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ATLAS measures strength of the strong force with record precision

Binding together quarks into protons, neutrons and atomic nuclei is a force so strong, it’s in the name. The strong force, which is carried by gluon particles, is the strongest of all fundamental forces of nature – the others being electromagnetism, the weak force and gravity. Yet, it’s the least precisely measured of these four forces. In a paper just submitted to Nature Physics, the ATLAS collaboration describes how it has used the Z boson, the electrically neutral carrier of the weak force, to determine the strength of the strong force with an unprecedented uncertainty of below 1%.

The strength of the strong force is described by a fundamental parameter in the Standard Model of particle physics called the strong coupling constant. While knowledge of the strong coupling constant has improved with measurements and theoretical developments made over the years, the uncertainty on its value remains orders of magnitude larger than that of the coupling constants for the other fundamental forces. A more precise measurement of the strong coupling constant is required to improve the precision of theoretical calculations of particle processes that involve the strong force. It is also needed to address important unanswered questions about nature. Could all of the fundamental forces be of equal strength at very high energy, indicating a potential common origin? Could new, unknown interactions be modifying the strong force in certain processes or at certain energies?

In its new study of the strong coupling constant, the ATLAS collaboration investigated Z bosons produced in proton–proton collisions at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at a collision energy of 8 TeV. Z bosons are typically produced when two quarks in the colliding protons annihilate. In this weak-interaction process, the strong force comes into play through the radiation of gluons off the annihilating quarks. This radiation gives the Z boson a “kick” transverse to the collision axis (transverse momentum). The magnitude of this kick depends on the strong coupling constant. A precise measurement of the distribution of Z-boson transverse momenta and a comparison with equally precise theoretical calculations of this distribution allows the strong coupling constant to be determined.

In the new analysis, the ATLAS team focused on cleanly selected Z-boson decays to two leptons (electrons or muons) and measured the Z-boson transverse momentum via its decay products. A comparison of these measurements with theoretical predictions enabled the researchers to precisely determine the strong coupling constant at the Z-boson mass scale to be 0.1183 ± 0.0009. With a relative uncertainty of only 0.8%, the result is the most precise determination of the strength of the strong force made by a single experiment to date. It agrees with the current world average of experimental determinations and state-of-the-art calculations known as lattice quantum chromodynamics (see figure below).

This record precision was accomplished thanks to both experimental and theoretical advances. On the experimental side, the ATLAS physicists achieved a detailed understanding of the detection efficiency and momentum calibration of the two electrons or muons originating from the Z-boson decay, which resulted in momentum precisions ranging from 0.1% to 1%. On the theoretical side, the ATLAS researchers used, among other ingredients, cutting-edge calculations of the Z-boson production process that consider up to four “loops” in quantum chromodynamics. These loops represent the complexity of the calculation in terms of contributing processes. Adding more loops increases the precision.

“The strength of the strong nuclear force is a key parameter of the Standard Model, yet it is only known with percent-level precision. For comparison, the electromagnetic force, which is 15 times weaker than the strong force at the energy probed by the LHC, is known with a precision better than one part in a billion,” says CERN physicist Stefano Camarda, a member of the analysis team. “That we have now measured the strong force coupling strength at the 0.8% precision level is a spectacular achievement. It showcases the power of the LHC and the ATLAS experiment to push the precision frontier and enhance our understanding of nature.”

The new ATLAS value of the strong coupling constant compared with other measurements. (Image: ATLAS/CERN)

 

abelchio Wed, 09/20/2023 - 12:01 Publication Date Mon, 09/25/2023 - 10:00

Quest for the curious magnetic monopole continues

Magnets, those everyday objects we stick to our fridges, all share a unique characteristic: they always have both a north and a south pole. Even if you tried breaking a magnet in half, the poles would not separate – you would only get two smaller dipole magnets. But what if a particle could have a single pole with a magnetic charge? For over a century, physicists have been searching for such magnetic monopoles. A new study from the ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) places new limits on these hypothetical particles, adding new clues for the continuing search.

In 1931, physicist Paul Dirac proved that the existence of magnetic monopoles would be consistent with quantum mechanics and require — as has been observed — the quantisation of the electric charge. In the 1970s, magnetic monopoles were also predicted by new theories attempting to unify all the fundamental forces of nature, inspiring physicist Joseph Polchinski to claim that their existence was “one of the safest bets that one can make about physics not yet seen.” Magnetic monopoles might have been present in the early Universe but diluted to an unnoticeably tiny density during the early exponential expansion phase known as cosmic inflation. 

Researchers at the ATLAS experiment are searching for pairs of point-like magnetic monopoles with masses of up to about 4 teraelectronvolts (TeV). These pairs could be produced in 13 TeV collisions between protons via two different mechanisms: “Drell-Yan”, in which a virtual photon produced in the collisions creates the magnetic monopoles, or “photon-fusion”, in which two virtual photons radiated by the protons interact to create the magnetic monopoles.

The collaboration’s detection strategy relies on Dirac’s theory, which says that the magnitude of the smallest magnetic charge (gD) is equivalent to 68.5 times the fundamental unit of electric charge, the charge of the electron (e). Consequently, a magnetic monopole of charge 1gD would ionise matter in a similar way as a high-electric-charge object (HECO). When a particle ionises the detector material, ATLAS records the energy deposited, which is proportional to the square of the particle’s charge. Hence, magnetic monopoles or HECOs would leave large energy deposits along their trajectories in the ATLAS detector. Since the ATLAS detector was designed to record low-charge and neutral particles, the characterisation of these high-energy deposits is vital to the search for monopoles and HECOs.

In their new study, the ATLAS researchers combed through the experiment’s full dataset from Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018) in search of magnetic monopoles and HECOs. The search made use of the detector’s transition radiation tracker and the finely segmented liquid-argon electromagnetic calorimeter. The result places some of the tightest limits yet on the rate of production of magnetic monopoles.

The search targeted monopoles of magnetic charge 1gD and 2gD and HECOs of electric charge 20e, 40e, 60e, 80e and 100e, with masses between 0.2 TeV and 4 TeV. Compared to the previous ATLAS search, the new result benefited from the larger, complete Run-2 dataset. This was also the first ATLAS analysis to consider the photon-fusion production mechanism.

