Topic: Active and passive stabilization systems and sensors
The Astroparticle Physics European Consortium APPEC is inviting technology experts from industry and academia to the APPEC Technology Forum 2018 (ATF 2018) on Nov 12-13 2018 in Veldhoven, near Eindhoven in The Netherlands.
For the sixth year, ATF 2018 will provide the necessary framework for discussions among all the stakeholders fostering new R&D activities, improving existing technology and supporting current and emerging intra- and extra-field collaborations.
With the intention of laying the foundations for future cooperation involving industry and academia, this year the ATF 2018 will concentrate on the development of holders and positioning systems for high-stability setups, where vibrations can be detected with special sensors and then suppressed, extending to other forms of active and passive stabilization needed in many scientific experiments. This technology can have a wide range of applications, for example, where mirrors, magnets and detectors have to be precisely positioned, or temperature and pressure have to be accurately stabilised.
The fields of application are also numerous, ranging from astroparticle, particle and detector physics to geology, quantum mechanics and many other disciplines. The potential for innovative applications is large and we are convinced there will be the opportunity for an effective exchange of ideas and experiences among the participants.
ATF 2018 is taking place immediately before the Precision Fair 2018, at the same location which will provide even more opportunities for knowledge transfer and collaboration. The Fair is focused on development and production of high-tech components, modules and systems, aimed at meeting the ever increasing demands on shape, size and accuracy of fast precision positioning. Two sessions on the first day of the Fair will be dedicated to the achievements and future demands of precision technology in Big Science Projects.
Participants from CERN, the KATRIN experiment and Einstein Telescope (ET) community have already confirmed they will present their high-precision technology at the Forum. Register here to attend: https://indico.desy.de/indico/event/20154/registration/
The workshop ‘Dawn IV: Global strategies for gravitational wave astronomy’ took place August 30-31, 2018 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. About a hundred physicists and astronomers attended to plan a global approach for third generation (3G) ground-based gravitational wave detectors.
The depth and breadth of the science case for 3G gravitational wave observatories was presented, including the impact on the broad scientific community as a result of the important contributions that 3G can make to fields, ranging from fundamental physics, astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology and cosmography, through to nuclear science. Examples included the capability of detecting gravitational waves from all coalescing binaries in the Universe; the importance of new and independent access to the history of the equation of state parameter of Dark Energy to cosmology; the capability for precision tests of gravity under extreme circumstances; and access to the Dark Ages and perhaps signals of the early universe.
A global strategy was discussed, where every new phase must be associated with a new scientific target. Realising design sensitivities and proceeding towards the foreseen A+ and AdV+ upgrades of LIGO and Virgo, respectively will allow the gravitational wave community to produce increasingly better data on merging black holes and/or neutron stars. This provides access to important observables as the equation of state of neutron stars, allows precision tests of theories of gravity such as General Relativity, and will enable mapping the cosmology of the local universe. At the same time these upgrades de-risk the key technology for 3G. The next step will be to realise Einstein Telescope (ET): as long as there is no certainty of other 3G instruments, ET will be the best way forward as it will, for the first time, provide access to the entire universe in gravitational waves. Cosmic Explorer and a third 3G detector in Asia or Australia will provide the best complement to multi-messenger astronomy.
In the journey towards 3G science on a global scale it is important to consider the viewpoint of different continents and countries. For the Einstein Telescope the scientists closely work with APPEC to prepare the submission of a proposal to ESFRI. The results from the past three years have firmly established gravitational-waves as a cornerstone of astronomy. Excitement from scientists and the general public world-wide as well as the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017 has further fuelled the exploration of the next generation of terrestrial gravitational detectors; the third generation.
Dawn IV was a fruitful event that provided a platform for important strategic discussions amongst the global gravitational-wave community about how to build the most scientifically advanced and successful future detector network possible.
This Halloween, get ready to visit the dark side – but there is no need to be afraid, as it is actually a global celebration of science.
