Thursday, May 25
12:00 p.m. Summer Lecture Series - Curia II
Speaker: A. Kolb, Fermilab
Title: Fermilab, 1967-2006: Four Decades at the Frontier
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar -
Curia II
Speaker: S. Raby, Ohio State University
Title: Constructing 5D Orbifold GUTs from Heterotic Strings
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK -
2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m. Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar -
Curia II (note location)
Speaker: T. Sen, Fermilab
Title: US-LHC Activities in the Accelerator Division
Friday, May 26
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK -
2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m.
Joint Experimental Theoretical Physics Seminar -
1 West
Speaker: R. Bean, Cornell University
Title: Cosmology from WMAP and Beyond
For links to events, click here.
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Thursday, May 25
-Santa Fe Black Bean
-Sloppy Joe
-Stuffed Peppers
-Sauteed Liver & Onions
-Baked Ham & Swiss on a Ciabatta Roll
-California Pizza
-Crispy Fried Chicken Ranch Salad
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
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Thursday, May 25
Dinner
CLOSED
Wednesday, May 31
Lunch
-Corn Crepes w/Chicken & Poblano Chilies
-Pico De Gallo
-Tropical Fruit Platter
Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation.
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Jean-Francois Arguin wins
2006 URA Thesis Award
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Jean-Francois Arguin (right) and his advisor, Pekka Sinervo, of the University of Toronto. (Click on image for larger version.) |
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The URA Thesis Award Committee has chosen Jean-Francois Arguin, formerly of CDF, as the winner of the 2006 URA Thesis Award. His thesis, "Measurement of the Top Quark Mass with In Situ Jet Energy Scale Calibration Using Hadronic W Boson Decays at CDF-II," produced the world's best measurement of top quark mass. "[Arguin] really deserves it. The work he did was very much a result of his own inspiration and sweat," said Pekka Sinervo, University of Toronto professor of physics and Arguin's advisor.
Arguin's work was chosen from a pool of 14 nominated theses, for its superior combination of originality, physics content and clarity of presentation. "We have a very strong group of Ph.D. theses this year," said Computing Division's Stephen Wolbers, chair of the URA Award Selection Committee. "This one we liked in particular because it used new techniques to measure the top quark mass with a remarkably high precision. Not only is this the best [top] measurement ever made, but it allows future measurements to be better," Wolbers said.
The biggest roadblock for measuring the mass of the top quark isn't the accuracy of the detectors but the physicists' means of gauging, or calibrating, the accuracy of their detector. Arguin gauged CDF's accuracy by looking at how accurately it measures the mass of the W boson--a particle whose attributes are known and can be measured precisely using the characteristic sprays of particles ("jets") that mark its decay. The greater the amount of Tevatron data analyzed using Arguin's calibration method, the more accurately the top quark mass can be determined.
Award winners receive a plaque and $3000, funded by the Universities Research Association. Arguin, currently a post-doc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will receive the award at the annual Users' Meeting next week and will give a short talk describing the thesis. He hopes his measurements of the top quark will help scientists predict the mass of the Higgs boson.
--Jennifer Lauren Lee |
Astrophysics alumni gather at Fermilab to talk, catch up
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Former Fermilab Astrophysicist Dave Lindley has written for the journals Nature and Science, and authored books about physics. (Click on image for larger version.) |
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About 20 Fermilab alumni traveled from as far as China to attend the theoretical astrophysics reunion here yesterday and give talks about their recent work. Astrophysicist-turned-science-writer David Lindley discussed the impetus behind his book, The End of Physics. "It was a skeptical take on Hawking's statement back in the 70s that the end of physics might be in sight," he said. "The idea that we will soon have a handle on how the universe works is fine, but the idea that people will 'solve' physics has not withstood the test of time." Among the 18 other speakers in the day-long event were Michael Turner of the University of Chicago, Enrique Gaztanaga of Barcelona, and Pengjie Zhang, of Shanghai. You can see a full list of participants here.
--Siri Steiner |
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center sets luminosity record
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SLAC's electron-position collider, known as PEP-II, set an all-time peak luminosity record of
10.028 x 1033 cm-2 s-1 on Monday, May 22. A record for luminosity during a single shift was also reached that day, with 251.6 inverse picobarns deilivered by PEP-II and 243.26 inverse picobarns recorded by the BaBar detector. SLAC expects to set additional records in the coming days, including delivered and recorded luminosity in a 24 hour period. You can read the SLAC Today story here.
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SURA Brings Grids to Southeastern United States
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Map of SURAgrid participants. |
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SURAgrid, the cyberinfrastructure initiative of the Southern Universities Research Association, has received authorization for $1 million over the next three years from the SURA Board of Trustees to expand its resources and staff and to develop new grid communities across the Southeastern United States.
