From CERN: “Four decades of gluons”

From CERN

18 June, 2019
Ana Lopes

A three-jet event detected by the TASSO detector at DESY (Image: Oxford PPU)

Forty years ago, in 1979, experiments at the DESY laboratory in Germany provided the first direct proof of the existence of gluons – the carriers of the strong force that “glue” quarks into protons, neutrons and other particles known collectively as hadrons. This discovery was a milestone in the history of particle physics, as it helped establish the theory of the strong force, known as quantum chromodynamics.

The results followed from an idea that struck theorist John Ellis while walking in CERN’s corridors in 1976. As Ellis recounts, he was walking over the bridge from the CERN cafeteria back to his office, turning the corner by the library, when it occurred to him that “the simplest experimental situation to search directly for the gluon would be through production via bremsstrahlung in electron–positron annihilation”. In this process, an electron and a positron (the electron’s antiparticle) would annihilate and would occasionally produce three “jets” of particles, one of which being generated by a gluon radiated by a quark–antiquark pair.

Ellis and theorists Mary Gaillard and Graham Ross then went on to write a paper titled “Search for Gluons in e+-e– Annihilation” in which they described a calculation of the process and showed how the PETRA collider at DESY and the PEP collider at SLAC would be able to observe it. Ellis then visited DESY, gave a seminar about the idea and talked to experimentalists preparing to work at PETRA.

A couple of years later, and following more papers by Ellis, Gaillard and other theorists, PETRA was being commissioned and getting into the energy range required to test this theory. Soon after, at the International Neutrino Conference in Bergen, Norway, on 18 June 1979, researchers presented a three-jet collision event that had just been detected by the TASSO experiment at PETRA.

At the European Physical Society conference at CERN a couple of weeks later, the TASSO collaboration presented several three-jet events and results of analyses that showed that the gluon had been discovered. One month later, in August 1979, three other experiments at PETRA showed similar events that lent support to TASSO’s findings.

Find out more about the discovery in DESY’s coverage of the 40-year anniversary, in Ellis’ account, and in this 2004 CERN Courier article.

See the full article here.

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Meet CERN in a variety of places:

Quantum Diaries

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THE FOUR MAJOR PROJECT COLLABORATIONS

ATLAS

CERN ATLAS Image Claudia Marcelloni CERN/ATLAS

ALICE

CERN/ALICE Detector

CMS

LHCb

LHC

CERN map

From Fermi National Accelerator Lab: “Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility pre-excavation work is in full swing”

FNAL Art Image by Angela Gonzales

From Fermi National Accelerator Lab , an enduring source of strength for the US contribution to scientific research world wide.

May 2, 2019
Kurt Riesselmann

Unlocking the mysteries of neutrinos in order to get a clearer picture of the universe and understand why we are here at all, is a monumental undertaking. However, before the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by the Department of Energy’s Fermilab, can start solving those mysteries, a massive construction project is required to provide the necessary infrastructure, named the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility.

The LBNF construction in Lead, South Dakota is under way, and a fleet of yellow pickup trucks has become the talk of the town and evidence of the beehive of construction activity that Fermilab is managing at the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

These trucks are owned by the company Kiewit, part of the Kiewit-Alberici Joint Venture, who are preparing the construction site at Sanford Lab for the excavation of about 800,000 tons of rock to create the huge caverns for the South Dakota-portion of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility. (Prep work for the Illinois-portion of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, to be built at Fermilab, will start early next year.)

The excavation of LBNF/DUNE caverns requires the transport of about 800,000 tons of rock from a mile underground to the surface, and then transporting it to its final resting place in a former mining area known as the Open Cut. Credit: Fermilab

The excavation will create the three LBNF caverns that vary in length between 500 and 625 feet long, up to 70 feet wide and 95 feet tall. These caverns will house DUNE’s massive particle detectors and the necessary utilities.

FNAL DUNE Argon tank at SURF

Excavating such an enormous amount of rock a mile underground, bringing it to the surface, and then transporting it to its final resting place is a huge job. And creating the infrastructure for that job is a huge amount of work by itself—and is going on right now. Fortunately, the mile-deep shaft that workers will use to bring rock to the surface—known as the Ross Shaft—already exists and the seven-year-long shaft renovation project will soon wrap up. But other pre-excavation work remains to be done. The main tasks are (see photo gallery):

Renovating the area at the bottom of the mile-deep Ross Shaft, where rock will be loaded into large buckets, called skips, that will travel up the shaft;
Strengthening the Ross headframe—the structure that holds and operates the hoist that conveys the skips filled with rock to the surface;
Refurbishing the three-story-tall rock crushing system next to the Ross headframe; it was last used in 2001 when the Ross Shaft was still used by the Homestake gold mine.
Building and installing the three-quarter-mile-long conveyor system that will transport the crushed rock to the Open Cut, an open pit mining area excavated by the Homestake mining company in the 1980s. Despite the massive amount of rock to be excavated for the LBNF caverns, the deposited rock will fill less than one percent of the Open Cut.
Rehabbing the existing tramway tunnel to prepare it for the installation of the conveyor system;
Establishing the power infrastructure for operating the LBNF/DUNE experiment, which will include 70,000 tons of liquid argon cooled to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 184 degrees Celsius).