Dark Matter Day returns for a second year giving people all over the world the opportunity to celebrate Halloween in a different way. A series of Dark Matter Day events, which highlight the global search for the elusive dark matter, will be held in person and online throughout the day on October 31.
Did you know that everything we see in the universe accounts for only 5 percent of all matter? The rest is a mysterious and as-yet-undetectable substance known as dark matter that, together with dark energy, makes up about 95 percent of the mass and energy in our universe. Dark matter is everywhere, and yet so far we know very little about it, even though there is overwhelming evidence that it exists.
Universities, laboratories, and institutions around the world have announced Dark Matter Day-themed events explaining what we do know about dark matter, but also talking about how much we have yet to learn.
Find out more, or take part in Dark Matter Day events near you or online, around the world.
From deep under the North Sea, to the outskirts of Rome and the Canadian shores of the Pacific, the winning images from the 2018 Global Physics Photowalk competition capture the beauty, precision and international nature of humankind’s search to understand the Universe.
Selected from thousands of images submitted by hundreds of amateur and professional photographers around the world, the Global Physics Photowalk provided a rare glimpse into the people, engineering and technology behind some of the world’s most inspiring, amazing and sometimes oddest science.
The 18 participating laboratories, including Europe’s INFN, STFC and CERN, study science topics ranging from exploring the origins of the Universe to better understanding how our planet’s climate works, and from improving human and animal health to helping deliver secure and sustainable food and energy supplies for the future.
Each lab held their own local competition, and has now entered their top three images into the global competition. From those images, a public online vote chose the top three, while a panel of expert photographers and scientists also chose their three favourites.
Dr Vanessa Mexner is a science communicator at Nikhef, the National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands. She represented the Interactions Collaboration on the judging panel and described the competition as inspiring and amazing.
She said: “The pictures capture the beauty of science and the people behind this in such an amazing way. Through all these wonderful pictures, we can offer a broad audience a unique glimpse into the people, the engineering and technology, the science – so a big ‘thank you’ to all the photographers who took part in the global competition.”
Professional photographer Enrico Sacchetti was a member of the international judges’ panel. Commenting on Simon Wright’s winning image he said: “The lighting is what attracts you to this silent but powerful image. It’s great seeing her completely at ease in this lonely environment.”
Shining a light on dark matter at STFC’s Boulby Underground Laboratory – 2018 Global Photowalk judges winner (Credit: STFC/Simon Wright)
Panel member Ale de la Puente, a Mexican artist and designer, also praised the winning image: “Alone where the unknown still lies, there is light, darkness, and a shadow cast that intriguingly take us deep back to the tunnel, beyond the excellence of technique the metaphor of pushing the horizon far away from light and our view is compelling.”
Enrico and Ale also praised Stefano Ruzzini’s image of a silicon-strip particle detector taken at the Frascati National Laboratories of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics:
Ale said: “Not only the colors, the symmetry, and quality of the image, but the mysterious beauty of a contemporary technology mandala, reminds the endless search for knowledge.”
Enrico said: “The almost perfect symmetry is fantastic. I’m attracted by the strong colours but I’m especially attracted by the complete lack of any reference to scale!”
Find out more about the competition and see all of the winning photos on the Interactions website.
The largest liquid-argon neutrino detector in the world has just recorded its first particle tracks, signaling the start of a new chapter in the story of the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).
DUNE’s scientific mission is dedicated to unlocking the mysteries of neutrinos, the most abundant (and most mysterious) matter particles in the universe. Neutrinos are all around us, but we know very little about them. Scientists on the DUNE collaboration think that neutrinos may help answer one of the most pressing questions in physics: why we live in a universe dominated by matter. In other words, why we are here at all.
The enormous ProtoDUNE detector – the size of a three-story house and the shape of a gigantic cube – was built at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, as the first of two prototypes for what will be a much, much larger detector for the DUNE project, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States. When the first DUNE detector modules record data in 2026, they will each be 20 times larger than these prototypes.
