Monday 30 October 2017

Mystery of raging black hole beams penetrated

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They are nature's very own Death Star beams - ultra-powerful jets of energy that shoot out from the vicinity of black holes like deadly rays from the Star Wars super-weapon.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Jupiter's X-ray auroras pulse independently

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Jupiter's intense northern and southern lights pulse independently of each other according to new research.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Surprisingly erratic X-ray auroras discovered at Jupiter

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ESA and NASA space telescopes have revealed that, unlike Earth’s polar lights, the intense auroras seen at Jupiter’s poles unexpectedly behave independently of one another. 


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Surprisingly_erratic_X-ray_auroras_discovered_at_Jupiter

LHC reaches 2017 targets ahead of schedule

Xenon in the SPS: First tests for a photon factory

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), pictured during a recent technical stop. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)

Accelerator operators can perform amazing acrobatics with particle beams, most recently in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), CERN’s second-largest accelerator. For the first time, they have successfully injected a beam of partially ionised xenon particles into the SPS and accelerated it. Before they were injected into the SPS, these atoms were stripped of 39 of their 54 electrons.

During the first test, which took place in September, the beam was injected into the SPS ring and circulated for about one second. Now, the beam has been accelerated for the first time, reaching an energy of 81.6 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) per nucleon.

What makes this performance so remarkable is that these beams of partially ionised xenon atoms are extremely fragile and have a very short lifespan. If an atom loses just one of its 15 electrons, it changes orbit and is lost. “The SPS vacuum is not quite as high as that of the LHC. The residual gas molecules present in the vacuum chamber disturb the beam, which explains why it is lost quite quickly,” says Reyes Alemany, who is responsible for the SPS tests. “But keeping the beam going for one cycle in the SPS is already a very promising result!”

So why are accelerator physicists experimenting with these atoms? It’s to test a novel idea: a high-intensity source of gamma rays (photons with energies in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) range). This gamma factory, as it is known, would generate photons of up to 400 MeV in energy and at intensities comparable to those of synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFELs produce high-intensity beams of X-rays – that is, photons of an energy of less than about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV).

“A source of that kind would pave the way for studies never done before in fundamental physics, in the fields of quantum electrodynamics or dark matter research,” explains Witold Krasny, a CNRS physicist and CERN associate who founded the project and leads the work group. “It also opens the door for industrial and medical applications.” It could even serve as a test bench for a future neutrino factory or muon collider.

The principle is to accelerate partially ionised atoms and then excite them using a laser. As they return to their stable state, the atoms release high-energy photons.

The team took advantage of the presence of xenon in the accelerator complex to carry out this first test without disrupting the other ongoing physics programmes. Next year, during the LHC heavy-ion run, the team will repeat the experiment using ionised lead atoms, which will be stripped of all but one or two electrons. Those beams will be much more stable; having fewer electrons means that the atoms are less at risk of losing them. In addition, their electrons are only found in the “K” shell, the closest to the nucleus, and therefore have a stronger link to the nucleus than in the xenon atoms. The heavy-ion beams could be accelerated first in the SPS and then in the LHC.

The gamma factory project is part of the Physics Beyond Colliders study, which was launched in 2016 with the goal of investigating all possible non-collider experiments, particularly those that could be done using CERN’s accelerator complex. Hundreds of scientists are expected to attend the annual Physics Beyond Colliders conference at CERN at the end of November.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2017/10/xenon-sps-first-tests-photon-factory

From the web to a start-up near you

Webcast: How does collaboration shape innovation?

IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN (Image: Jean-Claude Gadmer/CERN)

Today,‪ IdeaSquare at CERN is hosting The Other Side of Innovation – a workshop to discover how collaboration across disciplines and rapid prototyping is shaping innovation.

Join us via webcast from 13:00 CEST.

Professor of technology and innovation at ETH Zürich, Stefano Brusoni, will give a talk on the divergent process of innovation, while Bruno Herbelin, deputy director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL, will showcase how virtual reality can be used by researchers.

IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN, which aims to bring together people from many fields, to generate new ideas and work on conceptual prototypes related to detector research in an open, collaborative environment.

It brings together CERN personnel, visiting students, and external project collaborators from the domains of research, technology development and education. It also contributes to CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group, helping them to shape and innovate new product ideas into socially and globally relevant activities.

 

For more information, visit the event page.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2017/10/webcast-how-does-collaboration-shape-innovation

Meet the DUNEs

Inside one of the protoDUNE detectors, currently under construction at CERN (Image: Max Brice/CERN)

A new duo is living in CERN’s test beam area. On the outside, they look like a pair of Rubik’s Cubes that rubbed a magic lamp and transformed into castle turrets. But on the inside, they’ve got the glamour of a disco ball.

These 12m x 12m x 12m boxes are two prototypes for the massive detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). DUNE, an international experiment hosted by Fermilab in the United States, will live deep underground and trap neutrinos: tiny fundamental particles that rarely interact with matter.

“Learning more about neutrinos could help us better understand how the early Universe evolved and why the world is made of matter and not antimatter,” said Stefania Bordoni, a CERN researcher working on neutrino detector development.

These DUNE prototypes are testing two variations of a detection technique first developed by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia. Each cube is a chilled thermos that will hold approximately 800 tonnes of liquid argon. When a neutrino bumps into an atom of argon, it will release a flash of light and a cascade of electrons, which will glide through the electrically charged chamber to detectors lining the walls.

Inside their reinforced walls sits a liquid-tight metallic balloon, which can expand and contract to accommodate the changing volume of the argon as it cools from a gas to a liquid.

