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The NA62 straw tracker is using pioneering CERN technology to measure charged particles from very rare kaon decays. For the first time, a large straw tracker with a 4.4 m2 coverage will be placed directly into an experiment’s vacuum tank, allowing physicists to measure the direction and momentum of charged particles with extreme precision. NA62 measurements using this technique will help physicists take a clear look at the kaon decay rate, which might be influenced by particles and processes that are not included in the Standard Model.
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This week has seen Physics at the LHC (PLHC) 2012, the last of the particle physics conferences before ICHEP, the major conference for our field this year. Whereas at ICHEP we can look forward to the first results from analyses of 2012 data, PLHC, held in Vancouver, was an opportunity to see the impressive amount of physics that has already been extracted from last year’s data. From new measurements of known physics with unprecedented precision to the first observations of new composite particles, the breadth and depth of physics on display was impressive.
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The LHC is accumulating as much data as possible for the experiments before the summer conferences. Performance is impressive, with 1380 bunches of around 1.5x1011 protons per bunch giving a peak luminosity of 6.8 x1033 cm-2s-1 and with integrated rates topping 20 pb-1 an hour at the start of fill.
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The NA62 collaboration has just installed the first eight (out of 12) Large Angle Veto detectors for the accurate identification of photons. These subdetectors will re-use 3000 lead glass crystals with attached photomultipliers from the OPAL experiment at LEP – CERN’s former accelerator. This will give a second life to the crystals and is a great opportunity for the collaboration to save money while ensuring the required performance.
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Described as a “machine physicist's concert platform”, the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) was everything at once: an accelerator, a storage ring, a decelerator, a cooler ring and a beam stretcher. 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of its start-up and an opportunity for the Bulletin to take a look back at the history of this remarkable machine.
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By providing an intense and clean source of antiprotons for the first time, LEAR has opened many fields of research. Although it is not easy to summarise its versatile physics programme in a few lines, this article is an attempt to do justice to the 27 experiments performed during 14 years of running and to their successful results.
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The pile of rubble that recently appeared on the bend in the road between Restaurants 1 and 2, where Building 174 used to stand, will soon be replaced by the new Building 107, the TE Department’s new facility for surface finishing, electronic module design and Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) development. It is due to open at the end of 2013.
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In line with CERN’s principle of maximising the dissemination of knowledge to society, the Knowledge Transfer (KT) Group has launched a new collaborative initiative to share the products of CERN’s scientific and technological labours: Easy Access IP, where IP stands for intellectual property.
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CERN physicists, take out your smartphones! Two new particle physics applications for Android phones have been developed by a physicist from the University of Bern: “Particle Properties” and “Particle Physics Booklet 2010”.
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e-EPS News is a monthly addition to the CERN Bulletin line-up, showcasing articles from e-EPS – the European Physical Society newsletter – as part of a collaboration between the two publications.
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On Thursday 21 June, on the occasion of the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, some ambitious ecological projects involving CERN and its technologies will be presented in an afternoon of lectures and discussions in the Globe. The event is an opportunity for people at CERN to discuss the Organization’s green credentials and their ecological impact on life in the local area.
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Corrections to proton orbits in the LHC appear as regular dips in the instantaneous luminosity measured by CMS (beige) and ATLAS (green).
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Have you ever thought about what information at CERN should or must be classified as confidential? Or public? What does “confidential” mean anyway? European law, for example, requires proper protection of your medical files. At CERN, for security reasons your passwords are yours and only yours (remember: “ Your password is your toothbrush”). And it is in your own interest that your credit card details are kept confidential, too. But what about your office location, your CERN phone number, or your official photo for your CERN card?
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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.
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The book "Quantum Exodus" will be presented by the author Gordon Fraser on Thursday 14 June at 4 P.M. in the Library, Building 52-1-052.
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