With no evidence of either magnetic monopoles or HECOs in the dataset, the ATLAS researchers established new limits on the production rate and mass of monopoles with a magnetic charge of 1gD and 2gD. ATLAS remains the experiment with the greatest sensitivity to monopoles in this charge range; the smaller LHC experiment MoEDAL-MAPP has previously studied a larger charge range and has also searched for monopoles with a finite size.

ATLAS physicists will continue their quest to find magnetic monopoles and HECOs, further refining their search techniques and developing new strategies to study both Run-2 and Run-3 data.

Find out more on the ATLAS website.

abelchio Fri, 09/15/2023 - 13:38 Byline ATLAS collaboration Publication Date Fri, 09/15/2023 - 13:32

Quest for the curious magnetic monopole continues

Magnets, those everyday objects we stick to our fridges, all share a unique characteristic: they always have both a north and a south pole. Even if you tried breaking a magnet in half, the poles would not separate – you would only get two smaller dipole magnets. But what if a particle could have a single pole with a magnetic charge? For over a century, physicists have been searching for such magnetic monopoles. A new study from the ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) places new limits on these hypothetical particles, adding new clues for the continuing search.

In 1931, physicist Paul Dirac proved that the existence of magnetic monopoles would be consistent with quantum mechanics and require — as has been observed — the quantisation of the electric charge. In the 1970s, magnetic monopoles were also predicted by new theories attempting to unify all the fundamental forces of nature, inspiring physicist Joseph Polchinski to claim that their existence was “one of the safest bets that one can make about physics not yet seen.” Magnetic monopoles might have been present in the early Universe but diluted to an unnoticeably tiny density during the early exponential expansion phase known as cosmic inflation. 

Researchers at the ATLAS experiment are searching for pairs of point-like magnetic monopoles with masses of up to about 4 teraelectronvolts (TeV). These pairs could be produced in 13 TeV collisions between protons via two different mechanisms: “Drell-Yan”, in which a virtual photon produced in the collisions creates the magnetic monopoles, or “photon-fusion”, in which two virtual photons radiated by the protons interact to create the magnetic monopoles.

The collaboration’s detection strategy relies on Dirac’s theory, which says that the magnitude of the smallest magnetic charge (gD) is equivalent to 68.5 times the fundamental unit of electric charge, the charge of the electron (e). Consequently, a magnetic monopole of charge 1gD would ionise matter in a similar way as a high-electric-charge object (HECO). When a particle ionises the detector material, ATLAS records the energy deposited, which is proportional to the square of the particle’s charge. Hence, magnetic monopoles or HECOs would leave large energy deposits along their trajectories in the ATLAS detector. Since the ATLAS detector was designed to record low-charge and neutral particles, the characterisation of these high-energy deposits is vital to the search for monopoles and HECOs.

In their new study, the ATLAS researchers combed through the experiment’s full dataset from Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018) in search of magnetic monopoles and HECOs. The search made use of the detector’s transition radiation tracker and the finely segmented liquid-argon electromagnetic calorimeter. The result places some of the tightest limits yet on the rate of production of magnetic monopoles.

The search targeted monopoles of magnetic charge 1gD and 2gD and HECOs of electric charge 20e, 40e, 60e, 80e and 100e, with masses between 0.2 TeV and 4 TeV. Compared to the previous ATLAS search, the new result benefited from the larger, complete Run-2 dataset. This was also the first ATLAS analysis to consider the photon-fusion production mechanism.

With no evidence of either magnetic monopoles or HECOs in the dataset, the ATLAS researchers established new limits on the production rate and mass of monopoles with a magnetic charge of 1gD and 2gD. ATLAS remains the experiment with the greatest sensitivity to monopoles in this charge range; the smaller LHC experiment MoEDAL-MAPP has previously studied a larger charge range and has also searched for monopoles with a finite size.

ATLAS physicists will continue their quest to find magnetic monopoles and HECOs, further refining their search techniques and developing new strategies to study both Run-2 and Run-3 data.

Find out more on the ATLAS website.

abelchio Fri, 09/15/2023 - 13:38 Byline ATLAS collaboration Publication Date Fri, 09/15/2023 - 13:32

ALICE reports new charmonia measurements in LHC Run 3 3D drawing of the ALICE detector. (Image: ALICE)

Earlier this month, almost 700 physicists from all over the world met in Houston, Texas, to attend the 30th edition of the Quark Matter conference, the largest conference in the field of heavy-ion physics. At this meeting, the ALICE collaboration presented its first results based on data collected with the upgraded detector in 2022, the first year of Run 3 of the LHC. Before the start of Run 3, ALICE underwent a major upgrade of its experimental apparatus to allow the recording of 50-100 times more Pb-Pb collisions and up to 500 times more proton-proton collisions than in previous runs. In addition, upgrades of the tracking detectors improved the pointing resolution by a factor 3-6. All in all, many new high-precision results will become available in the coming years.

One of the new results presented at the Quark Matter conference was the measurement of the production of two different states of charmonia in proton-proton collisions. Charmonia are particles that consist of a charm and an anti-charm quark, with a total mass of about 3 GeV, more than 3 times that of the proton. Charmonia have a characteristic decay signature, producing an electron-positron pair or a positive and a negative muon. 

There are a variety of charmonium states, with different binding energies, from the tightly bound J/ψ (binding energy of approximately 650 MeV) to the weakly bound – and two times larger – ψ(2S) (binding energy of 50 MeV). In heavy-ion collisions, these states melt in the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) and a reduced number of them is observed in the final state, a phenomenon known as charm suppression. Physicists can determine the temperature of the plasma by measuring how the different states are suppressed. Such measurements have played an important role in the field over the years, starting from early measurements at the SPS in the 1990s. 

The key to measuring charmonium suppression is knowing the production rates. These rates can be determined by measuring the production of quarkonia in proton-proton collisions, where there is no suppression. This provides the reference for the measurements performed in Pb-Pb collisions. 

The upgraded ALICE detector has a broad kinematic coverage that allows it to study J/ψ and ψ(2S) down to zero transverse momentum in two different and complementary regions. In the central region, charmonium is reconstructed from its decay into an e+e- pair in the central barrel detectors, while in the forward region it is detected in its decay channel µ+µ-, in the muon spectrometer.  

The proton-proton statistics collected in LHC Runs 1 and 2 allowed ALICE to study the ψ(2S) yields in the forward region, but not in the central region. The data from 2022 represents an increase of the total number of collisions by a factor of 300, making it possible to measure the production rate of the ψ(2S) in the central region for the first time. The results, based on 500 billion minimum-bias proton-proton collisions, show that both the excited and the ground charmonium states can be accessed over the whole ALICE kinematic region and this will constrain the models of quarkonium production and open the way for more detailed measurements in the upcoming heavy-ion run. 

