Monday, March 14, 2011
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Monday, March 14
2 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - WH11SE, Sunrise
Speaker: Harrison Prosper, Florida State University
Title: Bayesian Statistics
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Mariangela Lisanti, Princeton University
Title: The Dark Matter at the End of the Galaxy
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topics: MI Gap-Clearing Kickers; MTA: First Beam to Experimental Area; NuMI Target Updates

Tuesday, March 15
2 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - WH11SE, Sunrise
Speaker: David Shih, Rutgers University
Title: Collider Signatures of (General) Gauge Mediation (I)
3:30
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

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Weather Mostly sunny
42°/28°

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Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe
Monday, March 14
- Breakfast: Croissant sandwich
- French quarter gumbo soup
- French dip with horseradish cream
- Santa Fe pork stew
- *Country-baked chicken
- Popcorn shrimp wrap
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Sweet and sour chicken with egg roll

*carb-restricted alternative

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, March 16
Lunch
- Bourbon glazed salmon
- Brown rice medley
- Steamed broccoli
- Cold lemon soufflé/butter cookies

Friday, March 18
Dinner
- Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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News

Tevatron experiments report new Higgs search results

Improved analysis techniques and more data have made the Tevatron experiments more sensitive to the Higgs boson. CDF and DZero exclude a significant portion of the high-Higgs-mass range.

The CDF and DZero experiments at Fermilab have reached new ground in their quest to find the Higgs boson, a key member of the particle zoo known as the Standard Model. For the first time, each experiment by itself excludes regions of the expected Higgs mass range as more sophisticated data analysis techniques and more data from the Tevatron particle collider have increased their sensitivity to the Higgs boson. This week, the two collaborations, each comprising about 500 scientists, will present details of their results at conferences and seminars around the world, including the Rencontres de Moriond in Italy.

“This makes the Tevatron the frontrunner in the hunt for the Standard Model Higgs boson,” said Fermilab physicist Rob Roser, co-spokesperson for the CDF experiment. “We are getting more mileage out of 10 years worth of Tevatron Run II data.”

The Tevatron, four miles in circumference, is the world’s highest-energy proton-antiproton collider.

"It is impressive to see the progress in the analysis of the Tevatron data from CDF and DZero,” said Fermilab Director Pier Oddone. “Step by step they are narrowing the space in which the Higgs could be hiding."

Searches by previous experiments and constraints due to precision measurements of the Standard Model of Particles and Forces indicate that the Higgs particle should have a mass between 114 and 185 GeV/c2. (For comparison: 100 GeV/c2 is equivalent to 107 times the mass of a proton.) The CDF and DZero experiments are now sensitive to excluding Higgs bosons with masses from 153 to 179 GeV/c2. Statistical fluctuations in the number of observed particle collisions that mimic a Higgs signal, mixed with collisions that may have produced a Higgs boson, affect the actual range that can be excluded with 95 percent certainty. Combining their independent Higgs analyses, the two experiments now exclude a Higgs boson with a mass between 158 and 173 GeV/c2. The recording of additional collisions and further improved analysis of data will reduce the size of the statistical fluctuations and, over time, could reveal a signal from the Higgs boson.

“Fermilab plans to operate the Tevatron collider until September 2011,” said DZero co-spokesperson Stefan Söldner-Rembold, of the University of Manchester. “During this time, we will increase what is already the largest data set from a hadron collider at the Energy Frontier.”

Read more

-- Kurt Riesselmann

Combined the Tevatron experiments now are sensitive to a Higgs mass from 153 to 179 GeV/c2, but statistical fluctuation reduce the actual mass range that can be excluded so far. For the first time, the experiments now also exclude Higgs mass ranges individually (see CDF and DZero graphics).

Photos of the Day

New employees - Jan 18, 31

Duncan Scott, AD; Ryan Crawford, AEES; Melissa Tanner, CD; Nathan Weed, CD; Beau Harrison, AD Photo: Cindy Arnold

Adam Talesky, CD. Photo: Cindy Arnold

In the News

Cosmic camera focuses on dark energy

From Medill Reports, March 10, 2011

This camera isn’t your average point-and-shoot.

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Batavia just completed testing it, one of the world’s largest and most powerful cameras.

