FACES AND PLACES
celebration CERN honours Carlo Rubbia as he turns 75
On 7 April CERN hosted a celebration to mark Carlo Rubbia’s 75th birthday and the 25th anniversary of the award to him of the Nobel Prize in Physics. “Today we will celebrate 100 years of Carlo Rubbia,” quipped CERN’s director-general Rolf Heuer in opening the symposium held in Rubbia’s honour. Rubbia received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Simon van der Meer for their contributions to the discovery of the W and Z bosons, the carriers of the weak interaction. During the symposium colleagues recalled the accelerator and detector developments that made possible this discovery – and with it the first Nobel prize for research at CERN. Speakers also looked at other areas of science to which Rubbia has made decisive contributions and in which he retains a passionate interest. CERN honours Carlo Rubbia. From left to right: Sergio Bertolucci, Robert Klapisch, Sven Kullander, Michel Spiro, director of the French Rolf Heuer, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Herwig Schopper, Giovanni Bignami, Carlo Rubbia, Michel National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Spiro, Lyn Evans and Alan Astbury. Physics of the CNRS, began with an overview of neutrinos in particle physics and accelerator teams was later to bear fruit strongly, in particular during his own mandate astrophysics. He reminded the audience of with the successful start up of the LHC in as director-general. Rubbia’s experiments from the 1960s and September 2008. Moving beyond CERN and terrestrial 1970s that had involved neutrinos, as well Rubbia’s experiment to search for the W particle physics, Giovanni Bignami, former as his important contributions to innovative and Z, named UA1 after its location on the president of the Italian Space Agency and technologies in use now, and in the future, ring, was put together by a collaboration of professor at the IUSS School for Advanced for neutrino physics and neutrino astronomy. some 130 physicists and engineers (CERN Studies in Pavia, took a delightful journey into These include the large-scale water Courier May 2003 p26). Alan Astbury, now space. He described the current frontiers of Cherenkov detectors and the liquid-argon with the University of Victoria and one-time astronomy, 400 years after Galileo Galilei time-projection chamber. co-spokesperson of UA1, looked at the task the began to use a telescope to study the CERN’s Lyn Evans was closely involved experiment and its sibling, UA2, had to fulfil to heavens, showing how important “particle with the accelerator work that made possible find the predicted W and Z particles. UA1 was astronomy” is now becoming. the conversion of the SPS into the world’s very much a general-purpose detector, the first Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of the Potsdam first proton–antiproton collider, the machine ancestor of detectors such as ATLAS and CMS Institute for Climate Research and Sven that enabled the discovery of the W and at the LHC, while UA2 was more specialized. Kullander of the Royal Swedish Academy of Z particles. As early as 1968, van der Meer The path to the W and Z was not without Science both spoke about an issue to which had the idea of “stochastic cooling”, in which obstacles, as Astbury recalled, but by 1983 Rubbia has dedicated himself in recent beam fluctuations are damped down by both experiments had clear evidence for the W years – renewable energy. While president of feedback from the fluctuations themselves. and Z events. the Italian alternative-energy agency ENEA He initially thought his idea “too far-fetched”, The results from UA1 and UA2 emerged (between 1999 and 2005) Rubbia developed but the technique was demonstrated at the just as collaborations were putting together a novel method for concentrating solar power Intersecting Storage Rings in 1974. It formed technical proposals for the experiments at at high temperatures for energy production, a key part of Rubbia’s proposal to convert the LEP, the 27 km electron–positron collider that known as the Archimedes Project, which is SPS into a proton–antiproton collider to reach was to be built at CERN in the 1980s. Former currently being developed by industry for a higher energy regime. Authorization for the CERN director-general Herwig Schopper commercial use. modifications to the SPS came in 1978 and talked about the background to the LEP ●● The presentations and a recording of their implementation began in 1980, followed proposal and its subsequent success. It later the symposium are available at http:// by the first proton–antiproton collisions on gave way to the LHC, the existence of which indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay. 10 July 1981. The experience gained by the owes a great deal to Rubbia, who pushed for it py?confId=54479.
