CERN Accelerating science

A word from the Head of the EP department - December 2019

Dear Colleagues, dear Members of the EP Department and CERN Users,

Another year turns to its end. It was the first year of the Long Shutdown 2 with all the accelerators stopped at CERN. This didn’t mean that we were idling in EP. On the contrary, enormous work was done by the experiments to maintain and upgrade their detectors and in the case of ALICE and LHCb a major exchange of several large detector subsystems is taking place. Physics analyses were of course also continuing and the production of new physics results remains on a very high level.

In this edition of the EP newsletter you will find again many interesting articles from all across the department. Apart from the articles giving some insights in ongoing upgrade work of the LHC experiments you will also find news from the large number of smaller experiments at CERN, e.g. in this edition from ISOLDE, BASE, NA61/SHINE and CAST. These smaller experiments are often in the shadow of the big ones, although they are equally challenging and produce very interesting unique physics results. I suggest to take same time to read about their progress.

Exciting things happened not only underground but also above our heads. AMS on the International Space Station is a recognised experiment at CERN. The detector was assembled at CERN and the mission control centre is at CERN Prevessin. A few weeks ago spectacular space walks were conducted to repair the cooling system of this particle physics experiment in space. You will find the full story in this newsletter, with exciting pictures and why and how one of our top engineers in EP was involved.

Winter is here and as the weather gets colder, make yourself comfortable over the Xmas break and read these and other stories.

Let me finish this editorial by wishing you and your families Happy Holidays and a Peaceful and Successful New Year!

 

Manfred Krammer

EP Department Head