This post is quite overdue; I've taken a few pictures of the CMS detector coming together since we got back from our holiday trip. (You can pick on any one of the pix below for a larger version.)
In fact, the day we returned was the day that the last heavy element was lowered down into "the pit" (no pendulum down there, yet). (A history of the heavy lowering campaign can be seen here.) And they've wasted no time dismantling the heavy lowering equipment perched on top of the surface hall at Point 5:
To the right you can see one of those tin cans that used to sit on top of the red gantry. On the other side of the building is the other.
Meanwhile, in the cavern, you can see the central yoke ring (YB0) with the magnet inside the vacuum tank, all festooned with cabling and piping:
...and after the thermal shields have been installed:
...if you zoom in you can see guys working on it:
"Find the pope in the pizza" - er, I mean, the technician in the detector...
Of course, the electronics work continues unabated; they just installed the most important control in all of CMS:
As always, the latest edition (March 17th) of the "CMS Times" has articles on things going on, a calendar of upcoming milestones to be achieved, and profiles of people working on CMS. At the bottom of this edition is a picture of people working at the new "CMS Centre" during "GRuMM". You wouldn't know it (since their backs are turned to the camera), but there are a couple of my compatriots from the U of Minnesota, one student and one postdoc, in the picture.
Basically, we're all shooting for closure of the detector and beampipe in preparation for beam. We have more global cosmic-ray runs planned for April ("CR0T" - Cosmic-Run at 0 Tesla magnetic field) and May-June ("CRAFT" - Cosmic Run At Four Tesla magnetic field).
They are also talking about starting the LHC at a lower-than-designed energy as well as luminosity, and working up to the designed 7TeV per beam. This is not an uncommon strategy for the startup of a new collider (not that a new collider start-up is in itself a common occurrence) , but it will have an impact on the kind of physics processes that can be detected.
In the public relations department, here is a lengthy article in the National Geographic - and you can buy that on mag racks currently, it's the March issue. And all of CERN is having an "open house" (to see CMS click on the link for Cessy at LHC P5) the first weekend in April. There will be guided tours at all CERN sites for the general public, one of the last chances for them to see it all before the LHC begins operation. I anticipate that I will be able to take K down to see the CMS detector; I would also like to see our main competition, the ATLAS detector at P1 (pictured at the front of the NG article linked above). There are also exhibitions at the main campus in Meyrin.
I wonder if someone will finally notice this little gem (censored for your protection) another student pointed out to me. It's posted surreptitiously in the underground CMS control room at P5, where numerous tour groups have toured through, apparently oblivious to the warning. Not to worry folks, it's just a joke! You can go about your affairs...
(What's actually pictured above is the CMS Tracker. I don't know about you, but I think that picture of ATLAS is far scarier...)
Signing off,
-PKBD
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