermilab

Security

Secon Level 3

Search
Search the Fermilab Today Archive
Information
Fermilab Today is online at: http://www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to
today@fnal.gov

Fermilab Today archive

Fermilab Today classifieds

Subscribe/Unsubscribe to Fermilab Today
First Data From Deep Underground Experiment Narrow Search for Dark Matter
Project manager Dan Bauer from Fermilab holds one tower of detectors as Vuk Mandic from UC Berkeley examines them. Each tower of detectors contains 1 kilogram of germanium for detecting dark matter and 200 grams of silicon to distinguish WIMPs from neutrons. Thin layers of silicon, aluminum, and tungsten covering the detector surfaces measure both the heat and charge released when a particle interacts inside.
Project manager Dan Bauer from Fermilab holds one tower of detectors as Vuk Mandic from UC Berkeley examines them.
With the first data from their underground observatory in Northern Minnesota, scientists of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search have peered with greater sensitivity than ever before into the suspected realm of the WIMPS. The sighting of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles could solve the double mystery of dark matter on the cosmic scale and of supersymmetry on the subatomic scale.

The CDMS II result, described in a paper submitted to Physical Review Letters, shows with 90 percent certainty that the interaction rate of a WIMP with mass 60 GeV must be less than 4 x 10-43 cm2 or about one interaction every 25 days per kilogram of germanium, the material in the experiment's detector. This result tells researchers more than they have ever known before about WIMPS, if they exist. The measurements from the CDMS II detectors are at least four times more sensitive than the best previous measurement offered by the EDELWEISS experiment, an underground European experiment near Grenoble, France.
read press release

New Way to Request Visitor Passes
Lederman Center Guard House
Officer Dave Sabatino helps a visitor at the Lederman Center Guard House. (Click on image for larger version.)
The Lab has a new web based system for requesting visitor passes. The Site Access Visitor Request form is available online or go to the ES&H Section Home Page > Security > Site Access Visitor Request Form, and simply follow the directions.

As before, only employees and users have the authority to grant site access to a visitor. The requestor needs to provide the purpose of the visit, the expected arrival date and time, the duration of visit, and the names and affiliations of the visitors.

Once the visitor request data is properly logged, the guards in the Lederman Science Center Guard House need only verify the identity of a visitor, and then print their visitor passes. As the passes are handed out, a bar-code on the passes is scanned by the guard. This serves to document that the visitor has arrived and, if the requestor wishes, an e-mail is sent announcing their arrival.

This new computer-based approach is less labor intensive than the previous procedure. It is less prone to errors and provides greater functionality. The new plastic passes also make better souvenirs than the old-style paper passes, not to mention that they can be recycled. For those without internet access, or for the automation-challenged, Dispatch will still accept requests at x3414.

Director's Corner
Good Morning!
Mike Witherell
Mike Witherell
In recent weeks I set in motion the next steps in establishing an LHC Physics Center (LPC) here at Fermilab. The Fermilab Long-Range Planning Committee has emphasized the importance of the LPC for Fermilab and for particle physics in the U.S. The goals of the center are to make it possible for U.S. physicists working in the CMS collaboration to be innovative leaders in LHC physics and to ensure that Fermilab remains an intellectual center for collider physics.

A group of university faculty members wrote me a thoughtful letter recently pointing out the particular value of the LHC Physics Center to groups that are part of the CMS collaboration in addition to either CDF or DZero. These groups will be able to share people across the two research programs more efficiently because of the LPC. This sharing will also ensure that physicists bring important experience from the Tevatron to the LHC research program.

As a result of what we are doing now, the LHC Physics Center will be an important institution at Fermilab for decades to come.

Accelerator Update
April 30 - May 3
- Operations established two stores that along with an existing store provided 62 hours and 55 minutes of luminosity to the experiments.
- The Meson MTest experiment takes fast spill
- The Antiproton Source had emittance, timing, and stacking problems

View the current accelerator update
View the Tevatron Luminosity Charts

In the News
From the Chicago Tribune, May 2, 2004:
DR. ARTHUR ROBERTS, 91
University of Chicago physicist, music fan
By Imran Vittachi
As he did throughout much of his life, Dr. Arthur Roberts played air piano the day he died, his fingers dancing over an imaginary keyboard.

He was a nuclear physicist who fused science with his love of music.

Dr. Roberts, 91, whose work in physics took him to the University of Chicago physics department and the University of Chicago-run Argonne National and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratories, died of Alzheimer's disease Thursday, April 22, at his home in Honolulu. Dr. Roberts moved to Hawaii in the late 1970s.
read more

Announcements
Sitewide Emergency Warning System Testing Today
The Sitewide Emergency Warning System is scheduled for testing today at 10:00 a.m. All components and voice interfaces for CDF, DZero, FCC and Wilson Hall will be tested. The test will begin and end with the announcement, "This is a test of the sitewide emergency warning system." Any questions or problems should be reported to Bill James at x8901.

Upcoming Classes
May 3-7 AutoCAD, two sessions AM & PM
May 11-13 & May 20-21 Java Intro
May 18 & 19 Access 2000 Application Development
May 24 & 25 Dreamweaver MX 2004 Intro
May 26 & 27 Dreamweaver MX 2004 Advanced
June 15 & 17 HTML Intro, Intro to Web Publishing
June 16 Accomplishment Report Writing
June 21-25 LabView Intermediate I: Successful Dev. Prac.
June 29 - July 1 HTML Intermediate, Enhanced Layout
July 8 & 21 Accomplishment Report Writing
more information

Memorial Ceremony for Carmenita Moore
On May 5th at noon, there will be a memorial ceremony and tree planting for Carmenita Moore on the path by the pond between FCC and Wilson Hall. Everyone is welcome. To arrange for visitors to pass through security, contact Jo Ann Larson at x2690.

FNPRT Printserver Scheduled Downtime
The FNPRT Printerserver (Site-Wide UNIX print server) will have a scheduled downtime on Thursday May 6, 2004 from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. in order to have cumulative operating system patches applied

Fermilab Today
Security, Privacy, Legal  |  Use of Cookies