CERN Accelerating science

     
 

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Bulletin

   
 

The baton passes to the LHC

Held in the picturesque mountain setting of La Thuile in the Italian Alps, the international conference “Rencontres de Moriond” showed how the baton of discovery in the field of high-energy physics is definitely passing to the LHC experiments. In the well-known spirit of Moriond, the conference was an important platform for young students to present their latest results. The Higgs boson might well be within reach this year and the jet-quenching phenomenon might reveal new things soon… >>

An impressive start

This has been an excellent week for the LHC, with a succession of fills rapidly increasing the number of proton bunches to 194 per beam. This has allowed the experiments to reach a peak luminosity of 2.5 × 1032 cm-2s-1, thereby surpassing the record for 2010 where we reached 2.0 × 1032 cm-2s-1. At the time of writing, the integrated luminosity delivered by the LHC in 2011 is around 28 inverse picobarns, which is already more than half of the total 2010 dataset. >>

LHC Report: A new luminosity record

After about one month of operation, the LHC has already accumulated an integrated luminosity of 28 pb-1, which corresponds to over 50% of the total delivered to the experiments in 2010. This impressive start to the LHC run in 2011 bodes well for the rest of year. >>

A heatwave at CERN

It's getting hot in Buildings 201 and 860, over-heating even... But no reason to panic! We're talking about the superheated water boilers of CERN's two heating plants, which heat all the buildings on the Meyrin and Prévessin sites. >>

TOTEM Construction Complete

The winter technical stop saw the final steps of the installation of the TOTEM experiment. After 8 years of development, the inelastic telescope T1 was successfully installed inside CMS at both sides of the interaction point. This detector joins the previously installed inelastic telescope T2 and the Roman Pots (147m and 220m from the CMS interaction point) to study both elastic and inelastic proton scattering. >>

ATLAS gets its own luminosity detector

During the winter shutdown, the ATLAS collaboration has completed the installation of ALFA, the detector system that aims at the LHC absolute luminosity at Point 1 analysing the elastic scattering of protons at small angles. >>

MoEDAL expands

The MoEDAL collaboration deployed a test array of 18 plastic Nuclear Track Etch Detector (NTD) stacks – covering an area of 1 m2 – in the MoEDAL/VELO cavern at Point 8 of the LHC ring in November 2009. This small array was supplemented by a further 110 stacks this past January. The MoEDAL test array, which now covers an area of 8 m2, will reveal its secrets early in 2013. The full MoEDAL detector will be installed in the next long shutdown of the LHC in 2013. >>

It's all change at the visit points

58,000 people visited CERN in 2010. In spite of this success, the Organization has plans to review the installations at the various visit points with a view to making the links between them clearer and, above all, making tours of the Laboratory more spectacular. >>

In Bern high-energy physics shares proton beams with the hospital

A joint venture bringing together public institutions and private companies is building a new facility on the campus of Inselspital, Bern’s university hospital. The facility will host a cyclotron for the production of radiopharmaceuticals for use in PET as well as in multidisciplinary research laboratories for the development of new products for medical imaging. The Laboratory for High Energy Physics (LHEP) of Bern University, which is deeply involved in the project, will have access to a dedicated beam line and specialized labs. >>

100th International Women’s Day Celebrated at CERN

In celebration of the 100th year of International Women’s Day on 8 March, a special colloquium looking at high energy physics from a gender studies perspective was held at CERN. >>

CERN takes part in Earth Hour

From 8.30 to 9.30 p.m. on Saturday, 26 March 2011, the Globe of Science and Innovation will be plunged into darkness to mark CERN's participation in Earth Hour. A growing number of countries and cities across the planet are involved in this global initiative against climate change, which was launched by the WWF in 2007. >>

Ombuds’ corner: Confidentiality

In this series, the Bulletin aims to explain the role of the Ombuds at CERN by presenting practical examples of misunderstandings that could have been resolved by the Ombuds if he had been contacted earlier. Please note that, in all the situations we present, the names are fictitious and used only to improve clarity. >>

News from the Library: A new key reference work for the engineer: ASME's Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code at the CERN Library

The Library is aiming at offering a range of constantly updated reference books, to cover all areas of CERN activity. A recent addition to our collections strengthens our offer in the Engineering field. >>

Official News

Guidelines for the 2011 MARS exercise   
Administrative circular No. 20 (Rev. 2) – Use of private vehicules for journeys on official duty  
Administrative circulars No. 22A (rev. 1) – Award of additional periods of membership in the Pensions Fund for long-term shift work and No. 22B (rev. 1) – Compensation for long-term shift work hours  
Administrative & Operational Circulars - Reminder  

Training and Development

CERN Technical training: Available places in forthcoming courses  
Grab Windows training opportunities; check CERN Windows roadmap!  
Academic Training Lecture: Jets at Hadron Colliders  

Announcements

Mobility survey at the French/Swiss borders in the Canton of Geneva  
Laboratoire de l'Accélérateur Linéaire : Prix Laguarrigue  
First Bern Cyclotron Symposium  
TV News Magazine Presentation: Close Up Gendai by NHK (2010)  
Special offer from the Carlson Wagonlit Travel agency  
New arrivals  

Staff Association

NO to sacrificing future staff!  
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