And remember, this massive construction project will enable some truly groundbreaking science. DUNE, hosted by Fermilab, will be the world’s most advanced experiment dedicated to studying the properties of mysterious subatomic particles called neutrinos.

FNAL LBNF/DUNE from FNAL to SURF, Lead, South Dakota, USA

The DUNE detectors will enable scientists to study a neutrino beam generated at Fermilab. The DUNE collaboration includes more than 1,000 scientists from more than 30 countries around the world. A large prototype detector for the experiment, constructed at the European research center CERN, successfully began recording particle tracks in September.

CERN Proto Dune

For more information on LBNF/DUNE, see http://www.fnal.gov/dune.

See the full article here.

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Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Fermilab is America’s premier laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Thousands of scientists from universities and laboratories around the world collaborate at Fermilab on experiments at the frontiers of discovery.

FNAL MINERvA front face Photo Reidar Hahn

FNAL DAMIC

FNAL Muon g-2 studio

FNAL Short-Baseline Near Detector under construction

FNAL Mu2e solenoid

Dark Energy Camera [DECam], built at FNAL

FNAL DUNE Argon tank at SURF

FNAL/MicrobooNE

FNAL Don Lincoln

FNAL/MINOS

FNAL Cryomodule Testing Facility

FNAL MINOS Far Detector in the Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota

FNAL LBNF/DUNE from FNAL to SURF, Lead, South Dakota, USA

FNAL/NOvA experiment map

FNAL NOvA Near Detector

FNAL ICARUS

FNAL Holometer

From CERN: “LS2 Report: consolidating the energy extraction systems of LHC superconducting magnet circuits”

From CERN

13 May, 2019
Anaïs Schaeffer

The LS2 team from the NRC Kurchatov-IHEP Institute, Protvino, Russia, with a 13 kA energy extraction system (Image: NRC Kurchatov-IHEP Institute)

In the LHC, 1232 superconducting dipole magnets and 392 quadrupole magnets guide and focus the beams around the accelerator’s 27-kilometre ring, which is divided into eight sectors. These magnets operate at very low temperatures – 1.9 K or −271.3 °C – where even a tiny amount of energy released inside a magnet can warm its windings to above the critical temperature, causing the loss of superconductivity: this is called a quench. When this happens, the energy stored in the affected magnet has to be safely extracted in a short time to avoid damage to the magnet coil.

To do so, two protection elements are activated: at the level of the quenching magnet, a diode diverts the current into a parallel by-pass circuit in less than a second; at the level of the circuit, 13 kA energy extraction systems absorb the energy of the whole magnet circuit in a few minutes. There are equivalent extraction systems installed for about 200 corrector circuits with currents up to 600 A.

“In the framework of a long-lasting and fruitful collaboration between CERN and the Russian Federation, energy extraction systems for quench protection of the LHC superconducting magnets were designed in close partnership with two Russian institutes, the NRC Kurchatov-IHEP Institute in Protvino for the 13 kA systems and the Budker Institute in Novosibirsk for the 600 A systems. Russian industry was involved in the manufacturing of the parts of these systems,” explains Félix Rodríguez Mateos, leader of the Electrical Engineering (EE) section in the Machine Protection and Electrical Integrity (MPE) group of CERN’s Technology department.

With a wealth of expertise and know-how, the Russian teams have continuously provided invaluable support to the MPE group. “Our Russian colleagues come to CERN for every year-end technical stop (YETS) and long shutdown to help us perform preventive maintenance and upgrade activities on the energy extraction systems,” says Rodríguez Mateos.

During LS2, an extensive maintenance campaign is being performed on the 13 kA systems, which already count 10 years of successful operation in the LHC. “We are currently replacing an element, the arcing contact, in each one of the 256 electromechanical switches of the energy extraction systems to ensure their continuous reliable operation throughout the next runs,” adds Rodríguez Mateos. “In February, we fully replaced 32 switches at Point 8 of the accelerator in anticipation of consolidation for the future HL-LHC.”

