Conference summary
2
Conference summary I summarise the first Technology and Instrumentation in Particle Physics Conference. Varied, comprehensive, broad, sti- mulating; the series has got off to a great start. 1. Introduction It has been a great pleasure and privilege to attend the first of a new IUPAP-sponsored conference series, Technology and Instru- mentation in Particle Physics (TIPP). When Gregor Herten first mentioned the idea to me a couple of years ago, I was supportive but somewhat skeptical. I am pleased that my skepticism was unfounded but worried by the fact that this very success makes the job of a summariser impossible. Having immediately conceded the impossibility of a summari- ser’s task, most of us position ourselves somewhere between the two extreme options: completely ignoring the talks presented at the conference and instead presenting one’s own work; or mentioning every talk at an average of 1 sentence per topic. If conference summaries are by definition ephemeral, then a write- up of a summary is almost worthless. I shall therefore content myself with merely giving a flavour of the bewildering variety of results presented at this conference. I will not give references since I will refer only to write-ups elsewhere in this volume. The first thing to note is the very comprehensive nature of the conference; although centred in particle physics it went well beyond it with extensive sessions on particle astrophysics and astronomical detectors, spin-outs into medical and biological science and the science of complex structures as well as accelerator instrumentation. One of the most valuable aspects of the conference was thus the opportunity to be exposed to the latest ideas in these fields and to discuss them with the experts. In turn this has clearly led to the stimulation of new ideas and new inter-disciplinary interactions—an increasing imperative in to- day’s funding climate. The next point to note is the format. The other two IUPAP- sponsored conferences have very different formats: lepton– photon is plenary only; the Rochester Series has many parallel sessions in front of plenary summaries. I think the TIPP format is the best of the three—an introductory day of plenaries followed by parallels with an excellent dedicated poster session; then concluding days of plenaries to summarise the main themes of the conference. The parallel sessions of ‘‘student lectures’’ were another excellent innovation. On my visits to them, particularly to that of Fabio Sauli, I was unsurprised to see that the ‘‘students’’ were outnumbered by the ‘‘professors’’—of course, in the field of the characteristics of gaseous detectors, we are all students of Charpak and Sauli. It is a pleasure to subscribe in print to the eightieth birthday felicitations expressed at the conference to Georges Charpak—truly the father of so many of the develop- ments discussed at this conference. I was also particularly impressed by the poster session; some of the entries were almost works of (pop) art and all were informative. I was inspired to learn more about areas ranging from accelerator mass spectrometry at Erlangen and its use to detect fake Persian mummies to application of diamond detectors to determine the beam conditions at ATLAS. I have to admit that another reason for topics to catch my eye was anything on which I myself had worked in the past. The development of diamond detectors was one of these areas and I was gratified to see the considerable progress that has been made in producing detectors that have unique properties for some particle physics applications, particularly when fast signals are necessary in a high-radiation environment. Considerable further work is still required however to realize the full potential of these remarkable devices. Aerogel is also a remarkable substance; even more remarkable is the progress reported by Tabata in the poster session by the KEK group in manufacturing much clearer samples over a very large range of refractive indices using an innovative pin-drying technique. I must admit to being astonished that the technique of my thesis experiment – the bubble chamber – was represented at the conference. The very beautiful adaption of the chamber to operate in a continuously sensitive mode under superheating described by Ramberg for the COUPP collaboration is being used to search for WIMPs and will be expanded to a 500 kg chamber. Astroparticle neutrino detection and elucidation of their properties is thriving and we heard a number of reports from experiments such as Katrin, KM3NeT, Double Chooz and Daya Bay. Cryogenic Dark Matter detectors, particularly using liquid Xenon, are also making impressive strides. Using a two-phase detector can give good discrimination against photons. The experimental programme at VEP2000 at the Budker Institute is getting under way. Physics goals include the study of hadronic cross-sections, precision measurements of R ¼ s(e + e – - hadrons)/s(e + e – -m + m – ), the study of