Ratio of ψ(2S) to J/ψ in LHC Run 3 proton-proton collisions as a function of transverse momentum, showing ALICE’s capability for measurements of the excited and ground charmonium states in the central (red points) and forward (black points) region. (Image: ALICE) ptraczyk Fri, 09/15/2023 - 12:21 Byline ALICE collaboration Publication Date Fri, 09/15/2023 - 11:52

ALICE reports new charmonia measurements in LHC Run 3 3D drawing of the ALICE detector. (Image: ALICE)

Earlier this month, almost 700 physicists from all over the world met in Houston, Texas, to attend the 30th edition of the Quark Matter conference, the largest conference in the field of heavy-ion physics. At this meeting, the ALICE collaboration presented its first results based on data collected with the upgraded detector in 2022, the first year of Run 3 of the LHC. Before the start of Run 3, ALICE underwent a major upgrade of its experimental apparatus to allow the recording of 50-100 times more Pb-Pb collisions and up to 500 times more proton-proton collisions than in previous runs. In addition, upgrades of the tracking detectors improved the pointing resolution by a factor 3-6. All in all, many new high-precision results will become available in the coming years.

One of the new results presented at the Quark Matter conference was the measurement of the production of two different states of charmonia in proton-proton collisions. Charmonia are particles that consist of a charm and an anti-charm quark, with a total mass of about 3 GeV, more than 3 times that of the proton. Charmonia have a characteristic decay signature, producing an electron-positron pair or a positive and a negative muon. 

There are a variety of charmonium states, with different binding energies, from the tightly bound J/ψ (binding energy of approximately 650 MeV) to the weakly bound – and two times larger – ψ(2S) (binding energy of 50 MeV). In heavy-ion collisions, these states melt in the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) and a reduced number of them is observed in the final state, a phenomenon known as charm suppression. Physicists can determine the temperature of the plasma by measuring how the different states are suppressed. Such measurements have played an important role in the field over the years, starting from early measurements at the SPS in the 1990s. 

The key to measuring charmonium suppression is knowing the production rates. These rates can be determined by measuring the production of quarkonia in proton-proton collisions, where there is no suppression. This provides the reference for the measurements performed in Pb-Pb collisions. 

The upgraded ALICE detector has a broad kinematic coverage that allows it to study J/ψ and ψ(2S) down to zero transverse momentum in two different and complementary regions. In the central region, charmonium is reconstructed from its decay into an e+e- pair in the central barrel detectors, while in the forward region it is detected in its decay channel µ+µ-, in the muon spectrometer.  

The proton-proton statistics collected in LHC Runs 1 and 2 allowed ALICE to study the ψ(2S) yields in the forward region, but not in the central region. The data from 2022 represents an increase of the total number of collisions by a factor of 300, making it possible to measure the production rate of the ψ(2S) in the central region for the first time. The results, based on 500 billion minimum-bias proton-proton collisions, show that both the excited and the ground charmonium states can be accessed over the whole ALICE kinematic region and this will constrain the models of quarkonium production and open the way for more detailed measurements in the upcoming heavy-ion run. 

Ratio of ψ(2S) to J/ψ in LHC Run 3 proton-proton collisions as a function of transverse momentum, showing ALICE’s capability for measurements of the excited and ground charmonium states in the central (red points) and forward (black points) region. (Image: ALICE) ptraczyk Fri, 09/15/2023 - 12:21 Byline ALICE collaboration Publication Date Fri, 09/15/2023 - 11:52

CERN Science Gateway: pre-inauguration for the CERN community CERN Science Gateway (Image: CERN)

In a few weeks, on 7 October, CERN will formally inaugurate CERN Science Gateway. As our Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti, noted in her email to personnel on 11 September, this is a project to which many of you have contributed and which we all look forward to becoming a unique place where visitors of all ages, from near and far, will learn all about CERN’s science and people. She has invited the CERN community and families to a pre-inauguration of Science Gateway on 19 and 20 September.

Please note that, contrary to the original announcement, visitors must be over 18 years of age. This is due to safety reasons, as Science Gateway will still be a construction site. Thank you for your understanding. From 8 October, you will be able to visit with family members of all ages.

Many of you have expressed interest and we have received several questions, which we will address here:

Do family members need a CERN Access card?

Accompanying family members over the age of 18 (see above) will need to have their CERN Access card with them. If they do not have a CERN Access card, they can obtain one at building 55. More details are available in the CERN admin e-guide.

Do I need to register?

You must register for the pre-inauguration talk on Tuesday 19 September at 1.30 p.m. You do not need to register for anything else during the two days. More details here.

Will I be able to see all areas of CERN Science Gateway?

This pre-inauguration, including the visits, will take place during the final, intense stage of preparing for the formal inauguration on 7 October and the opening to the public as of 8 October. Several areas of the building are a worksite, so for safety reasons some areas may be cordoned off. 

Will there be hands-on activities?

The visits will be an experience of looking rather than experimenting with the exhibits and lab activities. This will allow work to carry on, to have everything ready for the opening to the public. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

You can find more information here.

Enjoy this CERN Science Gateway trailer to see what is in store. (Video: CERN) ndinmore Thu, 09/14/2023 - 14:53 Byline Ana Godinho Publication Date Fri, 09/15/2023 - 12:46

CERN Science Gateway: pre-inauguration for the CERN community CERN Science Gateway (Image: CERN)

In a few weeks, on 7 October, CERN will formally inaugurate CERN Science Gateway. As our Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti, noted in her email to personnel on 11 September, this is a project to which many of you have contributed and which we all look forward to becoming a unique place where visitors of all ages, from near and far, will learn all about CERN’s science and people. She has invited the CERN community and families to a pre-inauguration of Science Gateway on 19 and 20 September.

Please note that, contrary to the original announcement, visitors must be over 18 years of age. This is due to safety reasons, as Science Gateway will still be a construction site. Thank you for your understanding. From 8 October, you will be able to visit with family members of all ages.

Many of you have expressed interest and we have received several questions, which we will address here:

Do family members need a CERN Access card?

Accompanying family members over the age of 18 (see above) will need to have their CERN Access card with them. If they do not have a CERN Access card, they can obtain one at building 55. More details are available in the CERN admin e-guide.