During LS2, the Electrical Engineering section is involved in many other activities that will be the subject of future articles.

See the full article here.

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From CERN: “In Granada, the European particle physics community prepares decisions for the future of the field”

From CERN

13 May, 2019

The European particle physics community is meeting this week in Granada, Spain, to discuss the roadmap for the future of the discipline.

Geneva and Granada. The European particle physics community is meeting this week in Granada, Spain, to discuss the roadmap for the future of the discipline. The aim of the symposium is to define scientific priorities and technological approaches for the coming years and to consider plans for the medium- and long-term future. An important focus of the discussions will be assessing the various options for the period beyond the lifespan of the Large Hadron Collider.

“The Granada symposium is an important step in the process of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics and aims to prioritise our scientific goals and prepare for the upcoming generation of facilities and experiments,” said the President of the CERN Council, Ursula Bassler. “The discussions will focus on the scientific reach of potential new projects, the associated technological challenges and the resources required.”

The European Strategy Group, which was established to coordinate the update process, has received 160 contributions from the scientific community setting out their views on possible future projects and experiments. The symposium in Granada will provide an opportunity to assess and discuss them.

“The intent is to make sure that we have a good understanding of the science priorities of the community and of all the options for realising them,” said the Chair of the European Strategy Group, Professor Halina Abramowicz. “This will ensure that the European Strategy Group is well informed when deciding about the strategy update.”

The previous update of the European Strategy, approved in May 2013, recommended that design and feasibility studies be conducted in order for Europe “to be in a position to propose an ambitious post-LHC accelerator project.” Over the last few years, in collaboration with partners from around the world, Europe has therefore been engaging in R&D and design projects for a range of ambitious post-LHC facilities under the CLIC and FCC umbrellas.

CLIC collider

CERN FCC Future Circular Collider details of proposed 100km-diameter successor to LHC

A study to investigate the potential to build projects that are complementary to high-energy colliders, exploiting the opportunities offered by CERN’s unique accelerator complex, was also launched by CERN in 2016. These contributions will feed into the discussion, which will also take into account the worldwide particle physics landscape and developments in related fields.

“At least two decades will be needed to design and build a new collider to succeed the LHC. Such a machine should maximise the potential for new discoveries and enable major steps forward in our understanding of fundamental physics” said CERN Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti. “It is not too early to start planning for it as it will take time to develop the new technologies needed for its implementation.”

The Granada symposium will be followed up with the compilation of a “briefing book” and with a Strategy Drafting Session, which will take place in Bad Honnef, Germany, from 20 to 24 January 2020. The update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics is due to be completed and approved by the CERN Council in May 2020.

An online Q&A session will be held on Thursday 16 May – 4pm CEST

Reporters interested in participating are invited to register by sending an e-mail to press@cern.ch

https://europeanstrategy.cern/

See the full article here.

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From CERN: “CERN unveils its Science Gateway project”

From CERN

8 April, 2019

CERN is launching a new scientific education and outreach centre. The building will be designed by world-renowned architects, Renzo Piano Building Workshop and funded through external donations, with the leading contribution coming from FCA Foundation.

Artistic view of the Science Gateway. (Image: RPBW)

CERN is launching the Science Gateway, a new scientific education and outreach centre targeting the general public of all ages. The building will be designed by world-renowned architects, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The project will be funded through external donations, with the leading contribution coming from FCA Foundation, a charitable foundation created by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Construction is planned to start in 2020 and to be completed in 2022.

As part of its mission to educate and engage the public in science, and to share knowledge and technology with society, CERN is launching the Science Gateway, a new facility for scientific education and outreach. The purpose of the project is to create a hub of scientific education and culture to inspire younger generations with the beauty of science. Aimed at engaging audiences of all ages, the Science Gateway will include inspirational exhibition spaces, laboratories for hands-on scientific experiments for children and students from primary to high-school level, and a large amphitheatre to host science events for experts and non-experts alike.

With a footprint of 7000 square metres, the iconic Science Gateway building will offer a variety of spaces and activities, including exhibitions explaining the secrets of nature, from the very small (elementary particles) to the very large (the structure and evolution of the universe). The exhibitions will also feature CERN’s accelerators, experiments and computing, how scientists use them in their exploration and how CERN technologies benefit society. Hands-on experimentation will be a key ingredient in the Science Gateway’s educational programme, allowing visitors to get first-hand experience of what it’s like to be a scientist. The immersive activities available in the Science Gateway will foster critical thinking, evidence-based assessment and use of the scientific method, important tools in all walks of life.

