Frank,

Thanks for the note.  Will you be here on July 1?

Peter

On Jun 24, 2009, at 3:54 AM, Frank Taylor wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> The paper is interesting - unfortunately I accepted a social  
> engagement at
> 8:00 PM Geneva time (2:00 PM EDT) so I will not be able to call in.
> My apologies.
>
> 1. LHC
>
> The latest from the LHC - from CERN LHC web site but no real news  
> about
> the schedule. ATLAS has decided to start 24 hr shifts in September  
> rather
> than August. There will be a seminar 02-Jul-09 by Myers which should  
> be
> interesting (and jam-packed). ATLAS has recommissioned the magnets  
> and all
> is fine. We're running cosmics in 'combined' mode (nearly all  
> subsystems
> operating - except TGC endcap trigger chambers don't have operating  
> gas
> and CSCs where the ROD firmware is being upgraded).
>
> From Web:
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Sector 4-5 is being warmed to room temperature. The sector was  
> previously
> warmed to 80 Kelvin in order to perform a test on the copper  
> component of
> the busbars at non-superconducting temperatures (See previous update).
>
> One of the LHCs electrical interconnections being repaired.
>
> During the test at 80 Kelvin one busbar with potentially high  
> resistance
> was found. The sector is now being warmed to room temperature in  
> order to
> perform a more accurate test on all the copper busbars. By comparing  
> the
> results of the two tests (80 and 300 Kelvin), the accuracy of the
> 80-Kelvin test can be verified to help interpret data taken from the  
> other
> cold sectors.
>
> In Sector 1-2 the repairs have been completed to all the electrical
> interconnections and the last W bellow has been closed. After final
> electrical checks and insulation vacuum checks the sector will be  
> ready to
> start the cool down process.
>
> The beam lines in Sector 6-7 have been closed. The sector has been  
> tested
> with the RF ball, which showed no problems with the interconnections.
> (More details on RF ball testing available here). Repair work on the
> electrical interconnections is still ongoing.
>
> The LHCs anti-clockwise beam transfer system was tested on 6 and 7  
> June.
> Particle bunches were sent from the SPS through the transfer line  
> toward
> the LHC where it intersects just before the LHCb cavern.
>
> The beam was sent down the 2.8km transfer line and stopped just before
> reaching the LHC tunnel with a beam stopper (known as a TED) - 4m of
> graphite that is physically placed in the path of the beam line to  
> prevent
> the beam from taking the last step into the LHC.
>
> A seminar on the status of the LHC will be given by Steve Myers on 2  
> July.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 2. Micromegas:
>
> We're writing an R&D proposal for upgrades of muon system which has a
> draft budget for micromegas at ~ $500k. Vinnie is planning to come to
> Harvard next Tuesday 30-Jun-09 to talk to Huth, Oliver, et al. about
> micromegas (mostly electronics). Vinnie agreed to come to MIT on  
> Wednesday
> morning 01-Jul-09 to discuss the R&D prospects with you if you would  
> like
> him to. At the moment the plan is very rough and various groups are
> offering to get involved by focusing on specific things. For us,  
> perhaps
> it's the behavior in B-field, large scale construction and
> pattern-recognition.
>
> The electronics readout is a big issue with the large channel count.  
> At
> the moment Vinnie is assembling a group from BNL, Arizona and perhaps
> Harvard to work on this. We could be involved in testing but I don't  
> see
> us doing much on the front end ASIC design. For DMTPC you need to  
> extract
> direction information from the readout.
>
> One of the longer term R&D projects being pushed by Michigan is to use
> plasma screen technology to make the amplification gap in a  
> micromega-like
> chamber. The claim is a more simple readout and cheap anode  
> fabrication
> but the development is quite primitive at the moment.
>
> Sorry for the long email - apologies for not being able to call in.
>
> Any news about a DoE visit?
>
> Best regards,
>
>        Frank
>
> 	Frank E. Taylor
>
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>
> On Tue, 23 Jun 2009, Ray F. Cowan wrote:
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> This week we meet at **2 PM Eastern**, Thursday, June 25, for our  
>> weekly LQS
>> meeting.  Dial-in is 510-665-5437, passcode 7336.  The time change  
>> is for
>> this week only to accomodate Peter's monthly Energy task force  
>> meeting.
>>
>> We'll take round-table reports first.  Peter suggested this dark  
>> matter
>> paper for our discussion this week: http://arXiv.org/pdf/0803.4196
>>
>> "The WIMPless Miracle: Dark Matter Particles without Weak-scale  
>> Masses
>> or Weak Interactions"
>>
>> The meeting agenda and the paper can be found at
>> http://dmtpc.mit.edu/MaKaC/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=178
>>
>> Hope you can join in.
>>
>> Thanks much,
>> --Ray
>>
>>