light vector mesons recur- rences. Small is clearly beautiful in terms of the tiny detectors necessary to study the interactions at these very low energies < 2 GeV, presented by Khazin. The small but beautiful theme was continued by the reports of the development of DEPFET detectors by Friedel and Winter which were originally intended for ILC but which are finding application, with some non-trivial adaption, in detectors planned for the SuperBelle detector. Calorimetry advances currently are mostly driven by ILC applications, where significant progress has been made by the CALICE Collaboration. Their future plans will involve the embed- ding of electronics inside the modules. The dual readout approach of the 4th Concept as reported by Hauptman shows some remarkable promise in both resolution and in particle identifica- tion. The other major effort is of course the commissioning, understanding and optimisation of the massive calorimeter systems at all four of the LHC detectors, each of which has very different approaches to calorimetric technology. There were several advances in gaseous detectors; their applications in fields beyond particle physics continue to grow. Breskin showed some beautiful work on the mitigation of ion Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nima Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A doi:10.1016/j.nima.2010.02.154 Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 623 (2010) 80–81
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Transcript of Conference summary
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 623 (2010) 80–81
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Nuclear Instruments and Methods inPhysics Research A
doi:10.1
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nima
Conference summary
I summarise the first Technology and Instrumentation inParticle Physics Conference. Varied, comprehensive, broad, sti-mulating; the series has got off to a great start.
1. Introduction
It has been a great pleasure and privilege to attend the first of anew IUPAP-sponsored conference series, Technology and Instru-mentation in Particle Physics (TIPP). When Gregor Herten firstmentioned the idea to me a couple of years ago, I was supportivebut somewhat skeptical. I am pleased that my skepticism wasunfounded but worried by the fact that this very success makesthe job of a summariser impossible.
Having immediately conceded the impossibility of a summari-ser’s task, most of us position ourselves somewhere between thetwo extreme options: completely ignoring the talks presented atthe conference and instead presenting one’s own work; ormentioning every talk at an average of 1 sentence per topic. Ifconference summaries are by definition ephemeral, then a write-up of a summary is almost worthless. I shall therefore contentmyself with merely giving a flavour of the bewildering variety ofresults presented at this conference. I will not give referencessince I will refer only to write-ups elsewhere in this volume.
The first thing to note is the very comprehensive nature of theconference; although centred in particle physics it went wellbeyond it with extensive sessions on particle astrophysics andastronomical detectors, spin-outs into medical and biologicalscience and the science of complex structures as well asaccelerator instrumentation. One of the most valuable aspects ofthe conference was thus the opportunity to be exposed to thelatest ideas in these fields and to discuss them with the experts. Inturn this has clearly led to the stimulation of new ideas and newinter-disciplinary interactions—an increasing imperative in to-day’s funding climate.
The next point to note is the format. The other two IUPAP-sponsored conferences have very different formats: lepton–photon is plenary only; the Rochester Series has many parallelsessions in front of plenary summaries. I think the TIPP format isthe best of the three—an introductory day of plenaries followedby parallels with an excellent dedicated poster session; thenconcluding days of plenaries to summarise the main themes of theconference. The parallel sessions of ‘‘student lectures’’ wereanother excellent innovation. On my visits to them, particularlyto that of Fabio Sauli, I was unsurprised to see that the ‘‘students’’were outnumbered by the ‘‘professors’’—of course, in the field ofthe characteristics of gaseous detectors, we are all students ofCharpak and Sauli. It is a pleasure to subscribe in print to theeightieth birthday felicitations expressed at the conference toGeorges Charpak—truly the father of so many of the develop-ments discussed at this conference.
I was also particularly impressed by the poster session; someof the entries were almost works of (pop) art and all were
016/j.nima.2010.02.154
informative. I was inspired to learn more about areas rangingfrom accelerator mass spectrometry at Erlangen and its use todetect fake Persian mummies to application of diamond detectorsto determine the beam conditions at ATLAS.