Even though theses cubes are huge, they are mere miniature models of the final detectors, which will be 20 times larger and together hold a total of 72 000 tonnes of liquid argon.

In the coming months, these prototypes will be cooled down so that their testing can begin using a dedicated beam line at CERN’s SPS accelerator complex.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2017/10/meet-dunes

Xenon in the SPS: First tests for a photon factory

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), pictured during a recent technical stop. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)

Accelerator operators can perform amazing acrobatics with particle beams, most recently in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), CERN’s second-largest accelerator. For the first time, they have successfully injected a beam of partially ionised xenon particles into the SPS and accelerated it. Before they were injected into the SPS, these atoms were stripped of 39 of their 54 electrons.

During the first test, which took place in September, the beam was injected into the SPS ring and circulated for about one second. Now, the beam has been accelerated for the first time, reaching an energy of 81.6 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) per nucleon.

What makes this performance so remarkable is that these beams of partially ionised xenon atoms are extremely fragile and have a very short lifespan. If an atom loses just one of its 15 electrons, it changes orbit and is lost. “The SPS vacuum is not quite as high as that of the LHC. The residual gas molecules present in the vacuum chamber disturb the beam, which explains why it is lost quite quickly,” says Reyes Alemany, who is responsible for the SPS tests. “But keeping the beam going for one cycle in the SPS is already a very promising result!”

So why are accelerator physicists experimenting with these atoms? It’s to test a novel idea: a high-intensity source of gamma rays (photons with energies in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) range). This gamma factory, as it is known, would generate photons of up to 400 MeV in energy and at intensities comparable to those of synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFELs produce high-intensity beams of X-rays – that is, photons of an energy of less than about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV).

“A source of that kind would pave the way for studies never done before in fundamental physics, in the fields of quantum electrodynamics or dark matter research,” explains Witold Krasny, a CNRS physicist and CERN associate who founded the project and leads the work group. “It also opens the door for industrial and medical applications.” It could even serve as a test bench for a future neutrino factory or muon collider.

The principle is to accelerate partially ionised atoms and then excite them using a laser. As they return to their stable state, the atoms release high-energy photons.

The team took advantage of the presence of xenon in the accelerator complex to carry out this first test without disrupting the other ongoing physics programmes. Next year, during the LHC heavy-ion run, the team will repeat the experiment using ionised lead atoms, which will be stripped of all but one or two electrons. Those beams will be much more stable; having fewer electrons means that the atoms are less at risk of losing them. In addition, their electrons are only found in the “K” shell, the closest to the nucleus, and therefore have a stronger link to the nucleus than in the xenon atoms. The heavy-ion beams could be accelerated first in the SPS and then in the LHC.

The gamma factory project is part of the Physics Beyond Colliders study, which was launched in 2016 with the goal of investigating all possible non-collider experiments, particularly those that could be done using CERN’s accelerator complex. Hundreds of scientists are expected to attend the annual Physics Beyond Colliders conference at CERN at the end of November.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2017/10/xenon-sps-first-tests-photon-factory

From the web to a start-up near you

Webcast: How does collaboration shape innovation?

IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN (Image: Jean-Claude Gadmer/CERN)

Today,‪ IdeaSquare at CERN is hosting The Other Side of Innovation – a workshop to discover how collaboration across disciplines and rapid prototyping is shaping innovation.

Join us via webcast from 13:00 CEST.

Professor of technology and innovation at ETH Zürich, Stefano Brusoni, will give a talk on the divergent process of innovation, while Bruno Herbelin, deputy director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL, will showcase how virtual reality can be used by researchers.

IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN, which aims to bring together people from many fields, to generate new ideas and work on conceptual prototypes related to detector research in an open, collaborative environment.

It brings together CERN personnel, visiting students, and external project collaborators from the domains of research, technology development and education. It also contributes to CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group, helping them to shape and innovate new product ideas into socially and globally relevant activities.

 

For more information, visit the event page.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2017/10/webcast-how-does-collaboration-shape-innovation

Meet the DUNEs

Inside one of the protoDUNE detectors, currently under construction at CERN (Image: Max Brice/CERN)

A new duo is living in CERN’s test beam area. On the outside, they look like a pair of Rubik’s Cubes that rubbed a magic lamp and transformed into castle turrets. But on the inside, they’ve got the glamour of a disco ball.

These 12m x 12m x 12m boxes are two prototypes for the massive detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). DUNE, an international experiment hosted by Fermilab in the United States, will live deep underground and trap neutrinos: tiny fundamental particles that rarely interact with matter.

“Learning more about neutrinos could help us better understand how the early Universe evolved and why the world is made of matter and not antimatter,” said Stefania Bordoni, a CERN researcher working on neutrino detector development.

These DUNE prototypes are testing two variations of a detection technique first developed by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia. Each cube is a chilled thermos that will hold approximately 800 tonnes of liquid argon. When a neutrino bumps into an atom of argon, it will release a flash of light and a cascade of electrons, which will glide through the electrically charged chamber to detectors lining the walls.

Inside their reinforced walls sits a liquid-tight metallic balloon, which can expand and contract to accommodate the changing volume of the argon as it cools from a gas to a liquid.

Even though theses cubes are huge, they are mere miniature models of the final detectors, which will be 20 times larger and together hold a total of 72 000 tonnes of liquid argon.

In the coming months, these prototypes will be cooled down so that their testing can begin using a dedicated beam line at CERN’s SPS accelerator complex.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2017/10/meet-dunes