Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011
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Have a safe day!

Thursday, Oct. 27
8 a.m.
2011 Fall Project X Collaboration Meeting
1:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Eric Linder, University of California, Berkeley / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Title: Chasing Down Cosmic Acceleration
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Iain Stewart, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: Theory Predictions and Uncertainties for Higgs Searches Using Jet Bins
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Friday, Oct. 28
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Eric Adelberger, University of Washington
Title: Equivalence Principle Results and the Motivation for Testing the Gravitational Properties of Antihydrogen

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Weather
Weather Scattered showers
53°/33°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Thursday, Oct. 27

- 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, Oct. 28
Dinner
- Pear & walnut salad w/ parmesan straws
- Shrimp scampi w/ angel hair pasta
- Broccoli w/ red pepper butter
- Blueberry lemon crepe w/ custard sauce

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Result of the Week

Safety Tip of the Week

CMS Result of the Month

User University Profiles

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www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
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Special Announcement

AZero parking lot bridge not accessible - Nov. 2-3

On Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 2 and 3, pedestrian access by the bridge will be prohibited to the AZero parking lot to the south of Wilson Hall along the Ring Road. Crews will repair and paint the bridge over the berm and replace the steps leading to the bridge from the Wilson Hall parking lot. Parking in the AZero lot is allowed during the work but pedestrians must use the Ring Road entrances and exits.

In Brief

FermiMail migration begins next week

The Core Computing Division recently installed the new FermiMail system. Beginning Monday, Oct. 31, the email service team will begin virtually moving users to FermiMail. The migration will begin with Exchange users, who will be moved during the next several weeks. After that, the team will migrate IMAP and Lotus Domino users.

Each email user will receive email from the Service Desk with more details about their migration approximately two weeks prior to their migration date. You can view some of these details under the “What to Expect” section on the FermiMail website.

FermiMail offers integrated features such as a calendar and meeting room planner. Once users are transferred to the new system, they can immediately use the calendar features to manage their individual calendars. Meeting room reservations will be moved from Meeting Maker to the new calendar system once all members of the organizations have been moved to FermiMail. Individuals in charge of making conference room reservations will be notified in advance of these moves.

There will be a Brown Bag lunch session from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 2 in WH One West. Members of the email team will also be on hand at the Doctor-is-in booth in the Wilson Hall atrium during lunch hours on Nov. 1 and 2.

Consult the FermiMail website for more information about the migration, including the current schedule.

Wellness Feature of the Month

November wellness offerings, book fair, fitness classes and discounts

This month, the Wellness Office
will sponsor the following free events:

  • Lunch & Learn: Best moves for faster weight loss on Tuesday, Nov. 8 in WH2W, Curia II from noon to 1 p.m.
  • Lunch & Learn: Holiday survival on Tuesday, Nov. 29 in WH2W, Curia II from noon to 1 p.m.
  • Qigong, Mindfulness & Tai Chi Easy® for Stress Reduction classes from 7 to 8 a.m. on Wednesdays in Ramsey Auditorium; and from noon to 12:45 p.m. on Fridays in Ramsey Auditorium.

Special event:

  • Book fair on Wednesday, Nov. 16, in Wilson Hall Atrium from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Thursday, Nov. 17, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Fitness classes:

Everyone that renews their gym membership or signs up for a fitness class by Nov. 11 will receive two complimentary movie tickets to Hollywood Blvd/Palms Cinema.

  • Kyuki-Do Martial Arts on Mondays & Wednesdays, from Nov. 7 to Dec. 14 in the Fitness Center from 5 to 6 p.m. Fee: $55/person.
  • Zumba on Wednesdays from Nov. 9 to Dec. 21 (No class Nov. 16), or on Thursdays from Nov. 10 to Dec. 29 (No class on Nov. 17 and Nov. 29) in the Fitness Center Exercise Room from noon to 12:45 p.m. Fee: $35/person.
  • Muscle Toning on Tuesdays & Thursdays from Nov. 15 to Jan. 17, (No class Nov. 24, Dec. 27, Dec. 29) in the Fitness Center Exercise Room from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Fee: $77/person.

Athletic leagues:

  • Winter basketball league will take place Dec. 1 to March 29 from 5 to 7:30 p.m., the weeknight is TBD. Gym membership is required. If interested in joining, contact Brain Niesman at x3132 or bniesman@fnal.gov

Open gym:

  • Open basketball: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday evenings at the gym. Membership to the gym is required.
  • Open badminton: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and 4 to 6 p.m. on Fridays at the gym. Membership to the gym is required. For more information contact Aaron Chou at achou@fnal.gov.
  • Open volleyball: 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays at the gym. Membership to the gym is required.

Employee discounts:

  • Sam's Club, Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, GiftTree.com, Jazzercise, AMC/Regal/Goodrich movie tickets, Great Wolf Lodge and Rosati’s of Batavia. More information can be found online.

In the News

The sterile neutrino: Fertile concept or dead end?

From Science, Oct. 21, 2011

Unlike old soldiers, some scientific concepts seem never to fade away. Take the hypothetical subatomic particle called the “sterile neutrino,” which would be about the oddest bit of matter imaginable. For 15 years, researchers have accumulated hints from particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology that the particle—a more-elusive cousin of the nearly undetectable neutrinos—might be out there. But most physicists have found the evidence unconvincing, as most of the results pointing toward sterile neutrinos are of marginal statistical significance.