Do I need to register?

You must register for the pre-inauguration talk on Tuesday 19 September at 1.30 p.m. You do not need to register for anything else during the two days. More details here.

Will I be able to see all areas of CERN Science Gateway?

This pre-inauguration, including the visits, will take place during the final, intense stage of preparing for the formal inauguration on 7 October and the opening to the public as of 8 October. Several areas of the building are a worksite, so for safety reasons some areas may be cordoned off. 

Will there be hands-on activities?

The visits will be an experience of looking rather than experimenting with the exhibits and lab activities. This will allow work to carry on, to have everything ready for the opening to the public. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

You can find more information here.

Enjoy this CERN Science Gateway trailer to see what is in store. (Video: CERN) ndinmore Thu, 09/14/2023 - 14:53 Byline Ana Godinho Publication Date Fri, 09/15/2023 - 12:46

Accelerator Report: Getting lead ions ready for physics

In about a week, lead ions will be sent from the SPS into the LHC to collide in the accelerator’s four big experiments – ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb. This is a particular highlight for the ALICE collaboration, which has been eagerly awaiting lead-ion collisions since the end of Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), when its detector was upgraded. ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a detector dedicated to heavy-ion physics. It is designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where a phase of matter called quark-gluon plasma forms.

The following week, the SPS will also provide slow-extracted lead-ion beam pulses of 4.5 seconds per cycle to the North Area experiments. The NA61/SHINE experiment is the main user of lead ions in the North Area, but other users will also benefit from these during the short period they are available.

In the last two weeks of the 4-week 2023 run, the PS will provide lead ions to the East Area, where the CHIMERA facility irradiates electronics with high-energy heavy ions to study the effects of cosmic radiation on electronics used in the CERN accelerators and experiments, as well as for space missions and avionics.

Although the lead-ion physics period is relatively short, it is of great importance, and special care is taken by the experts and operations teams to provide high-quality beams.

The origin of lead ions and lead-ion beams
Lead ions are “born” in the source of Linac3, where a pure lead sample is evaporated: oxygen gas and lead vapour are injected into the source plasma chamber. A microwave is applied to create the plasma in which the lead and oxygen atoms are ionised. These ions are then extracted, partially stripped and accelerated. The lead-ion charge after the stripping process is 54+, meaning that 28 of the 82 electrons have been removed (a lead atom originally has 82 electrons).

These lead ions are then transported and injected into the next machine in the chain, LEIR (Low Energy Ion Ring), which can receive single or multiple pulses, depending on the beam intensities needed (the more pulses, the more lead ions accumulated and the higher the intensity).

For the LHC beam, LEIR receives seven pulses from Linac3, each of which is cooled using electron cooling to reduce the beam size. In this process, a “cold” electron beam is sent along over a distance of 2.5 m with the “hot” lead-ion beam. The exchange of energy between the two beams reduces the beam size of the lead-ion beam, leaving space to inject another pulse from Linac3 and repeat the cooling process. Finally, two bunches are accelerated and extracted towards the PS.

The SPS lead-ion beam production cycle for the LHC. In yellow, the beam intensity increases in 14 steps, representing the 14 injections from the PS. (Image: CERN)

The PS further accelerates the two-bunch beam and performs several longitudinal beam manipulations using the radiofrequency (RF) cavities to finally obtain four bunches spaced by 100 ns. After up to 14 cycles, these four bunches of Pb54+ ions are then transported to the SPS. In the transfer line between the PS and the SPS, the ions are fully stripped of their remaining electrons to become Pb82+ ions divided into 56 bunches spaced by 100 ns.

After an initial acceleration in the SPS, the beam is slip-stacked (see box) to reduce the bunch spacing to 50 ns, thus doubling the total lead-ion beam intensity in the LHC. Following a final acceleration phase, the beam is extracted and injected into the LHC, either in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. The LHC will be filled with up to 1248 bunches per beam.

As I write this article, the Linac3, LEIR and PS machines are producing lead-ion beams on a routine basis. The focus is now on completing the commissioning of slip-stacking in the SPS; this process is already well advanced and it looks likely that slip-stacked ion beams will be delivered to the LHC in the coming weeks.

A new method to reduce bunch spacing for lead ion beams

Measurement of the bunches during the slip-stacking process. At the bottom of the graph, you can see the two parts of the injected beam. Between the times 53000 and 54000, the bunches on the right-hand side slip along the machine towards the other beam until they are interleaved/stacked. At the bottom of the graph, the bunch spacing is 100 ns; after the slip-stacking, at the top of the graph, the same number of bunches are spaced by only 50 ns. (Image: CERN)

Over the last few years, the CERN ion injector complex has undergone a series of upgrades in preparation for a doubling of the total intensity of the lead-ion beams for the HL-LHC. In the SPS, teams began using a technique known as “momentum slip-stacking”, which involves injecting two batches of four lead-ion bunches separated by 100 nanoseconds to produce a single batch of eight lead-ion bunches separated by 50 nanoseconds.

In this process, the 56 bunches injected into the SPS are divided among two RF systems, which each receive 28 bunches. As there is a small frequency difference between these two RF systems, half of the beam travels slightly faster along the SPS circumference (known as “slipping”). Once the two halves of the beam are placed so that the space between two bunches is 50 ns, the beam is interleaved (or “stacked”). This allows the total number of bunches injected into the LHC to increase from 648 in Run 2 to 1248 in Run 3 and subsequent runs.

anschaef Thu, 09/14/2023 - 12:33 Byline Rende Steerenberg Publication Date Wed, 09/13/2023 - 12:28

Accelerator Report: Getting lead ions ready for physics

In about a week, lead ions will be sent from the SPS into the LHC to collide in the accelerator’s four big experiments – ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb. This is a particular highlight for the ALICE collaboration, which has been eagerly awaiting lead-ion collisions since the end of Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), when its detector was upgraded. ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a detector dedicated to heavy-ion physics. It is designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where a phase of matter called quark-gluon plasma forms.

The following week, the SPS will also provide slow-extracted lead-ion beam pulses of 4.5 seconds per cycle to the North Area experiments. The NA61/SHINE experiment is the main user of lead ions in the North Area, but other users will also benefit from these during the short period they are available.

In the last two weeks of the 4-week 2023 run, the PS will provide lead ions to the East Area, where the CHIMERA facility irradiates electronics with high-energy heavy ions to study the effects of cosmic radiation on electronics used in the CERN accelerators and experiments, as well as for space missions and avionics.

