|
Have a safe day!
Tuesday, Dec. 13
7 a.m.
Special live broadcast from CERN - One West
Topic: Latest Higgs results from ATLAS and CMS
3 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - WH11NE Sunrise
Speaker: Richard Gray, Rutgers University
Title: Searching for SUSY with Leptons – Part I
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Michael Borland, Argonne National Laboratory
Title: Exploration of a Tevatron-Sized Ultimate Light Source
Wednesday, Dec. 14
10 a.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Dark Side WH6W
Speaker: Jeter Hall, Fermilab
Title: Searching for Low Mass Dark Matter
2 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - Sunrise WH11NE
Speaker: Richard Gray, Rutgers University
Title: Searching for SUSY with Leptons – Part II
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium -
One West
Speaker: Joseph Minervini, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: The Technical and Engineering Challenges of Fusion
Reactors for Energy
Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.
Upcoming conferences
|
|
Tuesday, Dec. 13
- Breakfast: Bagel sandwich
- Chicken & rice soup
- Italian sausage w/ peppers & onions
- Smart cuisine: Beef stroganoff
- Smart cuisine: Chicken tetrazzini
- Peppered beef
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Nachos supreme
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
|
|
Wednesday, Dec. 14
Lunch
- Cornish hen w/ cranberry-thyme sauce
- Roasted potatoes
- Broccoli
- Apple walnut cake
Friday, Dec. 16
Dinner
Closed
Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.
|
|
Possible signs of the Higgs remain in latest analyses
 |
|
The event shows characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson but is also consistent with background Standard Model physics processes.
Photo: L. Taylor and T. McCauley
|
Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have nearly eliminated the space in which the Higgs boson could dwell, scientists announced in a seminar held at CERN today. However, the ATLAS and CMS experiments see modest excesses in their data that could soon uncover the famous missing piece of the physics puzzle.
The experiments revealed the latest results as part of their regular report to the CERN Council, which provides oversight for the laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.
Theorists have predicted that some subatomic particles gain mass by interacting with other particles called Higgs bosons. The Higgs boson is the only undiscovered part of the Standard Model of physics, which describes the basic building blocks of matter and their interactions.
The experiments’ main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS.
Read more
|
Fermilab hot on trail of Higgs boson with LHC, Tevatron
Today physicists at CERN on the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider announced an update on their search for the Higgs boson. That may make you wonder ( I hope) what is Fermilab’s role in this. Well, glad you asked.
Fermilab supports the 1,000 US LHC scientists and engineers by providing office and meeting space as well as the Remote Operation Center. Fermilab helped design the CMS detector, a portion of the LHC accelerator and is working on upgrades for both. About one-third of the members of each of the Tevatron’s experiments, CDF and DZero, are also members of the LHC experiments.
That means that a good portion of the LHC researchers are also looking for the Higgs boson with the Tevatron.
Read more
—Tona Kunz
|
In search for Higgs boson, physicists report a definite maybe
From Science, Dec. 13, 2011
Like all good rumors, whispers that the long-sought Higgs boson has been spotted turn out to be half true. Today, two teams of physicists working with the world's biggest atom-smasher—the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) here at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN—reported the latest results in their search for the Higgs, the fundamental particle that is key to physicists' explanation of how all particles get their mass. Just as the rumors suggested, both teams report tantalizing signs that the Higgs is there and that it has a mass about 133 times that of the proton. But one team sees additional oddities, so the results haven't bowled everyone over.
The good news is that the two groups see consistent signals at roughly the same energy, reinforcing each other's results. They also see those signs via different "decay channels," the combinations of detectable particles that result when the Higgs falls apart.
Read more
|
Detectors home in on Higgs boson
From Nature, Dec. 13, 2011
The result is not definitive evidence of the long-sought Higgs boson — yet. But it is the closest so far to come out of the US$6.5-billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Europe’s high-energy physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland. On 13 December, physicists on the LHC’s two largest experiments announced signals consistent with the possible appearance of the Higgs boson, a manifestation of the force field that endows all other particles with mass. If supported by further data, the results suggest a Higgs particle with a mass of about 125 gigaelectronvolts (GeV). But members of both experiments emphasize that the latest data are also statistically consistent with the particle’s absence.
“We have not collected enough evidence for a discovery. There is an excess of events compatible with the hypothesis that it could be a Higgs,” says Guido Tonelli, spokesman for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment.
Read more
|
|
Watch out!
 |
|
Fermilab Director Pier Oddone |
We have started the fiscal year with a bang—the wrong sort of bang. In the first two months we have already had four accidents that required days away from work or work restrictions (DART cases). This concerns me a lot. These are our colleagues getting hurt enough that it affects their lives and their work. The statistical errors are large with only four events, however, the average number of DART cases per year for the last four years is only 6.75. We have demonstrated that we can do even better—in FY2008 we had only three DART cases for the whole year. So let’s live up to our best standards and aim at zero for the rest of this year. We want everyone to come to work and leave work uninjured! Whenever I emphasize the numbers in safety-related matters there are always folks who remark that all we care about is the numbers. We care about keeping our employees safe, and the numbers are useful if they indicate a developing trend and focus our attention on the task of keeping ourselves safe. For example, winter has started with the increased probability of slips and falls. This is a good time to review the many steps we can take to decrease the probability for injury. If I look at the four DART cases so far this year, they fit a familiar pattern: two serious falls, one set of pulled muscles while carrying out a cable installation and one strained back lifting a 40-pound package. These are all avoidable if the work is correctly planned and if we are conservative about what physical work we can do without the aid of equipment or a co-worker. Just because we were able to lift a lot of weight without any trouble years ago does not prepare us to lift a lot of weight today. We have a huge amount of physical work to do this year to secure the Tevatron and build and run our new projects. We must be careful carrying out these new tasks, and equally as when we are doing simple, familiar, everyday tasks. Persistent attention to safety—Taking Five at work and at home—will see us through the day safely! |
An ice sculpture of Wilson Hall
 |
|
Former Fermilab employee Giobatta Lanfranco, currently of the European Spallation Source in Lund, Sweden, created an ice sculpture of Wilson Hall with his Accelerator Division colleagues during a work retreat.
Photo: Giobatta Lanfranco
|
|
Chance of rain
