Table service in the area outside the Glass Box
20.00 CHF, ALL INCLUSIVE
Fillet of beef
Foie gras mousse
Side dish of the day
1 mineral water
1 coffee
Complimentary limoncello in December
The Wright Colloquium took place from 5 to 9 November 2018, this year on the theme of gravity. The five lectures delivered on this occasion covered topics ranging from interplanetary missions to black holes, gravitational waves, the enigma of dark energy and the links between gravitation and the quantum world.
Video recordings of these lectures are now available on the Wright Colloquium’s website.
These videos, as well as those of previous years’ colloquia, can also be found on the Wright Colloquium’s YouTube channel.
To improve comfort, all of the furniture in Restaurant 1 will be replaced following completion of the work outlined below and around 100 additional seats will be made available.
The work, which consists of refurbishment of the floors and repainting, will be carried out in December 2018 and January 2019. The areas that will be closed to the public while the work is taking place are as follows:
We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.
Restaurants Supervisory Committee (CSR)
The annual test of the diesel generators the CERN safety network on the Meyrin and Prévessin sites (including the North Area), in the SPS, and at LHC points 1 and 8 as well as LHC sector 1–8 are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 19 December 2018 from 6.00 a.m. to 6.30 a.m.
Electrical power will be cut on the Normal, General Services and Stable (18 kV, 3.3 kV, 400 V) networks.
The EN-EL group recommends that you turn off your critical equipment and computer equipment.
For any further information, please refer to the “Note de coupure”: https://edms.cern.ch/ui/file/2052544/1/ENNC_EL_2018_169_TEST_SECOURS.pdf.
Respect underpins CERN’s five values: integrity, commitment, professionalism, creativity and diversity. Taken together, these values form the basis of respect for others, for the Organization and for its mission. In 2010, building on its values, CERN established its Code of Conduct, a guide to help us, as CERN contributors, better understand how we are expected to conduct ourselves and treat others and how we should expect to be treated. “Respect @ CERN” then became the driving force for a project led by Geneviève Guinot, then Diversity Programme Leader, in which HR, the Ombud, HSE, the Design and Visual Identity team and the Relations with the Host States service worked together to create a series of short videos, to showcase situations covering the five values.
James Purvis, head of CERN’s HR department, feels the videos complete the picture: “CERN’s values and the Code of Conduct have been embedded in the fabric of the Organization since 2010. These complementary videos are an invitation for us all to reflect on the way our behaviour can impact our working environment and to think about how we can contribute to creating a respectful and inclusive working environment”.
The videos are now available on https://cern.ch/hr/cern-values. All videos are designed to be accessible for people with disabilities.
Due to roadworks, the roundabout at the intersection intersection of Routes Feynman, Rutheford and Weisskopf will be closed on 7, 10, 11 and 12 December.
The Restaurant 2 stop for the CERN shuttles will be moved to the roundabout on Route Feynman at the corner of Building 613. This road closure may cause delays on circuit 1 of the shuttle service.
Thank you for your understanding.
This is not a story of mere stones. You will probably have noticed some of the numbered posts along the 103 km border between France and Geneva. Of the 440 in total, 188 of them mark the border with the department of the Ain. They were erected after the 1814-1816 congress and treaties that resulted in Geneva becoming part of the Swiss Confederation and defined the territory of the new Canton. They are noteworthy in terms of both their size and the presence of engravings indicating the direction of the next and previous posts. The border is also marked by other unexceptional posts, simple pegs in the ground and watercourses.
With its unique location straddling two countries, CERN’s main site is home to three of the more exceptional border posts, numbered 124, 125 and 126. On Wednesday, 28 November, post No. 126, which had been removed while work was carried out on the car park of Restaurant No. 2, was returned to its original place. This was a more delicate feat than you might imagine as the post had to be positioned and oriented to within an accuracy of one centimetre. The operation was planned and supervised by an engineer from the Direction de l'information du territoire de Genève, Geneva’s land registry office, using a special surveying instrument known as a tacheometer. It was important that the post be turned to face exactly the right direction as the engraving on the top must correctly indicate the curve of the border.
The history of the border posts has common threads with CERN’s own history. Built on the periphery of the Canton of Geneva in the 1950s, the Laboratory soon found itself pushed for space. As it was impossible to find room to expand in the communes of Satigny or Meyrin, Switzerland and France signed an agreement in 1965 to extend the site onto French territory and thus allow the construction of the world's first proton-proton collider, the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR), commissioned in 1971. As a result, the border posts were situated within the CERN site. A further twist in the tale occurred when the PS Booster was built. Commissioned in 1972, the small ring measuring 150 metres in circumference was constructed on the border and covered over; finding itself directly beneath the border, it became the world’s first cross-border accelerator. Border post No. 125, which was originally located above ground, was kept at the bottom of a shaft and remains there to this day. You are therefore unlikely to see it, while post No. 124 is easy to spot on the grass strip above the PS, between Buildings 271 and 365.
