Simply smashing

This is the first recorded event in CMS that has the distinct look of quarks or gluons scattered out of the beam particles.

I write this month's CMS Result of the Month from the CERN hostel, and I am simply brimming with excitement. This week is the CMS collaboration meeting and scientists from around the world have come together to talk about the stunning new data coming out of the CMS detector.

A couple of weeks ago, the LHC turned back on after being down for a year while recovering from the damage that occurred in fall of 2008. It's been a long road, but it's been worth it. The startup has been cautious, but ambitious. In the last ROM, I described "beam splashes" in which the beam was run into blocks of steel intentionally put in place to protect the equipment. Well, the blocks have been removed and the accelerator has circulated two proton beams in opposite directions around the ring for hours at a time. The beams have been intentionally made to collide inside the four large experiments arrayed around the ring. For the next couple of days, the accelerator will deliver about a million collisions to each of the experiments. This is at low energy and beam intensity, but it's just right to get an initial understanding of the accelerator and detectors.

While the current efforts are on recording this low-energy data, the energy of the beams has even been increased to higher than the reigning world's champ, the Fermilab Tevatron, and the beams were even collided very briefly. In February, the LHC will begin attempting collisions with energies 3 ½ times higher than the Tevatron.

I spent the week hearing reports of experimental triumphs, of interesting collisions and known particles observed in the new equipment. The future is bright and it's only a short while before CMS moves beyond the known and enters the uncharted quantum frontier.

Stay tuned.

— Don Lincoln

An extremely early plot of an analysis looking for neutral pions, which would show up as a peak near 0.14. The peak is a little low, demonstrating just how new the plot is. This difference is expected and subsequent calibration will improve the measurement. This plot is interesting because neutral pions decay into two photons, just like the Higgs boson. A plot similar to this might be how the Higgs boson is found.

These physicists head particle identification groups at the LHC Physics Center at Fermilab.  Each develops and approves the algorithms whereby raw data is converted into the physical electrons, muons, neutrinos, jets and b quarks necessary for advanced analysis.

The search for dark matter: CDMS presents its results Thursday, Dec. 17

There are many rumors circulating about upcoming results from the CDMS experiment. A statement from the CDMS collaboration helps to set the record straight:

• The CDMS collaboration has completed the analysis of the final CDMS-II runs, which more than doubled the total data from all previous runs combined. The collaboration is working hard to complete the first scientific publication about these new results and plans to submit the manuscript to arXiv.org before the two primary CDMS talks scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 17, at Fermilab and at SLAC.

Fermilab physicist Lauren Hsu will present a talk on the new results at Fermilab on Thursday, Dec. 17 at 4 p.m. CST. A Webcast will be available here.

Also on Dec. 17, at 2 p.m. PST, Southern Methodist University physicist Jodi Cooley, CDMS analysis coordinator, will speak at SLAC. Her talk will be Webcast on the CDMS Web site.

When collaborators opened the black box nearly two years ago they didn't see any candidates for dark matter particles, but they did set the world's best constraints on the properties of dark matter candidates, another step forward in the search.

CDMS project manager Dan Bauer adjusts elements of the CDMS detector.

The CDMS experiment is located a half-mile underground in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota, shielded from cosmic rays and other particles that could mimic the signals expected from dark matter particles.

Learn more about dark matter and the CDMS experiment on this FAQ Web page from the 2008 press release. An article in symmetry magazine features Jodi Cooley and explains how scientists use the CDMS experiment to listen for whispers of dark matter.

View photos and video related to the CDMS experiment in the CDMS image gallery from 2008.

— Rhianna Wisniewski

Avian art works on display in Fermilab Art Gallery

An artist reception featuring paintings by Peter B. Olson will take place tonight at 7 p.m.

A new exhibit in the Fermilab Art Gallery features drawings by Peter B. Olson in an exhibit titled Dissimulation.

A gallery talk featuring the artist will take place in the Fermilab Art Gallery from 12-1 p.m. today and an artist reception celebrating the works and the artist will take place from 5-7 p.m. today in the Art Gallery.

Olson's drawings feature birds from around the world. His artwork explores the beauty and mystery of birds in various regions throughout the world. His most recent exhibits included the international Birds in Art in Wausau, Wisconsin, American print surveys in Kansas and Indiana and a show in Chicago's Printworks Gallery.

Olson, who earned his MFA in printmaking from Northern Illinois University, works at the NIU Art Museum as assistant director.

The exhibit will run through Feb. 26, 2010.

View Olson's work on his Web site.