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Author archive: Barbara Warmbein

The science of showers

| 12 January 2012 Good timing is a virtue. Just as comedians have to wait for just the right moment to deliver their punch line, linear collider physicists need to know when to make cuts. These cuts separate phenomena called particle showers from each other, making it possible for the physicists to tell which reaction originated from which collision. Two German PhD students have built a test device that is supposed to get behind the precise timing of showers. Category: Profile | Tagged: , , , ,

Successful slamming with music and the ILC

| 1 December 2011 In a nationwide “Weltmaschine day” to celebrate the second anniversary of collisions in the Large Hadron Collider, universities and institutes all over Germany not only presented the latest results from the LHC to crowded lecture halls, but also showed the fun side of physics in slams and exhibits. A slam about the ILC came first at DESY in Hamburg. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , ,

Setting the stages for shorter bunches

| 23 November 2011 One of the busiest places in the ILC design is the central region. It’s where it all happens: the beams get squeezed and focused and kicked into collision and out comes physics. To make sure that everything works to perfection and to reach consensus on the design, the central region has just undergone a technical baseline review, along with areas like the connection between damping ring and main linac. One of the core decisions for the latter: a two-stage bunch compressor for shorter beams. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , , , , ,

Hungry for science

| 3 November 2011 Last Saturday’s Open Day and Science Night at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, attracted more than 13 000 visitors. The lab presented its many fields of research, including the ILC, in a tent outside the entrance to the HERA accelerator tunnel. ILC detector developers and accelerator experts explained what the project is all about. Category: Around the World | Tagged: ,

A robot to watch out for defects

| 14 April 2011 A small group of young researchers at DESY, Germany, is working on a robot that could drastically reduce the time it takes to optically inspect a cavity. Their work covers everything from the pure mechanics of the workbench and fine-tuned motors for moving the heavy parts to developing sophisticated methods of automatically analysing the pictures. Cavities might eventually pass the check in two hours instead of the one-and-a-half days it takes today. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , , , , ,

European detector experts join in the AIDA chorus

| 3 March 2011 European accelerator and detector sciences kick off the AIDA project, a four-year plan that will allow easier coordination and collaboration among the continent's particle physics institutes. Category: Uncategorized | Tagged: , ,

Linear collider technology in your body

| 20 January 2011 A device used the linear collider’s hadronic calorimeter could soon help detect cancer. It would also be the central part of what is likely going to be the world’s smallest calorimeter – so tiny that it can fit on the tip of an endoscope to be inserted into a person’s stomach. Since January 2011, a consortium of some 60 scientists from 13 institutes all across Europe is officially building the world’s first in-body calorimeter, funded by the European commission in its 7th Framework Programme with about 6 million Euros over a period of four years. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , , , ,

A strategy for the future

| 11 November 2010 Germans enjoy punctuality, and Germans like to plan ahead. Though these may sound like tired clichés, the German particle physics community recently lived up to international expectations and met for a workshop to set the strategy for particle physics in Germany in the years to come. The physicists were asked by their funding agency, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, to map out the future and present their interests and priorities — next year the European Strategy for Particle Physics will plan a strategy that takes into account the latest results from the LHC. As one of the major players in Europe, Germany wants to be prepared. The overall strategy process will conclude in September 2012 with a new strategy for Europe. Category: Around the World | Tagged: ,

Geneva part 2

| 28 October 2010 As the first in a planned series of workshops, the International Workshop on Linear Colliders had many accomplished missions on the agenda. The ILC, for example, has passed its self-imposed fifty percent mark: half of the nine-cell superconducting radiofrequency cavities produced in the world now reach the desired gradient. The Compact Linear Collider Study (CLIC) has shown that it can generate a high-intensity drive beam by beam manipulation. And both linear collider communities have demonstrated that they get mutual benefit from working together on common issues and meeting once a year to discuss them in plenary. Category: Feature | Tagged:

Final curtain for EUDET

| 14 October 2010 After four plus one years of running time, a total budget of 21.5 million Euros, participating institutes from Helsinki to Valencia and from Novosibirsk to Glasgow and many research infrastructures successfully in place, the EU-funded infrastructure programme for ILC detector R&D EUDET comes to a close at the end of the year. Participants met for the very last EUDET meeting at DESY last week. But instead of self-congratulatory speeches and boasting summaries, most of the talks listed future plans and outlined future milestones beyond the scope of EUDET. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , , ,