New Experiment to Gain Unparalleled Insight Into Antimatter Together in the Same Direction
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Number 25-26 | 17-24 June 2013 More articles available at: http://bulletin.cern.ch NEW EXPERIMENT TO GAIN UNPARALLELED INSIGHT INTO ANTIMATTER TOGETHER IN THE SAME DIRECTION It’s sometimes difficult to explain the nature of global collaboration in particle physics: how fierce competition coexists with collaboration, and how, whatever our differences, we all pull in the same direction. But this week gave us two strong examples. (Continued on page 2) In this issue News New experiment to gain unparalleled insight into antimatter 1 Together in the same direction 2 From CERN to space and back 3 CERN’s AD Hall: the new home of the BASE double Penning trap set-up. Flamenco guitarist Paco Peña tours CERN 3 At last week’s Research Board meeting, the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) AIDA: concerted calorimeter development 4 was approved for installation at CERN. The experiment will be diving into the search for matter- Pension fund award 5 antimatter asymmetry, as it aims to take ultra-high precision measurements of the antiproton Finally, a crèche at CERN! 5 magnetic moment. Content, clarity and charisma 6 Two new “CERNland expert” laureates 7 Prison or “prism”? Your data in custody 8 The BASE collaboration will be setting up shop of the BASE collaboration. “We also recently in the AD Hall this September with its first demonstrated the first application of the Computer Security 8 CERN-based experimental set-up. Using the double Penning trap technique with a single Official news 9 novel double-Penning trap set-up developed proton. This success means we are now ready Seminars 9 at the University of Mainz, GSI Darmstadt and to use the technique to measure the proton Take note 10 the Max Plank Institute for Nuclear Physics magnetic moment with ultra-high precision Training & Development 12 (Germany), the BASE team will be able to and to apply the technique to the antiproton.” Technical training 13 measure the antiproton magnetic moment with hitherto unreachable part-per-billion But how does this new trap work? First, let’s look precision. at how the antiproton magnetic moment is derived. A direct measurement of the moment “We constructed the first double-Penning requires two different parameters: the Larmor trap at our companion facility in Germany, and frequency, which characterises the precession made the first ever direct observations of single of the spin of a particle, and the cyclotron spin flips of a single proton,” explains Stefan frequency, which describes a charged particle’s Published by: Ulmer from RIKEN, Japan, the spokesperson behaviour under a magnetic field. CERN-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Tel. + 41 22 767 35 86 Printed by: CERN Printshop © 2013 CERN - ISSN: Printed version: 2077-950X Electronic version: 2077-9518 (Continued on page 2) A word from the DG FROM CERN TO SPACE AND BACK TOGETHER IN THE SAME DIRECTION (Continued from page 1) Firstly, on Wednesday, the Technical Design Of course, the TDR is just a step, albeit an literally be in two places at once, but it serves Report (TDR) for the International Linear important one, on the road to this possible as a reminder of how particle physics deals At the end of May, 40 years after he worked as a fellow on the Intersecting Storage Rings Collider (ILC) was officially delivered to future machine. What it means is that the ILC with its data analysis. The CERN data centre (ISR), former astronaut Ernst Messerschmid gave a colloquium at CERN. His experience in the the International Committee for Future is ready to be built, if the physics motivation is the hub of the Worldwide LHC Computing Laboratory’s international environment was an important factor in the process that led to his Accelerators, ICFA, the global body that is there along with the political will. Thanks Grid (WLCG), whereby over 150 computer becoming one of the first Germans in space. oversees the development of major projects to the great performance of the LHC, there is centres around the world have pooled their in particle physics. now a strong physics case. And in Japan, there resources for the common good. WLCG is have been encouraging noises from both the physical embodiment, in disk servers, Ernst Messerschmid first arrived at CERN as a series, he says, to take full advantage of the After his space flight, Ernst moved to the This event marks the culmination of years scientific and political circles about hosting optical fibres and CPUs, of the guiding spirit summer student in 1970, just as preparations “weightless” conditions. They covered a range University of Stuttgart and went on to of effort through close global collaboration the ILC. So, for now, we will have to wait and of particle