The AEgIS experiment at CERN for the measurement of antihydrogen gravity acceleration

The Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) experiment is conducted by an international collaboration based at CERN whose aim is to perform the first direct measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen in the local field of the Earth, with Δg/g = 1% precision as a first achievement. The idea is to produce cold (100 mK) antihydrogen ( ¯H) through a pulsed charge exchange reaction by overlapping clouds of antiprotons, from the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) and positronium atoms inside a Penning trap. The antihydrogen has to be produced in an excited Rydberg state to be subsequently accelerated to form a beam. The deflection of the antihydrogen beam can then be measured by using a moir´e deflectometer coupled to a position sensitive detector to register the impact point of the anti-atoms through the vertex reconstruction of their annihilation products. After being approved in late 2008, AEgIS started taking data in a commissioning phase in 2012. This paper presents an outline of the experiment with a brief overview of its physics motivation and of the state-of-the-art of the g measurement on antimatter. Particular attention is given to the current status of the emulsion-based position detector needed to measure the ¯H sag in AEgIS.

NA61/SHINE facility at the CERN SPS: beams and detector system

NA61/SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) is a multi-purpose experimental facility to study hadron production in hadron-proton, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. It recorded the first physics data with hadron beams in 2009 and with ion beams (secondary 7Be beams) in 2011. NA61/SHINE has greatly profited from the long development of the CERN proton and ion sources and the accelerator chain as well as the H2 beamline of the CERN North Area. The latter has recently been modified to also serve as a fragment separator as needed to produce the Be beams for NA61/SHINE. Numerous components of the NA61/SHINE set-up were inherited from its predecessors, in particular, the last one, the NA49 experiment. Important new detectors and upgrades of the legacy equipment were introduced by the NA61/SHINE Collaboration. This paper describes the state of the NA61/SHINE facility — the beams and the detector system — before the CERN Long Shutdown I, which started in March 2013.

Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle with an antimatter beam at CERN

The goal of the AEgIS experiment is to measure the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen – the simplest atom consisting entirely of antimatter – with the ultimate precision of 1%. We plan to verify the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), one of the fundamental laws of nature, with an antimatter beam. The experiment consists of a positron accumulator, an antiproton trap and a Stark accelerator in a solenoidal magnetic field to form and accelerate a pulsed beam of antihydrogen atoms towards a free-fall detector. The antihydrogen beam passes through a moir ́e deflectometer to measure the vertical displacement due to the gravitational force. A position and time sensitive hybrid detector registers the annihilation points of the antihydrogen atoms and their time-of-flight. The detection principle has been successfully tested with antiprotons and a miniature moir ́e deflectometer coupled to a nuclear emulsion detector.

Análisis de un brazo robótico con Gazebo y ROS para tareas de inspección remota en el CERN