“The Science Gateway will enable CERN to expand significantly its education and outreach offering for the general public, in particular the younger generations. We will be able to share with everybody the fascination of exploring and learning how matter and the universe work, the advanced technologies we need to develop in order to build our ambitious instruments and their impact on society, and how science can influence our daily life,” says CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti. “I am deeply grateful to the donors for their crucial support in the fulfilment of this beautiful project.”

The overall cost of the Science Gateway is estimated at 79 million Swiss Francs, entirely funded through donations. As of today, 57 million Swiss Francs have been already secured, allowing construction to start on schedule, thanks in particular to a very generous contribution of 45 million Swiss Francs from the FCA Foundation, which will support the project as it advances through the construction phases. Other donors include a private foundation in Geneva and Loterie Romande, which distributes its profits to public utility projects in various areas including research, culture and social welfare. CERN is looking for additional donations in order to cover the full cost of the project.

John Elkann, Chairman of FCA and the FCA Foundation, said: “The new Science Gateway will satisfy the curiosity of 300,000 visitors every year – including many researchers and students, but also children and their families – providing them with access to tools that will help them understand the world and improve their lives, whatever career paths they eventually choose. At FCA we’re delighted to be supporting this project as part of our social responsibility which also allows us to honour the memory of Sergio Marchionne: in an open and stimulating setting, it will teach us how we can work successfully together, even though we may have diverse cultures and perspectives, to discover the answers to today’s big questions and to those of tomorrow”.

As part of the educational portfolio of the Science Gateway, CERN and FCA Foundation will develop a programme for schools, with the advice of Fondazione Agnelli. The main goal will be to transmit concepts of science and technology in an engaging way, in order to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). According to the approach of enquiry-based learning, students will be involved in hands-on educational modules and experiments in physics. Special kits will be delivered to classes, containing all necessary materials and instructions to run modules throughout the school year. As a follow-up, classes will be invited to take part in a contest, with the winners awarded a 2-3 day visit to the Science Gateway and CERN. There will be an initial period of experimentation, with a pilot programme in Italy focusing on junior high schools and involving up to 550,000 students. After the pilot, CERN plans to extend this initiative to all its Member States.

The Science Gateway will be hosted in a new, iconic building, designed by world-renowned architects Renzo Piano Building Workshop, on CERN’s Meyrin site adjacent to another of CERN’s iconic buildings, the Globe of Science and Innovation. The vision for the Science Gateway is inspired by the fragmentation and curiosity already intrinsic to the nature of the CERN site and buildings, so it is made up of multiple elements, embedded in a green forest and interconnected by a bridge spanning the main road leading to Geneva. “It’s a place where people will meet,” says Renzo Piano. “Kids, students, adults, teachers and scientists, everybody attracted by the exploration of the Universe, from the infinitely vast to the infinitely small. It is a bridge, in the metaphorical and real sense, and a building fed by the energy of the sun, nestling in the midst of a newly grown forest.”

Also inspired by CERN’s unique facilities, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, the architecture of the Science Gateway celebrates the inventiveness and creativity that characterise the world of research and engineering. Architectural elements such as tubes that seem to be suspended in space evoke the cutting-edge technology underpinning the most advanced research that is furthering our understanding of the origins of the universe.

A bridge over the Route de Meyrin will dominate the brand-new Esplanade des Particules and symbolise the inseparable link between science and society. Construction is planned to start in 2020 and be completed in 2022.

About FCA Foundation
The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of FCA, supports charitable organizations and initiatives that help empower people, build strong, resilient communities and generate meaningful and measurable societal impacts particularly in the field of education.

See the full article here.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Meet CERN in a variety of places:

Quantum Diaries

Cern Courier

THE FOUR MAJOR PROJECT COLLABORATIONS

ATLAS

ALICE

CERN/ALICE Detector

CMS

LHCb

LHC

CERN map

OTHER PROJECTS AT CERN

CERN AEGIS

CERN ALPHA

CERN ALPHA

CERN ALPHA-g Detector

CERN ALPHA-g Detector

CERN AMS

CERN ACACUSA

CERN ASACUSA

CERN ATRAP

CERN ATRAP

CERN AWAKE

CERN AWAKE

CERN CAST

CERN CAST Axion Solar Telescope

CERN CLOUD

CERN CLOUD

CERN COMPASS

CERN COMPASS

CERN DIRAC

CERN DIRAC

CERN GBAR

CERN GBAR

CERN ISOLDE

CERN ISOLDE

CERN LHCf

CERN LHCf

CERN NA62

CERN NA62

CERN NTOF

CERN TOTEM

CERN UA9

CERN Proto Dune

CERN Proto Dune

From CERN: “Moriond 2019 feels the strong force”

From CERN

2 April, 2019

Pentaquarks, charmed beauty particles and more from the Moriond conference’s second week, which is devoted to studies of the strong nuclear force.

