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Two weeks ago, at a seminar held at CERN, the OPERA collaboration revealed their astonishing observation: neutrinos might move faster than light. The finding is currently under scrutiny in the scientific community. While the result downstream at Gran Sasso speaks for itself, upstream at CERN things are no less intriguing, with high-tech GPS systems, novel techniques for accurately measuring the time, and unique ways keeping the initial particle beam stable. Take away one ingredient and the accuracy needed for the final measurement is spoiled.
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This week, CERN played host to the 10th ICFA (International Committee for Future Accelerators) seminar, which brought together some 200 scientists, government agency representatives and lab directors from around the world to take the pulse of our field. ICFA seminars take place every three years, and this time the emphasis was on science as the driving force for facilities.
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Despite the usual ups and downs, over the last fortnight the LHC has succeeded in delivering of the order of 500 inverse picobarns a week. The machine parameters are now at 1380 bunches, 1.3x1011 protons per bunch, and using the smallest possible beam sizes that the SPS can currently produce. These settings, together with the 1 m ß* squeeze, have allowed ATLAS and CMS to receive over 10 inverse picobarns an hour at the start of a fill.
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Time: 01:37:51 am, 3 October, 2011. The LHC is producing million collisions per second in its detectors. But at that time, one collision is “more special” than the others in the LHCb detector: the milestone of 1 inverse femtobarn of luminosity is surpassed. What was considered as “mission impossible” at the beginning of the year is now “mission accomplished”.
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Three seminars – at CERN, at Gran Sasso and in Japan – and an article calling for the scrutiny of the scientific community: the OPERA Collaboration opened its research publicly. In addition to huge press coverage, this triggered welcome reactions from colleagues around the world, many of whom will attempt to independently interpret and reproduce the measurement. OPERA’s Spokesperson touches base with the Bulletin.
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The Environmental part of CERN Safety policy is represented by a flower whose petals are the various domains of its application. The Environment Services section within the Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Protection Unit is in charge of monitoring the impact of the Laboratory on the environment. You are called on to make every effort to reduce this impact as much as reasonably achievable. Read why and how…
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Higgs or not Higgs, light or heavy? Light Higgs, says Ignatios Antoniadis of CERN’s Theory Group. The particle is still hiding but there are some signals that could potentially point to a small-mass Higgs boson. Staying in the realm of hypothesis, how would such a Higgs shape the Universe? How would it impact existing theories such as supersymmetry and extra dimensions? And finally, how could superluminal neutrinos fit into all this?
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From 7-20 September, students at the European School of High-Energy Physics brought their enthusiasm for physics to Cheile Gradistei, Romania. This was the school’s first time in Romania, which is set to become a CERN Member State in 2015.
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During the weekend of 19 October, 2011, Madrid will host this year’s El Ser Creativo – a three-day conference celebrating new ideas that can change the world.
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Some 200 young people, mostly from neighbouring Switzerland or France – but also from Italy, Great Britain and Poland – took part in Researchers Night on Friday, 23 September. Interviewed by the Bulletin after they had returned from the control rooms of the LHC and its experiments, the pupils were full of enthusiasm following, by all accounts, an unforgettable evening.
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Seeking to popularise the broad research programme undertaken by the LHC experiments, three members of the ATLAS collaboration, Michael Barnett, Kaushik De and Reinhard Schwienhorst, had the idea of reaching new audiences through a planetarium show. Given the thousands of planetariums worldwide, this project could have an astronomical impact…
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On 1 October, her Excellency Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President of India, picked CERN as the first stop on her official state visit to Switzerland. Accompanied by a host of Indian journalists, a security team, and a group of presidential delegates, the president left quite an impression when she visited CERN’s Point 2!
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On 6 September, Nobel laureate James Watson paid a visit to CERN. In this interview, he shares his views with CERN's Paola Catapano.
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In August 2011, the renowned French mountaineer Lionel Daudet set off from Mont Blanc on a "Tour de la France exacte", strictly following the 5,000 km of land borders and coastline without using a single motorised vehicle. And about a week into his expedition, the French border led him… to CERN of course… where he described his experience as out of the ordinary.
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There are bosos and bosons, and if the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) were built only to find the Higgs boson, you would be absolutely right to think all physicists belong to the first category. But the fact is, the LHC does much more than search for Higgs bosons.
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Want to check your security awareness and win one of three marvellous books on computer security? Just print out this page, mark which of the 25 good practices below you already follow, and send the sheet back to us by 31 October 2011 at either Computer.Security@cern.ch or P.O. Box G19710.
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You can also download the presentation for future reference....
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