As an interesting historical footnote, the border posts installed along the border with the Pays de Gex soon after the 1816 agreement are dated 1818 and bear a fleur-de-lis on the side facing France and a “G” on the side facing Geneva. However, those that have been replaced over time bear the letter “S” for Switzerland on the side facing Geneva, and the side facing France bears the letter “F” instead of the fleur-de-lis, a symbol of royalty. Along the border with Haute-Savoie, the French side of the original posts still standing bears an “S”, reflecting the fact that the territory belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1816, while the posts that have been replaced in more recent times have an “S” on the Swiss side. All very confusing! The final irony in the story is that the roads running along the border on the CERN site are named after a British man and an American, Ernest Rutherford and Richard Feynman, proving the point that science knows no borders and makes no distinction between nationalities.
Restaurant 1 will close at 4.00 p.m. on Friday, 21 December 2018 and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January 2019.
The Grab&Go will close at 3.00 p.m. on Thursday, 20 December and reopen at the usual times on Tuesday, 8 January.
The kiosk will close at 3.00 p.m. on Friday, 21 December and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January.
Restaurant 2 will close at 4.00 p.m. on Friday, 21 December and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January.
The cafeterias on the Meyrin site will close at 2.30 p.m. on Friday, 21 December and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January.
Restaurant 3 will close at 4.00 p.m. on Friday, 21 December and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January.
The cafeterias in Buildings 864 and 865 will close at 10.30 a.m. and 10.45 a.m. respectively on Friday, 21 December and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January.
The cafeteria in Building 774 will close at 3.00 p.m. on Friday, 21 December and reopen at the usual times on Monday, 7 January.
Seasons greetings from all the restaurant and cafeteria teams!
Please note that the Service Desk will be closed during that period, however in case of urgent requests, you can call/contact (+41 22 76) 77777. Calls will be redirected to the relevant support groups.
General Services
As always, like the emergency and fire service (7 4444), the security service remains operational 7/7, 24h /24h and reachable via 78878. However, the services provided by the SMB department requiring human presence (such as CERN hotel, the car sharing service, the shuttle service, etc.) will not be operational during the end of the year closure. Services that do not depend on a continuous human presence will remain available offering a reduced level of support during this period. In general, the response time to normal problems will be a half day (no guarantee), but in case of serious failure, the reaction time will depend on the arrangements that have been made with the supported services.
Any incidents will be documented on the CERN Service Status Board. For more information, please consult the CERN Service Portal.
Please also note that the heating of the Meyrin and Prévessin sites will be switched into a low mode. This reduced level will lead to a slight drop in temperature, in order to gain energy savings during this period of low occupancy.
Computing Services
Most of the services provided by the IT department - including WLCG production services - will remain available during the CERN annual closure. No interruptions are scheduled but in case of failure, the restoration of services cannot be guaranteed.
Problems will be dealt with on a best effort basis only and the availability of specific services might be limited by the availability of other services.
Please note that:
The operator service will be available and can be reached at 75011 or by email to computer.operations@cern.ch, where urgent problems may be reported.
Potential computer security incidents must be reported to Computer.Security@cern.ch or 70500 as usual.
Please remember to shut down and power off any equipment in your office that is not required during the annual closure.
On both sides of ATLAS and CMS, the High-Luminosity LHC requires new inner triplet magnets to perform the final focusing of the proton beams before collision. These magnets in turn need new beam screens in their cold bores, which will replace the beam screens of the existing magnets. The replacement, involving 230 metres of the LHC’s beam line, will be carried out in 2024.
The current beam screens of the LHC are made of a special stainless steel, co-laminated on the inner surface with a thin copper sheet of high electrical conductivity. When the beams circulate, the temperatures of the beam screen range between 5 K and 20 K. This allows particles to circulate in a vacuum similar to that on the moon and provides a thermal shield, limiting the energy transfer from the beam to the cold mass of the magnets, which is cooled down to 1.9 K (-271.3 ℃).
Each new beam screen is a tube up to 11 metres long with an octagonal cross-section, weighing almost half a tonne in total. It will shield the magnets’ coils and cryogenic system from the heat loads and other damage that would otherwise be induced by the highly penetrating collision debris. The shielding is done via tungsten-based inserts, which is one of the main differences compared to the current beam screens. The other differences are the bigger aperture and the four cooling tubes instead of two.
