INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HIGH-ENERGY PHYSICS V/JLjJ\I 1 COURIER VOLUME 41 NUMBER 10 DECEMBER 2001 How to escape from a black hole NOBEL PRIZE NEUTRINO WINDOW RESEARCH TRENDS Boson condensation becomes Canada's heavy water detector Analysis of the top-cited a bull market p21 shows its worth p24 physics papers p27 Everything you need in VME standard ADCs TDCs C I AEN SCALERS 1 °k for discovery DISCRIMINATORS LOGIC UNITS TIMING UNITS AMPLIFIERS FANINS-FANOUTS and even more... www.caen.it If you don't find in our Catalog the product that you need, or if you are beginning a new experiment Via Vetraia, 11 - 55049 Vtareggio, Italy and require a completely new design, feel free to Phone +39.0584.388398 Fax+39.0584.388959 contact us at any moment, CAEN will help you at any stage of your project. IS UNI EN ISO 9001 cert. n. 9105.CAEN 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 January and August, in English and French editions. The views expressed are not necessarilythoseoftheCERN management. CERN Editor: Gordon Fraser CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland E-mail [email protected] Fax +41 (22) 782 1906 Web http://www.cerncourier.com News editor: James Gillies COURIER VOLUME 41 NUMBER 10 DECEMBER 2001 Advisory Board: R Landua (Chairman), F Close, E Lillest0l, H Hoffmann, C Johnson, K Potter, PSphicas Laboratory correspondents: Argonne National Laboratory (USA): D Ayres Brookhaven, National Laboratory (USA): P Yamin Cornell University (USA): D G Cassel DESY Laboratory (Germany): Ilka Flegel, P Waloschek Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (USA): Judy Jackson GSI Darmstadt (Germany): G Siegert INFN(ltaly):APascolini IHEP, Beijing (China): Qi Nading Jefferson Laboratory (USA): S Corneliussen JINR Dubna (Russia): B Starchenko KEK National Laboratory (Japan): A Maki Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (USA): Christine Celata Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA): C Hoffmann Transition radiation p8 Nanologic in action pl5 Heisenberg centenary pl8 NIKHEF Laboratory (Netherlands): P Mulders Novosibirsk Institute (Russia): S Eidelman Orsay Laboratory (France): Anne-Marie Lutz News 5 PSI Laboratory (Switzerland): P-R Kettle Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK): Jacky Hutchinson LHC systems reach an important milestone. BES accumulates a record Saclay Laboratory (France): Elisabeth Locci 51 million J/psi events. DELPHI goes home to Delphi. Specialists IHEP, Serpukhov (Russia): Yu Ryabov Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (USA): M Riordan re-evaluate transition radiation. Aging workshop reviews long-term use TRIUMF Laboratory (Canada): M K Craddock of gaseous detectors. Channelling produces new sources of positrons. Produced for CERN by Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd Arctic Circle maintains the freshness of ancient physics. Why high- I0P Publishing Ltd, Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS16BE, UK Tel.+44 (0)117 929 7481 energy collisions produce so few particles most of the time. Antares E-mail [email protected] detector deployment progress on target for 2004. Web http://www.iop.org Head of magazines: Richard Roe Sales manager: Justin Mafham Physicswatch 14 Marketing manager: Tessa Edgecombe Art director: Andrew Giaquinto Astrowatch 17 Production editor: Emily Saunders Technical illustrator: Alison Tovey Advertising manager: Nicola Rylett Features Deputy advertising manager: Chris Thomas Recruitment sales: Debra Wills and Jayne Purdy Werner Heisenberg: the Columbus of quantum mechanics 1.8 Advertisement production: Katie Graham, Joanne Scriven Helmut Rechenberg writes about one of the major figures in 20th- Product manager: So-Mui Cheung century physics Advertising: Nicola Rylett, Chris Thomas, Debra Wills or Jayne Purdy Tel. +44 (0)117 930 1027 Bose-Einstein condensation revisited 21 E-mail [email protected] Fax +44 (0)117 930 1178 2001 Nobel prize marks another milestone on a long road General distribution: Jacques Dallemagne, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. E-mail [email protected] The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory 24 In certain countries, to request copies or to make address changes, Heavyweight underground detector in action at Canada's eye on the contact: China: Chen Huaiwei, Institute of High-Energy Physics, P.O. Box universe 918, Beijing, People's Republic of China Germany: Gabriela Heessel or Veronika Werschner, DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22603 Hamburg 52. E-mail [email protected] Database lists the top-cited physics papers 27 Italy: Loredana Rum or Anna Pennacchietti, INFN, Casella Postale 56, 00044 Frascati, Roma Heath O'Connell and Michael Peskin ofSLAC analyse current research United Kingdom: Su Lockley, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, trends Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire 0X11OQX. E-mail [email protected] USA/Canada: Janice Voss, Creative Mailing Services, P.O. Box 1147, St Charles, Illinois 60174. Tel. 630-377-1589. Fax 630-377-1569 People : ssoo Published by: European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. Tel. +41 (22) 767 6111 Recruitment 33 Telefax +41 (22) 767 65 55 USA: Controlled Circulation Periodicals postage paid at St Charles, Bookshelf 41 Illinois Printed by: Warners (Midlands) pic, Bourne, Lincolnshire, UK ©2001 CERN Pull-out guide to research suppliers - see centre pages ISSN 0304-288X Cover: Why does a black hole produce more X-rays than expected? For a possible answer, see the loP Picture of the Month on pl7. CERN Courier December 2001 3 NUCLEAR I i %^f f**% § *»*% g"*» P rl i *T 1 I i £3 ^3 Nuclear & Hadronic Physics introduces \S actro# lie |m g «F^vra^ m.