I have to admit that another reason for topics to catch my eyewas anything on which I myself had worked in the past. Thedevelopment of diamond detectors was one of these areas and Iwas gratified to see the considerable progress that has been madein producing detectors that have unique properties for someparticle physics applications, particularly when fast signals arenecessary in a high-radiation environment. Considerable furtherwork is still required however to realize the full potential of theseremarkable devices. Aerogel is also a remarkable substance; evenmore remarkable is the progress reported by Tabata in the postersession by the KEK group in manufacturing much clearer samplesover a very large range of refractive indices using an innovativepin-drying technique.
I must admit to being astonished that the technique of mythesis experiment – the bubble chamber – was represented at theconference. The very beautiful adaption of the chamber to operatein a continuously sensitive mode under superheating described byRamberg for the COUPP collaboration is being used to search forWIMPs and will be expanded to a 500 kg chamber. Astroparticleneutrino detection and elucidation of their properties is thrivingand we heard a number of reports from experiments such asKatrin, KM3NeT, Double Chooz and Daya Bay. Cryogenic DarkMatter detectors, particularly using liquid Xenon, are also makingimpressive strides. Using a two-phase detector can give gooddiscrimination against photons.
The experimental programme at VEP2000 at the BudkerInstitute is getting under way. Physics goals include the study ofhadronic cross-sections, precision measurements of R¼s(e+e–-
hadrons)/s(e+e–-m+m–), the study of light vector mesons recur-rences. Small is clearly beautiful in terms of the tiny detectorsnecessary to study the interactions at these very low energies<�2 GeV, presented by Khazin. The small but beautiful themewas continued by the reports of the development of DEPFETdetectors by Friedel and Winter which were originally intendedfor ILC but which are finding application, with some non-trivialadaption, in detectors planned for the SuperBelle detector.
Calorimetry advances currently are mostly driven by ILCapplications, where significant progress has been made by theCALICE Collaboration. Their future plans will involve the embed-ding of electronics inside the modules. The dual readout approachof the 4th Concept as reported by Hauptman shows someremarkable promise in both resolution and in particle identifica-tion. The other major effort is of course the commissioning,understanding and optimisation of the massive calorimetersystems at all four of the LHC detectors, each of which has verydifferent approaches to calorimetric technology.
There were several advances in gaseous detectors; theirapplications in fields beyond particle physics continue to grow.Breskin showed some beautiful work on the mitigation of ion
Conference summary / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 623 (2010) 80–81 81
feedback effects in GEM detectors using intermediate biasedelectrodes. Further work on making more efficient cathodes willbe necessary to exploit the full potential of these devices.Shekhtman also used GEMs to develop curved detectors suitablefor wide-angle X-ray spectrometry applications. Peter Weilham-mer gave an authoritative review of detectors in medicalapplications; as he concluded, the amount of work remaining todo to expedite the application of detectors developed for particlephysics in medical areas is endless.
Technology transfer from particle physics to astrophysics isalso important, as E do Coulo e Silva showed in the plenarysession in discussing the silicon strip detectors used in the Fermi(formerly known as GLAST) mission. Karle’s plenary overviewshowed progress in air Cherenkov arrays throughout the world.Varner for the ANITA collaboration showed results from their firstballoon flight over Antarctica to detect the Askaryan effect in iceand how they trigger on a signal in a very noisy environment. TheMcMurdo base can be clearly seen in their results; observation ofthe ultra-high energy neutrinos sought will await future flights.
Bortoletto’s comprehensive review of solid-state detectorscontained much information on developments in pixel detectors.Probably the devices with the most stringent operating conditionsare the pixels of the ALICE experiment at LHC, whose enormoustrack multiplicity stretches the pattern recognition capabilitieseven of pixels.