CERN Courier June 2009 27
CCJun09Faces.indd 27 19/5/09 09:47:43 FACES AND PLACES
laboratories MEETINGS
Groundbreaking ceremonies take place EDS ’09, the 13th International Conference on Elastic & Diffractive Scattering (13th for Jefferson Lab 12 GeV upgrade… “Blois Workshop”) will be held on 29 June – 3 July at CERN. The conference will The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator discuss the physics of high-energy hadronic Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, interactions with a focus on: elastic and Virginia, marked the beginning of construction total hadron–hadron cross-sections, soft/ of its $310 million (79.5 million) 12 GeV hard diffractive collisions, central-exclusive upgrade project with a groundbreaking processes, photon-induced collisions, low-x ceremony on 14 April. The event was attended QCD and heavy-ions, and ultrahigh-energy by more than 400 people, including local, cosmic rays. Talks will include the status of state and national political leaders. the LHC and a discussion on experimental The 12 GeV upgrade at Jefferson Lab, which Mayor of Newport News, Joe Frank, addresses techniques in forward physics. See http:// will be completed in 2015, will double the attendees at a groundbreaking event for Jefferson eds09.web.cern.ch/eds09/. energy of the laboratory’s electron-beam Lab’s 12 GeV upgrade. (Courtesy JLab photos.) accelerator, from the current value of The international summer course, Digital 6 GeV (CERN Courier April 2009 p15). The stimulus funds to accelerate the work. Libraries à la Carte, will be held on upgrade project, which also includes the The 12 GeV project guarantees Jefferson 28 July – 5 August at Tilburg University, the construction of a fourth experimental hall, Lab’s future well beyond the next decade. It will Netherlands. The programme consists of a a 250 ft extension to the underground also allow the laboratory to pursue broader, “menu” of seven one-day modules: Strategic accelerator tunnel, and new roads and more effective collaborations, while training Developments and Library Management; utilities, recently received $65 million in the next generation of scientists and engineers. Change – Making it Happen in Your Library; Tomorrow’s Library Leaders; Integrated Search Solutions Toward Catalogue 2.0; …and for the latest long-baseline Institutional Repositories – Preservation and Advocacy; Libraries and Research Data neutrino experiment in Minnesota – Embracing New Content; Libraries and Collaborative Research Communities. On 1 May congressmen James Oberstar See www.tilburguniversity.nl/ticer/09carte/. of Minnesota and Bill Foster of Illinois joined officials from the US Department of The 9th Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) Conference Energy (DOE), Fermilab and the University will be held on 7–11 September. This is a of Minnesota to break ground for the NuMI biennial series that brings together physicists, Off-Axis Neutrino Appearance (NOvA) project. materials scientists, biologists and other The experiment is to study neutrino oscillation scientists using ion beams for analysis. In using a new detector 60 km southeast of Ground-breaking gives the NOvA project an official the centenary year of the first Rutherford International Falls, Minnesota, near the start. (Courtesy Fermilab Visual Media Services.) backscattering spectrometry experiment the US–Canada border. 2009 meeting is being held at the University of The NOvA experiment is designed to The new far detector, which will contain Cambridge, where Rutherford was Cavendish search for oscillations of muon–neutrinos 15 kt of liquid scintillator, will measure Professor of Physics. It is being organized in to electron–neutrinos by comparing the 15.7 × 15.7 × 78 m. A smaller copy of the far collaboration with the Institute of Physics. For electron–neutrino event rate measured at detector will be constructed in the NuMI beam more details, see www.iba2009.org. Fermilab with the electron–neutrino event on the Fermilab site to measure the neutrino rate at the new site, 810 km away. It will use event rates prior to oscillation. Sponsored by the Institute of Nuclear the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) The NOvA Detector Facility will reside in Materials Management, the International beam at Fermilab, which is producing a laboratory at the University of Minnesota, Conference on Advanced Methods of Laser neutrinos for the MINOS experiment. Unlike which currently runs the Soudan Underground Applications in Nuclear Science and Neutron the MINOS far detector, which is located on Laboratory where the MINOS far detector Scattering will take place on 2–7 December the centreline of the neutrino beam, the NOvA is located. The DOE Office of Science has in Alexandria. Abstracts should be detector will be slightly off the centreline. This provided $40.1 million (729 million) in submitted to Prof. Ashraf Elsayed Mohamed off-axis location produces a large neutrino Recovery Act funding for the construction Mohamed at [email protected] flux that peaks at 2 GeV, the energy where project. It will also provide $9.9 million in or [email protected]. For more oscillation to electron–neutrinos is expected Recovery Act funding to Fermilab, which details, see www.iaea.org/cgi-bin/maeps. to be at a maximum. manages the project. page.pl/search.htm and then select Egypt.