Last week, physicists from all over the world gathered in La Thuile, Italy, for the second week of the Rencontres de Moriond conference. This second week of the annual meeting features new and recent findings in all things related to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) – the theory of the strong force that combines quarks into composite particles called hadrons – and to high-energy particle interactions. This year, results from the main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) included new pentaquarks, new charmed beauty particles, a more precise measurement of matter–antimatter asymmetry in strange beauty particles, and new results from heavy-ion collisions.

Discovery of new pentaquarks

The LHCb collaboration announced the discovery of new five-quark hadrons, or “pentaquarks”. Quarks normally aggregate into groups of twos and threes, but in recent years the LHCb team has confirmed the existence of exotic tetraquarks and pentaquarks, which are also predicted by QCD. In a 2015 study, the LHCb researchers analysed data from the decay of the three-quark particle Λb into a J/ψ particle, a proton and a charged kaon and were able to see two new pentaquarks (dubbed Pc(4450)+ and Pc(4380)+) in intermediate decay states. After analysing a sample of nine times more Λb decays than in the 2015 study, the LHCb team has now discovered a new pentaquark, Pc(4312)+ as well as a two-peak pattern in the data that shows that the previously observed Pc(4450)+ structure is in fact two particles.

A Bs candidate decaying to a J/psi and a phi, where the J/psi decays to two opposite-charge muons (red lines) and the phi decays to two opposite-charge kaons (blue). The event was recorded by ATLAS on 16 August 2017 from proton–proton collisions at 13 TeV. (Image: CERN)

Charmed beauty particles in focus

Notwithstanding significant progress over the past two decades, researchers’ understanding of the QCD processes that make up hadrons is incomplete. One way to try and understand them is through the study of the little-known charmed beauty (Bc) particle family, which consists of hadrons made up of a beauty quark and a charm antiquark (or vice-versa). In 2014, using data from the LHC’s first proton–proton collision run, the ATLAS collaboration reported [Physical Review Letters]the observation of a Bc particle called Bc(2S). A very recent analysis by the CMS collaboration of the full LHC sample from the second run, published today in Physical Review Letters and presented at the meeting, has unambiguously observed a two-peak feature in this dataset that corresponds to Bc(2S) and to another Bc particle called Bc*(2S). Meanwhile, the LHCb team, which in 2017 reported no evidence for Bc(2S) in its 2012 data, has now analysed the full 2011–2018 data sample and has also observed the Bc(2S) and Bc*(2S), lending support to the CMS result.

An event recorded by CMS showing a candidate for the Bc(2S*). The signature for this new particle is the presence of two pions (green lines) and a Bc meson, that decays into a pion (yellow line) plus a J/psi that itself decays to two muons (red). (Image: CERN)

Matter–antimatter asymmetry in strange beauty particles

The meeting’s second week also saw the announcement of a new result concerning the amount of the matter–antimatter asymmetry known as CP violation in the system of strange beauty (Bs) particles, which are made of a bottom quark and a strange quark. Bs mesons have the special feature that they oscillate rapidly into their antiparticle and back, and these oscillations can lead to CP violation when the Bs decays into combinations of particles such as a J/ψ and a ϕ. The amount of CP violation predicted by the Standard Model and observed so far in experiments is too small to account for the observed imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe, prompting scientists to search for additional, as-yet-unknown sources of CP violation and to measure the extent of the violation from known sources more precisely. Following hot on the heels of two independent measurements of the asymmetry in the Bs system reported by ATLAS and LHCb during the meeting’s first week, a new result that combined the two measurements was reported during the second week. The combined result is the most precise measurement yet of the asymmetry in the Bs system and is consistent with the small value precisely predicted by the Standard Model.

Heavy-ion progress

The ALICE collaboration specialises in collisions between heavy ions such as lead nuclei, which can recreate the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) that is believed to have occurred shortly after the Big Bang. ALICE highlighted its observation that three-quark particles (baryons) containing charm quarks (Λc) are produced more often in proton–proton collisions than in electron­–positron collisions. It also showed that its first measurements of such charmed baryons in lead–lead collisions suggest an even higher production rate in these collisions, similar to what has been observed for strange-quark baryons. These observations indicate that the presence of quarks in the colliding beams affects the hadron production rate, shedding new light on the QCD processes that form baryons. The collaboration also presented the first measurement of the triangle-shaped flow of J/psi particles, which contain heavy quarks, in lead–lead collisions. This measurement shows that even heavy quarks are affected by the quarks and gluons in the QGP and retain some memory of the collisions’ initial geometry. Finally, ALICE also presented measurements of particle jets in lead–lead collisions that probe the QGP at different length scales.