physics. And the ILC TDR is evidence were being made for the start-up of the ISR, of topics in physical, engineering and life become head of the European Astronaut between labs around the world. It has seen see. Whatever the case, it will be well into the in black and white that great things can be and he soon returned as a fellow. His diploma science disciplines. It was the experiments – Centre in Cologne from 2000 to 2004. There tough collective decisions being taken next decade before an ILC could start to take achieved when the people of the world work thesis and PhD thesis were both based on his rather than the launch and the distance from he was involved in training Christer Fuglesang, between competing technologies, with data. And wherever such a machine might be together. work at the ISR. All seemed set for a career in the Earth – that proved the most stressful. another CERN fellow who became an astronaut all participating labs lining up behind the built, it is certain that it will be built through accelerator physics, but in 1977, while deciding “There were 100 or so professors and some and has since flown twice on board a space chosen option. And on Wednesday this the same kind of global partnership that led Rolf Heuer on his future, Ernst spotted an advert in the 200 students relying on the data we were shuttle to the International Space Station. week, it saw the linear collider community to the delivery of the TDR this week. newspaper Die Zeit: “Astronauts wanted”. collecting,” Ernst explains. “We worked 15 to choosing CERN as one of the three venues “There were five boxes that needed to be 18 hours a day. There was not much time to Ernst continues to teach astronautics and, as for the official handover, despite the fact This week’s other milestone came on ticked,” he recalls. “Scientific training, good look out of the window! in the colloquium at CERN, to spread the word that CERN was not one of the original core Thursday, when the extension of CERN’s data health, psychological stability, language about the value of space flights for knowledge labs developing ILC technology. What better centre was inaugurated at the Wigner Centre skills and experience in an international and innovation. “We fly on a mission,” he says, example could you wish for to illustrate the in Budapest. Not only does this show that a environment. Thanks to my time at CERN I was “and afterwards, as professors, we become fact that particle physics is one global family? major computer centre for particle physics can able to tick them all.” ‘missionaries’ - ambassadors for science and innovation.” Out of some 7,000 applicants in ESA’s first astronaut selection campaign, he was To watch Ernst Messerschmid’s colloquium at among five in Germany of whom three were CERN go to http://cern.ch/go/sj9k later chosen for training and for spaceflight missions. In 1978 he went to work at the Christine Sutton German Aerospace Test and Research Institute NEW EXPERIMENT TO GAIN for Aviation and Space Flight (DFVLR). He finally went into space in 1985, as a payload specialist on the first German Spacelab mission, D1, UNPARALLELED INSIGHT INTO on board the space shuttle Challenger. ANTIMATTER (Continued from page 1) Ernst and his colleagues performed more than 70 experiments, which were the first Ernst Messerschmid in the Spacelab module. Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0). A strong, homogenous magnet is therefore central to any Penning trap. “Spin flips are observed by coupling the magnetic moment of the particle to the measurable axial frequency, using a magnetic inhomogeneity,” explains Stefan. “As the magnetic moment of the FLAMENCO GUITARIST antiproton is so small, a field inhomogeneity of some 300,000 T/m2 is required. However, the intense magnetic field reduces the precision of PACO PEÑA TOURS CERN Layout of the new BASE collaboration set-up any frequency measurements.” to be installed in the AD Hall. In addition to these two traps, the experimental The solution? Divide and conquer. BASE’s This September, the BASE team will begin set-up will have two further traps. The monitor CERN continues to attract a wide variety of visitors. On 5 June, it was the turn of renowned double Penning trap separates the installing its experiment in the AD Hall. By trap will check for any variance in the magnetic flamenco guitarist Paco Peña. With a broad interest in science, Peña was here to celebrate his measurements of the Larmor and the cyclotron November, the team plans to be taking new field caused by external sources, allowing the th frequency from the spin state analysis. Two measurements of the proton magnetic 60 birthday, accompanied by friends David Ashton and Chrissie Twigg, and his wife Karin. BASE team to make instant adjustments to the traps are used for the measurements: the moment using an offline source.