Facilities for the Energy Frontier of Nuclear Physics

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL has been exploring the energy frontier of nuclear physics since 2001. Its performance, flexibility and continued innovative upgrading can sustain its physics output for years to come. Now, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is about to extend the frontier energy of laboratory nuclear collisions by more than an order of magnitude. In the coming years, its physics reach will evolve towards still higher energy, luminosity and varying collision species, within performance bounds set by accelerator technology and by nuclear physics itself. Complementary high-energy facilities will include fixed-target collisions at the CERN SPS, the FAIR complex at GSI and possible electron-ion colliders based on CEBAF at JLAB, RHIC at BNL or the LHC at CERN.Comment: Invited talk at the International Nuclear Physics Conference, Vancouver, Canada, 4-9 July 2010, to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series. http://inpc2010.triumf.ca

MAD Version 9

The program MAD is widely used for accelerator design and beam dynamics studies. For many years, its input language has been the nearest thing to a world-wide standard for describing accelerator structures. The new Version 9 is a complete rewrite using a systematic object-oriented methodology based on the CLASSIC classes [2] for accelerator physics. It provides many improvements over the previous MAD Version 8. These include: (i) support for multiple beam-lines simultaneously, facilitating, for example, matching constraints that couple the two rings of a two-ring collider, (ii) much improved Lie-algebraic map calculations, (iii) a uniform method and format for exchanging many kinds of structured data with other programs, (iv) an improved and more consistent input language. In addition, we report on a parallel 3D Poisson field solver for space charge calculations in high intensity particle beams. Applied to the PSI injector cyclotron, this shows the general nature of MAD Version 9 as a state-of- the-art problem-solving environment. We describe the current status of the program and how to get it, outline future plans and illustrate some of the new features

A Candidate Low Emittance Lattice for LEP at its Highest Energies

Several low emittance lattices have been proposed for LEP at its highest energies in order to reduce the horizontal beam size and bring the beam-beam limit within reach. However, optics with high phase advance per cell tend to have strong tune dependence on amplitude that can reduce the dynamic aperture and the beam lifetime, possibly limiting the maximum beam energy or creating operational difficulties. Recently an optics with a phase advance of 17p/30 in the horizontal and p/2 in the vertical plane was developed. This optics has a significantly smaller detuning with amplitude. The results of experiments on this optics are compared with expectations and some details of the first operational experience with this lattice are presented. The potential performance at maximum energy is discussed

Measurement of Ion Beam Losses due to Bound-Free Pair Production in RHIC

When the LHC operates as a Pb82+ ion collider, losses of Pb81+ ions, created through Bound-free Pair Production at the collision point, and localized in cold magnets, are expected to be a major luminosity limit. With Au79+ ions at RHIC, this effect is not a limitation because the Au78+ production rate is low, and the Au78+ beam produced is inside the momentum aperture. When RHIC collided Cu29+ ions, secondary beam production rates were lower still but the Cu28+ ions produced were predicted to be lost at a well-defined location, creating the opportunity for the first direct observation of BFPP effects in an ion collider. We report on measurements of localized beam losses due to BFPP with copper beams in RHIC and comparisons to predictions from tracking and Monte Carlo simulation

Linear Optics Design for PS2

The design considerations and key parameters for the replacement of the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) with a new ring (PS2), as part of the upgrade of the LHC injector complex are summarized. Classical linear optics solutions including standard FODO, doublet and triplet cells with real transition energy, are studied. Particular emphasis is given to the tuning and optimisation of Negative Momentum Compaction (NMC) cells with imaginary transition energy. The optics of the high energy transfer line is also presented

Design Status of the CLIC 3-TeV Beam Delivery System and Damping Rings

We describe the present design status of beam delivery and damping rings for CLIC at 3 TeV cm energy, and outline our future plans. The beam delivery system comprises collimation, final focus and post-IP exit line. Critical design aspects include halo collimation, machine protection, beam removal, and thermal stability analysis. In order to attain the design spot size at the collision point, the damping rings must provide beams of extremely small emittances. In this paper, we focus on collimation and spent beam