28 CERN Courier June 2009
CCJun09Faces.indd 28 19/5/09 09:57:48 FACES AND PLACES
DESY Lab says its farewells to Albrecht Wagner…
On 3 April, DESY celebrated its own Wagner through his former position as chair of ICFA and Fest – a farewell colloquium to mark the the International Linear Collider (ILC) Steering retirement of its long-time chair of the board Committee. Ralph Eichler, president of ETH of directors, Albrecht Wagner. Zurich, praised Wagner’s management skills in Wagner was a member of the DESY “convincing partners, public and politics” even directorate for 18 years – first as research in difficult times, and Jonathan Dorfan, former director, then as its chairman from 1999 until director of SLAC, honoured him as a “leader he handed over the baton to his successor, whose influence has been truly global and who Helmut Dosch, on 2 March. “Wagner will be greatly missed”. made crucial contributions towards the Under Wagner’s leadership, decisions were building of several new top-class facilities made at DESY to build the X-ray free-electron for basic research at DESY,” emphasized laser (European XFEL) and upgrade the Frieder Meyer-Krahmer, state secretary of PETRA storage ring to be the most brilliant the German Federal Ministry of Education synchrotron radiation source in the world – and Research, in his welcome address. He Albrecht Wagner, right, talks with Rolf Heuer, PETRA III (p8). The ILC and the European XFEL congratulated the long-time DESY director CERN’s director-general, left, and Ralph Eichler, are both to be realized using superconducting for his merits. He said: “You rendered president of ETH Zurich. (Courtesy DESY Hamburg.) RF technology that was developed by the outstanding and lasting services to DESY and international TESLA Technology Collaboration basic research in Germany and to the Federal strong leadership and deep enthusiasm for under DESY’s leadership. Wagner played Republic of Germany.” science”, and CERN’s director-general, Rolf a decisive role in this success, which is During the colloquium, which was Heuer, who honoured him as “a friend and appreciated all over the world. attended by around 500 guests from all colleague who is always a step ahead”. Wagner has been connected with over the world, several eminent speakers Other laboratory directors included William G DESY since 1974. After his studies at the gave their personal recollections of Wagner Stirling, former director-general of the ESRF, universities of Munich, Göttingen and and honoured his decisive achievements who highlighted Wagner’s contributions to the Heidelberg, he worked on experiments at as a key player in science and research development of photon science at DESY and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, CERN and at policy. Among the speakers were Atsuto around the world. Maury Tigner, director of the DESY storage rings DORIS and PETRA. Suzuki, director-general of KEK and chair the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based From 1984 to 1991, he was a professor at of the International Committee for Future Sciences and Education, emphasized his the University of Heidelberg; in 1991 he was Accelerators (ICFA), who said he was achievements as a key leader in the planning appointed professor at the University of “very impressed by Wagner’s outstanding, and development of lepton colliders, especially Hamburg and Research Director of DESY. …while Hamburg honours Volker Soergel
Volker Soergel, who was chair of the DESY Board of Directors from 1981 to 1993, has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hamburg. Soergel was honoured for his merits in the close and successful collaboration of DESY and the University of Hamburg and for his contributions to the national and international visibility of Hamburg as a centre of science and research. Under his aegis, the electron–proton storage ring HERA was built in Hamburg. HERA offered unique research possibilities to students and scientists from Hamburg and significantly strengthened Volker Soergel, right, with Heinrich Graener, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Hamburg as a research location. Natural Sciences at the University of Hamburg. (Courtesy DESY.)
