Current life stuff

Greetings all! Just an update on my recent activities.

At the moment I'm taking a day off from doing anything since last week was somewhat stressful. Not because I had too much work really, but I didn't get as much done as I should have.

On the up side, I've gotten involved with the robotics club on site and I rather enjoyed my first meeting. Our initial project will be with Lego mindstorms which are very basic robotics, but great for learning. We're going break into groups and make robots to push other robots out of a ring then bet beer on them. You can see why I immediately am enjoying this club. There also is some interest in building a sugar rocket which involves making an amateur rocket that runs on table sugar and potassium nitrate. Apparently you can get impressive height out of this. We're considering launching it from a balloon at a height of 30 kilometers.

The balloon comes from another project in the works which is based upon the standard nerd project of put a camera and GPS (in this case a droid for both) and send it up. Then find it when it comes down. We're considering a steerable parachute for the descent.

Speaking of the balloon project, apparently it is against Swiss law to fly a guided flying object unless that object has a line of sight remote control. I guess to avoid amateur bomb delivery systems? I pointed out that people who are making bomb delivery systems are unlikely to care much about breaking a law about guided balloons, but oh well. The Europeans seemed to think it made sense. Myself and the other American did not. Cultural differences I suppose. Being true to Swiss form, if you do launch a guided flying object with remote control they could care less where and when you do it. We're less than 15 miles from the Geneva airport and they STILL don't require, say, informing the planes. We kind of want to avoid any potential deaths, so we'll likely find a mountain to launch it off of that is far from where planes are likely to be taking off in a dense pattern.

Beyond that I keep trying to get people to go skiing but NO ONE WILL COMMIT TO IT!!! Bah. Somewhat frustrating. I'm pushing for tomorrow skiing pretty hard... we'll see how that goes. I also am continuing work on my thesis.

One frustrating thing is that ALICE has decided (in the latest in a swathe of harebrained rules to come out of the most recent administration here) that no laptops will be allowed in the control room while on shift. This means that the 40-odd eight hour shifts I had planned to help me get my thesis done have been chopped back to 24, and even that will be pushing my available time. I am NOT a fan. Apparently people weren't focusing on their tasks for eight hours strait. Personally after eight hours of staring without much to do between what I normally would have been doing I won't be very focused either... Even less so without a distraction such as Facebook.

Beyond the marinade I just poured over some beef destined for fajitas tomorrow, not much else has been going on. Life continues.

Ciao!

Breaking news

I made news that wasn't directly ALICE related! If you look at the video at the bottom of the link, that is Bjorn and I taking measurements on the EMCal supermodule I mentioned in the previous post! I'm the somewhat shorter one holding the notebook.
Enjoy!
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/?p=13881

-James

Into the cave

Well I finally got to do something that I've wanted to do for some time: I went down into the ALICE cavern and saw the detector itself. For those who don't remember previous posts, ALICE is about 60 meters underground and is accessible for people via a small elevator that is on the other side of an iris scan.

I had to get a dosimeter to make sure I don't absorb too much radiation (I absorbed none, everything is off) and permission from the safety officer for ALICE who coordinates who goes down and when, but overall it was much easier than I expected. Ostensibly the reason I was going down was to help Bjorn with some measurements. In reality this merely made things easier for him, and the real reason I went down is because it's really really neat. I got pictures! Enjoy!

This is the main hall of ALICE, above ground. On either side of this picture you can see the massive concrete blocks that were covering the top of the pit to make sure no stray radiation got out during the last run. There are a lot of them and they have to be removed one by one.

Here is a picture strait down into the pit. I posted a similar picture earlier when it was covered where the rim is about halfway down the shaft. This is where new equipment that is too big to go in the elevator is lowered by an absolutely massive crane.

This is how everything that isn't a large detector part gets down to see ALICE. All I had to do was scan my dosimeter, go into the yellow doors and scan my eye on the blue box you can see inside. It then let me into the room behind it (there are two sets of doors though that's hard to see from the picture. When things are running and they have to access the cavern (the "pit" seems to refer to the shaft, the cavern is the area underneath. Or they're not consistent in their naming) it requires calling the GLIMOS (group leader in matters of safety) who will release a key into the slots between the yellow doors and the blue where the intercom is, you then take the key and show it to the camera (behind me when I was taking the picture), then you put it in, scan your dosimeter, turn it, put it in your pocket, then do the eye scan. Rather involved and takes way more training than I have.

