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Have a safe day!
Tuesday, Dec. 20
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY
SEMINAR THIS WEEK
Wednesday, Dec. 21
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR THIS WEEK
Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.
Upcoming conferences
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Tuesday, Dec. 20
- Breakfast: Bagel sandwich
- Tomato bisque soup
- Liver and onions
- Smart cuisine: Korean garlic chicken
- Assorted calzones
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
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Wednesday, Dec. 21
Lunch
- Salmon wellington
- Parmesan orzo
- Lemon pound cake w/ blueberry sauce
Friday, Dec. 23
Dinner
Closed
Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.
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Illuminating the Z boson
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DZero physicists looked for evidence of the Z boson directly emitting light, a process that is not part of the Standard Model.
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According to the Standard Model, the Z boson lives its life in the dark. Lacking an electric charge, this weak force carrier is ignored by photons. Their only interactions are indirect, with their communication mediated by charged particles. They can only be produced at the same time if light is emitted by a charged particle that either helped make or was made by the Z boson.
But what if a Z boson could emit light, or a photon could emit a Z boson? While not part of the Standard Model, these interactions can be modeled and tested for by carefully studying events where both a Z boson and a high-energy photon are produced at the same time. This precision test of the Standard Model allows us to search for new physics in a generalized way, without needing to have a specific new theory in mind to perform the analysis.
Physicists at DZero have recently completed just such a detailed analysis of events with a photon and a Z boson. They started by making the most precise study of the production rate for these events by measuring it with respect to solitary Z boson production. This method improves the precision because a number of uncertainties in the measurement cancel out when using the ratio.
The analyzers went on to measure the production rate as a function of the properties of the photon and the Z boson plus photon system. Varying models of new physics would affect these distributions in different ways. Providing this full suite of measurements allows many theoretical models to be checked against the DZero data.
Finally, the analysis team searched for signs of the Z boson and photon directly interacting with each other. This would increase the production rate overall, but with a larger enhancement for events with the most momentum in the plane perpendicular to the Tevatron beams. With no signs of Z bosons interacting with photons, this analysis produced stringent limits on Z boson and photon couplings.
—Mike Cooke
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These physicists made major contributions to this analysis.
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Thank you and happy holidays from all of us at DZero!
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CM2 assembly nearly complete
Fermilab’s CM2, in the final stages of assembly, will come online in the spring.
Fermilab researchers and technicians are currently busy completing the final assembly of CM2, the first US cryomodule in which every one of its eight superconducting cavities meets ILC specifications.
As such, it is the material realisation of years of beam testing, cavity manufacturing, and niobium processing. It’s also the first significant tangible step in establishing an ILC test facility at Fermilab.
“It’s the first cryomodule at NML with ILC performance and the institutional strength of Fermilab behind it,” said Global Design Effort Project Manager Marc Ross. NML is a recently completed laboratory building that will house the cryomodule.
Read more
—Leah Hesla
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January wellness offerings, fitness classes and discounts
This month, the Wellness Office
will sponsor the following free events:
- 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.
- “Five Treasures” Qigong for Stress Relief classes from noon to 1 p.m. on Mondays from Jan. 26 through March 26 in Ramsey Auditorium. This is a short and easy to learn set of Qigong exercises, but this class is a more in-depth approach than the the drop in class listed above. There is a pecific attention on coordination of breath, posture and intention.
Fitness classes:
- Yoga on Tuesdays from Jan. 3 to Feb. 21 in Ramsey Auditorium from noon to 1 p.m. Fee: $85/person.
- Kyuki-Do Martial Arts on Mondays & Wednesdays, from Jan. 4 to Feb. 15 in the Fitness Center from 5 to 6 p.m. Fee: $55/person.
- Butts & Guts on Thursdays from Jan. 5 to Feb. 23 in the Fitness Center from noon to 12:45 p.m. Fee: $53/person
- Zumba on Wednesdays from Jan. 11 to Feb. 29, or on Fridays from Jan. 13 to March 2 in the Fitness Center Exercise Room from noon to 12:45 p.m. Fee: $45/person.
- Muscle Toning on Tuesdays & Thursdays from Jan. 24 to March 15 in the Fitness Center Exercise Room from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Fee: $77/person.
Employee discounts:
- Disney on ice: Dare to Dream at the United Center from Feb. 1 through Feb. 12.
- AMC and Regal movie tickets.
- More information can be found online.
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Scientists ‘trigger’ high energy physics at CERN in India-UK collaboration
From PhysOrg.com, Dec. 19, 2011
The University of Birmingham is working with partners at Jammu University on particle physics experiments, including those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research – CERN.