CERN Courier June 2009 29
CCJun09Faces.indd 29 19/5/09 10:00:01 FACES AND PLACES
VISITS
Mariastella Gelmini, the Italian minister of education, university and research (left) visited CERN on 11 March. She toured the CMS experiment accompanied by Guido Tonelli, CMS deputy spokesperson (right) and also visited the ATLAS experiment and the LHC tunnel. After returning to the surface she met with Italian scientists and signed the CERN guest book.
On 16 March HRH princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand (centre right) came to CERN for the third time. She toured the CMS experiment and LHC tunnel with Emmanuel Tsesmelis (far left) from the CERN directorate office;Jim Virdee (centre left) CMS spokesperson; and Felicitas Pauss, CERN coordinator for external relations. She also had discussions with the Education Group and Google vice-president, Vint Cerf (left) visited the CERN Computing Centre. visited CERN on 26 February. He toured the ATLAS experimental cavern with ATLAS spokesperson, Peter Jenni (right) and visited the CERN Computer Centre, where he attended a presentation on the LCG project, before giving a colloquium in the main auditorium.
Meet us at CEC/ICMC 2009 June 28 – July 2 Tucson · Arizona · USA
Just as the block-buster with a CERN theme, Angels & Demons, was about to be released, another film director came to CERN in search of locations for a forthcoming film. Cédric Klapisch, seen here with Corinne Pralavorio of the Communication Group, WEKA AG · Switzerland is probably best known for L’auberge Schürlistrasse 8 · CH-8344 Bäretswil Espagnol, about a French student who Phone +4143 833 43 43 spends a year in Spain under the Erasmus Fax +4143 833 43 29 MicroFlow Valves European exchange programme. He is the Cryogenic Components Stainless Steel Valves [email protected] · www.weka-ag.ch son of Robert Klapisch, a physicist and former director of research at CERN. Armaturen AG ARCA Flow Group worldwide: Competence in valves, pumps & cryogenics von Rohr
30 CERN Courier June 2009
CCJun09Faces.indd 30 19/5/09 09:49:53 FACES AND PLACES
awards Italy honours new ATLAS spokesperson
On 7 March, on the occasion of International skills demonstrated in guiding the ATLAS Woman’s Day, Fabiola Gianotti – ATLAS project” as well as “her contribution to the spokesperson – was one of eight women to prestige of the Italian scientific community in be honoured for their achievements by Italian the field of nuclear physics”. president, Giorgio Napolitan. Gianotti took over from Peter Jenni as Gianotti was awarded Commendatore spokesperson for the nearly 3000-strong President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio della Repubblica Italiana for her “scientific ATLAS collaboration in March this year (CERN Napolitano, presenting CERN’s Fabiola Gianotti knowledge and her excellent management Courier May p31). with her award on 7 March. (Courtesy F Gianotti.).
EXHIBITIONS CERN sets particle physics on the road
CERN’s new travelling exhibition, Accelerating investigations. There are five interconnecting The last zone comes back to the reality of Science, was inaugurated on 1 April at the zones, each of which is designed to take day-to-day life, showing how fundamental University of Geneva as part of celebrations visitors into a world of mystery and suspense. physics serves the technological advances on to mark the university’s 450th anniversary. After passing through the entrance tunnel, which modern life depends. Developed by CERN’s communication group visitors encounter the first zone where a Covering more than 400 square metres, working with physicists at the laboratory and film and a mural recount the history of the Accelerating Science has been designed in partnership with the University of Geneva, Universe. The second zone is filled with to travel through the CERN member states. the exhibition has been financed by the interactive exhibits revealing the world of With this in mind, it has a modular design H Dudley Wright Foundation, which aims to elementary particles. The giant mushrooms and is thus able to adapt to different venues. promote public awareness of the sciences. in the third zone explain through sound and It will stay at the university in Geneva until Accelerating Science takes the form of images the main issues of contemporary 28 June before moving to CERN’s Globe of a discovery trail along which visitors learn particle physics, while in the fourth zone, Science and Innovation for three months. about particle physics, its fundamental visitors come face to face with the LHC Then it will be off to whichever member questions and aims, and the tools used in its machine and experiments. state requests it.