While down in the cavern there is a danger of things being dropped by people working and residual radiation since the whole area is a hazard area during running. So we wear a hard hat! In the picture is also my dosimeter.

We also wear steel toed shoes that, as I mentioned in the last post, are hideously uncomfortable. I decided that this little setup was adorable so I took a picture.

Here is Bjorn! We are past the access point and about to go into the cavern via the elevator.

We went down a series of stairs until we were roughly level with the ALICE detector itself. The large red thing is the magnet that, during operation, carries 30,000 amps of current to keep the enclosed area at half a Tesla (which is a rather large magnetic field). By comparison, house current in the US is around 15-20 amps.

Here is the thing that we were taking measurements of. It is a new part of the electromagnetic calorimeter, the detector that Creighton helps manage. We had to measure each of the panels sticking up so that we know where they are in relation to each-other.

This massive door is the end cap of ALICE. It is part of the magnet casing and part of the overall shielding for the experiment, though it does less than the 40 meters of concrete and earth above the detector. It is closed when we aren't inserting new components. The yellow rack there is installing another part of the EMCal.

This is the far side of the ALICE experiment. The big panels are for muon detection.

Here is a better view of the interior of the detector. Everything is crammed in there and I haven't the faintest clue exactly which bundle of wires is what detector... Oh well, you can probably find it online if you really want to know. Everything there is mounted to the entrance rather than attached to anything inside. This is because the magnet gets quite hot when it is on for months at a time and it could damage the detectors. There are reflective panels between the central area and the magnet that help protect the detectors as well.

This is a rack of a bunch of electronics that has to do with the inner tracking system (I believe). people can walk there, but as with any work in here you have to be careful since there is delicate equipment everywhere.

Here are the main power supplies for the EMCal! They have their own water cooling system, a miniature of the monster that runs through the entire experiment.

Here is below where the last few pictures were taken. This is the main coolant plant for the detector. Water is pumped from here to all the places it is needed to help keep things from burning up with all the power being drawn.

This is a little hole in the magnet door. About three feet across (if that) it is the only way to access anything once the doors are shut. People must go through here if they have to come in during a run.

A vertical view of the magnet door. This place is very large. Also the lights made for some cool effects.

And now for similar scale, this is the whole detector as seen from the floor of the cave.

Bjorn decided to show me the inside of the detector as well (or as much of it as a person can reach, which reminded me of pictures of the space shuttle for how much room one has to breathe). This is the underside of the detector. As you can see everything is mounted on central beams with vents for wires and, in this case, air for cooling (and breathing). Air has to be pumped down from above so we can breathe.

These last pictures are inside the detector itself. The clear wires are water coolant for the detector, and everything else... I'm not sure what it does. The massive silver cone in this picture is what can be seen of the muon absorber which, ironically, absorbs everything except muons so that the big panels I showed you earlier contend with only one kind of particle.

What you see is all the space that there is with lots of coolant tubes and wiring. It's cramped and hard to get to: we went up a couple of ladders and along passageways where we had to bend almost double to get through. It was a seriously cool experience and I don't know if I'll be able to repeat it since the EMCal group is almost done with their work and I need a reason to go down. If I come back during a long shutdown they give tours of the LHC, so maybe I can do that.

One more thing before I sign off: My friend Polly has commissioned me to write a poem that ALICE matters (the internal newsletter for those who don't remember) will do a podcast of me reciting it. That's right, someone actually ASKED me to write a poem! Here it is below!

