Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011
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Thursday, Oct. 20
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Nicholas Dunn, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Title: Improving Collider Searches with Effective Field Theory
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.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Mark Williams, University of Lancaster
Title: Studies of CP Violation in the Bs System

Friday, Oct. 21
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO JOINT EXPERIMENTAL-THEORETICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR TODAY
8 p.m.
Fermilab Lecture Series - Auditorium
Tickets: $7
Speaker: Dr. Young-Kee Kim, Fermilab/University of Chicago
Title: The New Frontier on the Great Plains: Fermilab and the Future of Particle Physics

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a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Wilson Hall Cafe

Thursday, Oct. 20

- Breakfast: Apple sticks
- Southwestern chicken tortilla
- Philly-style cheese steak
- Garlic herb roasted pork
- Smart cuisine: Mardi Gras jambalaya
- Southwestern turkey wrap*
- Assorted slice pizza
- Marinated grilled chicken caesar salad*

*carb-restricted alternative

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Friday, Oct. 21
Dinner
Closed

Wednesday, Oct. 26
Lunch
- Margarita-braised chicken
- Green rice
- Pineapple upside down cake

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Special Announcement

October 2011 issue of symmetry available

This month marks the 50th issue of symmetry magazine, which published its first issue in Oct/Nov 2004. It quickly established its own quirky style with a cover of a little girl in jammies dragging an Einstein bear.

This time around our cover shows Fermilab’s iconic Wilson Hall and an equally iconic wedge of flying geese – make that two wedges, arranged with help from Photoshop – forming an X against the sky. That’s X as in Project X, a proposed $1.8 billion accelerator complex that would put Fermilab at the forefront of the Intensity Frontier—a realm in which scientists bring incredible numbers of particles into collision to search for extremely rare processes with a big physics impact.

Read more

Photo of the Day

FRA board tours Fermilab

On Oct. 13, Fermi Research Alliance (FRA) board members toured Fermilab. From left to right: FRA board members Duane Schmoker, vice president of the URS Corporation, and Fran Berman, vice president for research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discuss Fermilab's future at the intensity frontier in the Minos Underground Areas with Fermilab's Pier Oddone and Gina Rameika. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Milestone

Sharon and Jim Lackey share much of Fermilab’s history

Image courtesy of Jim and Sharon Lackey.

Sharon and Jim Lackey have been part of Fermilab’s history for nearly four decades, and they also made some personal history in the laboratory’s early days. And now, after 37 years at the lab for Sharon, and 39 years for Jim, both retired on Oct. 7.

Sharon joined the lab on July 29, 1974.

“In the Operations Department, I was the first female accelerator operator,” she said.

Jim Lackey had been at the laboratory since 1972. Both Jim and Sharon worked together as accelerator operators. They also bowled together in the Fermilab league at Warrenville Bowl. They began dating and soon were married.

They’ve gone from the early days at the Switchyard, to the era of the Main Ring and then to building and operating the Tevatron – which retired right before they did.

“It’s really sad to see the Tevatron turn off,” Sharon said.

Jim remembered those earliest times as an accelerator operator when the idea of something like the Tevatron might have seemed a pipe dream.

“The Linac and Booster were struggling to run,” Jim recalled.

Read more

—Mike Perricone

In the News

Particle physics: Sterile neutrinos

From Nature, Oct. 19, 2011

An analysis of neutrino data suggests that there may be additional types of neutrinos beyond the three currently known. If confirmed, the existence of these additional particles could have an impact on astrophysics and cosmology.

Neutrinos are the second most abundant particle type in the Universe, after photons. Yet little is known about them. In particular, neutrino masses are not known, nor is the number of neutrino types. Writing in Physical Review Letters, Kopp et al.1 analysed all the available neutrino data and suggest that there may be additional neutrino types beyond the three active neutrinos — the electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino — that interact with matter by the weak interaction. These additional neutrino types would interact only by gravity and not by the weak interaction, and would therefore be 'sterile'.

Read more

Result of the Week

Glimpse of a naked quark

The birth of the short-lived top quark affords DZero physicists the opportunity to study fundamental aspects of naked quarks.

The birth of a top quark heralds an opportunity unique among the quarks—the chance to study a naked quark. Being so massive that it would fall just a few spots below gold on the periodic table, the top quark’s lifetime is very short. It never has time to join with other quarks to form hadrons, composite particles of quarks held together by gluons. Instead, it decays via the weak force, nearly always into a bottom quark and a W boson, imparting information about its properties into the particles it leaves behind.

One interesting characteristic of the top quark is its spin, the intrinsic angular momentum it carries. When a pair of top quarks is created and their spins are measured with respect to a particular axis, they are either aligned or opposed. The Standard Model makes specific predictions for the frequency of observing aligned versus opposed spins that depend on the mode of production. The spins behave differently based on whether two quarks annihilated or two gluons fused to create the top quark pair. Measuring this spin correlation strength between the top quarks is a sensitive test of the Standard Model, and it opens a window to explore physics beyond the Standard Model.

To extract information about the spin correlation strength from the top quark pair candidate events, the analysis team first calculates the probability that the energy, momentum and location of every particle from the decay are consistent with the Standard Model. They compare this to the probability that the event is consistent with a universe where the spins are completely uncorrelated. By combining their latest efforts with a previous analysis at DZero that uses an independent data sample, they are able to provide an impressive glimpse at the behavior of naked quarks. This is the first evidence that top quark pairs have correlated spins, as predicted by the standard model.

—Mike Cooke

These physicists made major contributions to this analysis.
Meenakshi Narain from Brown University played a leading role in efforts to verify the quality of DZero’s data by running a battery of reconstruction certification tests on each multi-hour block of our data set.
Accelerator Update

Oct. 17-19

- NuMI HV101 magnet trips solved
- Pbar personnel conducted proton studies
- Neutron Therapy Facility began treating patients
- A MI Lambertson magnet power supply continued to cause problems

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

Announcements

Latest Announcements

International Credit Union day - today

New Service Desk Brown Bags - Oct. 20 & 21

Sam's Club announces membership offer for employees

Joint Speaker Series - Nov. 17

Construction in Wilson Hall

NALWO annual potluck luncheon - today

Fermilab Lecture Series presents "The New Frontier on the Great Plains: Fermilab & The Future of Particle Physics" - Oct. 21

ProCure Proton Therapy Cancer Center cyclotron tour and open house - Oct. 22

Waltz workshop and dance - Oct. 22

Argentine tango classes - through Oct. 26

NALWO playgroup halloween party - Oct. 28

Fermilab Arts Series presents Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats - Oct. 29

Fright Fest at Great America Discount

New play about Edwin Hubble, Einstein and the expanding universe - Nov. 5, 12 & 19

Fermilab Lecture Series presents "How Bacteria Talk to Each Other" - Nov. 11

Two complimentary movie tickets for gym membership renewals - through Nov. 11

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Predators discount

Winter basketball league

Indoor soccer

International Folk Dancing Thursday evenings in Kuhn Barn

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings in Kuhn Village Barn

Behavioral interviewing course - Dec. 7

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