Cern Courier March/April 2019 3
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CERNMarch/April 2019 cerncourier.com COURIERReporting on international high-energy physics WELCOME CERN Courier – digital edition Welcome to the digital edition of the March/April 2019 issue of CERN Courier. THE RISE OF In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN, released his proposal for a new information-management system. Within two years, the web was born. CERN’s subsequent agreement in 1993 to place the underlying OPEN software in the public domain (reproduced in this issue) shapes the web’s character to this day. It is part of a culture of sharing and collaboration that SCIENCE was set out in the CERN Convention 40 years earlier, and which is deeply engrained in the software and particle-physics worlds. The features in this issue – from open-source software, to open-access publishing, open data and entirely open analysis procedures – show how far ahead our field is in the growing open-science movement. Our Viewpoint, meanwhile, argues that we have only begun to harness the full potential of the web to benefit humanity. On other pages of this issue – the second in the Courier’s new format – theorist Nima Arkani-Hamed explains why the world needs a new collider, physicists reflect on 40 years of fixed-target experiments at CERN’s North Area, sterile neutrinos come under increasing pressure from experiment, a survey assesses the impact of working at CERN on your career, supersymmetric lasers demonstrate advanced theoretical physics in action, and more. To sign up to the new-issue alert, please visit: http://cerncourier.com/cws/sign-up. To subscribe to the magazine, please visit: http://cerncourier.com/cws/how-to-subscribe. Sterile neutrinos under siege, p7 Nima Arkani-Hamed on the future of the field, p45 EDITOR: MATTHEW CHALMERS, CERN 40 years of fixed-target physics, p34 DIGITAL EDITION CREATED BY DESIGN STUDIO, IOP PUBLISHING, UK CCMarApr19_Cover_v1.indd 1 27/02/2019 17:07 CERNCOURIER www. V OLUME 5 9 N UMBER 2 M ARCH / A PRIL 2 0 1 9 CAEN Electronic Instrumentation CERNCOURIER.COM IN THIS ISSUE V OLUME 5 9 N UMBER 2 M ARCH /A PRIL 2 01 9 Digitizer Family News CoMPASS CoMPASS CAEN M Brice CHECK THIS OUT! A Multi-Parametric Read-out Software CER N-PHO T O-201809-235-1 for CAEN Digital Pulse Processing CERN-PHOTO-201902-024-1 VME64 VME64X NIM DESKTOP Looking back 40 years of physics at CERN’s North Area. 34 Open source How CERN gave the Deep thinking Theorist Nima Arkani-Hamed web away. 39 on the next questions facing the field. 45 Energy NEWS PEOPLE ANALYSIS ENERGY FRONTIERS FIELD NOTES CAREERS OBITUARIES Sterile neutrinos on the Probing gauge-boson 25 years of BaBar Assessing CERN’s Yong Ho Chin 1958–2019 run • Beam pipe mined polarisation • Charm • Physics Beyond impact on careers • Albert Hofmann for monopoles • Report mixing tests Standard Colliders • Colombian Survey addresses impact 1933–2018 • Vladimir reveals LHC physics Model • CASTOR delves outreach • CLIC workshop of working at CERN on Rittenberg 1934–2018 reach • First light for into gluon saturation • Supporting female individual careers both • Pio Picchi 1942–2019. Start-Stop SUSY • Burst confounds • Bottomonium undergraduates • Higgs in and outside the field. 63 astrophysicists. 7 suppression in Couplings • History of 55 lead-lead collisions. 15 the Neutrino. 19 FEATURES OPEN SCIENCE OPEN SOURCE OPEN ACCESS OPEN DATA NORTH AREA AT 40 • Multi-Parametric DAQ including PHA, PSD, QDC, and Timing Analysis A vision for Inspired by software A turning point for Preserving the Fixed target, • Synchronization of multiple Digitizers even from different families collaborative, Open-source, the open-access legacy of striking physics reproducible and original open movement, publishing particle physics The hub of experiments • Singles, (Anti)Coincidence, Majority, Veto/Gate acquisition modes PSD Scatterplot reusable research serves as a reference Europe’s “Plan S” aims The LHC experiments at CERN’s North Area is True open science for open collaboration, for all publicly funded are making great strides as lively and productive • Simultaneous plot of waveforms, energy, time, and PSD spectra demands more than licensing and shared research to be published in opening their data to as ever. 34 simply making data governance. 27 open-access by 2020. 29 outsiders. 31 • Analysis: count rates, peak fit, energy calibration, etc. available. 25 • Digital Constant Fraction Discrimination for fine time stamp interpolation (pico seconds intrinsic resolution) OPINION DEPARTMENTS • Selectable windows in energy and PSD VIEWPOINT INTERVIEW REVIEWS FROM THE EDITOR 5 • Output files with spectra, waveforms, lists and RAW data for offline Harnessing the web In it for the Political intrigue NEWS DIGEST 13 Time Intervals post-processing for humanity long haul and the arms race CERN AND THE WEB 39 Technologies like Nima Arkani-Hamed on Particle Therapy Mad • • APPOINTMENTS 56 blockchain can provide the state of fundamental maths Lev Shubnikov • ROOT format data saving • & AWARDS secure control of our physics, the Higgs boson • The Workshop and On the cover: digital identities, says and why the world needs the World. 51 An open-data di-muon RECRUITMENT 59 Works with Monique Morrow. 43 a new collider. 45 event in CMS. Visualise more BACKGROUND 66 www.caen.it at opendata.cern.ch. 31 Small details… Great differences Available both for Windows & Linux Windows® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. CERN COURIER MARCH/APRIL 2019 3 CaenCourier_Mars_OK_IFC.indd 1 19/02/19 15:28 CCMarApr19_Conts_v3.indd 3 27/02/2019 17:08 CERNCOURIER www. V OLUME 5 9 N UMBER 2 M ARCH / A PRIL 2 0 1 9 CERNCOURIER.COM FROM THE EDITOR Web at 30: celebrating a culture of openness t is 30 years since Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN, released his proposal for a new information-man- I agement system. Two years and a lot of coding later, this vision of universal connectivity had become the World Wide We b. For t h o s e b or n t o o l a t e t o h a v e e nj o y e d t h o s e fi r s t d ou- ble-click hyperlinks, CERN has teamed up with developers to recreate the experience for you by emulating the NeXT Matthew browser on which the software was written (https://world- Chalmers wideweb.cern.ch). This is part of a series of 30th anniversary Editor celebrations worldwide taking place in March in partnership with the World Wide Web Consortium and the World Wide Web (WWW) Foundation. Openness is the soul of the web, and CERN’s 1993 agreement to place the software in the public domain shapes the web’s Ultra High Vacuum Beam Tune character to this day (p39). It is part of a culture of sharing and collaboration that was set out in the CERN Conven- tion 40 years earlier, and which is deeply engrained in the software and particle-physics worlds. The articles in this issue – from open-source software (p27), to open-access Happy anniversary The historic web logo created by CERN Quality Production publishing (p29), open data (p31) and entirely open analysis systems engineer Robert Cailliau, Berners-Lee’s first partner procedures (p25) – show how far ahead our field is in the on the W W W project. growing open-science movement. Beyond science, the WWW Foundation, established by Theoretical therapy Berners-Lee a decade ago, advocates an “open web” as a For anyone feeling down about the lack of discoveries of new Physics Modelling means to build a just and thriving society. In November 2018 elementary particles since the Higgs boson, redemption the foundation published a report that reflected on what the may be found in an extensive interview with theorist Nima web has allowed humanity to accomplish over the past 30 years Arkani-Hamed (p45). Known for his deep and original think- The articles and outlined the threats that it now faces. The report notes ing, Arkani-Hamed explains why this is the most privileged in this issue t hat more t han hal f of t he world’s populat ion is st il l offline, time in centuries to be working in fundamental physics, and show how with online take-up slowing dramatically, continuing: “The how the next collider after the LHC will guarantee progress. far ahead distributed power of the web has shifted to lay in the hands Elsewhere in this issue, the second in the Courier’s redesigned our field is in of just a few, online abuse is on the rise, and the content format (do keep the feedback coming!): feast on 40 years of we see is increasingly susceptible to manipulation.” This physics at the North Area (p34), learn about CERN’s impact the growing issue’s Viewpoint, arguing for a “humanised internet” (p43), on your career (p55), get the latest on the search for the sterile open-science suggests that we have so far tapped only a fraction of the neutrino (p7), delve into the weird world of supersymmetric movement web’s potential for good. lasers (p10), and more. Reporting on international high-energy physics CERN Courier is distributed Editor Laboratory INFN Antonella Varaschin SLAC National Accelerator Production editor advertising); e-mail to governments, institutes Matthew Chalmers correspondents: Jefferson Laboratory Laboratory Melinda Baker Ruth Leopold [email protected] and laboratories affiliated Associate editors Argonne National Kandice Carter SNOLAB Technical illustrator with CERN, and to Ana Lopes, Mark Rayner Laboratory Tom LeCompte JINR Dubna B Starchenko Samantha Kuula Alison Tovey General distribution individual subscribers. Reviews editor Brookhaven National KEK National Laboratory TRIUMF Laboratory Advertising sales Courrier Adressage, It is published six times Virginia Greco Laboratory Achim Franz Hajime Hikino Marcello Pavan Tom Houlden CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, per year.