The Cavern
By James Falconer Ross

Through metal doors and iris scans lies high technology
Under the ground behold the sound sets quarks and gluons free
Though for today the giant ring lies dormant in its dreams
Before too long we'll hear its song upon electric streams
Alloys gleam and scintillate in shadows cast through steel
As silence flares and blinded glares crash screaming 'round the wheel
At energies that ne'er before has man attained in flight
It's in this place the silence breaks and blindness turns to sight

Though powerful this monster is that gnaws at quarks with teeth
We're here to mend as we descend into the earth beneath
Yes powerful though fragile too: the year can take its toll
There's work to do and it's our crew that's ticking off the roll
Once in this place all that you see was filled with earth and stone
'Twas hand of man that moved the land, worked fingers to the bone
And now beneath the rolling hills a techno-forest creeps
Trees of metal without a petal stand vigil in the deeps

They start like vines winding down the walls twisting as they fall
Then to ALICE they blow a kiss and power through the hall
And branching off they wend their way into the myriad plans
For waiting there, no room to spare, they find their woven stands
The EMCal, the TPC, but species in a zoo
Their banishment, their nourishment is this symphonic stew
A symphony of blinking lights and gently roaring fans
The clustered cells like iron wells laid gently by our hands

We hurry now, there's much to do before we call it quits
We navigate the complex state and keep about our wits
Replace that card! Connect that wire! Our time is running short
But careful too 'lest through and through you overload the port!
Now input here! Now output there! Now tie these off with strings!
Our grove we tend and signals send to test a thousand things
We have a week or maybe two to ready for the run
In all that time we're quite sublime, we do this for the fun

Now all is patched and we're released, last cables have been laid
We never rested, ALICE is tested, the lights begin to fade
Once we are gone and dark returns the monster slowly wakes
Forest stirring and cavern purring all the time it takes.
Slowly stretching and reaching forth it tentatively grasps
The power threads that make its beds until its final gasps
When beam returns its senses seethe, straining like a beast
When ions fly then gleams its eye and gluts itself in feast

Hope all is well with everyone!
Ciao!

Back in the USSR (Well, Geneva).

Well everyone, I'm back! In Geneva I mean. I was back in the US for a while of course. I had a fantastic break, though I did a lot of work on my thesis and back at STAR for a little while, giving my replacement there a hand while I was available. Creighton likes giving people work to do. I had a fantastic Christmas with my near and extended family in Boise, having a blast doing stuff. Any sort of stuff. We enjoy ourselves.

The flight back was actually pretty short, only six hours from New York to Amsterdam. I managed to get my first batch of homework done on the plane (classes have started) and even got it turned in on time! Hehe. I got the text book on kindle to try it out. So far its manageable, but not quite as good as being able to flip through the thing. Oh well.

Once I got back to ALICE I dove right in. After dropping my bags off at Yiota's and saying hi to everyone, I was back at point 2 following Bjorn around doing... well not much as far as I can remember. Though honestly I don't remember much from my first day back. I was pretty fuzzy and was mostly just trying to keep awake until bed time because that is the most tortuous, if quickest, method for adjusting to the time zone. The exciting stuff is yet to come since at some point this week I'll be going down to the ALICE detector itself and (among the pictures I'll be taking) doing some work.

When I first walked into the ALICE building upon my return, I a shiny new concrete wall in the middle of the floor that hadn't been there before. This is because all the concrete slabs that were covering the pit had been removed to make way for new equipment to be lowered down, including some new pieces of the EMCal that I am working on (electromagnetic calorimeter for those of you who are interested and can't remember what EMCal is). The pit is deeeep.

Before getting permission to go down I had to get a few extra things done. The most complicated (but still pretty simple to get) was a dosimeter to make sure I don't absorb too much radiation while down there. This is an occupational hazard here, and I do hope my children have superpowers rather than tentacles as a result. Actually since the LHC is off, there shouldn't be any radiation, but it's still a safety procedure. The other things I needed (aside from permission from the powers that be, which I got via various emails and phone calls) was a hard hat and a pair of the most incredibly uncomfortable shoes I have ever worn.

These shoes, specifically designed to bend your feet backwards and sideways, produce hot spots and blisters just from wearing them. Not from walking around in them, mind. From wearing them. They have patented leather rubbing devices that stick sharpened leather needles (no I don't know how they do it) into your feet and gently tickle you until you go insane. And get blisters. I think they're steel toed though so that hundred thousand dollar equipment falling 60 meters of the crane onto my foot will bounce off harmlessly into the million dollar detectors all around and not hurt my toeses.

I'll be doing a post with pictures once I actually do go down (sometime over the next few days), but until then this will have to tide you over. Miss you all! Work is heavy with ever mounting piles of stuff to do, including a thesis in my spare time.

Ciao!