Tevatron achieves record integrated luminosity

The plot shows the cumulative integrated luminosity for FY10. Late last week, the Accelerator Complex reached a new integrated luminosity record, shown here. The red and blue lines depicted on the plot are upper and lower performance goals as set by the Department of Energy.

The Accelerator Complex achieved a record integrated luminosity of 1960 inverse picobarns, a cumulative achievement for this fiscal year.

"This year was the fastest we've ever gotten to 1900 and the highest we've ever achieved," said Cons Gattuso, Accelerator Division run coordinator.

Accelerator Division employees strategically lowered the peak luminosity in an attempt to gain more integrated luminosity. Gattuso attributes the record to that and solid, steady running despite mechanical problems. The hot weather can and has caused problems with various accelerator systems.

Accelerator Complex personnel hope to reach 2000 inverse picobarns this week and more than that by the beginning of July, which is when the division will begin ramping down energy and intensity in preparation for the mid-summer shutdown.

Construction affects Wilson Hall west side access, parking

Bike racks and motorcycle parking on the west side of the building will be removed and relocated to the east side beginning June 21 and continuing through early October.

The west entrance to the separate entrances to the mezzanine and the Medical Office also will be closed for a portion of next week. These short-term inconveniences are necessary to facilitate renovations and safety improvements to the west side of Wilson Hall.

CERN Council opens the door to greater integration

At its 155th session today, the CERN Council strongly congratulated the Laboratory on the excellent performance of the LHC since its start-up for physics on 30 March this year. Council also opened the door to greater integration in particle physics when it unanimously adopted the recommendations of a working group set up in 2008 to examine the role of the Organization in the light of increasing globalization in particle physics.

The key points agreed at today's meeting are that:

• All states shall be eligible for Membership, irrespective of their geographical location;
• A new Associate Membership status is to be introduced to allow non-Member States to establish or intensify their institutional links with the Organization;
• Associate Membership shall also serve as the obligatory pre-stage to Membership;
• The existing Observer status will be phased out for States, but retained for International Organizations;
• International co-operation agreements and protocols will be retained.

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Neutrino surprise emerges from MINOS

From Physics World, June 18, 2010

Researchers at Fermilab's MINOS experiment have announced a surprise result that could point to a fundamental difference between neutrinos and their anti particles. The findings, if confirmed by further experimental runs, may help physicists to explore some of the elemental differences between matter and anti-matter.

The MINOS experiment is designed to test the theory that neutrinos can change between types in a process known as neutrino "oscillation". When this idea was first muted in the 1950s it was controversial because it implies that neutrinos have mass, a feature that contradicts the Standard Model of particle physics. However, the theory has been supported by subsequent experiments, which have found the Sun to be producing fewer electron neutrinos than had been expected. It is also backed-up by an apparent shortfall in muon neutrinos produced by cosmic rays interacting in the Earth's atmosphere.

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