The Matter of Origins
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I n t e r n at I o n a l J o u r n a l o f H I g H - e n e r g y P H y s I c s CERN COURIERV o l u m e 5 0 n u m b e r 9 n o V e m b e r 2 010 The Matter of Origins LHC news Into AfrICA Scin e Ce sLAm Bunch trains give Fundamental physics Explain your research increased luminosity p7 and its applications p26 in just 12 minutes p35 CCNov10cover.indd 1 11/10/2010 17:14 CC_219x288_OUT.inddBleed full page template.indt 1 1 03/08/201030.7.10 11:32 21:06 CONTENTS Covering current developments in high- energy physics and related fields worldwide CERN Courier is distributed to member-state governments, institutes and laboratories affiliated with CERN, and to their personnel. It is published monthly, except for January and August. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the CERN management. Editor Christine Sutton Editorial assistant Carolyn Lee CERN CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland E-mail [email protected] Fax +41 (0) 22 785 0247 Web cerncourier.com Advisory board Luis Álvarez-Gaumé, James Gillies, Horst Wenninger COURIERo l u m e u m b e r o V e m b e r Laboratory correspondents: V 50 N 9 N 2010 Argonne National Laboratory (US) Cosmas Zachos Brookhaven National Laboratory (US) P Yamin Cornell University (US) D G Cassel DESY Laboratory (Germany) Ilka Flegel, Ute Wilhelmsen EMFCSC (Italy) Anna Cavallini Enrico Fermi Centre (Italy) Guido Piragino Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US) Judy Jackson Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) Markus Buescher GSI Darmstadt (Germany) I Peter IHEP, Beijing (China) Tongzhou Xu IHEP, Serpukhov (Russia) Yu Ryabov INFN (Italy) Romeo Bassoli Jefferson Laboratory (US) Steven Corneliussen JINR Dubna (Russia) B Starchenko KEK National Laboratory (Japan) Youhei Morita Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (US) Spencer Klein XFEL milestones p8 Strings and things p23 African talent p26 Los Alamos National Laboratory (US) Rajan Gupta NCSL (US) Ken Kingery Nikhef (Netherlands) Paul de Jong News 5 Novosibirsk Institute (Russia) S Eidelman Orsay Laboratory (France) Anne-Marie Lutz The window opens on physics at 7 TeV. Council approves the Medium Term PSI Laboratory (Switzerland) P-R Kettle Plan. Georges Charpak 1924–2010. Bunch trains lead towards target Saclay Laboratory (France) Elisabeth Locci Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK) Peter Barratt luminosity. Graphene gathers Nobel Prize. European XFEL project passes TRIUMF Laboratory (Canada) Marcello Pavan milestones. Fermilab constructs accelerator test facility. Jefferson Lab Produced for CERN by IOP Publishing Ltd goes into the ultraviolet. Countries sign international treaty on construction IOP Publishing Ltd, Dirac House, Temple Back, of FAIR. Elettra operates in top-up mode. Bristol BS1 6BE, UK Tel +44 (0)117 929 7481 Sciencewatch 12 Publisher Susan Curtis Production editor Jesse Karjalainen Astrowatch 13 Technical illustrator Alison Tovey Group advertising manager Ed Jost CERN CourierArchive 14 Recruitment advertisement manager Chris Thomas Advertisement production Katie Graham Marketing & Circulation Angela Gage Features TRIUMF lays on a feast of nuclear physics 17 Head of B2B & Marketing Jo Allen Art director Andrew Giaquinto The INPC 2010 meeting reveals a healthy and dynamic research field. Advertising Physics buzz in Paris 19 Tel +44 (0)117 930 1026 (for UK/Europe display advertising) or +44 (0)117 930 1164 (for recruitment advertising); Pushing back frontiers in particle physics at ICHEP 2010. E-mail: [email protected]; fax +44 (0)117 930 1178 Microcosm meets macrocosm in Valencia 23 General distribution Courrier Adressage, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected] PASCOS 2010 explores the interface of particle physics, string theory In certain countries, to request copies or to make address changes, and cosmology. contact: China Keqing Ma, Library, Institute of High Energy Physics, Into Africa – a school in fundamental physics 26 PO Box 918, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China. E-mail: [email protected] Students discover fundamental physics and its applications in Stellenbosch. Germany Veronika Werschner, DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] Second Banff Workshop debates discovery claims 29 Italy Loredana Rum or Anna Pennacchietti, INFN, Casella Postale 56, 00044 Frascati, Rome, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] Particle physicists, astrophysicists and statisticians meet to discuss UK Mark Wells, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Polaris search methods and more. House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 1SZ. E-mail: [email protected] US/Canada Published by Cern Courier, 6N246 Willow Drive, Faces andPlaces 33 St Charles, IL 60175, US. Periodical postage paid in St Charles, IL, US. Fax 630 377 1569. E-mail: [email protected] Recruitment 