Rika Takahashi | 27 January 2011There is a question almost always asked when talking about science - “OK, this is interesting. But is it useful for something?” Not too many scientists working on basic science are good at answering this question. “Dr. Masatoshi Koshiba sometimes says that the neutrino, his main research subject, is not useful at all. Well, a Nobel laureate could say that, but not us. I try to talk more about useful accelerators these days,” said Atsuto Suzuki, the Director General of KEK, at a symposium held in Kyoto, Japan, in November, which was organised by the Advanced Accelerator Association promoting science and technology (AAA).
Category: Around the World | Tagged: AAA, accelerator research, Japan
Barbara Warmbein | 20 January 2011A 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: calorimeter, Europe, Framework Program, PET, technology transfer
13 January 2011Today we received the news that we will not receive funding for the proposed Tevatron extension and consequently the Tevatron will close at the end of FY2011 as was previously planned. The present budgetary climate did not permit DOE to secure the additional funds needed to run the Tevatron for three more years as recommended by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Fermilab, HEPAP, Tevatron, United States
Wilhelm Bialowons (DESY) | 16 December 2010Early November, four members of the Global Design Effort Conventional Facilities and Siting group and two guests from Japanese industry visited DESY in Hamburg, Germany, for two days. They wanted to find out more about the current state of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) civil construction and to get information about other relevant projects like DESY
Category: Around the World | Tagged: DESY, FLASH, tunnel, XFEL
Leah Hesla | 9 December 2010Years of effort by more than 100 staff members at Fermilab have led to the cooldown of Cryomodule 1 at the laboratory's SRF Accelerator Test Facility. At 11 a.m. on Nov. 22, liquid helium flowed through CM1, cooling it to 2 Kelvin (-271° C).
Category: Around the World | Tagged: cryomodule, Fermilab, SRF cryomodule
24 November 2010Developing and improving superconducting radio-frequency technology is an important goal for Fermilab. SRF technology allows us to conceive and plan for future accelerators, such as Project X, the ILC or the Muon Collider, or for energy production applications such as Accelerator Driven Systems. One thing that will help this goal is a new facility that we will start up next year in the Technical Division, named the Integrated Cavity Processing Apparatus.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: electropolishing, Fermilab, SRF technology
11 November 2010The Spanish National Network for Future Linear Colliders met in Valencia, Spain on 25 and 26 October. Representatives from all Spanish groups involved in R&D activities on detectors and accelerators for future colliders, as well as physicists from theory groups, attended the meeting which showed big advancements developed in all the activities of the Spanish groups, both in accelerators and detectors. The challenge of organising the next global Linear Collider Workshop in 2011 at Granada was also very well received by the Spanish community.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Europe, Spain
Barbara Warmbein | 11 November 2010Germans 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: Europe, Germany
Min Zhang | 4 November 2010Just a week after the International Workshop on Linear Colliders (IWLC2010) held in Geneva, China's Linear Collider Workshop (CLCW2010) organised by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) was held in Beijing Laffitte Hotel from 30 to 31 October. For the first time, China's linear collider community gathered together to exchange ideas and have a comprehensive discussion about China's participation in the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider study (CLIC).
Category: Around the World | Tagged: China, China Linear Collider Workshop, CLCW2010
Leah Hesla and Rika Takahashi | 28 October 2010Fermilab and KEK scientists recently hooked up a new cavity tuning system to the various cavities in the so-called cavity-tuner zoo at KEK. This zoo, comprising eight superconducting radiofrequency cavities fabricated by four different vendors from three different regions, was the testing ground for a new development in what is called Lorentz force detuning (LFD) compensation.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Fermilab, KEK, LFD compensation, Lorentz force detuning