The first ProtoDUNE detector took two years to build and eight weeks to fill with 800 tons of liquid argon, which needs to be kept at temperatures below -184 degrees Celsius (-300 degrees Fahrenheit). The detector records traces of particles in that argon, from both cosmic rays and a beam created at CERN’s accelerator complex. Now that the first tracks have been seen, scientists will operate the detector over the next several months to test the technology in depth.
“Only two years ago we completed the new building at CERN to house two large-scale prototype detectors that form the building blocks for DUNE,” said Marzio Nessi, head of the Neutrino Platform at CERN. “Now we have the first detector taking beautiful data, and the second detector, which uses a different approach to liquid-argon technology, will be online in a few months.”
To bridge the gap between basic research and real market needs, ATTRACT is calling for researchers, entrepreneurs and companies to bring forward breakthrough projectson pioneering imaging and sensor technologies.
The call opens on 1st August 2018 and applicants have up to three months to submit their ideas (deadline 31st October, 2018 23:59 hrs CET).
The ATTRACT Project will fund 170 breakthrough technology concepts in the domain of detection and imaging technologies across Europe. The projects will be awarded €17 million in funding – €100,000 each in seed funding to carry out their idea.
Observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have for the first time revealed the effects predicted by Einstein’s general relativity on the motion of a star passing through the extreme gravitational field near the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. This long-sought result represents the climax of a 26-year-long observation campaign using ESO’s telescopes in Chile.
Obscured by thick clouds of absorbing dust, the closest supermassive black hole to the Earth lies 26 000 light-years away at the centre of the Milky Way. This gravitational monster, which has a mass four million times that of the Sun, is surrounded by a small group of stars orbiting around it at high speed. This extreme environment — the strongest gravitational field in our galaxy — makes it the perfect place to explore gravitational physics, and particularly to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
New infrared observations from the exquisitely sensitive GRAVITY[1], SINFONI and NACO instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have now allowed astronomers to follow one of these stars, called S2, as it passed very close to the black hole during May 2018. At the closest point this star was at a distance of less than 20 billion kilometres from the black hole and moving at a speed in excess of 25 million kilometres per hour — almost three percent of the speed of light.
This artist’s impression shows the path of the star S2 as it passes very close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. As it gets close to the black hole the very strong gravitational field causes the colour of the star to shift slightly to the red, an effect of Einstein’s general thery of relativity. In this graphic the colour effect and size of the objects have been exaggerated for clarity.
The team compared the position and velocity measurements from GRAVITY and SINFONI respectively, along with previous observations of S2 using other instruments, with the predictions of Newtonian gravity, general relativity and other theories of gravity. The new results are inconsistent with Newtonian predictions and in excellent agreement with the predictions of general relativity.
An international team of scientists has found the first evidence of a source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, ghostly subatomic particles that can travel unhindered for billions of light years from the most extreme environments in the universe to Earth.
The IceCube Lab at the South Pole with aurora
Credit: Icecube/NSF
The observations, made by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station and confirmed by telescopes around the globe and in Earth’s orbit, help resolve a more than a century-old riddle about what sends subatomic particles such as neutrinos and cosmic rays speeding through the universe.
APPEC’s General Assembly Chair, Antonio Masiero commented, “This year APPEC launched its new roadmap for the European astroparticle physics strategy over the next decade. A central pillar in the construction of this roadmap is represented by the multi-messenger approach to explore the most energetic events occurring in the Universe.
“The first success was seen last year with the simultaneous observations of the gravitational waves and the photons emitted in the merger of two neutron stars. Today the IceCube Neutrino Observatory marks a major milestone on our path to establish the validity and feasibility of this new way of the observing the Universe with the announcement of the second observation of a multi-messenger event, this time related to neutrinos and photons emitted in the accretion phase of a far black hole.