The new beam screens have been conceived to fulfil two major requirements: to withstand a magnet quench – when the superconducting device becomes resistive – with no plastic deformations, and to transfer the heat from the tungsten-based shielding to the integrated cooling tubes to keep the temperature in the defined range of 60–80 K.
In 2018, two dedicated experiments were performed to validate the design: a thermal test and a quench test. The thermal test reproduced the real working conditions of the beam screen in a dedicated cryostat at the operating temperatures. Its aim was to measure the heat transfer to the cold bore via the beam screen’s supporting system and map the temperature distribution of the copper layer. The quench test was conducted in a short model of a quadrupole magnet; it reproduced the mechanical behaviour of the beam screen during a magnet quench. The integrity of the beam screen was preserved and no plastic deformations were observed. Both tests showed good agreement with simulations.
Following the design and development phase, the focus will shift to production of this system, with the aim of making it operational by 2024.
From 10 to 14 December, Natacha, who is in charge of Novae’s grocery range, will be selling various products at our Christmas market.
On Thursday, 13 December, Novae will be offering a Christmas menu for 10.20 CHF:
A free raffle will be held on the same day. Tickets will be distributed at the restaurant tills from 11.30 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.
Prizes: hamper, smoked salmon, bottle of Prosecco, panettone and more!
The draw will take place at 3.00 p.m. in Restaurant 1.
At the end of 2018, four CERN technical apprentices were awarded their certificat fédéral de capacité (CFC). After four years of training at CERN, two physics laboratory technicians, Lucile Pinard and Deborah Sala, and two electronics technicians, Yann Kandasamy and Vincent Peer, have left the Laboratory.
Lucile Pinard was also awarded the Union industrielle genevoise (UIG) prize for her excellent academic results. The certificates were presented on 4 December at the Office de promotion des industries et des technologies (OPI) in the presence of Pierre Maudet, Geneva state councillor in charge of the department of security and the economy.
This year, the apprentices were hosted by the TE-ABT, TE-MPE, TE-VSC, EN-MME, TE-MSC, TE-EPC, BE-RF, BE-BI, PH-DT and HSE-RP groups at CERN, as well as the Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève (HUG) and the Haute école du paysage, d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Genève (HEPIA).
Thanks go to these groups and the apprentices’ supervisors who provided high-quality training to these young people.
Help keep them secure. Discuss “security” with them. Tell them how to protect their digital life, their documents and data, their photos and videos, their Facebook and Instagram accounts, and their online banking access. Start with your family. And then move on to your friends. Here are some ideas of how to do it.
Let’s start with the people you know. And those you don’t. Would you ever invite a random person from the street into your home? Would you accept a parcel from someone unknown and open it up? Would you follow a stranger into his car? (and what about your kids?) And how would that translate into the digital world? Chatting with some avatars on the other side of the world (who might happen to be “a dog”)? Or opening up an attachment to an unsolicited and unexpected e-mail with no return address nor reference to you; unrelated to you, your job or your interests; written in a foreign language; full of typos? What about clicking on random links in similar e-mails, Facebook posts, WhatsApp messages, or on dodgy webpages? Encourage them to be more suspicious. Common sense in the real world also applies to the digital world. Or else your digital life is in jeopardy.
Have a fun discussion about passwords. Secure long ones. Breakable short ones. Stupidly obvious ones. Nice complex ones. Without, of course, disclosing the passwords you use, talk about what kinds of passwords work for you and what kinds don’t. How do you memorise them (how did your grandma remember phone numbers in the last century)? What strategy do you employ for different applications and websites? Do you use a verse from your favourite poem? Or the chorus of your most cherished song? What about a good mathematical formula? Or the recipe of your preferred dish? The contents of a CD you bought 20 years ago? Or a combination of them all? Remember that good passwords should never be shared with anyone, be sufficiently complex that they cannot be found in any dictionary, and be different for different important websites and devices.
Also show them how they can keep their devices up-to-date: their Windows PCs (search for “Updates”), their Macbooks (Apple logo -> “System Preferences” -> “App Store”) but also their iOS (“Settings” -> “Software Update” and “Settings” -> Apple ID -> “iTunes & App Store“ -> enable “Updates”) and Android (“Google Play Store” -> “Menu Settings” and enable “Auto-update”) smartphones and tablets. Also consider any other networked device, like their wireless access points, webcams, smart TVs, gaming consoles… If you feel comfortable doing so, check whether these are running the most recent firmware version. Usually, somewhere they will provide a “check-for-recent-update” button. Your family and friends will be grateful!