IONS FOR LHC: STATUS OF THE INJECTOR CHAIN

The LHC will, in addition to proton runs, be operated with Pb ions and provide collisions at energies of 5.5 TeV per nucleon pair, i.e. more than 1.1 PeV per event, to experiments. The transformation of CERN's ion injector complex (Linac3-LEIR-PS-SPS) to allow collision of ions in LHC in 2008 is well under way. The status of these modifications and the latest results of commissioning will be presented. The remaining challenges are reviewed

Underutilization of Social Insurance among the Poor: Evidence from the Philippines

Many developing countries promote social health insurance as a means to eliminate unmet health needs. However, this strategy may be ineffective if there are barriers to fully utilizing insurance.We analyzed the utilization of social health insurance in 30 hospital districts in the central regions of the Philippines between 2003 and 2007. Data for the study came from the Quality Improvement Demonstration Study (QIDS) and included detailed patient information from exit interviews of children under 5 years of age conducted in seven waves among public hospital districts located in the four central regions of the Philippines. These data were used to estimate and identify predictors of underutilization of insurance benefits--defined as the likelihood of not filing claims despite having legitimate insurance coverage--using logistic regression.Multivariate analyses using QIDS data from 2004 to 2007 reveal that underutilization averaged about 15% throughout the study period. Underutilization, however, declined over time. Among insured hospitalized children, increasing length of stay in the hospital and mother's education, were associated with less underutilization. Being in a QIDS intervention site was also associated with less underutilization and partially accounts for the downward trend in underutilization over time.The surprisingly high level of insurance underutilization by insured patients in the QIDS sites undermines the potentially positive impact of social health insurance on the health of the marginalized. In the Philippines, where the largest burden of health care spending falls on households, underutilization suggests ineffective distribution of public funds, failing to reach a significant proportion of households which are by and large poor. Interventions that improve benefit awareness may combat the problem of underutilization and should be the focus of further research in this area

New physics searches with heavy-ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

This document summarises proposed searches for new physics accessible in the heavy-ion mode at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), both through hadronic and ultraperipheral gamma gamma interactions, and that have a competitive or, even, unique discovery potential compared to standard proton-proton collision studies. Illustrative examples include searches for new particles-such as axion-like pseudoscalars, radions, magnetic monopoles, new long-lived particles, dark photons, and sexaquarks as dark matter candidates-as well as new interactions, such as nonlinear or non-commutative QED extensions. We argue that such interesting possibilities constitute a well-justified scientific motivation, complementing standard quark-gluon-plasma physics studies, to continue running with ions at the LHC after the Run-4, i.e. beyond 2030, including light and intermediate-mass ion species, accumulating nucleon-nucleon integrated luminosities in the accessible fb(-1) range per month.Peer reviewe

The cost-effectiveness of point of care testing in a general practice setting: results from a randomised controlled trial

Extent: 11p.Background: While point of care testing (PoCT) for general practitioners is becoming increasingly popular, few studies have investigated whether it represents value for money. This study aims to assess the relative cost-effectiveness of PoCT in general practice (GP) compared to usual testing practice through a pathology laboratory. Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis based on a randomized controlled trial with 4,968 patients followed up for 18 months and fifty-three general practices in urban, rural and remote locations across three states in Australia. The incremental costs and health outcomes associated with a clinical strategy of PoCT for INR, HbA1c, lipids, and ACR were compared to those from pathology laboratory testing. Costs were expressed in year 2006 Australian dollars. Nonparametric bootstrapping was used to generate 95% confidence intervals. Results: The point estimate of the total direct costs per patient to the health care sector for PoCT was less for ACR than for pathology laboratory testing, but greater for INR, HbA1c and Lipids, although none of these differences was statistically significant. PoCT led to significant cost savings to patients and their families. When uncertainty around the point estimates was taken into account, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for PoCT was found to be unfavourable for INR, but somewhat favourable for ACR, while substantial uncertainty still surrounds PoCT for HbA1c and Lipids. Conclusions: The decision whether to fund PoCT will depend on the price society is willing to pay for achievement of the non-standard intermediate outcome indicator. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12605000272695Caroline O Laurence, John R Moss, Nancy E Briggs, Justin J Beilby for PoCT Trial Management Grou