Con el devenir de los tiempos e incentivado por el desarrollo tecnológico, la cantidad y complejidad de los experimentos realizados en el conocido laboratorio de física de partículas, C.E.R.N, ha alcanzado límites insospechados. Además, su evolución se acentúa y motiva con cada nuevo descubrimiento. Prueba de estas ansias por desvelar las entrañas y secretos del universo se encuentra en el choque de 13 TeV que tuvo lugar el pasado mes de mayo. Con él, no sólo se marcaban inequívocamente las expectativas del complejo para este nuevo ciclo de funcionamiento, sino que además se daba el pistoletazo de salida a la carrera que culminaría con el descubrimiento de los pentaquarks. A nivel ingenieril, esta mejora de las capacidades del complejo implica un exponencial endurecimiento de las exigencias impuestas a los sistemas empleados. Por consiguiente y de forma inevitable, las condiciones del interior del acelerador migran hacia baremos cada vez más drásticos. Tanto es así que los niveles de radiación alcanzados actualmente limitan notablemente el acceso de personal al acelerador; lo que se traduce en un incremento de los tiempos de mantenimiento y reparación. Actualmente estos retardos tratan de ser mitigados mediante el uso de robots móviles operados remotamente. De entre ellos, llama la atención aquél conocido bajo el acrónimo T.I.M (Train for RP Survey and visual inspection in LHC). Este tren, constituido por 5 vagones, se desplaza a lo largo del acelerador de partículas midiendo los niveles de radiación y oxígeno al tiempo que proporciona realimentación visual. En el presente proyecto se propone la mejora de las tareas de inspección y mantenimiento mediante la integración de un manipulador robótico de 6 grados de libertad en uno de los vagones del citado tren. De este modo, se consigue un sistema capaz de trasladarse a cualquier punto del acelerador, en un tiempo record, y realizar una gran cantidad de tareas de mantenimiento que comprenden desde simples inspecciones visuales a complejas labores como puede ser desatornillado o extracción de componentes dañados. Por otro lado, se plantea un segundo desarrollo sobre el que sustentar el diseño propuesto: “Construcción de un simulador robótico de alta fiabilidad, basado en ROS y Gazebo”. Adicionalmente, esta herramienta Software atiende a otros fines complementarios: sirve de trampolín para futuros desarrollos encauzados a la mejora del sistema mecánico; entrega una herramienta de bajo coste con la que analizar la integración de nuevos hitos en robótica y, por último, permite evaluar la adopción de un nuevo paradigma de programación en el que ROS se encuentre inmerso.

Measurements of π±, K±, K0s, Λ and proton production in proton–carbon interactions at 31 GeV/c with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS

Measurements of hadron production in p+C interactions at 31 GeV/c are performed using the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS. The analysis is based on the full set of data collected in 2009 using a graphite target with a thickness of 4% of a nuclear interaction length. Inelastic and production cross sections as well as spectra of π±, K±, p, K0s and Λ are measured with high precision. These measurements are essential for improved calculations of the initial neutrino fluxes in the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment in Japan. A comparison of the NA61/SHINE measurements with predictions of several hadroproduction models is presented.

Coherent method of acceleration of particle bunches : paper presented at CERN symposium, 1956 /

"European Organization for Nuclear Research."

Signatures of doubly charged Higgs in the SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(N) model at the CERN LHC

The scalar sector of the simplest version of the 3-3-1 electroweak model is constructed with three Higgs triplets only. We show that a relation involving two of the constants of the model, two vacuum expectation values of the neutral scalars, and the mass of the doubly charged Higgs boson leads to important information concerning the signals of this scalar particle.

Misura del flusso neutronico per reazioni indotte da neutroni su 155Gd e 157Gd nell'esperimento nTOF al CERN

Questa tesi è incentrata sullo studio e la determinazione del flusso neutronico della facility nTOF (neutron Time Of Flight) del CERN di Ginevra nel corso della campagna sperimentale del 2016. L'esperimento è finalizzato alla misura della sezione d'urto della reazione di cattura neutronica da parte degli isotopi dispari di gadolinio, 155Gd e 157Gd. In particolare l'analisi verrà condotta in modo da ottenere dati sperimentali nello spettro di energie da neutroni termici (10-2 eV) a 1.0 eV e migliorare i dati già esistenti per energie fino a 1.0 MeV. Dopo aver ricordato le motivazioni scientifiche e tecnologiche che sono alla base del progetto di ricerca, si descrivono le caratteristiche della facility nTOF e si trattano i fondamenti delle reazioni nucleari e le tecniche del tempo di volo, di misura di flusso e di cattura utilizzate nel corso dell'esperimento. Nella parte finale del lavoro si presentano i dati sperimentali acquisiti sul flusso neutronico, la cui accurata conoscenza è fondamentale per la misura di sezioni d'urto di reazioni indotte da neutroni. I risultati ottenuti sono quindi stati elaborati e confrontati con i dati precedenti per poter essere validati e per poter verificare eventuali discrepanze. Dalle analisi dei dati si deduce come la precisione ottenuta sulla determinazione del flusso sia ottimale per i successivi studi che verranno condotti sulla sezione d'urto degli isotopi dispari di gadolinio.