Finally, note that all our Bulletin articles are publicly available on the CERN Bulletin’s home page. In addition, we have collated them into a nice Christmas read. Maybe your friends and family will be interested to learn more about computer security best practice and protective measures…
The CERN Computer Security Team wishes you a safe and secure 2019 (and, similarly, end of 2018)!
_______
Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, check our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
As with everything in this world, scientific instruments have a limited life-span, and from time to time they need a revamp. But compared to other objects, a technical pause for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) involves thousands of international scientists, engineers and technicians, state-of-the-art technology, and… a huge key. Back in 2015, after the LHC’s first long shutdown (LS1), the LS1 coordination team handed this key to the CERN Control Centre (CCC) operators. Not to open a door, but as a simple gesture to symbolise a shift in responsibilities. The operators kept the key for almost three years, as they checked the performance of the machine 24/7. Today, after a successful machine run, the operators mark the start of the second long shutdown (LS2), and pass the key to the LS2 coordinators to keep for the next two years.
The first task of LS2 is to bring the machine back to room temperature. The LHC uses superconductors that work at the astonishing temperature of −271 °C. The warming process requires almost four months, as more than 100 tonnes of liquid helium need to be slowly removed. Then, major upgrades and improvements will start.
Teams will be working to a tight schedule to improve the machine for both the short-term and long-term future, including preparations towards the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project foreseen for after 2025. Reaching the HL-LHC goals means delivering a more intense beam of particles to the LHC, and the team working on the injectors plan a series of modifications in the next two years. One includes replacing the now retired linear accelerator Linac 2 with the new Linac 4. While Linac 2 accelerated protons, the new addition will accelerate hydrogen ions (H−), made of one proton and two electrons, along an almost 90-metre-long machine, placed 12 metres underground.
The next accelerator in the chain, the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB), will strip off the electrons of H-, leaving only protons. The negatively charged hydrogen ions coming from Linac 4 get attracted to the newly-obtained protons, and the result is a more intense, concentrated beam that will continue its journey towards the LHC. In order to cope with these new requirements, the PSB will be equipped with completely new injection and acceleration systems, and the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), the last injector before the LHC, will have a new radio-frequency system.
Of the many renovations taking place inside the LHC, teams will replace more than 20 magnets. They will also install new lifts to travel 100 metres underground to the LHC tunnel, innovative power converters and unprecedented superconducting technologies. Teams will open up the interconnections between the LHC dipole magnets to consolidate the diodes, which are used to bypass the current from one magnet to the next in case of a rise in temperature. This is essential for the machine to reach a beam energy of 7 TeV, another objective of the HL-LHC upgrade.
While engineers and technicians perform maintenance and consolidation underground, above ground, physicists sift through the wealth of data gathered so far. We will share the LS2’s key moments for both the accelerators and the experiments over the coming months.
11 February is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. On this occasion, CERN, EPFL and UNIGE Scienscope offer local schools the possibility to welcome a female scientist/engineer to present her work to classes.
They are invited to tell their story, reveal some mysteries of science and to conduct some small experiments if they wish. The goal is to change the perception of classes towards the scientific and engineering professions, providing them feminine role models. And who knows, perhaps to arouse career plans, especially among young girls.
The event faces a growing interest among local schools, with more than 180 requests last year! We are thus looking for more and more female scientists volunteers who would give some of their time for this project.
Practical information:
Registration and further info on http://cern.ch/wis-internal.
Thank you for your commitment!
When crossing a border to enter or leave the Schengen area*, as well as when travelling from one country to another within the Schengen area (including between Switzerland and neighbouring France), you must carry a recognised and valid travel document (e.g. passport).
In addition, all nationals of countries other than the Member States of the European Economic Area** and Switzerland, unless they are specifically exempt, must carry a valid residence permit issued by a Schengen state or a valid Schengen visa.
The carte de légitimation issued by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAE) and the titre de séjour spécial issued by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs qualify as residence permits issued by Schengen states that allow visa-free travel to another Schengen state for a duration of up to 90 days within a 180-day period. The Host States have provided the Schengen authorities with specimens of the above-mentioned residence permits, which are included in Annex 20, Part II of the Schengen Manual, available here: https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/e-library/documents/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen/docs/handbook-annex_20_part2.pdf.
In the event of difficulties when presenting a carte de légitimation, the authority carrying out the check can be invited to contact the International Security Police at Geneva International Airport for information by calling +41 22 427 58 30 (until midnight) or + 41 22 427 92 20 (24 hours a day).
*http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen/index_en.htm
** https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/glossaire/R42218 /; https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/tags/european-economic-area
Relations with the Host States service
relations.secretariat@cern.ch
www.cern.ch/relations/
The emergency stop tests of the administrative area on the Meyrin site are planned on Friday 4 January 2019 from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm.
