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Have a safe day!
Thursday, April 26
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Michele Papucci, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Title: Higgs and Naturalness
3:30
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK -
2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Vladimir Shiltsev, Fermilab
Title: ((Far) Future) Colliders: Invitation to Discussion
Friday, April 27
2 p.m.
Accelerator Controls Seminar - One West
Speaker: Charlie Briegel, Fermilab
Title: Fermilab Accelerator Controls Console; Introduction for Users
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experiment-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Diego Tonelli, CERN
Title: Challenging the SM Through CP Violation in Charm at CDF
8 p.m.
Fermilab Art Series - Ramsey Auditorium
Drs. Stephen Macknik and Susan Martinez-Conde present: Sleights of Mind
Tickets: $7
Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.
Upcoming conferences |
| Thursday, April 26
- Breakfast: Apple sticks
- Minnesota wild rice w/ chicken
- Tuna melt on nine grain
- Smart cuisine: Italian meatloaf
- Chicken casserole
- Buffalo crispy chicken wrap
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Smart cusine: Mandarin chicken salad
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu |
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Friday, April 27
Dinner
Guest chef: Martin Murphy
- Mixed greens, red wine vinegar & olive oil, seasoned dressing
- Baked mostacholi w/ meat sauce
- Traditional Sicilian antipasto
- Sicilian pork spidini
- Roasted vegetables
- Cannoli
Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.
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Administrative Professionals Day at Fermilab - April 25
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| Fermilab administrative professionals marked the national day of recogition with a networking luncheon on April 25. The day also marked the kickoff for an administrative professionals series of meetings to share ideas, procedures and processes. Photo: Cindy Arnold |
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May wellness offerings, fitness classes and employee discounts
This month, the Wellness Office
will sponsor the following free events:
- Lunch and learn about skin care and sun safety from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday, April 30 in Curia II.
- Employee health and fitness day from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15 in the Main Ring. T-shirts, pedometers and frozen fruit bar will be provided. This is also the 10,000 Steps-A-Day program kickoff.
- Ten minute employee massages from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, May 21, and Tuesday, May 22 in the EOC on the ground floor of Wilson Hall. Call Jeanne at x2548 to reserve your massage.
Pool opens:
- The Fermilab pool opens on Tuesday, June 5. Pool memberships are sold in the Wellness Office on the 15th floor of Wilson Hall. Swim lessons are available for pre-kindergarten children, youths and adults. Water aerobics will take place from noon to 12:45 p.m. on Mondays from June 18 through Aug. 6. For more information, click here.
Fitness classes:
- Yoga from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays, May 1 to June 19, in Ramsey Auditorium. $85 per person.
- Zumba from noon to 12:45 p.m. on Wednesdays, May 9 to June 27, or Fridays, May 11 to June 29, in the Fitness Center. $45 per person.
- Kyuki-Do martial arts class from 5 to 6 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, May 14 to June 20, in the Fitness Center. $55 per person.
Employee discounts:
- Changarro Restaurant
- Dragon II Restaurant
- More information can be found online.
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Is supersymmetry dead?
From Scientific American,
April 25, 2012
The grand scheme, a stepping-stone to string theory, is still high on physicists' wish lists. But if no solid evidence surfaces soon, it could begin to have a serious PR problem
For decades now physicists have contemplated the idea of an entire shadow world of elementary particles, called supersymmetry. It would elegantly solve mysteries that the current Standard Model of particle physics leaves unexplained, such as what cosmic dark matter is. Now some are starting to wonder. The most powerful collider in history, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), has yet to see any new phenomena that would betray an unseen level of reality. Although the search has only just begun, it has made some theorists ask what physics might be like if supersymmetry is not true after all.
"Wherever we look, we see nothing—that is, we see no deviations from the Standard Model," says Giacomo Polesello of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Pavia. Polesello is a leading member of the 3,000-strong international collaboration that built and operates ATLAS, one of two cathedral-size general-purpose detectors on the LHC ring.
Read more
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Dark matter hits the average human once a minute?
From National Geographic,
April 24, 2012
Particles called WIMPs strike us more often than thought, study says.
The average human body gets hit by a particle of dark matter about once a minute, according to new calculations based on several dark matter detection efforts.
Dark matter is an invisible form of material that's thought to exist because scientists have observed its apparent gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters. Scientists estimate that the mysterious substance makes up almost 80 percent of the matter in the universe.
So far no one's been able to pinpoint the particles that make up dark matter. But a leading candidate is a theoretical group known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPs.
As the name implies, these hypothetical particles would have only a weak effect on regular, or baryonic, matter—they typically zip straight through most of the stuff in the universe, including people.
Read more
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Measuring the b quark: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
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| The top plot shows the difference in masses for Σb-, while the bottom plot shows the same for
Σb+ candidates.
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The Σb particle was discovered by CDF in 2006. Physicists from the CDF collaboration have measured various properties of the particle since then, including the negative and positive versions of the sigma sub b particle. Both versions include a b quark, which is called the bottom quark or the beauty quark. The scientists focused their efforts on precise measurements of the masses and widths of the components of the sigma sub b particle. The mass measurements provide new benchmarks to compare to predictions of theoretical models. Measurements of the widths give insight into the dynamics between the heavy b quark and its pair of light quark partners. Both types of measurements are important for our understanding of the strong force, the fundamental theory of matter that interacts strongly.
Once produced in the CDF detector, the Σb particles decay within 10-22 second, releasing a tiny amount of energy. The CDF online selection system identifies data containing possible Σb candidates whose properties match patterns developed by the physicists. Handling the enormous amount of collected data was a particularly challenging part of the project. The CDF team sorted these into two spectra, corresponding to the types of quarks in the particle.
Each of the four identified widths has a statistical significance well above six standard deviations, meaning that the chance the measurements are mistaken is two parts in a billion. CDF scientists measured four precise masses and widths of the Σb particle. This is the first measurement of the natural widths of these evanescent particles. The CDF scientists found some of nature's beauty in the b quark.
Learn more
—Edited by Andy Beretvas
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| These physicists were responsible for this analysis.
Clockwise from top left: Igor Gorelov, University of New Mexico; Constantino Calancha, CIEMAT, Spain; Luis Labarga, CIEMAT, Spain; Sally Seidel, University of New Mexico; Juan Pablo Fernandez, CIEMAT, Spain.
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Mostly sunny
