Fermilab Today Tuesday, April 24, 2007
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Tue., April 24
1:00 p.m.
Special Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II
(NOTE DATE and TIME) Speaker: A. Pocar, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Title: The Status of the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO)
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: R. Madrak, Fermilab
Title: A Fast Chopper for the HINS

Wed., April 25
THERE WILL BE NO FERMILAB ILC R&D MEETING THIS WEEK
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - 1 West
Speaker: H. Weise, DESY
Title: The European XFEL Free Electron Laser at DESY

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

Weather

WeatherChance of showers 65°/45°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe
Tuesday, April 24
-Tomato bisque
-Lemon pepper club
-Burgundy beef tips
-Smart Cuisine: Tortellini alfredo
-Grilled chicken Caesar wrap
-Assorted pizza slices
-Rio Grande taco salads

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, April 25
Closed

Thursday, April 26
Dinner
- Coquille St. Jacques
- Veal piccata
- Risotto confetti
- Chocolate fondue w/ dipping fruit

Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation.

Archives

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Info

Fermilab Today is online at:
www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
today@fnal.gov

Feature

Lincoln Park HS students mark Particle Accelerator Day


Students from Chicago's Lincoln Park High School got a close-up look of Fermilab at work during activities marking Particle Accelerator Day in Illinois.

Fermilab celebrated the second annual Illinois Particle Accelerator Day by demystifying particle physics for a group of juniors and seniors from Chicago's Lincoln Park High School on Monday, April 23. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had officially designated Saturday, April 21 to laud the ongoing efforts of Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory in advancing important new technologies and scientific discoveries.

After touring the lab Monday afternoon, the 11th and 12 grade students enjoyed a detailed description of Fermilab's accelerator chain from Accelerator Division head Roger Dixon and colleague Gordon Koizumi. Though the students pronounced some physics jargon with trepidation, they were full of questions: Does a vacuum have temperature? Are neutrinos related to dark matter? When the LHC is up and running, is Fermilab hoping to be a sister lab?

Dixon and Koizumi used some personal anecdotes to make the science accessible, with Dixon describing an experiment he had tried as a young Fermilab physicist. He wanted to test the power of an accelerated beam, so while the accelerator was turned off, into the path the beam would take and placed a microphone nearby. Then he turned on the machine. "I heard the sound of two freight trains smashing together," he said with a smile.

Lincoln Park student Huanping Chen, 18, appreciated the close-up view of particle physics at work. "So far, I've been learning about how things work," he said. "I enjoyed learning about how a particle fits into the universe."

-- Kate Raiford

Photo of the Day

KEK Director General Suzuki signs MOU


Director General Atsuto Suzuki of KEK, Japan's High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, and Fermilab director Pier Oddone signed a memorandum of understanding Monday on Wilson Hall's second floor crossover. The MOU recognizes the laboratories' mutual interests and their intentions to promote cooperation in scientific and technological exchanges. Director General Suzuki and the KEK delegation also received a tour of the laboratory.

In the News

From American Institute of Physics, April 23, 2007

Tevatron's Higgs Quest Quickens

Physicists from Fermilab's Tevatron collider have just reported their most comprehensive summary yet of physics at the highest laboratory energies. At last week's American Physical Society (APS) meeting in Jacksonville, Florida they delivered dozens of papers on a spectrum of topics, many of which are related in some way to the Higgs boson.

The Higgs is the cornerstone ingredient in the standard model of high energy physics. It is the particle manifestation of the curious mechanism that kicked in at an early moment in the life of the universe: the W and Z bosons (the carriers of the weak force) became endowed with mass while the photon (the carrier of the electromagnetic force) did not. This asymmetry makes the two forces very different in the way they operate in the universe.

Read more
Director's Corner

Responsibility

Pier Oddone

Last week the Fermilab program was scrutinized by the Fermi Research Alliance Visiting Committee chaired by Dr. Natalie Roe of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Board of Directors of FRA created the committee as part of their oversight responsibilities for Fermilab. It was a heartening experience for those of us who attended the review to hear about the full science and technology output of Fermilab over the last year - all at one time. Particle physics is alive and well at Fermilab!

One important area of inquiry for the committee was how we work with the US high-energy physics community and how this relationship will evolve in the future. It is likely that in the near future there will be only one director left in the DOE system of laboratories who is a high-energy physicist - an endangered species without a protection act. These are very different days from those when we had an Olympian cast of directors with Pief Panofsky, Andy Sessler, and Bob Wilson during the 70s and Nick Samios, Leon Lederman and Burton Richter during the 80s, simultaneously guiding laboratories primarily devoted to particle physics. I like to think of those days as the "good old days," yet many of my university friends call them "the bad old days when the lab directors controlled the program!"

From the very beginning of Fermilab there has been a tradition of service to the HEP community. Every one of at Fermilab has a duty to the community as a component of our jobs. The very concept of URA as the contractor was to ensure that Fermilab provided fair access to everyone in the community. Today this role has to be carried out at a much higher level, not only helping users access Fermilab facilities, but fully involving the community in developing the joint future of the laboratory and the US particle physics community.

The guiding principle for Fermilab in working with the HEP community is to optimize discovery opportunities, to develop the future of the field through joint planning and to prepare future generations of particle physicists. We are committed to doing this in all programs and at all levels at Fermilab. Our commitment is not only to the universities but also to the very strong and productive HEP groups at national laboratories who will be essential for carrying out any major new initiative. This broad partnership is the only way for the field to prosper in the future.

Accelerator Update
April 20 - 23
- Three stores provided 57 hours and 18 minutes of luminosity
- LRF2 required more work
- Store 5366 quenched due to separator spark
- MECAR problems cause MI trouble

Read the Current Accelerator Update
Read the Early Bird Report
View the Tevatron Luminosity Charts

Announcements

SciBooNE moves on Wednesday:
some roads will be closed

Roads will be closed Wednesday between approximately 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. while a key component of the SciBooNE detector is moved. Check Wednesday's issue of Fermilab Today for more details.

Pine Street entrance closed
Due to repaving operations, both the inbound and outbound lanes of Fermilab's Pine Street entrance will continue to be closed through Thursday, April 26. Each day the Pine Street entrance will be closed at 6 a.m. and will reopen by 6 p.m. The Wilson Street entrance will be open between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. The schedule is dependent on the weather.

Fermilab Friends membership drive
and lunchtime fair this week

Fermilab Friends for Science Education, a non-profit organization, is holding a membership drive and lunchtime fair on April 23-26 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Wilson Hall Atrium. Join other staff members in providing the extra support that helps Fermilab's K-12 education programs thrive.
Events
- Monday, "Estimation:" Winners get a jar of treats
- Tuesday, "Crush a walnut:" Try our unique nutcracker, the Walnut Collider
- Wednesday, "Levitate a train"
- Thursday, "Test your knowledge of Fermilab history"

Upcoming Activities

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