Fermilab Today Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010
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Tuesday, Sept. 21
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Mingqi Ge, Fermilab
Title: The Development of New Techniques for Surface Defect Research at Fermilab

Wednesday, Sept. 22
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: Raman Sundrum, University of Maryland
Title: Warped Dimensions


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Wilson Hall Cafe

Tuesday, Sept. 21
- Breakfast: Bagel sandwich
- Golden broccoli soup
- Fish & chips
- Coconut crusted tilapia
- Burgundy beef tips
- La Grande sandwich
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Chicken fajitas

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Sept. 22
Lunch
- Stuffed eggplant
- Marinated garden salad
- Luscious lemon poke cake

Thursday, Sept. 23
Dinner
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Blackened grouper
- Dirty rice
- Maque choux
- Mocha fudge bread pudding

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Press Release

Fermilab constructs pioneering accelerator test facility

The construction includes three interconnected structures, which will house the test accelerator, a test area for cryomodules and the equipment for a powerful new refrigerator.

Officials at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced today that the laboratory has started phase II of the construction of a pioneering facility to advance a technology that will be critical to the next generation of particle accelerators.

The new facility, which will occupy three buildings and host a 460-foot-long test accelerator, will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Fermilab is using $52.7 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to advance its Superconducting Radio-Frequency R&D program, which includes the construction of the SRF Accelerator Test Facility. Phase I of the construction began in March 2010 with the $2.8 million expansion of an existing building. For phase II, the laboratory has awarded a $4.2 million contract for the construction of two new buildings. Additional ARRA funds will go toward equipment and infrastructure needed for the building's operation. Fermilab will use the facility to test superconducting radio-frequency components and validate the manufacturing capability of vendors from U.S. industry.

"Our future is going to involve accelerators that use superconducting radio-frequency technology," said Jay Theilacker of Fermilab's Accelerator Division. "Building this new SRF test facility is an important step forward."

Structures called SRF cavities accelerate charged particles to very high energies. The structures operate inside containers known as cryomodules, which chill the cavities to -456 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature where they can conduct electric current without electrical resistance-hence the term "superconducting."

Fermilab plans to use the facility to test cryomodules designed for two proposed future particle accelerators: Project X, which would be built at Fermilab, and the International Linear Collider, which could become the world's next high-energy collider, designed and built through an international effort. The laboratory's current flagship accelerator, the Tevatron, is scheduled to retire after 2011. It does not use SRF technology.

Read more

In the News

Does the universe have a 'dark flow?'

From NPR's Talk of the Nation, Sept. 17, 2010

Using measurements of the cosmic microwave background, researchers say, there's evidence that galaxy clusters are being pulled along by a force outside the visible universe. Theoretical physicist Michael Turner explains this "dark flow" and other recent cosmology news.

IRA FLATOW, host:

Up next, some spooky physics news. You've heard about dark matter and dark energy? How about dark flow?

Scientists studying the cosmic microwave background - that's the radiation leftover from the Big Bang - say they've detected something strange happening couple of billion light years from here.

Some mysterious, unseen force, they say, is pulling galaxy clusters through the universe, and these galaxies are traveling, well, they're clocking along at about a million miles per hour and moving in the way that our current understanding of the universe does not predict, they say.

Scientists have dubbed that movement dark flow because we don't know what's going on there. Here to tell us more about it and other news that is causing cosmologists to lay awake at night is my guest, Michael Turner, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, professor of physics at the University of Chicago. Welcome back to SCIENCE FRIDAY. It's always good to have you.

Read the transcript or listen to the broadcast

Director's Corner

Tevatron

Fermilab Director Pier Oddone

As described in my column of September 1, the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee recommended a three-year extension for the Tevatron beyond FY11. We will proceed with the recommendation provided we can secure additional resources to continue running the Tevatron while minimizing damage to our Intensity Frontier experiments and avoiding damage to the national high energy physics program beyond Fermilab. Securing additional resources in the present funding climate is a tall order, and it will take some time. However, additional funding is absolutely essential for Tevatron operation beyond FY11. It is also important that we at Fermilab take responsibility for providing some of the needed resources out of our own hide.

I have proposed to DOE a scenario for proceeding that involves significant impacts to two of our prime experiments. It would mean a delay in reaching full power for NOvA and a slowdown in the development of the Mu2e experiment in FY13 and FY14. I am discussing these impacts with the respective collaborations, along with the steps we can take to minimize them. The expenses postponed in these two stretch-outs would have to be made up in FY15. The savings in the years FY12-FY14 in these two projects would help reduce the required incremental funds for Tevatron running to about $35 million a year. These funds would not all come to Fermilab. They would include funds for the additional physics research staff required nationally for the higher-than- planned level of activity in FY12-FY14. We had assumed movement of research staff from the Tevatron to the Intensity Frontier in all previous plans. Continuing the Tevatron would reduce this flow, requiring the additional support for researchers at the Intensity Frontier.

Accelerator Update

Sept. 17-20

- Five stores provided ~63.5 hours of luminosity
- Meson MTest experiments T992 and T995 took beam
- NuMI down to repair target helium leak
- LRF5 PA change
- MI suffered from kicker problems
- GMPS control system cable repaired

*The integrated luminosity for the period from 9/13/10 to 9/20/10 was 60.37 inverse picobarns. NuMI reported receiving 5.2E18 protons on target during this same period.

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

Announcements

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Weight Watchers at work club

International Folk Dancing at Ramsey Auditorium Sept. 23 only

Indian Creek Road closed until 3:30 p.m. today

Health and Wellness Fair - Sept. 23

Toastmasters - Oct. 7

There's still room in Family Science Time - Saturday, Sept. 25

Silk and Thistle Scottish dancing resumes at the Barn Tuesdays

Fermilab International Folk Dancing at the barn on Thursdays

Argentine Tango, Wednesdays through Sept. 29

Chicago Blackhawks pre-season discount tickets

Workshop on Accelerator-Driven Sub-Critical Systems & Thorium Utilization

Regal Movie Theater discount tickets available

Gizmo Guys - Fermilab Arts Series - Sept. 25

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