Left to right: CERN’s director-general, Rolf Heuer, the rector of Geneva University, Jean-Dominique Vassalli, A display worthy of a science fiction film transports and Jean Patry, president of the H Dudley Wright Foundation, inaugurated the exhibition on 1 April. the visitor into the world of fundamental research.
CERN Courier June 2009 31
CCJun09Faces.indd 31 19/5/09 09:51:50 FACES AND PLACES
Polish mobile exhibition gets down to basics
Poland has developed its own successful travelling exhibition, The Large Hadron Collider – How does it work? Organized by a group of Polish institutions taking part in the LHC research programme, its aim is to explain what hadrons are and why we want to make them collide together, plus much more. The original exhibition, shown for the first time in November 2008 in the physics department of Warsaw University of Technology as part of the Warsaw Festival of Science, consisted of three main parts. The first of them contained seven separate stations – each manned by experts – devoted to the LHC accelerator, the four experiments, LHC physics and the constituents of matter. The exhibition draws a crowd in Torun´, the birthplace of Nicolas Copernicus. (Courtesy Karol Karnowski.) The machine stations included 3D models of detectors at 1:30 scale; exhibits from by the visitor. Electric acceleration, the research institutes (primarily Warsaw University CERN and from Polish institutes involved in Lorentz force, electromagnets, Ohm’s law of Technology, Soltan Institute for Nuclear constructing parts of the detectors; and large – “almost all” that is needed to understand Studies, University of Warsaw and Henryk photos and graphics. A special attraction was how the LHC works – are explained in a set Niewodniczanski Institute for Nuclear Physics), an interactive animation prepared by Polish of experiments that everyone can repeat at by sponsors and local institutions. Support in students, which visualizes collisions in ALICE home. More sophisticated experiments show the form of printed materials, exhibits, and the and the work of elements of the detector. how particle detectors work and demonstrate documentation needed to construct models was The second part of the exhibition is the superconductors. provided by CERN. main interactive part. About 20 different The third part shows what the LHC should The exhibition is proving very successful. By experiments present the laws of nature used bring. While it is not possible to predict the the end of April it had visited Warsaw, Krakow, in the construction of LHC and its detectors, applications of LHC results, this section Tarnów, Poznan´, Gliwice and Torun´, attracting starting at a very basic level (the aim is that covers the benefits we have had from the an estimated 30 000 visitors. It was the exhibition is accessible even to very young past 50 years of research at CERN and other scheduled next to visit Lublin, Białystok and children). The quark model was illustrated high-energy physics institutes, such as the Gdansk. The contract with the ministry was for with the help of coloured balloons: three World Wide Web and the Grid. a total of 11 venues, but with a longer waiting small ones encased in a larger, transparent The exhibition is financed by the Polish list the organizers are looking for sponsors to one, all filled with helium and “constructed” Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Polish keep the show on the road.
letter
A plasma-wakefield collider at theL HC? electron–electron collider, and thence to a QCD by 10 times at the highest transverse Earlier this year Mourou et al. made γγ collider, via the process e –e– → e –e–γ*γ* momenta, and still to be growing (P Yock futuristic proposals on studies that could → e –e– X. A similar strategy was followed at 2009 Int. J. Mod. Phys. A in press; be made of the vacuum using high-intensity LEP for e –e+ → e –e+γ*γ* → e –e+X, but the arXiv:0903.0434). The cross-section for the lasers to drive compact plasma-wakefield e–e– channel is preferable for generating latter puzzle provides a strong constraint on accelerators (CERN Courier March p21). I γγ collisions, as it suffers from less the charges of quarks (E Witten 1977 Nucl. would like to point out further possibilities background interference. Phys. B 120 189). that could be pursued at the LHC using A γγ collider at the LHC could be used These legacies from LEP are important. The plasma-wakefields. to follow up unexpected results that were first questions the particle classification of Caldwell et al. showed recently (2009 obtained with LEP in γγ collisions. Events the quark model and the second questions Nat. Phys. in press; arXiv:0807.4599) similar to the multi-muon events that were the charges of quarks, both pillars of the that electrons could be accelerated reported recently at Fermilab were seen Standard Model. Such questions would to tera-electronvolt (TeV) energies in beforehand at LEP in γγ collisions. Also the assume more importance if the Higgs fails to plasma-wakefields driven by TeV protons. cross-section for hadron production was materialize at Fermilab and the LHC. The LHC could therefore be converted to an found at LEP to exceed the prediction of Philip Yock, University of Auckland.