An integrated library system on the CERN document server

O CERN - a Organização Europeia para a Investigação Nuclear - é um dos maiores centros de investigação a nível mundial, responsável por diversas descobertas na área da física bem como na área das ciências da computação. O CERN Document Server, também conhecido como CDS Invenio, é um software desenvolvido no CERN, que tem como objectivo fornecer um conjunto de ferramentas para gerir bibliotecas digitais. A fim de melhorar as funcionalidades do CDS Invenio foi criado um novo módulo, chamado BibCirculation, para gerir os livros (e outros itens) da biblioteca do CERN, funcionando como um sistema integrado de gestão de bibliotecas. Esta tese descreve os passos que foram dados para atingir os vários objectivos deste projecto, explicando, entre outros, o processo de integração com os outros módulos existentes bem como a forma encontrada para associar informações dos livros com os metadados do CDS lnvenio. É também possível encontrar uma apresentação detalhada sobre todo o processo de implementação e os testes realizados. Finalmente, são apresentadas as conclusões deste projecto e o trabalho a desenvolver futuramente. ABSTRACT: CERN - The European Organization for Nuclear Research - is one of the largest research centers worldwide, responsible for several discoveries in physics as well as in computer science. The CERN Document Server, also known as CDS Invenio, is a software developed at CERN, which aims to provide a set of tools for managing digital libraries. ln order to improve the functionalities of CDS Invenio a new module was developed, called BibCirculation, to manage books (and other items) from the CERN library, and working as an Integrated Library System. This thesis shows the steps that have been done to achieve the several goals of this project, explaining, among others aspects, the process of integration with other existing modules as well as the way to associate the information about books with the metadata from CDS lnvenio. You can also find detailed explanation of the entire implementation process and testing. Finally, there are presented the conclusions of this project and ideas for future development.

Mandates: An Australian example at the Queensland University of Technology

This presentation describes a situation where an open access mandate was developed and implemented at an institutional level, in this case, an Australian University. Some conclusions are drawn about its effect over a five year period of implementation.

Research data finder : an institutional metadata repository

QUT’s new metadata repository (data registry), Research Data Finder, has been designed to promote the visibility and discoverability of QUT research datasets. Funded by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), it will provide a qualitative snapshot of research data outputs created or collected by members of the QUT research community that are available via open or mediated access. As a fully integrated metadata repository Research Data Finder aligns with institutional sources of truth, such as QUT’s research administrative system, ResearchMaster, as well as QUT’s Academic Profiles system to provide high quality data descriptions that increase awareness of, and access to, shareable research data. In addition, the repository and its workflows are designed to foster smoother data management practices, enhance opportunities for collaboration and research, promote cross-disciplinary research and maximize existing research datasets. The metadata schema used in Research Data Finder is the Registry Interchange Format - Collections and Services (RIF-CS), developed by ANDS in 2009. This comprehensive schema is potentially complex for researchers; unlike metadata for publications, which are often made publicly available with the official publication, metadata for datasets are not typically available and need to be created. Research Data Finder uses a hybrid self-deposit and mediated deposit system. In addition to automated ingests from ResearchMaster (research project information) and Academic Profiles system (researcher information), shareable data is identified at a number of key “trigger points” in the research cycle. These include: research grant proposals; ethics applications; Data Management Plans; Liaison Librarian data interviews; and thesis submissions. These ingested records can be supplemented with related metadata including links to related publications, such as those in QUT ePrints. Records deposited in Research Data Finder are harvested by ANDS and made available to a national and international audience via Research Data Australia, ANDS’ discovery service for Australian research data. Researcher and research group metadata records are also harvested by the National Library of Australia (NLA) and these records are then published in Trove (the NLA’s digital information portal). By contributing records to the national infrastructure, QUT data will become more visible. Within Australia and internationally, many funding bodies have already mandated the open access of publications produced from publicly funded research projects, such as those supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC), or the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). QUT will be well placed to respond to the rapidly evolving climate of research data management. This project is supported by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS). ANDS is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy Program and the Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative.