UK news from CERN Issue 6: 9 October 2012
In this issue:
Inside ALICE – the hottest place on the planet Keeping the drama out of a crisis - CERN engages UK crisis management consultants Researcher’s Night – staying up late for physics Tarte au framboise – introducing Raspberry Pi to French schools Dates for the diary
Inside ALICE – the hottest place on the planet The Higgs boson has been widely billed as ‘the particle which gives matter mass’. It does, but it’s only responsible for 2% of your mass. What about the remaining 98%? The ALICE experiment on the LHC is creating extreme conditions that are forcing nature to give up some of her secrets – the properties of the Strong Force that keeps particles inside the atomic nucleus together, and how this energy generates mass. In fact ‘extreme’ seems a rather inadequate description of temperatures that are 300,000 times hotter than the inside of the Sun (6 trillion °C) and densities that are 50 times greater than those in the core of a neutron star. Only black holes have a higher density.
The ALICE experiment © CERN
We know that the Strong Force imprisons quarks in protons and neutrons inside the nucleus, but it is the force that we know least about. We have a theory, Quantum Chronodynamics or QCD, which explains the basics but as David Evans from University of Birmingham,
and a member of the ALICE Management Board explains, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered; “The equations involved in QCD are extremely complex, and ‘explode’ under certain conditions. Free quarks don’t exist in nature, but QCD predicts that they do at the kinds of temperatures and densities that existed at the start of the Universe. ALICE allows us to recreate conditions that existed only 10-5 seconds after the Big Bang.” For one month each year, the LHC accelerates two beams of highly charged lead ions – lead atoms stripped of all 82 of their electrons. When they collide, the beams of ions create subatomic fireballs in the heart of the ALICE experiment. Measurements show that the resulting temperatures and densities are the highest ever created on Earth. A sugar-lump sized piece of this primordial soup of quark gluon plasma would weigh 40 billion tonnes. By accurately recording what happens in each of the collisions, David and his colleagues hope to find out more about the Strong Force. And that’s quite an undertaking as each collision generates over 10,000 particles, and thousands of collisions happen every second. The trigger electronics for the data acquisition system were designed by the University of Birmingham and built by UK company, Cemgraft. “The UK is a relatively small group in the ALICE collaboration but we have a big influence. The trigger electronics is the only central system for the experiment in which CERN has no involvement – it’s a reflection of how highly we are trusted.”
Page 1 Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, STFC Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN Stephanie.hills@stfc.ac.uk or Stephanie.hills@cern.ch
One of the things that the collaboration has already concluded is that describing the primordial soup as a ‘quark gluon plasma’ is inaccurate. “We had always expected the particles to behave like a gas plasma,” explains David, “but we’ve discovered that this exotic state of matter is actually a perfect liquid. At 6 trillion °C and extreme density, it’s the mother of all liquids!” By measuring the lead ion collisions and comparing these to results to proton:proton and proton:lead ion collisions, ALICE has already increased our understanding of the Strong Force and how it confines particles in the nucleus. Upgrades to the detector over the next two shutdowns will equip ALICE to create even higher temperatures and densities as it seeks to understand how the strong force works and how it generates 98% of nuclear mass.
One of the first proton:lead ion collisions seen by ALICE on 13 September 2012 © CERN
UK involvement in ALICE The UK contingent consists of eight staff and five PhD students from the Universities of Birmingham and Liverpool, and STFC. Alongside the trigger electronics, UK companies have supplied components for the Muon Absorber, and the processors used throughout ALICE were supplied by Concurrent Technologies.