Read More
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House Committee on Science, May 24, 2006:
Boehlert praises full funding for DOE portion of
American Competitiveness Initiative
WASHINGTON, May 24, 2006 - House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) today delivered the following floor statement in support of the Energy and Water Appropriations bill:
Mr. Chairman:
I rise in strong support of this bill, and I want to thank Chairman Hobson and his staff for consulting closely and continuously with me, Chairman Biggert of our Energy Subcommittee, and the Science Committee staff as they put together this bill.
Read More |
Beacon News, May 24, 2006:
Painted dinosaurs prepare for debut
AURORA - A new herd has moved into SciTech.
But it won't be there for long. By this weekend, this herd should be roaming the streets of Aurora for the summer.
On Tuesday, SciTech Executive Director Dr. Ronen Mir unveiled the stars of the museum's Dinosaurs on Parade Roam Aurora art project.
Read More |
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Dissecting the Proton with W Bosons |
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Asymmetry of the muon from W → μv decays. Rapidity is related to
the angle of the muon in the detector. The small red bars represent
the systematic uncertainty; the black bars show the statistical uncertainty.
The yellow band indicates the uncertainty range of the prediction using
CTEQ6.1M momentum functions; the blue line indicates the central
value for the MRST02 functions.
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At the Tevatron, W+ bosons are produced by the collision of an up quark
from the proton and an anti-down quark from the antiproton, while W- bosons
are produced by down and anti-up quarks. Since up quarks generally carry more
of the proton's momentum than down quarks do, W+ bosons tend to move in the
proton direction. Similarly, anti-up quarks carry more of the antiproton's
momentum than anti-down quarks and W- bosons tend to move in the antiproton
direction.
Measuring this asymmetry provides information about the momenta of the quarks
in the proton, information that is crucial for all comparisons between
theoretical predictions and experimental results at a hadron collider. The
functions describing the behavior of the proton's constituents cannot be
calculated and must be measured.
Since the W boson decays quickly, we cannot observe it and must rely upon its
decay products--in this case a muon and a neutrino. The asymmetry in W
boson production is reflected in the directions of the particles it decays into;
since the neutrino escapes the detector without interacting, we use the
direction of the muon for our measurement.
The asymmetry, shown in the figure, is the difference between the numbers of
positive and negative muons found at a given angle in the detector divided by
their sum at that angle. The uncertainties in the measurement are
dominated by statistics, boding well for future measurements as luminosity
accumulates. This is the first W→ μv asymmetry measurement from Run II.
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Above: Sinjini Sengupta and Susan Blessing contributed to this analysis. Below: Marco Verzocchi has been leading the effort to develop the trigger list for Run IIB that will allow DZero to continue to collect the data for this and all of its other physics analyses.
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Result of the Week Archive
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NALWO Spring Tea
Spring Tea
Barbara Oddone will host the NALWO Spring Tea today, May 25, from
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The tea will be held at her home, Site #29, just inside the Wilson Street gate (turn right at the driveway just beyond the gate). Car pools encouraged. Please bring your favorite dessert or appetizer from your country, but if you cannot bring a treat, please come anyway!
For additional information contact Susan Kayser at sukayser@fnal.gov, Rose Moore at rosecraigmoore@comcast.net, 630/208-9309, or the Housing Office, 630/840-3777 or housing@fnal.gov.
Batavia Road entrance closed to cars and bicycles
The Batavia Road entrance is closed through Friday, May 26, while the City of Warrenville re-paves roadways and carries out other construction work along Batavia Road. Delays are expected to continue until early June, even after the entrance re-opens. Drivers and bicyclists should use Pine and Wilson Street entrances until the work is completed. Pine Street entrance hours are 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for the general public and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for employees. The Wilson Road entrance hours are 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
For more information, contact Tom Prosapio at prosapio@fnal.gov
Federal Citizen Information Center
Looking for information about Social Security, getting a passport, or
renewing a driver's license? The federal government now offers a one-stop
Web page that provides official information on all government services you
can use: FirstGov.gov. Or call 1-800-FED-INFO to
receive the information you need.
Weekly Time Sheets Due Tomorrow
With the upcoming memorial holiday, weekly time sheets are due
in payroll by 10:00 a.m on Friday May 26.
Recreation Ticket Service Charge
Beginning in May there will be a nominal $.25 service charge added to all ticket and discount book sales in the Recreation Office.
International Folk Dancing
International Folk Dancing will meet Thursday, May 25, at Kuhn Barn before moving to Ramsey Auditorium for the summer on June 1. Dancing begins at 7:30 p.m. with teaching and children's dances earlier in the evening and request dancing later on. Newcomers are welcome and you do not need to come with a partner. Info at 630-584-0825 or 630-840-8194 or folkdance@fnal.gov.
Upcoming Activities
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