For other results, check out the conference page.

See the full article here.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Meet CERN in a variety of places:

Quantum Diaries

Cern Courier

THE FOUR MAJOR PROJECT COLLABORATIONS

ATLAS

ALICE

CERN/ALICE Detector

CMS

LHCb

LHC

CERN map

OTHER PROJECTS AT CERN

CERN AEGIS

CERN ALPHA

CERN ALPHA

CERN ALPHA-g Detector

CERN ALPHA-g Detector

CERN AMS

CERN ACACUSA

CERN ASACUSA

CERN ATRAP

CERN ATRAP

CERN AWAKE

CERN AWAKE

CERN CAST

CERN CAST Axion Solar Telescope

CERN CLOUD

CERN CLOUD

CERN COMPASS

CERN COMPASS

CERN DIRAC

CERN DIRAC

CERN GBAR

CERN GBAR

CERN ISOLDE

CERN ISOLDE

CERN LHCf

CERN LHCf

CERN NA62

CERN NA62

CERN NTOF

CERN TOTEM

CERN UA9

CERN Proto Dune

CERN Proto Dune

From CERN: “Serbia joins CERN as its 23rd Member State”

From CERN

24 March, 2019

Visit of Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, with Mladen Šarčević, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development (Image: CERN)

Today, CERN welcomes Serbia as its 23rd Member State, following receipt of formal notification from UNESCO that Serbia has acceded to the CERN Convention.

Today, CERN welcomes Serbia as its 23rd Member State, following receipt of formal notification from UNESCO that Serbia has acceded to the CERN Convention.

“Investing in scientific research is important for the development of our economy and CERN is one of the most important scientific institutions today. I am immensely proud that Serbia has become a fully-fledged CERN Member State. This will bring new possibilities for our scientists and industry to work in cooperation with CERN and fellow CERN Member States,” said Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of Serbia.

“Serbia has a longstanding relationship with CERN, with the continuous involvement of Serbian scientists in CERN’s major experiments. I’m very happy to see that Serbia’s initiative to seek membership status of CERN has now converged and that we can welcome Serbia as a Member State,” said Ursula Bassler, President of the CERN Council.

“It is a great pleasure to welcome Serbia as our 23rd Member State. The Serbian scientific community has made strong contributions to CERN’s projects for many years. Membership will strengthen the longstanding relationship between CERN and Serbia, creating opportunities for increased collaboration in scientific research, training, education, innovation and knowledge-sharing,” said Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director-General.

“As a CERN Member State, Serbia is poised to further the development of science and education as our scientists, researchers, institutes and industry will be able to participate on the world stage in important scientific and technological decision-making,” said Mladen Šarčević, the Serbian Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development.

When Serbia was a part of Yugoslavia, which was one of the 12 founding Member States of CERN in 1954, Serbian physicists and engineers took part in some of CERN’s earliest projects, at the SC, PS and SPS facilities. In the 1980s and 1990s, physicists from Serbia worked on the DELPHI experiment at CERN’s LEP collider. In 2001, CERN and Serbia concluded an International Cooperation Agreement, leading to Serbia’s participation in the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, as well as in the ACE and NA61 experiments. Serbia’s main involvement with CERN today is in the ATLAS and CMS experiments, in the ISOLDE facility, which carries out research ranging from nuclear physics to astrophysics, and on design studies for future particle colliders – FCC and CLIC – both of which are potentially new flagship projects at CERN.

As a CERN Member State, Serbia will have voting rights in the Council, CERN’s highest decision-making authority, and will contribute to the Organization’s budget. Membership will enhance the recruitment opportunities for Serbian nationals at CERN and for Serbian industry to bid for CERN contracts.

See the full article here.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

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Meet CERN in a variety of places:

Quantum Diaries

Cern Courier

From CERN: “LS2 Report: Rejuvenation for the Antiproton Decelerator”

From CERN

12 March, 2019
Achintya Rao

The Antiproton Decelerator will see refurbishment work that will help its experiments to trap more antimatter than before.

CERN Antiproton Decelerator

The Antiproton Decelerator (AD), sometimes known as the Antimatter Factory, is the world’s largest source of antimatter and has been operational since 2000. Here, antiprotons are slowed down and sent into the experiments, where they are combined with antielectrons to produce the most basic antiatom: that of antihydrogen. Over the course of the second long shutdown of CERN’s accelerator complex (LS2), the AD will receive several enhancements as well as repairs and refurbishments.