^ m i• ._ssio/7. ._ s 4 Mi A • Easy submission of your manuscript via your personal web page within Nuclear Physics A • Your personal information is stored on a secured server, only accessible with protected username & password • Full insight in the status of your manuscript throughout the submission, refereeing and production process • Online publication of your accepted article on Nuclear Physics Electronic (www.elsevier.com/locate/npe) more information at the secure site: https://ppp.elsevier.nl NEWS CERN Going into the cold: LHC systems reach an important milestone The technical systems for cryogenic fluids that cool the CERN's forthcoming Large magnets.Three more dipoles are Hadron Collider (LHC) reached scheduled to be added, which an important milestone earlier will turn String 2 into a full cell of this year with the successful the LHC accelerator. Completing commissioning of String 2 - a the String 2 set-up are 15 elec­ chain of prototype LHC mag­ trical powering circuits with nets complete with all of the final-design power converters, necessary powering, control and a digital current regulation and protection systems. String system capable of measuring 2 is the final testbed for magnet currents to a few parts validating LHC systems before per million. the new accelerator is installed String 2 was cooled down to in its tunnel ready for its start­ 1.9 Kin mid-September for up in 2006. systems validation tests.The When the LHC starts up in LHC's superconducting magnets five years' time, it will be the are sensitive devices. If any part world's largest superconducting of their cable winding heats up, installation of any kind. Nearly it provokes what is known as a all of its main magnets, some quench - the magnet ceases to 2000 in total, will be bathed in superconduct and the energy superfluid helium at 1.9 K. stored inside it has to be Such a low temperature is dissipated.Testing the systems required to keep the magnets that detect quenches and pro­ superconducting, but maintain­ tect the magnets was the first ing it presents many part of the validation programme challenges.The cold mass of and was carried out before the each magnet is installed inside magnets were ramped up to a vacuum vessel and rests on The String 2 test installation for CERN's Large Hadron Collider. nominal current of 11850 A on high-tech composite feet that 27 September. A full programme are actively cooled from room temperature to last chance for LHC engineers to validate their of system validation tests in which the entire 1.9 K over 25 cm. A similar active cooling design choices before the installation of the String is being put through its paces is now scheme is used for the cables that monitor new accelerator underground. In its current under way. All systems are being tested in the magnets. configuration, String 2 consists of three proto­ normal running conditions, during the ramp­ String 2 is the first LHC systems testbed to type dipole magnets, two quadrupoles, and a ing up and down of the magnet currents, and be built to the LHC's final design and it is the full-scale prototype distribution line for the during provoked quenches. Correction Accident ruins major detector In the November issue of CERN Courier (in On 12 November, thousands of photomultipli- tored by 11200 large (50 cm diameter) the picture story about Andrzej Bialas on ers imploded in the huge Superkamiokande photomultiplier tubes. Most of these tubes p29) we unfortunately described the historic detector in Japan, which has produced impor­ were destroyed, also wreaking havoc with the Jagellonian University as being located in tant results on neutrino physics. detector infrastructure. Warsaw. It is, of course, in Cracow.The The detector uses 50 000 tonnes of pure Superkamiokande directorYojiTotsuka university, which was founded in 1364, is one water, 1000 m below ground, and it is moni­ vowed: "We will rebuild the detector." of the oldest in Europe. We regret the error. CERN Courier December 2001 5 I NEWS CHINA BES accumulates 51 million J/psi events While plans to update ple), but they have the Beijing not yet been con­ Electron-Positron firmed to everyone's Collider (BEPC) and satisfaction. J/psi the Beijing Spectro­ decays are excellent meter (BESII) places to search for experiment go ahead these exotic particles.