School Celebrates Young Physicists
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FACES AND PLACES ERICE School celebrates young physicists Lecturers and young physicists from all over the world met in Erice from 29 August to 7 September. The event was the 2006 International School of Subnuclear Physics held at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, a particular feature of which is to promote “new talents” among the young generation of physicists. The 44th in the series, the 2006 school covered some of the most advanced topics in physics under the theme “The logic of nature, complexity and new physics: from quark–gluon plasma to superstrings, quantum gravity and beyond”. The novel Lecturers and students at the 2006 International School of Subnuclear Physics. topic of complexity could shed new light on the Standard Model and the extension Standard Model. Complementary lectures in talks on the latest plans for a “super- that predicts grand unification and the on complexity and landscape in string beauty” project; the preparations for the resolution of the quantum-gravity problem theory and on the status of lattice quantum International Linear Collider and Compact via relativistic quantum string theory chromodynamics (QCD) triggered lively Linear Collider; start-up and upgrade (RQST). The most popular model of RQST, discussions during the afternoon sessions. scenarios for the LHC; and the future of developed by Raphael Bousso and Joe Other theory lectures included topics such supercomputers by Roberto Petronzio of the Polchinski at Stanford, has been shown to as complexity and non-extensive statistical University of Rome II and INFN. be “NP complete”. The consequences could mechanics; complexity in stochastically Closing lectures by ’t Hooft and Zichichi be remarkable. quantized field theories and the Standard looked forward to the LHC. Experiments there Organized and directed by Nobel laureate Model; QCD at low energy; how to detect should confirm current theories beyond the Gerardus ’t Hooft together with Antonino extra dimensions; and black holes, Standard Model, but may also yield some Zichichi, the school followed the traditional attractors and quantum information. totally unexpected discoveries. Referring model of morning lectures on the most Closer to experimental physics, Haim to the interpretation of data from RHIC up-to-date topics in subnuclear physics, Harari of the Weizmann Institute presented and the ALICE experiment at LHC, Zichichi followed by afternoon sessions dedicated an excellent overview – “Neutrino masses, presented an example of how to look for the to the new talents and recipients of Enrico leptogenesis and beyond: the incredible unexpected. Together with his collaborators Fermi junior grants. During these sessions foresight of Ettore Majorana”. This was very he is studying an experimental set-up to allow selected students at the school could make timely, as during the school the director of the the quark–gluon coloured world (QGCW) to be open presentations about their research. Gran Sasso National Laboratories, Eugenio investigated with a hard-scattering probe. The Each session was followed by a discussion Coccia, outlined details of neutrino-oscillation idea is that a beam of particles bombards the of the lectures held during the morning. experiments at the start-up of the CERN QGCW during its brief existence in heavy-ion The school was dedicated to the late neutrino beam to Gran Sasso (see p20). collisions at the LHC, and special detectors Richard Dalitz. A former collaborator, Gary Reports from running experiments covered measure the scattered particles. Goldstein at Tufts University, talked about the latest results on B-physics, the physics The school ended in a festive atmosphere, Dalitz’s contributions to particle physics in a at Fermilab’s Tevatron and results from HERA celebrating the 60th birthday of its director, lecture in his honour. at DESY. Yale’s John Harris presented the ’t Hooft, and the distribution of diplomas to “Complexity exists at the fundamental American Institute of Physics’ “top physics the young talents. The 2006 prize for the level” was the theme of the opening lecture story of 2005” in his animated lectures best student went to Yasuko Hisamatsu of by Zichichi, followed by a series of lectures on evidence for a quark–gluon plasma at the University of Tokyo for her presentation by Leonard Susskind of Stanford, who the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on the MEG experiment under preparation at addressed the most advanced theories on at Brookhaven. He outlined the present the Paul Scherrer Institute, which will probe “Landscape and its physics foundations” understanding of the “quark–gluon liquid” physics at the grand-unification scale. and “How string theory generates the and highlighted the need for experiments at Report from Horst Wenninger, CERN. landscape”. These lectures summarized the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). ● For further information see www.ccsem. the latest news on physics beyond the A preview of the future was contained infn.it/issp2006/index.html. 42 CERN Courier November 2006 CCENovFaces42to44,46to48.indd 42 17/10/06 16:10:48 FACES AND PLACES LABORATORIES UK opens two major centres for particle-accelerator research Two major research centres for accelerator science and technology opened in the UK on 19 September. The Cockcroft Institute and the John Adams Institute will be national focal points for UK scientists and companies to develop leading accelerator technologies for major projects such as the International Linear Collider and a neutrino factory. The Cockcroft Institute and the John Adams Institute were set up by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council in partnership with the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils. The aim is to provide the facilities and infrastructure for research and training in accelerator science and engineering. The two institutes are already heavily involved in the research and development needed for future high-energy, high-intensity linear colliders as well as for the construction of new high-intensity neutrino sources. Lord Sainsbury (central with a blue shirt) with members of the Cockroft Institute from The Cockcroft Institute is located on the Lancaster University at a demonstration of a prototype RF cavity. new Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and is a joint venture between the two research councils, the universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester, and the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The John Adams Institute is located at both the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London, and is a partnership between those two universities and the two research councils. The Cockcroft Institute was officially opened by Lord Sainsbury, minister for science and innovation, in the presence of the children of Sir John Cockcroft, the Nobel prize-winner and one of the founders of modern accelerator research. After the opening ceremony, Sainsbury spent time with the staff in the laboratories discussing The unveiling of the plaque celebrating the opening of the John Adams Institute, with Ken demonstrations of current R&D on RF Peach (left) and Christopher Adams (right). (Courtesy Oxford Physics.) systems, vacuum science and engineering, design simulation, and theoretical designer and engineer Sir John Adams who Shinzel, also spoke at the ceremony, as well accelerator physics. was twice director-general of CERN and a as former CERN director-general Sir Chris The John Adams Institute was opened by leading figure in the construction of CERN’s Llewellyn Smith and Lyn Evans, head of the Christopher Adams, son of the accelerator major accelerators. Sir John’s daughter, Josi Large Hadron Collider project at CERN. CERN Courier November 2006 43 CCENovFaces42to44,46to48.indd 43 17/10/06 16:11:24 FACES AND PLACES WORKSHOPS Physicists return to Tbilisi for hadron update The possibility of polarizing antiprotons at the upcoming Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research at GSI has stimulated widespread interest within the hadron community. Measuring the Drell–Yan process in high- energy proton–antiproton collisions offers the best way to study the transverse spin structure of protons (transversity). This was the focus at the second Caucasian- German School and Workshop on Hadron Physics (CGSWHP) in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 4–8 September. Around 70 participants attended, from nine countries. Spin filtering, in which a beam of Participants take a break from spin matters during an outing at CGSWHP’06 in Georgia. antiprotons acquires polarization by repeated passage through a polarized polarized beams and targets. Results from project, Hadron Physics, supported the hydrogen target, is believed to be the COSY were also presented at the meeting. workshop, which had the theme Spin most effective means of producing a Georgian media covered several sessions, in Hadron Physics and which was also useful beam for transversity experiments. as well as the meeting of the organizers with sponsored by Forschungszentrum Jülich, the CGSWHP’06 discussed preparatory spin- the rector of Tbilisi State University, and International Science & Technology Center, filtering tests using proton beams. These some of the social programme. TV interviews the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and could be at Cooler Synchrotron (COSY) at publicized the workshop, with local graduate the Institute for High Energy Physics and the Forschungszentrum Jülich, where there students discussing their research. Informatization, Tbilisi State University. is an extensive physics