The recently installed ELENA ring, which was commissioned over 2017 and 2018, is designed to slow down even further the antiprotons decelerated by AD to ensure that the experiments can trap up to 100 times more antiprotons than they could without it.

CERN ELENA

At the moment, ELENA is only connected to one of the experiments within the AD hall, the new GBAR experiment.

CERN GBAR

The main work being done on the AD during the next two years is to extend the beam line from ELENA to all of the existing experiments and get ELENA fully operational. The lines that took the particles from the AD to the experiments have now been fully dismantled to prepare for the new injection lines from ELENA.

Other planned and ongoing activities involve the AD’s 84 magnets, which focus and steer the whizzing antiprotons along their racetrack. Most of these magnets were recycled from previous accelerator facilities and are much older than the AD itself. They are in need of repairs and refurbishment, which started during the previous long shutdown (LS1) and was pursued during subsequent year-end technical stops (YETS). So far, nine of the magnets have been treated, and 20 of them are scheduled for treatment during LS2. The remaining magnets will either be treated in situ or will undergo refurbishment during the next YETS and the third long shutdown (LS3).

Removing the magnets to take them to the treatment facility is no easy task. The AD ring is encased in a large shielding tunnel made of concrete blocks. Therefore, the blocks making up the ceiling near the magnet in question have to first be removed and stored, allowing a crane to descend though the opening and extract the magnet (which weighs up to 26 tonnes), sometimes with a margin of only 1 cm. Related work is being done to consolidate other elements of the AD, such as the kicker magnets, the septa magnets and the radiofrequency cavities.

One of the main tasks of LS2 that has already been achieved was the installation of a new cooling pump for the AD. Previously, a single set of pumps were operated, connected to both the AD itself and to its experiments. This meant that the pumping system was operational year round next to the AD ring, producing a constant noise at over 100 decibels in some places. The new dedicated pump allows the main pumping group to be turned off without affecting the experiments’ cooling systems, saving money and improving working conditions for those who need to be in close proximity to the AD over the shutdown period. It also provides much-needed redundancy to the cooling circuits.

By the end of LS2, the AD hall will look very different from what it does today, but the changes are not merely superficial. They will ensure that CERN’s antimatter factory continues to operate with high efficiency and help explore the mysteries surrounding elusive antimatter.

See the full article here.

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From CERN- “FASER: CERN approves new experiment to look for long-lived, exotic particles”

From CERN

5 March, 2019
Cristina Agrigoroae

The experiment, which will complement existing searches for dark matter at the LHC, will be operational in 2021.

CERN FASER experiment schematic

A 3D picture of the planned FASER detector as seen in the TI12 tunnel. The detector is precisely aligned with the collision axis in ATLAS, 480 m away from the collision point (Image: FASER/CERN)

Today, the CERN Research Board approved a new experiment designed to look for light and weakly interacting particles at the LHC. FASER, or the Forward Search Experiment, will complement CERN’s ongoing physics programme, extending its discovery potential to several new particles. Some of these sought-after particles are associated with dark matter, which is a hypothesised kind of matter that does not interact with the electromagnetic force and consequently cannot be directly detected using emitted light. Astrophysical evidence shows that dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe, but it has never been observed and studied in a laboratory.

With an expanding interest in undiscovered particles, particularly long-lived particles and dark matter, new experiments have been proposed to expand the scientific potential of CERN’s accelerator complex and infrastructure as part of the Physics Beyond Collider (PBC) study, under whose aegis FASER operates. “This novel experiment helps diversify the physics programme of colliders such as the LHC, and allows us to address unanswered questions in particle physics from a different perspective,” explains Mike Lamont, co-coordinator of the PBC study group.

The four main LHC detectors are not suited for detecting the light and weakly interacting particles that might be produced parallel to the beam line. They may travel hundreds of metres without interacting with any material before transforming into known and detectable particles, such as electrons and positrons. The exotic particles would escape the existing detectors along the current beam lines and remain undetected. FASER will therefore be located along the beam trajectory 480 metres downstream from the interaction point within ATLAS. Although the protons in the particle beams will be bent by magnets around the LHC, the light, very weakly interacting particles will continue along a straight line and their “decay products” can be spotted by FASER. The potential new particles would be very collimated with the beam, spreading out very little, therefore allowing a relatively small and inexpensive detector to perform highly sensitive searches.