Although the lead-ion physics period is relatively short, it is of great importance, and special care is taken by the experts and operations teams to provide high-quality beams.

The origin of lead ions and lead-ion beams
Lead ions are “born” in the source of Linac3, where a pure lead sample is evaporated: oxygen gas and lead vapour are injected into the source plasma chamber. A microwave is applied to create the plasma in which the lead and oxygen atoms are ionised. These ions are then extracted, partially stripped and accelerated. The lead-ion charge after the stripping process is 54+, meaning that 28 of the 82 electrons have been removed (a lead atom originally has 82 electrons).

These lead ions are then transported and injected into the next machine in the chain, LEIR (Low Energy Ion Ring), which can receive single or multiple pulses, depending on the beam intensities needed (the more pulses, the more lead ions accumulated and the higher the intensity).

For the LHC beam, LEIR receives seven pulses from Linac3, each of which is cooled using electron cooling to reduce the beam size. In this process, a “cold” electron beam is sent along over a distance of 2.5 m with the “hot” lead-ion beam. The exchange of energy between the two beams reduces the beam size of the lead-ion beam, leaving space to inject another pulse from Linac3 and repeat the cooling process. Finally, two bunches are accelerated and extracted towards the PS.

The SPS lead-ion beam production cycle for the LHC. In yellow, the beam intensity increases in 14 steps, representing the 14 injections from the PS. (Image: CERN)

The PS further accelerates the two-bunch beam and performs several longitudinal beam manipulations using the radiofrequency (RF) cavities to finally obtain four bunches spaced by 100 ns. After up to 14 cycles, these four bunches of Pb54+ ions are then transported to the SPS. In the transfer line between the PS and the SPS, the ions are fully stripped of their remaining electrons to become Pb82+ ions divided into 56 bunches spaced by 100 ns.

After an initial acceleration in the SPS, the beam is slip-stacked (see box) to reduce the bunch spacing to 50 ns, thus doubling the total lead-ion beam intensity in the LHC. Following a final acceleration phase, the beam is extracted and injected into the LHC, either in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. The LHC will be filled with up to 1248 bunches per beam.

As I write this article, the Linac3, LEIR and PS machines are producing lead-ion beams on a routine basis. The focus is now on completing the commissioning of slip-stacking in the SPS; this process is already well advanced and it looks likely that slip-stacked ion beams will be delivered to the LHC in the coming weeks.

A new method to reduce bunch spacing for lead ion beams

Measurement of the bunches during the slip-stacking process. At the bottom of the graph, you can see the two parts of the injected beam. Between the times 53000 and 54000, the bunches on the right-hand side slip along the machine towards the other beam until they are interleaved/stacked. At the bottom of the graph, the bunch spacing is 100 ns; after the slip-stacking, at the top of the graph, the same number of bunches are spaced by only 50 ns. (Image: CERN)

Over the last few years, the CERN ion injector complex has undergone a series of upgrades in preparation for a doubling of the total intensity of the lead-ion beams for the HL-LHC. In the SPS, teams began using a technique known as “momentum slip-stacking”, which involves injecting two batches of four lead-ion bunches separated by 100 nanoseconds to produce a single batch of eight lead-ion bunches separated by 50 nanoseconds.

In this process, the 56 bunches injected into the SPS are divided among two RF systems, which each receive 28 bunches. As there is a small frequency difference between these two RF systems, half of the beam travels slightly faster along the SPS circumference (known as “slipping”). Once the two halves of the beam are placed so that the space between two bunches is 50 ns, the beam is interleaved (or “stacked”). This allows the total number of bunches injected into the LHC to increase from 648 in Run 2 to 1248 in Run 3 and subsequent runs.

anschaef Thu, 09/14/2023 - 12:33 Byline Rende Steerenberg Publication Date Wed, 09/13/2023 - 12:28

Accelerating stroke prevention

The complex system of the CERN accelerator chain requires immense precision in order to operate. To address this need, CERN researchers developed artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that predict and diagnose anomalies, minimising failures and keeping our infrastructure working around the clock. The same algorithms have the potential to improve people’s lives when applied to complications that occur in the human body.

The CAFEIN* platform was developed at CERN in collaboration with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Politecnico di Milano in Italy to address challenges in both fundamental research and medicine. In particular, in the latter, it enables the detection of pathologies in the human body (such as brain pathologies) and predicts the risk of disease recurrence.

Among brain pathologies, stroke is one of the leading causes of severe disability worldwide. It is associated with a significant social and economic burden, which will dramatically increase over the coming decades due to the ageing population.

By correctly assessing a stroke patient’s risks and potential outcome, it is possible to provide improved and personalised treatment to help prevent relapse. The TRUSTroke project** was developed to ensure that as many patients as possible are treated and to reduce the numbers of patients discharged too early from hospital.

Under the coordination of Vall d'Hebron, a leading healthcare campus in Barcelona, CERN and eleven other partners from across Europe joined forces to assist clinicians, caregivers, and patients by creating AI algorithms using data confined to the hospital environment, which is the key feature of the CAFEIN platform. This approach, which uses local data samples without exchanging them, is known as Federated Learning (FL), and it can guarantee the confidentiality of patient data by sharing only the necessary information without sharing any individual’s personal data.

“AI algorithms trained using FL platforms like CAFEIN are being applied more and more in the medical domain, where privacy prevents the sharing of personal data. In addition to the ongoing TRUSTroke project, CERN’s developments are being used at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in brain-pathology screening using MRIs or, more recently, to develop risk-based cancer screening tools with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).”, says Luigi Serio, principal scientist in the Technology Department at CERN.

Two online public events have been organised to provide more information on the project:

• “TRUSTroke webinar on Federated Learning” on 28 September, 12.00 p.m. More information: https://indico.cern.ch/e/trustrokewebinar.
• “How AI and a CERN federated learning platform can assist clinicians in the management of stroke patients” on 29 September, 9.00 a.m. More information: https://indico.cern.ch/e/trustroke.

