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

Beam losses from ultra-peripheral nuclear collisions between Pb ions in the Large Hadron Collider and their alleviation

Electromagnetic interactions between colliding heavy ions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will give rise to localized beam losses that may quench superconducting magnets, apart from contributing significantly to the luminosity decay. To quantify their impact on the operation of the collider, we have used a three-step simulation approach, which consists of optical tracking, a Monte-Carlo shower simulation and a thermal network model of the heat flow inside a magnet. We present simulation results for the case of Pb ion operation in the LHC, with focus on the ALICE interaction region, and show that the expected heat load during nominal Pb operation is 40% above the quench level. This limits the maximum achievable luminosity. Furthermore, we discuss methods of monitoring the losses and possible ways to alleviate their effect.Comment: 17 pages, 20 figure

First observations of beam losses due to bound-free pair production in a heavy-ion collider

We report the first observations of beam losses due to bound-free pair production at the interaction point of a heavy-ion collider. This process is expected to be a major luminosity limit for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) when it operates with 208Pb82+ ions because the localized energy deposition by the lost ions may quench superconducting magnet coils. Measurements were performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) during operation with 100 GeV/nucleon 63Cu29+ ions. At RHIC, the rate, energy and magnetic field are low enough so that magnet quenching is not an issue. The hadronic showers produced when the single-electron ions struck the RHIC beampipe were observed using an array of photodiodes. The measurement confirms the order of magnitude of the theoretical cross section previously calculated by others.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Added journal ref. Corrected typos. Fixed fig 1. Minor improvements to fig. 1,3,4. Rephrased a small number of sentences (p1,3,4). Added numerical values of the aperture and the displacement for Au (p 2). Changed reference 5, added name in acknowledgments (p 4

pax1-1 partially suppresses gain-of-function mutations in Arabidopsis AXR3/IAA17

Background: The plant hormone auxin exerts many of its effects on growth and development by controlling transcription of downstream genes. The Arabidopsis gene AXR3/IAA17 encodes a member of the Aux/IAA family of auxin responsive transcriptional repressors. Semi-dominant mutations in AXR3 result in an increased amplitude of auxin responses due to hyperstabilisation of the encoded protein. The aim of this study was to identify novel genes involved in auxin signal transduction by screening for second site mutations that modify the axr3-1 gain-of-function phenotype. Results: We present the isolation of the partial suppressor of axr3-1 (pax1-1) mutant, which partially suppresses almost every aspect of the axr3-1 phenotype, and that of the weaker axr3-3 allele. axr3-1 protein turnover does not appear to be altered by pax1-1. However, expression of an AXR3:: GUS reporter is reduced in a pax1-1 background, suggesting that PAX1 positively regulates AXR3 transcription. The pax1-1 mutation also affects the phenotypes conferred by stabilising mutations in other Aux/IAA proteins; however, the interactions are more complex than with axr3-1. Conclusion: We propose that PAX1 influences auxin response via its effects on AXR3 expression and that it regulates other Aux/IAAs secondarily

Initial evidence for the criterion-related and structural validity of the long versions of the direct and meta-perspectives of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 Taylor & Francis.The aim of the present study was to develop and initially validate a longer version of the direct (Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2004) and meta-perspectives (Jowett, 2009a, 2009b) of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q). In Study 1, instruments (e.g. questionnaires, scales, and inventories) that have been used to assess relationship quality in the broader psychological literature were examined and items potentially relevant to the coach-athlete relationship were identified. The content validity of the identified items was then assessed using expert panels. A final questionnaire was subsequently prepared and administered to 693 participants (310 coaches and 383 athletes). Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to assess the multidimensional nature of the questionnaire based on the 3Cs (i.e. closeness, commitment, and complementarity) model of the coach-athlete relationship. The findings indicated that the direct and meta-perspective items of the long versions of the CART-Q approached an adequate data fit. Moreover, evidence for the internal consistency and criterion validity of the new instruments was also obtained. In Study 2, the newly developed measure was administered to an independent sample of 251 individuals (145 athletes and 106 coaches). Further statistical support was gained for the factorial validity and reliability of the longer version of the CART-Q

Beehives, Booze and Suffragettes: The “Sad Case” of Ellen S. Tupper (1822–1888), the “Bee Woman” and “Iowa Queen Bee”

ELLEN S. TUPPER was a 19th century expert bee-keeper who was most active during and shortly after the end of the American Civil War. A vigorous writer and apiarist, primarily focused on business interests and opportunities, she became the first female editor of an entomological journal in 1869. Joining the mid-western suffragettes, who at this time were also strongly linked to the temperance societies, she was soon presented as a role model of a successful businesswoman the early feminist movement. Together with ANNIE NOWLIN SAVERY (1831-1891), a leading American suffragette of her time, she established the "Italian Bee Company". For a short period, ELLEN S. TUPPER successfully imported and distributed Italian queens and bees to an interested American audience, while she actively promoted bee keeping as a suitable endeavour for women. Her reports on successful fertilization of bee queens that were held in confinement sparked a lively and controversial discussion among entomologists not only in America but also in Europe. At the height of her career she became the first female lecturer in apiology and the first woman elected to serve as an officer in a national entomological society. At the same meeting more than 30 other suffragettes joined the "North American Beekeepers' Society". This was a symbolic and perhaps even defining moment of female activity in science during the 19th century. Her activities soon earned her nicknames such as "Iowa Queen Bee" or the "Bee Woman". However, financial difficulties put an end to most of her business endeavours. Her career as an apiarist and editor came to a disgraceful end when she was incarcerated for the forgery of notes presented at several banks, subsequently acquitted on the ground of insanity. The forgery trial though has overshadowed ELLEN S. TUPPER's legacy in the history of women in science: As a farmer's wife in one of the frontier towns of the Wild West, in a county, which on her first arrival did not even possess a printing press, she was able to start a successful and impressive career as an editress. With her work she and a few like-minded supporters practically single-handedly recruited more women for entomological societies than all other European and American societies and institutions in the 19th century together. For nearly two and a half decades she went on a stubborn and effective crusade to convince women to become bee-keepers

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

Physics Opportunities with the FCC-hh Injectors

In this chapter we explore a few examples of physics opportunities using the existing chain of accelerators at CERN, including potential upgrades. In this context the LHC ring is also considered as a part of the injector system. The objective is to find examples that constitute sensitive probes of New Physics that ideally cannot be done elsewhere or can be done significantly better at theCERN accelerator complex. Some of these physics opportunities may require a more flexible injector complex with additional functionality than that just needed to inject protons into the FCC-hh at the right energy, intensity and bunch structure. Therefore it is timely to discuss these options concurrently with the conceptual design of the FCC-hh injector system.Comment: 13 pages, chapter 5 in Physics at the FCC-hh, a 100 TeV pp collide