The detector’s total length is under 5 metres and its core cylindrical structure has a radius of 10 centimetres. It will be installed in a side tunnel along an unused transfer line which links the LHC to its injector, the Super Proton Synchrotron. To allow FASER to be constructed in a quick and affordable way, it will use spare detector parts kindly donated from the ATLAS and LHCb experiments. The collaboration of 16 institutes that is building the detector and will carry out the experiments is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Simons Foundation.

FASER will search for a suite of hypothesised particles including so-called “dark photons”, particles which are associated with dark matter, neutralinos and others. The experiment will be installed during the ongoing Long Shutdown 2 and start taking data from LHC’s Run 3 between 2021 and 2023.

“It is very exciting to have FASER approved for installation at CERN. It is amazing how the collaboration has come together so quickly and we are looking forward to recording our first data when the LHC starts up again in 2021,” says Jamie Boyd, co-spokesperson of the FASER experiment.

“FASER is a neat physics proposal that addresses a particular aspect in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model and I am pleased to see it being implemented so efficiently,” adds Eckhard Elsen, CERN’s Director for Research and Computing.

See the full article here.

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From CERN- “Web@30: The 30-year anniversary of an invention that changed the world”

From CERN

4 March 2019
CERN

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Thirty years ago, a young computer expert working at CERN combined ideas about accessing information with a desire for broad connectivity and openness. His proposal became the World Wide Web. CERN is celebrating the 30th anniversary of this revolutionary invention with a special day on 12 March.

In March 1989, while working at CERN, Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote his first proposal for an internet-based hypertext system to link and access information across different computers. In November 1990, this “web of information nodes in which the user can browse at will” was formalised as a proposal, “WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project”, by Berners-Lee, together with a CERN colleague, Robert Cailliau. By Christmas that year, Berners-Lee had implemented key components, namely html, http and URL, and created the first Web server, browser and editor (WorldWideWeb).

On 30 April 1993, CERN released the latest version of the WWW software into the public domain and made it freely available for anyone to use and improve. This decision encouraged the use of the Web, and society to benefit from it: half of the world’s population is now online, and close to 2 billion websites exist. Openness has been endemic to CERN’s culture ever since its Convention was signed in 1953. CERN promotes the distribution and open sharing of software, technology, publications and data, through initiatives such as open source software, open hardware, open access publishing and the CERN Open Data Portal.

“It is a great honour and a source of pride for CERN to host an event to mark the 30th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal for what would become the World Wide Web, and I am delighted that Sir Tim will be with us on the day,” said CERN Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti. “The Web’s invention has transformed our world, and continues to show how fundamental research fuels innovation. CERN’s culture of openness was a key factor in the Laboratory’s decision in 1993 to make the web available free to everybody, a key step in its development and subsequent spread.”

On the morning of 12 March, the Web@30 event at CERN will kick off celebrations around the world. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau and other Web pioneers and experts will share their views on the challenges and opportunities brought by the Web. The event will be opened by Fabiola Gianotti, CERN’s Director-General, and is being organised by CERN in collaboration with two organisations founded by Berners-Lee: the World Wide Web Foundation and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

As part of a project to preserve some of the digital assets associated with the birth of the Web, CERN organised a hackathon (11-15 February 2019) to recreate the first browser (WorldWideWeb) using current technology. Previously, CERN promoted the restoration of the first ever website and the line-mode browser.

We have a limited number of seats available for the media; interested journalists should RSVP (press@cern.ch) by 6 March 2019. The event will be broadcast by EBU, webcast and streamed live on CERN Facebook and YouTube channels. Some of the speakers and current members of CERN’s IT department – home to the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) – are available for interviews prior to the event. For more information, please contact press@cern.ch.

To request interviews with Web Foundation spokespeople: press@webfoundation.org

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA FBCS (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English engineer and computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is currently a professor of computer science at the University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989, and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November the same year.

Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the continued development of the Web. He is also the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation and is a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com founders chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He is a director of the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), and a member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. In 2011, he was named as a member of the board of trustees of the Ford Foundation. He is a founder and president of the Open Data Institute.

In 2004, Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work. In April 2009, he was elected a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Named in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century, Berners-Lee has received a number of other accolades for his invention. He was honoured as the “Inventor of the World Wide Web” during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, in which he appeared in person, working with a vintage NeXT Computer at the London Olympic Stadium. He tweeted “This is for everyone”, which instantly was spelled out in LCD lights attached to the chairs of the 80,000 people in the audience. Berners-Lee received the 2016 Turing Award “for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the fundamental protocols and algorithms allowing the Web to scale”.

Berners-Lee is currently an Advisor at social network MeWe.

See the full article here.

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