* The Computer-Aided deFEcts detection, Identification and classificatioN (CAFEIN) project has received support from the CERN budget for knowledge transfer to medical applications through a grant awarded in 2019. https://kt.cern/kt-fund/projects/cafein-federated-network-platform-development-and-deployment-ai-based-analysis-and

**The TRUSTroke project is funded by the European Union in the call HORIZON-HLTH-2022-STAYHLTH-01-two-stage under grant agreement No. 101080564

 

ndinmore Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:48 Byline Kristiane Bernhard-Novotny Marzena Lapka Publication Date Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:42

Accelerating stroke prevention

 

The complex system of the CERN accelerator chain requires immense precision in order to operate. To address this need, CERN researchers developed artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that predict and diagnose anomalies, minimising failures and keeping our infrastructure working around the clock. The same algorithms have the potential to improve people’s lives when applied to complications that occur in the human body.

The CAFEIN* platform was developed at CERN in collaboration with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Politecnico di Milano in Italy to address challenges in both fundamental research and medicine. In particular, in the latter, it enables the detection of pathologies in the human body (such as brain pathologies) and predicts the risk of disease recurrence.

Among brain pathologies, stroke is one of the leading causes of severe disability worldwide. It is associated with a significant social and economic burden, which will dramatically increase over the coming decades due to the ageing population.

By correctly assessing a stroke patient’s risks and potential outcome, it is possible to provide improved and personalised treatment to help prevent relapse. The TRUSTroke project** was developed to ensure that as many patients as possible are treated and to reduce the numbers of patients discharged too early from hospital.

Under the coordination of Vall d'Hebron, a leading healthcare campus in Barcelona, CERN and eleven other partners from across Europe joined forces to assist clinicians, caregivers, and patients by creating AI algorithms using data confined to the hospital environment, which is the key feature of the CAFEIN platform. This approach, which uses local data samples without exchanging them, is known as Federated Learning (FL), and it can guarantee the confidentiality of patient data by sharing only the necessary information without sharing any individual’s personal data.

“AI algorithms trained using FL platforms like CAFEIN are being applied more and more in the medical domain, where privacy prevents the sharing of personal data. In addition to the ongoing TRUSTroke project, CERN’s developments are being used at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in brain-pathology screening using MRIs or, more recently, to develop risk-based cancer screening tools with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).”, says Luigi Serio, principal investigator in the Technology Department at CERN.

Two online public events have been organised to provide more information on the project:

• “TRUSTroke webinar on Federated Learning” on 28 September, 12.00 p.m. More information: https://indico.cern.ch/e/trustrokewebinar.
• “How AI and a CERN federated learning platform can assist clinicians in the management of stroke patients” on 29 September, 9.00 p.m. More information: https://indico.cern.ch/e/trustroke.

----------

* The Computer-Aided deFEcts detection, Identification and classificatioN (CAFEIN) project has received support from the CERN budget for knowledge transfer to medical applications through a grant awarded in 2019. https://kt.cern/kt-fund/projects/cafein-federated-network-platform-development-and-deployment-ai-based-analysis-and

**The TRUSTroke project is funded by the European Union in the call HORIZON-HLTH-2022-STAYHLTH-01-two-stage under grant agreement No. 101080564

ndinmore Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:48 Publication Date Wed, 09/13/2023 - 11:42

A new generation of iron-dominated electromagnets has been successfully tested at CERN

Many physics experiments at CERN require moderate magnetic fields (around 2 tesla) in a large gap over a large volume. These are currently created by normal-conducting, iron-dominated electromagnets. While robust and reliable, these resistive magnets require significant electrical power – in the MW range – and therefore can be costly to operate.

To combat this, engineers from the CERN TE-MSC group are investigating intermediate temperature superconductors (operating at 20 kelvin and above) to be used in the coil winding of electromagnets with the aim of increasing magnet efficiency. They have now designed, manufactured and successfully tested a conductor for use in these electromagnets. This proof-of-principle demonstrator is a superconducting coil wound from a magnesium diboride (MgB2) cable mounted inside an iron yoke. As a first step, the demonstrator was tested at 4.5 K, where it reached the expected magnetic field. The group designed the demonstrator to be easily scalable to large, iron-dominated electromagnets, such as some of the magnets needed for the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment. The innovative design could also be retrofitted to existing magnets by replacing the normal-conducting coils with the new coils.

The MgB2 cable is one of the units manufactured for the Superconducting Link of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN. The MgB2 strands were developed by CERN together with ASG S.p.A during the R&D phase of the HL-LHC Cold Powering work package and were produced by ASG S.p.A. The MgB2 cable was also developed by CERN and then industrialised for production in long lengths by Tratos Cavi S.p.A, a member of the ICAS consortium. The iron yoke and the winding formers were fabricated with the support of CERN EN-MME.

The demonstrator magnet in the horizontal position, during the last stages of assembly (left), as well as when attached to a vertical insert for testing in one of the CERN SM18 cryogenic test stations (right). (Image: CERN)
​​​​​​

For the initial test, the engineers cooled the demonstrator down to 4.5 K with liquid helium and successfully ramped it up to 5 kA, the design current, without any resistive transition or resistive voltage across the coil. They then warmed it up to room temperature and cooled it again to 4.5 K: the magnet again reached the target current of 5 kA after this thermal cycle, with no quench. Magnetic measurements at cryogenic temperature confirmed that the demonstrator met design expectations, both in terms of field strength – the magnetic field in the pole gap is 1.95 T at 5 kA – and field quality.

The measured dipole magnetic field in the centre of the magnet compared to simulations. (Image: CERN)

“These encouraging results demonstrate the robustness of the MgB2 cable and the suitability of its coil design for iron-dominated electromagnets,” explains TE-MSC group leader Arnaud Devred. “The team warmly thank Richard Jacobsson for inspiring this work, Davide Tommasini for his exploratory feasibility study and José Miguel Jimenez for his unconditional support for this project.”

The next step for the team is to work with the CERN TE-CRG group to carry out a test of the demonstrator in gaseous helium at 20 K. Ultimately, the coil will be inserted into a dedicated cryostat to enable its operation at 20 K while keeping the surrounding iron yoke at room temperature.

 

ndinmore Mon, 09/11/2023 - 16:49 Byline TE department Publication Date Mon, 09/11/2023 - 16:27

A new generation of iron-dominated electromagnets has been successfully tested at CERN

Many physics experiments at CERN require moderate magnetic fields (around 2 tesla) in a large gap over a large volume. These are currently created by normal-conducting, iron-dominated electromagnets. While robust and reliable, these resistive magnets require significant electrical power – in the MW range – and therefore can be costly to operate.

