Monday, Jan. 24, 2011
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Monday, Jan. 24
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Anže Slosar, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Title: Measuring the Three-Dimensional Scale Structure of the Universe Through the Lyman-Alpha Forest
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY
4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topics: TD: Ferrite Tests for Mu2e Beam-Line Extinction Uses; DES Telescope Simulator at Lab A

Tuesday, Jan. 25
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Sabastian Carron-Montero, Fermilab
Title: The Silicon Detector at CDF and The Search for the Higgs Boson: How We Tried to Extend the Tevatron Run

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a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Weather Chance of freezing drizzle
28°/16°

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Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Monday, Jan. 24
- Breakfast: Croissant sandwich
- Italian minestrone soup
- Patty melt
- Chicken cordon bleu
- *Herb pot roast
- Chicken melt
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Szechuan green bean with chicken

*carb-restricted alternative

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Jan. 26
Lunch
- Poached salmon with scallion sauce
- Vegetable of the season
- Long-grain rice
- Yogurt cake with raspberry sauce

Friday, Jan. 28
Dinner

- Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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From symmetry

To catch a supernova

New 3-D simulations of Supernova 1987A show rings of material leaving the star at 62 million miles per hour. Observations of 1987A were the first to confirm that core-collapse supernovae emit neutrinos. Image: European Southern Observatory/ L. Calçada.

Some exploding stars release bursts of oddball neutrinos. scientists with the long baseline neutrino experiment are eager to catch those neutrinos and milk them for discoveries. but they must weigh the benefits of doing that against the risk that nothing will happen—no supernova, no neutrino burst—during the experiment’s 50-year lifetime.

In the wee hours of the morning on March 7, 1987, Bob Svoboda was combing through data, looking for the answer to a question about one of the most exotic events in our universe.

Normally, such an answer reveals itself gradually over time; but this night was different. Around 2 a.m. he picked up the phone and started waking his colleagues.

Svoboda was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Irvine working on the Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven, or IMB, nucleon detector and neutrino observatory. IMB was set up to detect proton decay, but the apparatus doubled as a neutrino detector. Neutrinos are perhaps best known as the subatomic particles that rarely interact with other forms of matter; the steady flow of them produced by the sun pases through the Earth like a parade of ghosts. Out of those many trillions of trillions of neutrinos, IMB collected about two a day.

But on one fateful night, researchers had reason to think this number had abruptly increased.

Read more

In the News

Deep potholes block the road to discovery for U.S. science

From Science, Jan. 21, 2011

When the Department of Energy (DOE) decided last week to shut down the atom smasher at the last dedicated U.S. particle physics lab this fall, some scientists breathed a sigh of relief because the move opens the way to pursue a variety of new projects. But, hang on! U.S. particle physicists still face a bumpy ride along an uncertain road.

It wasn't long ago that U.S. particle physicists formulated a broad, coherent, and realistic road map to carry the field through the next decade. But that program has now been hit with bureaucratic snags, delays, and unexpected expenses. Some observers even wonder whether DOE, which embraced the plan for its $810-million-a-year high-energy physics program, is capable of implementing it. “I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to be very difficult,” says Michael Lubell, a lobbyist with the American Physical Society in Washington, D.C.

Read more (Subscription required)

In the News

The Tevatron

From The New York Times Editorial,
Jan. 21, 2011

In Batavia, Ill. — just west of Chicago — you can walk along trails through a thousand-acre restored prairie filled with rare species like compass plant and rattlesnake master. From the edge of the prairie, you can see, as well, a four-mile ring of concrete and steel. That is the berm above the Tevatron, a high-energy subterranean racetrack for particle beams and the heart of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab.

Since 1983, scientists have been using the Tevatron to create spectacular collisions between subatomic particles whose ghostly traces have helped reveal the fundamental constituents of matter, like the top quark, discovered in 1995. The Department of Energy, which runs Fermilab, has now announced that for budgetary reasons it will be shutting down the Tevatron, which costs about $50 million a year to run, in late 2011.

The Tevatron has been superseded by the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, which is designed to operate at energies up to seven times higher. The two colliders have been in a race to find unequivocal evidence of the Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle whose existence would help clarify and confirm the current theory of particle physics.

Read more

ES&H Tip of the Week -
Environment

Cutting ash trees will increase safety

Morton Arboretum arborist Frederic Miller examines trees near the Fermilab Village for the emerald ash borer in 2010.

The Fermilab Village is home to a diverse community of trees, including exotic ornamental varieties and species native to our area.  These trees provide a habitat for insects, birds and mammals as well as provide an appealing appearance and welcome shade in the summer. Unfortunately, approximately 150 ash trees exist among this collection. 

This is unfortunate because these trees likely will become infected with emerald ash borers, an invasive, imported beetle that has decimated ash tree populations in the Midwest. Trees infected with this pest invariably die within a few years and can cause hazards when located near buildings or roads.

The beetles were first discovered at Fermilab in 2007 along Kirk Road and since then, the infestation has spread to cover the entire site, including the Village. Many ash trees are now dead or dying as a result.  Experts from the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Morton Arboretum predict that virtually all our mature ash trees will die during the next few years.

In order to manage this imminent problem, Fermilab will begin preemptively removing ash trees in the Village, perhaps as early as this winter. As resources allow, the Roads and Grounds Department will continue to replace trees in the Village where it is appropriate to do so. Replacing these trees is something that our volunteers can help do during events such as our annual Arbor Day celebration. In the natural areas of the site, away from human activity, dead trees will be left standing to provide habitat for birds, insects and other wildlife. These trees will be incorporated into the future management of all Fermilab’s remaining natural areas.

Without prohibitively expensive chemical treatment, there is no viable defense against the emerald ash borer.  Local municipalities and forest preserve districts are bracing for this problem now, and many neighboring municipalities are removing ash trees before they die or show overt signs of infestation. Preemptive removal of trees spreads out the cost and manpower needed to remove the trees safely and avoids the risks that standing dead trees create in populated areas.

-- Rod Walton

Accelerator Update

January 19-21

- Five stores provided ~36.75 hours of luminosity
- Store 8430 aborted when a low beta magnet power supply tripped off
- Problems with a Pbar RF station interrupted stacking for 30 minutes
- Problems with a MI RF station held off beam to NuMI and Pbar for 30 minutes

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

Announcements

Latest Announcements

Argentine Tango Classes through Feb. 23

Floating holiday - Kronos timecard

GSA announced 2011 standard mileage reimbursement rate

Accelerate to a Healthy Lifestyle wrap up

Lecture Series - Electrochemical Energy Storage for Transportation: Opportunities and Challenges in an Evolving Lithium Economy - Feb. 4

FRA Scholarship 2011

Open basketball at the gym

Planning & Scheduling with Primavera P6 class - Jan. 25 - 17

Disney On Ice presents Toy Story 3 - Feb. 2-13

Project Management Introduction class - Feb. 14, 16 & 18

Apply now for URA Visiting Scholars awards program deadline Feb. 18

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