Thursday, July 7, 2011
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Thursday, July 7
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Pedro Machado, University of Sao Paulo / CEA Saclay
Title: Probing LED with Neutrino Oscillations
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Veysel Demir, Northern Illinois University
Title: Scientific Computing on Graphics Processor Units: An Application in Time-Domain Electromagnetic Simulations

Friday, July 8
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Tom Wright, University of Michigan
Title: Search for Higgs Bosons Produced in Association with b-Quarks at CDF

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Thursday, July 7

- Breakfast: Apple sticks
- Santa Fe black bean soup
- Steak tacos
- Chicken Wellington
- Chimichangas
- Baked ham & Swiss on a ciabatta roll
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Smart cuisine: Crispy fried chicken salad

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Friday, July 8
Closed

Wednesday, July 13
- Roasted chicken artichoke calzone
- Spiced marinated tomatoes
- Espresso crepe w/ice cream & dark chocolate sauce

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Better communication, processes top EAG successes

Since Fermilab’s Employee Advisory Group originally convened more than a year ago, members have advised the laboratory’s directorate and associated divisions and sections on a variety of issues.

Now, the group wants to hear from you. Please take a moment to fill out a brief survey designed to gauge employees’ views of management effectiveness at the laboratory. You can access the survey here and send the link to your colleagues.

The survey will help the group to better understand what qualities employees think effective managers and supervisors possess, what supervisors can do to keep up group morale and how much interaction supervisors should have with their employees.

Results from the survey will be discussed in the next EAG meeting. The results of the survey build on an ongoing discussion of overall management effectiveness at the laboratory. Some topics that the group tackled recently include the professional development of managers and supervisors as well as the self-select voluntary separation program.

Additional topics that the group has studied and made recommendations on include:

  • The effectiveness of new employee orientation and the client engagement meeting
  • How WDRS communicates personnel and benefits issues
  • The understanding and communication about performance reviews
  • Traffic safety regulations
  • Communicating uncertainty and Fermilab’s strategic plan for the future
  • Management effectiveness at the laboratory, including promotions and training

For more detailed information about the above topics or to access the recommendations the group has made to the directorate or related division and section, please visit the EAG website. An update about and summaries from the June meeting will be posted soon.

If you would like to contribute to a past or current topic under discussion in the Employee Advisory Group, please contact an Employee Advisory Group member. You can also submit a suggestion or question via the EAG website. Submissions can be made anonymously.

— Rhianna Wisniewski, Employee Advisory Group Steering Committee member

Special Announcement

Accomplishment reports are due Friday

Fermilab's annual performance appraisal process is now underway. Accomplishment reports, a final step in the appraisal process, are due to your supervisor Friday, July 8. For more information on the accomplishment report or on other steps in the process, please visit the performance appraisal website.

Photo of the Day

Resting place with a view

A bird sits on top of the Hyperbolic Obelisk, a sculpture in the reflecting pond in front of Wilson Hall. The photo was taken by PPD's Jerry Zimmerman on June 24.
In the News

Tevatron particles shed light on antimatter mystery

From New Scientist, July 5, 2011

Why the universe is filled with matter rather than antimatter is one of the great mysteries in physics. Now we are a step closer to understanding it, thanks to an experiment which creates more matter than antimatter, just like the early universe did.

Our best understanding of the building blocks of matter and the forces that glue them together is called the standard model of particle physics. But this does a poor job of explaining why matter triumphed over antimatter in the moments after the big bang.

The standard model has it that matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts in the early universe. But if that was the case they should have annihilated in a blaze of radiation, leaving nothing from which to make the stars and galaxies. Clearly that didn't happen.

A quirk in the laws of physics, known as CP violation, favours matter and leaves the universe lopsided. The standard model allows for a small amount of CP violation but not nearly enough to explain how matter came to dominate. "It fails by a factor of 10 billion," says Ulrich Nierste, a physicist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

Now researchers at DZero, an experiment at the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, have found the largest source of CP violation yet discovered. It comes courtesy of particles known as Bs mesons.

Read more

Result of the Week

CDF search for new physics using six energy clusters

CDF looked for new particles that decay into three jets. Physicists calculated the invarient mass of all possible three-jet combinations and plucked out the triplet that could have come from the decay of a massive particle. There is an excess at around 175 GeV/c2 due to the decay of the top quark, but there is no sign of a new particle.

Experiments at the Tevatron have carried out the hunt for exotic new particles decaying to electrons, photons, muons and even particles that leave no trace in the detector. Physicists find these particles by examining the momentum that disappears when the particles exit the detector.

But few searches for new phenomena concentrate solely on quarks and gluons, which are the basic building blocks of protons and neutrons. Physicists avoid searching these areas because it is hard to sort out new phenomena from the overwhelming abundance of quarks and gluons that come from just standard model physics.

A CDF team worked with theory colleague Scott Thomas to develop a technique that allows them to extract the signature of a massive new particle decaying only to quarks.

If these new particles exist, physicists think that they would be produced in pairs, which would each decay to three quarks. These quarks create showers of secondary particles called jets. The challenge in this analysis is to identify the three jets coming from decay of the hypothetical new particle in the midst of myriad other jets from unrelated particle decays.

Physicists used the technique to examine all possible three-jet combinations and pluck out the triplet that could have come from the decay of a massive particle. Although the team did not find any new particles decaying to three jets, they identified three jet combinations that came from the decay of top quarks (see figure).

The observation of the top quark decays demonstrates that this technique can extract new physics signatures from within very busy events should these new physics signatures exist. Physicists are adapting this technique for use in detecting other types of particle decays.

Learn more

edited by Andy Beretvas

Top row from left: Daryl Hare, Claudia Seitz and Amitabh Lath. Also pictured are Eva Halkiadakis (inset left) and Hou-Keong (Tim) Lou (inset right). All members of this analysis group are from Rutgers University.
Accelerator Update

July 4-6

- Three stores provided ~40 hours of luminosity
- MI-12 service building air conditioner tripped off, but MiniBooNE continued taking beam while the building cooled down
- Cryo system technicians tightened belts on Tevatron wet engines
- Main Injector, Recycler, Pelletron, Booster, and MTA all accessed for various maintenance work
- Operators investigated high LCW temperatures at C1 & 2 found three-way valve set in wrong position
- MI kicker's thyratron failed
- Run Coordinator shut off Tevatron on 6/6/11 for DZero and CDF access, Pbar and Tevatron safety system testing, and for the 6-8 hour replacement of a MI kicker's Thyratron

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

Announcements

Latest Announcements

10,000 Steps-a-Day iPod winner

Detailed org chart, financial, procurement, and property web queries downtime July 8 and 9

Butts and Guts starts today

Join Fermilab's new scuba diving club

Housing Office now taking requests for Fall and Spring housing

Open badminton

International Folk Dancing in Ramsey Auditorium

Argentine Tango at Fermilab in Ramsey Auditorium

Fermilab Management Practices courses presented this summer

SciTech summer camps through Aug. 12

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