32 CERN Courier June 2009
CCJun09Faces.indd 32 19/5/09 09:52:28 FACES AND PLACES
obituaries Kazuhiko Nishijima 1926–2009
The eminent physicist and former director of view of dispersion relations has also been of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical highly influential. Physics, Kazuhiko Nishijima, passed away on Nishijima had positions at the University 15 February. He had been ill for the past year. of Illinois (1961–6) and the University of Nishijima is well known for his contributions Tokyo (1966–86) before becoming director to particle physics. His study of the physics of the Yukawa Institute of Theoretical Physics of strange particles and introduction of at Kyoto University in 1986–70. During the quantum number “strangeness” was a his directorship at the Yukawa Institute he decisive step in the development of particle arranged its unification with the Institute of physics. His work played a crucial role in Theoretical Physics of Hiroshima University. subsequent developments of the quark model He became a member of the Japan Academy and flavour symmetry in particle physics. in 1989 and received the order of culture, He is also well known for his work on the the highest honour of cultural achievements two-component theory of neutrinos, and the in Japan, in 2003. We offer our sincere axiomatic formulation of bound states in condolences to his family. quantum field theory. His interpretation of Tohru Eguchi, director, Yukawa Institute for renormalization in field theory from the point Kazuhiko Nishijima. (Courtesy YITP.) Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University. Earle Fowler 1921–2008
Earle Cabell Fowler died on 1 March 2008 in to 1969 he was a charter member of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In a long career in the High-Energy Physics Advisory Panel high-energy physics he led research groups, a appointed by the Atomic Energy Commission. university department, and a team at the US He was elected a fellow of the American Department of Energy (DOE). Physical Society and secretary-treasurer of its Born on 10 June 1921 in Kentucky, Earle Division of Particles and Fields. studied chemistry at the University of Earle became head of the physics Kentucky and served as a meteorologist in the department at Purdue University in 1972. He Army Air Force during the Second World War. found time to continue his research, by now He then studied physics at Harvard, using a at SLAC and Fermilab, and hosted a major cloud chamber to investigate cosmic rays. conference, Neutrino-78. He spent a year with After completing his PhD in 1949, Earle Bill Willis’s group at CERN, helping them to became a member of Ralph Shutt’s group at commission their detector at the Intersecting the Brookhaven National Laboratory, later Storage Rings. joined by his brother Bill. The group built a In 1980 Earle joined the DOE and led its cloud chamber for the Cosmotron; this early Facility Operations Team for High Energy tracking chamber led to a very productive Physics. His substantial experience was bubble chamber programme at both the a key resource for DOE. He managed the Cosmotron and the Alternating Gradient US–China Agreement on High Energy Synchrotron (AGS). Physics and worked on site selection for the Earle moved to Yale in 1952 and used the Superconducting Super Collider. He retired in Brookhaven accelerators in collaboration 1997 and went home to Chapel Hill. with the Shutt group. The Yale approach Earle Fowler. (Courtesy Marjorie Fowler.) Earle’s judgement and wisdom were assets was a model for university–laboratory to high-energy physics. He was a lively, collaborations in physics. With colleagues In 1962 Earle moved to Duke University, engaging person who provided inspiration Horace Taft and Jack Sandweiss, Earle continuing his research programme at the and guidance to graduate students and senior encouraged students to work on detectors AGS. He hosted several conferences on physicists alike. We miss him. as well as analysis; he also wrote a book on hadron resonances and helped to establish Neil Baggett, Bill Fowler, James Sanford and strange particles with Bob Adair. a university computer centre. From 1967 Bill Willis.
CERN Courier June 2009 33
CCJun09Faces.indd 33 19/5/09 09:52:56