The project focuses on analysing collision data and the real-time selection or 'triggering' of the most interesting events from amongst very large backgrounds using state-of-the-art fast electronics. The researchers will analyse collisions between pairs of lead ions in the ALICE experiment at the LHC recreating the particle densities and temperatures which existed a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang. In addition, they are aiming to make improvements to the ALICE trigger capability, in preparation for the next, higher intensity, phase of the running of the LHC.
A further key area of focus for the collaboration will be the development of an optimised trigger for the new NA62 fixed target experiment, which will study very rare effects involving strange quarks which are highly sensitive to new physics.
Read more
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A good close to the year
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Fermilab Director Pier Oddone |
This is my last Director’s Corner for the year, so first of all I want to wish you and your family happy and safe holidays! You have contributed to a very successful year, with many exciting scientific results, milestones for the construction of new projects and the very successful conclusion of Tevatron running after another record year.
Last week had many important events. In Washington, we received our “grades” from Bill Brinkman, the Director of the Office of Science. They are, once again, excellent and will qualify us for a further extension of our contract through 2016.
An important development over the weekend was the passing of the Consolidated Appropriations Bill by the House and the Senate, which gives us our budget for fiscal year 2012. It has a small reduction for high-energy Physics from the budget proposed by the President in February, but overall it is very good news, especially when we consider the present budget climate. The bill provided $21 million for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment, including $4 million of Project Engineering Design (PED) funds. We now have the PED funds for Mu2e and LBNE, as well as the required capital funds for MicroBooNE. We owe many thanks to our representatives in Washington and the staff of the House and Senate Appropriation Committees who work incredibly hard do the best for the nation’s science and technology with very tight budgets.
Another important milestone for us last week was the ground-breaking for the Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC). The IARC represents a partnership between the State of Illinois and the Department of Energy (DOE) aimed at maintaining and strengthening the leadership of the United States in accelerator science and technology. Our field has been the fountain of innovation for accelerators. As we push the technological envelope for our own accelerators, the by-product is often innovation that is implemented in many other areas of society. More than 30,000 accelerators are used worldwide in discovery science and applications to medicine, national security, and many industrial processes. DOE has designated the Office of High Energy Physics as the national steward of advanced accelerator science for all fields, giving us an explicit mandate to work with our academic and industrial partners in advancing this important field. This is a more direct step to economic and societal impact than purely through spin-offs. The IARC places us in very strong position to carry out this new mandate.
The final important event from last week was the next step on the path to the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) - a recommendation from the executive committee of the LBNE collaboration regarding how the experiment should be done. This recommendation culminated a two-year-long, very thorough process that included several external reviews. The executive committee had a strong consensus in recommending that the experiment be done deep underground at the 4,850 foot level in order to have the broadest program and the greatest reach for discovery science. The committee concluded that both the water Cerenkov and the liquid argon technologies could achieve the experiment’s goals. It reported a preference for the water Cerenkov detector, but noted that the scientific goals are the most important and that there is strong support for both technologies within the committee and the collaboration. The committee stated that the collaboration will support the final choice of technology, which will be made in consultation with DOE. Having two viable technologies at this time is strength, not a weakness. It will allow DOE to make a choice when it considers all the factors in steering this project through the funding thicket ahead.
All in all, a good week that prepares us for great New Year!
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In Memoriam: Margaret McAuliff
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Margaret McAuliff with her grandson, Michael.
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Former Fermilab employee Margaret McAuliff died on Dec. 13. She started at Fermilab in 1973, and retired nearly 20 years later in 1993, as a cafeteria manager. There will be a celebration of her life on Jan. 23 starting at 11:30 a.m. at Big Woods Church on Eola Road. If you would like more information, please contact Dennis McAuliff.
Japanese interest in hosting the ILC
On behalf of my colleagues worldwide who have been working so hard to develop a design for the International Linear Collider, we enthusiastically welcome the Japanese expression of interest in hosting the ILC. We report in today’s special issue of NewsLine on a special high-level meeting addressing this subject that was held in Japan last week.
The Japanese are very strong partners in the technical effort to develop a design for the ILC through the Global Design Effort. The GDE represents a unique global process to develop and make technical decisions for the technical design of such a very large international project through a worldwide organisation developing the design and coordinating the R&D programmes. As we approach our goal of producing a detailed ILC technical design, it is particularly timely and encouraging for us to learn of the Japanese interest in hosting the facility and to follow the unfolding early status reports from the CERN LHC on the Higgs searches.
Read more
—Barry Barish, director of the Global Design Effort for the International Linear Collider (ILC)
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Snow/sleet