“Multi-messenger astronomy allows an unprecedented level of investigation of the structure and dynamics of celestial bodies and all the high-energy events of the Universe. APPEC plays a crucial role in favouring the synergy of the relevant European assets in astroparticle physics in general and the multi-messenger field in particular. This is a research field where Europe has all the potential to play a world-leading role in the coming years“
The research has been published in the journal Science.
Laura Baudis, Professor of Physics at the University of Zurich has been appointed by the APPEC General Assembly as the new Chair of the APPEC Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) commencing in June 2018.
Laura Baudis (University of Zurich)
Professor Baudis was elected Chair of the SAC by representatives of the member countries of the group which coordinates research in Astroparticle Physics in Europe.
At the same General Assembly Jocelyn Monroe, from Royal Holloway University London, was elected Deputy Chair.
Speaking of her appointment Professor Baudis said “Thank you for your trust; I am of course very honoured by the GA decision to appoint me as chair of SAC for two years.
“I look forward to working together with all of you, as well as with Jocelyn and the renewed SAC towards the challenging task of implementing the APPEC roadmap recommendations.”
APPEC Chair and former SAC chair Professor Antonio Masiero welcomed the appointments and said “We are really happy that Laura and Jocelyn have kindly accepted to act as chairwoman and vice chairwoman, respectively, of our renewed SAC.
“The SAC is going to play a crucial role in the major challenge we’re tackling in this period of APPEC activities, namely the implementation of the roadmap
Jocelyn Monroe (RHUL)
recommendations.”
As part of International Women’s day 2018, Corinne Mosese spoke to Laura about what inspired her to go into physics and her advice for young girls considering their career choices. Find out more here: http://www.appec.org/news/profile-professor-laura-baudis
Biographies
Laura Baudis joined the Physics Department at the University of Zurich in August 2007 as a full professor in experimental physics. She received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg in 1999 and went on to become a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where she worked on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment. In 2004, she moved to the University of Florida, Gainesville, as an assistant professor, where she started to work on detectors using liquefied xenon (the first stage in the XENON programme, XENON10). In 2006, she was awarded the Lichtenberg Professorship for Astroparticle Physics at the RWTH, Aachen University. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), a member of the CERN Science Policy Committee and an Editor-in-chief of the European Physical Journal C. In 2017, she was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for the Xenoscope project.
Jocelyn Monroe joined the RHUL Physics Department in 2011, founding the Dark Matter & Neutrino research group within the Centre for Particle Physics. From 2009 she was an Assistant Professor in the MIT Physics Department. From 2006-09 she was a Pappalardo Fellow in MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science, working on the SNO solar neutrino oscillation experiment and as a founding member of the DMTPC project. Monroe earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2006, where her dissertation research was on the MiniBooNE accelerator neutrino oscillation experiment. From 1999-2000, she was an Engineering Physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where her research was on the physics of muon beam cooling. Monroe earned her B.A. in Astrophysics from Columbia University in 1999.
What is the mass of neutrinos? To answer one of the most fundamental and important open questions in modern particle physics and cosmology, the KATRIN experiment was designed and built by an international collaboration at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in southwest Germany. A special Inauguration Colloquium on June 11 marked the start of its long-term data taking phase.
KATRIN is a massive detector that has been designed to measure a neutrino’s mass with far greater precision than existing experiments. At the centre of KATRIN is a 200-tonne spectrometer, and scientists hope that with this new experiment they can start to collect data that in the next few years will give them a better idea of just how massive neutrinos can be.
Germany’s Federal Minister of Research Anja Karliczek said ”KATRIN is an experiment of superlatives and will complement the knowledge about our universe by a decisive piece of the puzzle.”
APPEC strongly supports the present range of direct neutrino-mass measurements and searches for neutrino-less double-beta decay. Guided by the results of experiments currently in operation and in consultation with its global partners, APPEC intends to converge on a roadmap for the next generation of experiments into neutrino mass and nature by 2020.
industry and academia to the APPEC Technology Forum 2018 (ATF 2018) on Nov 12-13 2018 in Veldhoven, near Eindhoven in The Netherlands.