Keeping the drama out of a crisis When you’re working at the limits of science and technology, you need strict safety and security procedures, and a culture where staff understand and follow the procedures meticulously. Nevertheless, if a piece of equipment fails or a person makes a mistake, things can still go wrong, sometimes with potentially serious consequences. How quickly,
calmly and efficiently an organisation responds to such a situation depends on how much crisis planning and training has taken place beforehand. CERN is reviewing its technical crisis management procedures and Steelhenge, a specialist consultancy from the UK, has just been appointed to provide support and expertise. Simon Baird is leading the CERN working group, “We wanted to make sure that in the event of a serious incident, our plans are robust and practical so that they help us deal with it quickly, minimising any further risks to people, equipment or the environment. This has been a very detailed review, incorporating input from right across CERN.” Now that Simon and his team have produced a plan, Dominic Cockram from Steelhenge is reviewing it. “CERN is a unique organisation in terms of the facilities that it operates and the research that it carries out, but the fact that it faces risks and potential problems makes it similar to other businesses in having to have mechanisms for responding at the operational, tactical and strategic levels. We’ll be reviewing the strategic crisis response plan against international best practice, and reporting back on how it can be developed. We’ll also be assessing what training is required and delivering courses that are tailored to CERN’s new crisis structure and the specific needs of its teams.” One of the most important issues for Dominic and the Steelhenge team is to understand the culture of the organisation. “A successful plan has to ‘fit’ the structure and culture of the organisation. For example, CERN has a relatively small staff but many international visitors, and the plan needs to acknowledge this.” Interestingly, three of the four crisis management consultancies that responded to CERN’s tender came from the UK. “Over the years the British Army and UK police have developed considerable experience in dealing with major issues and the delivery of an Page 2
Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, STFC Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN Stephanie.hills@stfc.ac.uk or Stephanie.hills@cern.ch
effective response,” explained Dominic, “This expertise is now being translated into a civilian and commercial context, and has made the UK international leaders in crisis management.”
Researcher’s Night - young people take the Controls As part of the European Researcher’s Night on 28 September, young people aged 13-18 years spent two hours alongside physicists in the control rooms of the LHC accelerator and experiments. As you might expect for an event that runs from 6pm until midnight on a Friday, it generally attracts young people from the local area. Numbers are strictly limited and the event always fills quickly. But this year 25 UK teenagers managed to register after seeing the event advertised on CERN’s Twitter feed and Facebook page. This interest is all the more impressive because participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs. The young people came from 21 different community colleges, grammar schools, sixth form colleges, independent and high schools across the UK. The one thing that they share is a passion for physics, and many are already planning to study the subject at university.
Tarte au framboise Raspberry Pi, the tiny and inexpensive computer created in the UK has developed a cult following around the world. It was developed with the specific goal of combatting the decline in computer programming in UK schools, but the same problem exists in French schools. Will Bell, a physicist on the ATLAS experiment was concerned when he realised that the computers in his children’s primary school, close to CERN, were only available to those with special needs. He wondered if Raspberry Pi
could be used to inspire all the children and give them the chance to develop their own programmes. “It would cost just 1700€ [approx £1450], to fully equip our local school with equipment including 10 computers, screens, keyboards, mice and cabling,” explains Will, “That’s such a small cost and would open up a world of creative opportunities to the children. Programming skills are essential in so many sectors, but changing the way they are taught requires the commitment of the teachers.” Will’s idea has developed into a drop-in-event, or ‘Raspberry Jam’ on 20 October where teachers from French and Swiss schools can see how easily programming with a Raspberry Pi can be incorporated into the curriculum. Primary and secondary students can have a go with pre-programmed Raspberry Pi or try programming for themselves. Sales of the Raspberry Pi were estimated at 700 per second when it went on sale earlier in 2012. To keep up with worldwide demand, they are now being manufactured at a rate of 2500 per day at Sony’s factory in Pencoed, Wales. Each computer is the size of a credit card, weighs 45g and the basic model costs $25.
How to subscribe To subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) UK News from CERN, please contact jill.little@stfc.ac.uk. Back issues of UK News from CERN are available on the archive page. Diary dates LHC on Tour at Welsh Senedd – 27 Nov-2 Dec CERN Council – 10 – 13 December Brits@CERN meeting – 13 December (5pm) LHC shut down – mid February 2013
Page 3 Written and edited by Stephanie Hills, STFC Communications and Innovation Officer @ CERN Stephanie.hills@stfc.ac.uk or Stephanie.hills@cern.ch