To combat this, engineers from the CERN TE-MSC group are investigating intermediate temperature superconductors (operating at 20 kelvin and above) to be used in the coil winding of electromagnets with the aim of increasing magnet efficiency. They have now designed, manufactured and successfully tested a conductor for use in these electromagnets. This proof-of-principle demonstrator is a superconducting coil wound from a magnesium diboride (MgB2) cable mounted inside an iron yoke. As a first step, the demonstrator was tested at 4.5 K, where it reached the expected magnetic field. The group designed the demonstrator to be easily scalable to large, iron-dominated electromagnets, such as some of the magnets needed for the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment. The innovative design could also be retrofitted to existing magnets by replacing the normal-conducting coils with the new coils.

The MgB2 cable is one of the units manufactured for the Superconducting Link of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN. The MgB2 strands were developed by CERN together with ASG S.p.A during the R&D phase of the HL-LHC Cold Powering work package and were produced by ASG S.p.A. The MgB2 cable was also developed by CERN and then industrialised for production in long lengths by Tratos Cavi S.p.A, a member of the ICAS consortium. The iron yoke and the winding formers were fabricated with the support of CERN EN-MME.

The demonstrator magnet in the horizontal position, during the last stages of assembly (left), as well as when attached to a vertical insert for testing in one of the CERN SM18 cryogenic test stations (right). (Image: CERN)
​​​​​​

For the initial test, the engineers cooled the demonstrator down to 4.5 K with liquid helium and successfully ramped it up to 5 kA, the design current, without any resistive transition or resistive voltage across the coil. They then warmed it up to room temperature and cooled it again to 4.5 K: the magnet again reached the target current of 5 kA after this thermal cycle, with no quench. Magnetic measurements at cryogenic temperature confirmed that the demonstrator met design expectations, both in terms of field strength – the magnetic field in the pole gap is 1.95 T at 5 kA – and field quality.

The measured dipole magnetic field in the centre of the magnet compared to simulations. (Image: CERN)

“These encouraging results demonstrate the robustness of the MgB2 cable and the suitability of its coil design for iron-dominated electromagnets,” explains TE-MSC group leader Arnaud Devred. “The team warmly thank Richard Jacobsson for inspiring this work, Davide Tommasini for his exploratory feasibility study and José Miguel Jimenez for his unconditional support for this project.”

The next step for the team is to work with the CERN TE-CRG group to carry out a test of the demonstrator in gaseous helium at 20 K. Ultimately, the coil will be inserted into a dedicated cryostat to enable its operation at 20 K while keeping the surrounding iron yoke at room temperature.

 

ndinmore Mon, 09/11/2023 - 16:49 Publication Date Mon, 09/11/2023 - 16:27

Promoting the quality of working life

The "Work Well Feel Well" ("Bien dans son travail") project was launched by the Director-General in 2017 and has become one of the pillars of mental health at CERN. It aims to promote and improve the quality of working life at CERN, in particular by tackling the adverse effects of stress.

The project is led by a multidisciplinary working group, with members of the HR Department, the HSE Unit, the Staff Association and the Ombud. Since its inception, several measures have been implemented to reduce stress factors at CERN, to boost resilience to stress and to help those affected through a number of support structures.

"The first phase of the project highlighted some particularities of CERN", explains Marie-Luce Falipou, project leader. "The survey conducted in 2018 revealed that, although CERN is a demanding workplace, it offers personnel a degree of job autonomy as well as social support through mutual aid from their colleagues and line management, and this fosters a high-quality work environment. Work organisation, team management and communication emerged as key areas to develop in order to ensure good working conditions."

(Image: CERN)

Even so, CERN staff are not immune to stress and its effects, and the COVID-19 pandemic will have had a serious impact on people's mental health. "During the pandemic, we worked closely with managers, who play an important role in the professional well-being of their teams, with whom they are in direct contact", says Marie-Luce Falipou. "And to continue this work, which is still relevant today, I am pleased to announce that the project team will launch the 'Efficiency and caring at work' awareness campaign. 'Caring at work' means wanting the best for ourselves and those around us and taking care of each other no matter what."

This awareness campaign is made up of 12 thought-provoking topics – all you have to do is take part. Fun exercises will help you explore, deepen your knowledge and share your experiences in your search for a better quality of life at work. To work efficiently in the medium-term, we need to be proactive in preserving our energy and health every day. The campaign also includes activities aimed at line managers, providing key information on how to take concrete action on a daily basis to reduce stress and improve working conditions for their teams. Because doing a good job and feeling good at work go hand in hand!

The official launch will be on 6 October, when Catherine Vasey*, Swiss burn-out specialist and designer of this campaign, will give a lecture on preventing burn-out.

"Through this new campaign, we hope to promote mental health at work and remind CERN personnel that stress is not inevitable and deserves our full attention", concludes Marie-Luce Falipou.

_____

* Catherine Vasey is a psychologist and author who has specialised in burn-out since 2000. For more information on the conference and to register, visit: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1302707/.

anschaef Mon, 09/11/2023 - 14:30 Byline Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Mon, 09/11/2023 - 14:26

Promoting the quality of working life

The "Work Well Feel Well" ("Bien dans son travail") project was launched by the Director-General in 2017 and has become one of the pillars of mental health at CERN. It aims to promote and improve the quality of working life at CERN, in particular by tackling the adverse effects of stress.

The project is led by a multidisciplinary working group, with members of the HR Department, the HSE Unit, the Staff Association and the Ombud. Since its inception, several measures have been implemented to reduce stress factors at CERN, to boost resilience to stress and to help those affected through a number of support structures.

"The first phase of the project highlighted some particularities of CERN", explains Marie-Luce Falipou, project leader. "The survey conducted in 2018 revealed that, although CERN is a demanding workplace, it offers personnel a degree of job autonomy as well as social support through mutual aid from their colleagues and line management, and this fosters a high-quality work environment. Work organisation, team management and communication emerged as key areas to develop in order to ensure good working conditions."

(Image: CERN)

Even so, CERN staff are not immune to stress and its effects, and the COVID-19 pandemic will have had a serious impact on people's mental health. "During the pandemic, we worked closely with managers, who play an important role in the professional well-being of their teams, with whom they are in direct contact", says Marie-Luce Falipou. "And to continue this work, which is still relevant today, I am pleased to announce that the project team will launch the 'Efficiency and caring at work' awareness campaign. 'Caring at work' means wanting the best for ourselves and those around us and taking care of each other no matter what."