It was a pleasure to see the evidence that the trigger and dataacquisition systems of the LHC experiments are in good shape. AsBob Tschirhart remarked in his masterly plenary summary, theseincredibly complex devices build on the first modern collidertriggers, those of HERA; another of my personal involvements.Nagano showed the work going on to plan the upgrades necessaryin these devices to cope with the likely Super LHC luminosityupgrade; for example, muon rates at level 1 in the current ATLAStrigger scheme become out of control at these much higherluminosities. On DAQ, Gann showed good progress in effortsgoing on to improve the radiation hardness of optical datatransmitters.
Having arrived at issues relating to improvements in existingaccelerators, we can move towards progress in accelerator R&Dinstrumentation and the development of future accelerators.Sukikh showed how moving into the extreme ultra-violet spectraregime could give very significant improvement in the accuracy ofbeam-size measurement, although the development of mirrorsand filters that function at these wavelengths is not straight-forward. Yamamoto described the beautiful work being done atKEK to understand and characterize the gradient limitations insuperconducting radio-frequency cavities for the ILC. Remarkablenew optical inspection techniques are showing the tiny imperfec-tions in welds and bulk superconductor that can lead to theselimits.
Finally I turn to prospects for new facilities in particle physics. Ihave already mentioned the possibility of a SuperB factory at KEK;plans are also well underway for a similar machine near Frascati,with a Technical Design Report expected by the end of 2009. Weheard about developments for MICE at Rutherford Appleton Lab.to look at muon ionization cooling in preparation for a neutrinofactory. The International Scoping Study is working towards thedesign of such a facility by around 2012. Nishikawa in his plenarytalk reported on the excellent progress of JPARC and the neutrino
facility. CLIC is entering into an intensive series of tests toestablish the basic feasibility of the techniques involved. There isincreasing collaboration between the CLIC and ILC groups onmatters of common interest; there are many such synergies, asindeed there are between ILC and the INFN SuperB proposal.There were many examples of the significant progress being madein ILC R&D and in the preparation of a Technical Design Report by2012. Looking into the more distant future, Andrei Seryi’svisionary plenary talk on future acceleration methods excitedmuch interest. The planned FACET facility at SLAC should allowfurther progress in plasma-wave acceleration which looks apromising possibility to go well being the energies that ourcurrent plans envisage.
If these exciting plans are to be realised, we need to generatethe necessary political will and understanding around the world,both in the general public, our fellow scientists and politicians.New facilities will need new ideas on governance and collabora-tion. Our historical strength in particle physics has been in ourunity and in our vision of large-scale international collaboration.Earlier manifestations of this led to the foundation of CERN, stillone of the most successful international organizations. The timemay now be ripe for particle physics to lead the world once moreinto the first world-wide international scientific organization. Thiswill not be easy and some will say it is not even desirable; but anew way forward needs to be devised if new facilities are to beproposed in a credible manner.
2. Summary
How does one summarise a summary? Briefly.
�
�
TIPP09, the first of a new IUPAP-sponsored series, has made afantastic start and promises that TIPP will be as distinguished aseries as Rochester and LPS. The next conference will be hostedin two years time by Fermilab in the Chicago area.
� The whole area of detectors and accelerators is in rapid andcontinuous development. There will be lots to report every twoyears. The scope of TIPP will continue to grow as theimperative to transfer technology to other fields is increasinglyrecognised.
� We are approaching a cusp in particle physics. In theseturbulent times, we must convince governments and collea-gues that particle physics is a subject in which it is worthinvesting. We have an excellent story. With the courage andimagination of our predecessors, we can succeed.
Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to Junji Haba and the whole TIPPorganizational team for the invitation to summarise this con-ference. The outstanding organization and friendly atmospherethat they engendered made it a real pleasure to attend the firstTIPP conference.
Brian Foster �
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road,
Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
E-mail address: [email protected]
Tel.: +44 1865 273323.