The 570 megapixel Dark Energy Camera travels to Chile this month for installation on the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope to try to determine how dark energy – the mysterious substance making up more than 70 percent of our universe - is accelerating the expansion of our universe.

“It’s a very large digital camera,” said Josh Frieman, an astrophysicist at Fermilab and the director of The Dark Energy Survey, which aims to defining the mysterious force acting on our universe. The enormous camera has 570 megapixels and uses 5 lenses, each 3 feet in diameter.

“Today you can get a handheld camera with maybe 10 or 15 megapixels, so it doesn’t sound like so much, but these are very special pixels because they’re very sensitive and they operate at very low temperatures,” he said.

Read more

ES&H Tip of the Week: Health

No more buts about colon screening

Individuals should be screened for colon cancer if they are older than 50 years, have inflammatory bowel disease or a family history of colon cancer. Photo: Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control.

Despite most individuals initial misgivings about getting a colon cancer screening, I get many questions about the process and risks of colorectal cancer. So in honor of March, which is colon cancer awareness month, I’ll use this column to address some of the most common inquires.

Colon cancer ranks third for cancer deaths for men and women. However, it is relatively easy to detect in its early stages and treatable. The current consensus is that individuals should have a screening if they are older than 50 years old, have inflammatory bowel disease or a family history of colon cancer.

Screening aims to identify a particular type of polyp, a collection of abnormal glandular tissue, at risk for becoming cancerous or in the very early cancer stage. A negative finding on your colonoscopy means that you don’t need another screening for 10 years off; A suspicious polyp-find requires a test in 3-5 years.

Many screening methods exist, which you can review here. Most Fermilab employees opt for colonoscopy performed via a flexible fiber optic device with a diameter a little larger than a pencil. The use of varying degrees of anesthesia determines recovery time. Patients must ingest a clear liquid diet and empty their colons the day prior to the test.

Conflicting evidence exists on whether diet affects colon cancer risk, but a diet low in animal fat and high in fruits and vegetables certainly yields other benefits beside potential reduced cancer risk. Several years ago vitamin A was studied as a means of preventing colon cancer in smokers. The study was stopped due to the paradoxical rise in cancers, which gave supplements a bad rap for a time. The problem was not vitamins but too much of one synthetic type, which can impede absorption of that vitamin naturally. Bottom line: Follow your doctor’s or the Federal Drug Administration’s recommendations. And, yes, your mother was right: eat those fruits and veggies -- they’ll have the full spectrum version of vitamins.

Still, probably the best advice you can receive is to get a screening if you fall in the risk categories. Colorectal cancer typically allows for easy early detection with good outcomes. Participating in a screening is a good investment in your healthy future.

-- Brian Svazas, M.D.

Accelerator Update

March 9-11

- The accelerator shut down due to continued ComEd work
- Personnel at the Central Utility Building rotated LCW pumps for maintenance work
- Water work personnel found and fixed a Main Injector leak
- Operators monitored the New Muon Lab's cryo cavity coupler conditioning
- A cryo compressor in Tevatron F-sector tripped off
- Operators monitored the conditioning of the Tevatron separators
- Operations reported that the Tevatron magnet tilt meters detected the 8.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan

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

Milestones

Birthday

G-2's Chris Polly turns 40 today. Happy birthday!

Announcements

Latest Announcements

Lunch and Learn about sleep disorders - March 16

Want to read scientific journals from home?

2010 Flexible spending accounts deadlines

"Creating Life in The Lab: A Challenge to Theism?" - lunchtime presentation March 18

Fermilab Arts Series Presents Arianna String Quartet March 20

Free t-shirt for Muscle Toning Participants

Free t-shirt for March. gym memberships

FREE Intro to Argentine Tango classes start March 9, 16, 23 and 30

Yoga

School's Day Out: Mar. 28-Apr. 1

Fermilab Garden Club Spring meeting Mar. 16

Toastmasters - March 17

View UEC Tax presentation for users online

NALWO - Arts & Crafts - Show & Tell on March 15

Fermilab Arts Series presents reduced Shakespeare Company: Complete World of Sports, abridged April 2

Fermilab Arts & Lecture presents: Dramatic reading of "Copenhagen" by Wheaton Drama - April 8

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