Frequent power cuts will occur on this area. The EN-EL group recommends that you turn off all your critical equipment and computer equipment.
For more information please refer to the "note de coupure": https://edms.cern.ch/ui/file/2059764/1/ENNC_EL_2018_197_AUG_ZA.pdf
See the map of the Meyrin site showing buildings affected by these power cuts: https://edms.cern.ch/ui/file/2059764/1/ENNC_EL_2018_197_AUG_ZA_PLAN.pdf
Want to make a bright impression on long dark winter nights? Then come and pick up your free reflector! It is small. It is neat. It comes with a metal chain so it can be attached to your clothes or bag. And it might just save your life.
When walking in the dark, it can be hard for drivers to see us. Just because we can clearly see a car approaching in the distance, it does not mean that the driver can see us. In fact, if we are not wearing something reflective, we are effectively invisible. However, if we are wearing something reflective, drivers can see us from a safe stopping distance of 125 metres.
Reflectors will be distributed outside all three main restaurants at lunchtime on Tuesday, 18 December. They will be available for purchase in the CERN Stores at a later date.
Make sure you are seen. Make sure you are safe.
CERN account holders can send electronic greetings cards via this site.
The eminent theoretical physicist James Stirling died on 9 November at his home in Durham, UK, after a short illness. He will be greatly missed, not only by his family but by his many friends and colleagues throughout the particle physics community. His wide-ranging contributions to the development and application of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) were central in verifying QCD as the correct theory of strong interactions and in computing precise predictions for all types of processes at hadron colliders such as the LHC.
James was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge University, where he obtained his PhD in 1979. After post-doc positions at the University of Washington in Seattle and at Cambridge, he came to CERN, first as a fellow and then as a staff member, leaving in 1986 for a faculty position at Durham University, where he remained until 2008. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999. At Durham, he played a major role in the foundation of the University’s Institute of Particle Physics Phenomenology in 2000, and served as its first Director. In 2005 he was appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research. He moved to Cambridge in 2008 to take up the Jacksonian Professorship of Natural Philosophy in the Cavendish Laboratory, becoming Head of the Department of Physics in 2011. Then, in 2013, he was appointed to the newly created position of Provost, the chief academic officer, at Imperial College, London, from which he retired last August, moving back to Durham, where his retirement was tragically curtailed by illness.
James was a prolific and meticulous researcher, publishing more than 300 papers, including some of the most highly cited of all time in particle physics. His research, always full of insight, focused on the confrontation of theoretical predictions with experimental results. Over the years, he performed frontier research on a vast range of phenomenological topics. Already during his graduate studies at Cambridge, in the early days of QCD, he clarified in detail the connection between deep inelastic lepton–hadron scattering and hadron–hadron processes such as lepton pair production, which led on to his later work on parton distributions at Durham. An example of his pioneering research is the first computation of the resummed transverse momentum distribution of W and Z bosons in hadron collisions at next-to-leading logarithmic order, performed with Christine Davies in 1984. Another is the development of the powerful helicity amplitude method, completed with Ronald Kleiss while they were at CERN. This enabled them to show that the “monojet” events at the CERN proton–antiproton collider, which had been thought to be a possible signal of new physics, could be explained by vector boson plus jet production. The method has since facilitated the calculation of many other important Standard Model processes.
After moving to Durham in 1986, James formed a long-standing and successful research collaboration with Alan Martin, Dick Roberts and, later, Robert Thorne. Among other projects, they set the standard for determining the quark and gluon distributions in the proton, which led to the widely used MRS, MRST and MSTW parton distribution functions. Later, when James returned to Cambridge, he became interested in processes in which more than one parton from each colliding hadron participates (double parton scattering), bringing a new level of rigour to the analysis of such processes.
James had the gift of being able to explain complicated concepts and ideas simply. He was highly sought after as a plenary or summary speaker at the major international particle physics conferences. His textbook QCD and Collider Physics, written with Keith Ellis and Bryan Webber, has been a standard reference for more than 20 years.
James was a humble and modest person but his intellectual brilliance, coupled with a very strong work ethic and exceptional organisational skills, meant that his advisory and administrative services were always in great demand. In 2006 he received the national honour of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) from the Queen for his services to science.
In addition to the great respect in which he was held as a scientist, James was much loved as a friend, colleague and mentor. He treated everyone with the same respect, courtesy and attention, whatever their status. His warmth, kindness and fundamental humanity made a deep impression on all who came into contact with him.
Alan Martin and Bryan Webber