41 POSTMASTER: send address changes to: Creative Mailing Services, PO Box 1147, St Charles, IL 60174, US Bookshelf 45 Published by European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. Tel +41 (0) 22 767 61 11 Inside Story 50 Telefax +41 (0) 22 767 65 55 Printed by Warners (Midlands) plc, Bourne, Lincolnshire, UK © 2010 CERN ISSN 0304-288X Cover: The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange fuses physics and dance in The Matter of Origins (p50). (Courtesy John Borstel.) CERN Courier November 2010 3 CCNov10contents.indd 3 12/10/2010 10:47 A stator blade in the turbine stage of a jet engine is heated by the combustion gases. To prevent the stator from melting, air is passed through a cooling duct in the blade. Capture the Concept. With COMSOL Multiphysics® you are empowered to build the simulations that accurately replicate the important characteristics of your designs. The key is the ability to include all physical effects that exist in the real world. This multiphysics approach delivers results—tangible results that save precious development time and spark innovation. Watch tutorial www.comsol.eu/showcase © 2010 COMSOL, INC. COMSOL, COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF COMSOL AB. CAPTURE THE CONCEPT IS A TRADEMARK OF COMSOL AB. OTHER PRODUCT OR BRAND NAMES ARE TRADEMARKS OR REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE HOLDERS. NEWS LHC experiment S The window opens on physics at 7 TeV After almost six months of operation in a new production of jets in proton–proton collisions energy region, the experiments at the LHC at 7 TeV. It has measured inclusive single-jet are yielding papers on physics at 7 TeV in the differential cross-sections as functions of the centre-of-mass. They include results aired at jet’s transverse momentum and rapidity and the International Conference on High-Energy dijet cross-sections as functions of the dijet’s Physics in Paris in July (p19). mass and an angular variable χ. The results At the end of September, the CMS agree with expectations from next-to-leading- collaboration announced the observation order QCD, so providing a validation of the of intriguing correlations between particles theory in a new kinematic regime. produced in proton–proton collisions at The LHCb collaboration is also measuring 7 TeV. It measured two-particle angular cross-sections in the LHC’s new energy correlations in collisions at 0.9, 2.36 and region. With its focus on the physics of 7 TeV – the three centre-of-mass energies b quarks, the experiment has looked, for at which the LHC has run. At 7 TeV, a A 7 TeV proton–proton collision in CMS yielding example, at the decays of b hadrons into final pronounced structure emerges in the more than 100 charged particles. states containing a D0 meson and a muon two-dimensional correlation function for to measure the bb– production cross-section particle pairs in high-multiplicity events, ALICE in proton–proton collisions concerns at 7 TeV (LHCb collaboration 2010). While with at least 100 charged particles and a the ratio of the yields of antiprotons to protons some earlier results on the production of transverse momentum of 1–3 GeV/c. The at both 0.9 TeV and 7 TeV. The measurement b-flavoured hadrons at 1.8 TeV at the Tevatron ridge-like structure occurs at Δφ (a measure relates to the question of whether baryon appeared to be higher than theoretical of the difference in transverse angle) near number can transfer from the incoming predictions, more recent measurements zero and spans a rapidity range of 2.0 <|Δη| beams to particles emitted transversely (at there at 1.96 TeV by the CDF experiment were <4.8 (CMS collaboration 2010). This implies mid-rapidity). Any excess of protons over consistent with theory. Now, LHCb’s results that some pairs of particles emerging with antiprotons would indicate such a transfer, have extended the measurements to a much a wide longitudinal angle (which is related which would be related to the slowing down higher centre-of-mass energy – and again to Δη) are closely correlated in transverse of the incident proton. The results show that show consistency with theory, this time at angle. The effect bears some similarity to the ratio rises from about 0.95 at 0.9 TeV 7 TeV. Such measurements of particle yields those already seen in heavy-ion collisions to close to 1 at 7 TeV and is independent of are vital to LHCb in assessing the sensitivity at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the both rapidity and transverse momentum for studying fundamental parameters, for Brookhaven National Laboratory, which have (ALICE collaboration 2010). These findings example, in CP violation. been linked to the formation of hot, dense are consistent with the conventional model matter in the collisions. However, as the CMS of baryon-number transport, setting stringent Further reading collaboration stresses, there are several limits on any additional contributions.