Recently, however, the case for sterile neutrinos has grown stronger, bolstered by a new analysis of data from nuclear reactors. So last month 60 physicists from around the world gathered here* to hash out the arguments for and against the existence of sterile neutrinos and to try to decide whether it's worth staging a dedicated experiment to settle the matter.

Performing such an experiment won't be easy. The hypothetical neutrinos are called sterile because they do not interact at all with known particles. “You're trying to prove the existence of something with no interactions,” says Patrick Huber, a theorist here at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). “It's like trying to prove the existence of God.” Still, he says, it's time to figure out what it will take to discover or rule out sterile neutrinos once and for all. “I'm afraid we'll have the same workshop 15 years from now and will just have more [inconclusive] results that don't make the situation any clearer.”

Some researchers say the case for a sterile neutrino is still half-baked. “I'm quite skeptical,” says Yves Déclais, a neutrino physicist at the University of Lyon in France.

Read more

Result of the Week

A better understanding of the Standard Model

Mass distribution of the suppressed B-→D0K- decay for both positive and negative charges. A large asymmetry is predicted for the signal shown in red.

Up until 1964, physicists believed that the laws of physics governing our universe were identical by interchanging particles with their antiparticles (C symmetry or charge reversal invariance) and by observing the particles through a mirror (P symmetry or mirror symmetry). This was not the case.

Physicists discovered that a type of meson called a kaon violates this charge-parity (CP) symmetry and that other heavier cousins, called B mesons, show even larger violations.

CDF looked at CP violation in B meson decays. The decay B-→D0K-, is a decay channel for which large CP asymmetries are expected. This means that the behavior of positive and negative B mesons differ greatly in this channel.

In principle, the asymmetry in itself is easy to measure; one simply has to look for a difference in the number of positively charged decays and the number of negatively charged decays. However, this decay is rare and easily confused with other similar decays, so what is easy to describe is complicated in practice.

Once the asymmetry is accurately measured, scientists can determine the value of angle gamma, the least understood parameter of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix. The CKM matrix tells us how quarks interact with each other in the Standard Model. If physicists observe deviations from what the CKM matrix predicts, that would indicate the presence of new particles or interactions. The angle gamma’s value is a critically important ingredient in this game.

Once a B meson is produced, the B-→D0K- decay occurs one out of 10 million decays. Its reconstruction requires a lot of care, to not confuse the B decay from the aforementioned background processes that could mimic it. Because of its rarity, only a handful of these suppressed decays have been identified and measured by dedicated experiments at B factories, such as BaBar and Belle.

In principle, larger samples are accessible at hadron colliders, but the backgrounds are even more severe and have previously prevented this kind of analysis. A CDF team has now been able to reconstruct this decay for the first time in hadron collisions. Using an integrated luminosity of 7 inverse femtobarns, CDF physicists obtained a signal for B-→D0K- with significance above 3 σ, and measured an asymmetry of -0.82±0.44±0.09. The result contributes to the world knowledge of the gamma angle.

Learn more

—Edited by Andy Beretvas and
Diego Tonelli

These CDF physicist contributed to this data analysis. From the left: Paola Squillacioti, Paola Garosi (both from INFN Pisa and Siena University, Italy) and Giovanni Punzi (Pisa University and CDF co-spokesperson).
Special Announcement

Fermilab part of team receiving the Secretary's Achievement Award

Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu will recognize Fermilab and other DOE organizations by awarding its Fugitive Emissions Working Group with the department's highest non-monetary honor for a group or team effort.

Uniting more than 20 DOE laboratories, power administrations, NNSA facilities, and program offices, the Working Group has eliminated nearly half of DOE’s emissions of the most potent greenhouse gases known to mankind at very low cost. Leveraging science, technology, and managerial know-how, this campaign has prevented the release of more than 600,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent since 2009.

At the Secretarial Award Ceremony this afternoon, representatives of 10 sites that played a leadership role in eliminating fugitive emissions will be recognized, including Fermilab.

Accelerator Update

Oct. 24-26

- MI personnel began Muon g-2 studies
- NuMI beam permit tripped
- Booster had West Anode Power Supply trips due to BRF9 and 10 problems
- Antiproton Source personnel conducted reverse proton studies
- FTBF experiment T-1015 cleared to begin taking beam

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

Announcements

Latest Announcements

English country dance Halloween party - Oct. 30

AZero parking lot access limited - Nov. 2-3

University of Chicago Brinson Lecture - Nov. 1

FermiMail Brown Bag seminar - Nov. 2; Doctor Booth - Nov. 1-2

Excel Power user/Macros course - Dec. 14

Construction in Wilson Hall

NALWO playgroup halloween party - Oct. 28

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

Halloween fun at SciTech - through Oct. 30

Fright Fest at Great America discount

Zumba fitness classes - Nov. 9

Joint Speaker Series - Nov. 17

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

Sam's Club announces membership offer for employees

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings in Kuhn Village Barn

Behavioral interviewing course - Dec. 7

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