This awareness campaign is made up of 12 thought-provoking topics – all you have to do is take part. Fun exercises will help you explore, deepen your knowledge and share your experiences in your search for a better quality of life at work. To work efficiently in the medium-term, we need to be proactive in preserving our energy and health every day. The campaign also includes activities aimed at line managers, providing key information on how to take concrete action on a daily basis to reduce stress and improve working conditions for their teams. Because doing a good job and feeling good at work go hand in hand!

The official launch will be on 6 October, when Catherine Vasey*, Swiss burn-out specialist and designer of this campaign, will give a lecture on preventing burn-out.

"Through this new campaign, we hope to promote mental health at work and remind CERN personnel that stress is not inevitable and deserves our full attention", concludes Marie-Luce Falipou.

_____

* Catherine Vasey is a psychologist and author who has specialised in burn-out since 2000. For more information on the conference and to register, visit: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1302707/.

anschaef Mon, 09/11/2023 - 14:30 Byline Anaïs Schaeffer Publication Date Mon, 09/11/2023 - 14:26

Accelerating circular fashion

Currently, only 1% of textile waste is recycled into new clothes. Recycling textile polymers is a costly and challenging task, as is the separation and recycling of blended textiles – complex mixtures of different fibres, often cotton or wool with synthetic materials. Could particle accelerators solve the problem of textile waste and contribute to circular fashion?

The student team proposed to separate textile fibres using an electron beam from a Van de Graff accelerator. (Image: FabRec team)

This was the subject of the winning project at this summer’s challenge-based innovation event, held by the EU-funded I.FAST project. A multi-disciplinary team of students proposed the use of an electron beam to segregate different fabric components through electrostatic separation. This would be done with used and unused clothes and the separated components would be reintroduced into the manufacturing cycle of recycled clothes.

The event explored how accelerator technologies could address environmental issues. It brought together 24 students of 14 different nationalities, with as many different backgrounds: physics and engineering, as well as environmental science, communication and sociology. Three other projects were presented: studying pollen sterilisation of invasive plants; investigating innovative methods to recycle solar panels; and examining in-situ corrosion prevention of offshore wind turbines.

The next edition of the I.FAST-CBI project will take place in summer 2024 and will focus on the topic “Accelerators for Health”. Applications will open in December 2023. Find out more on the I.FAST website.

For more examples of the impact on society of accelerator technologies and expertise, visit CERN's Contribute to society webpage.

katebrad Fri, 09/08/2023 - 10:37 Publication Date Mon, 09/11/2023 - 10:40

Accelerating circular fashion

Currently, only 1% of textile waste is recycled into new clothes. Recycling textile polymers is a costly and challenging task, as is the separation and recycling of blended textiles – complex mixtures of different fibres, often cotton or wool with synthetic materials. Could particle accelerators solve the problem of textile waste and contribute to circular fashion?

The student team proposed to separate textile fibres using an electron beam from a Van de Graff accelerator. (Image: FabRec team)

This was the subject of the winning project at this summer’s challenge-based innovation event, held by the EU-funded I.FAST project. A multi-disciplinary team of students proposed the use of an electron beam to segregate different fabric components through electrostatic separation. This would be done with used and unused clothes and the separated components would be reintroduced into the manufacturing cycle of recycled clothes.

The event explored how accelerator technologies could address environmental issues. It brought together 24 students of 14 different nationalities, with as many different backgrounds: physics and engineering, as well as environmental science, communication and sociology. Three other projects were presented: studying pollen sterilisation of invasive plants; investigating innovative methods to recycle solar panels; and examining in-situ corrosion prevention of offshore wind turbines.

The next edition of the I.FAST-CBI project will take place in summer 2024 and will focus on the topic “Accelerators for Health”. Applications will open in December 2023. Find out more on the I.FAST website.

For more examples of the impact on society of accelerator technologies and expertise, visit CERN's Contribute to society webpage.

katebrad Fri, 09/08/2023 - 10:37 Publication Date Mon, 09/11/2023 - 10:40

Computer Security: Avoiding salmonella in your code

Writing quality software is like preparing an amazing meal for your friends. Quality ingredients. Established utensils. A clean kitchen (at least initially). And regular tasting to avoid giving your friends a disappointment (or salmonella). The same thing applies to coding. Choosing a suitable programming language. Using established software and version management tools. Preparing clean and well-documented lines of code. And repeated scanning and testing to find blunders, flaws, weaknesses, bugs and vulnerabilities ─ digital salmonella, in other words ─ in plenty of time and long before the software makes it into production. CERN’s IT department has two new tools that are just the thing to help you prepare a delicious software dinner for your friends: GitLab’s “Static Application Security Testing” and “Secret Detection”. Guaranteed salmonella-free.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is a pivotal component for securing your code. It is capable of examining the entire codebase in a quick and automatic manner as early as possible in the software development life cycle. With SAST, vulnerabilities can be found ahead of time in the development process. You just run SAST as another job within your regular pipeline build. Without halting your build process, areas for improvement, vulnerabilities and other kinds of digital salmonella are quickly identified and ready to be addressed by the cook-of-the-keyboard.

Similarly, scanning for secrets – another kind of digital salmonella – is another essential step. Secrets (like passwords, tokens, private keys and certificates) are the glue that bind together various application parts (like SaaS components, databases and cloud infrastructures). Such secrets are frequently hardcoded into source code since they are intended to be used programmatically. In fact, over 5 million secrets were found in public software repositories according to GitGuardian’s 2021 State of Secrets Sprawl report (https://www.gitguardian.com/state-of-secrets-sprawl-on-github-2021), up 20% from the previous year, and not even including plaintext secrets contained in private repositories! So, to keep your secret a secret, to keep the Organization secure, and to keep digital salmonella out, Git’s “Secret Detection” is another important tool to run during your build processes. It will make you aware of the use (and potential exposure!) of secrets, and allow you to get this fixed (see also our recommendations on how to keep secrets secret; https://security.web.cern.ch/recommendations/en/password_alternatives.shtml).

Both of these security tools, SAST and “Secret Detection”, are already available with CERN’s current GitLab Ultimate licence[1]. Details of how to employ them can be found on this dedicated webpage (https://gitlab.docs.cern.ch/docs/Secure%20your%20application/). Once enabled and running, the results are directly visible in the “Vulnerability Report” of your project. While their use is currently on a voluntary basis ─ please opt in! ─, we are planning to run these tools on a regular basis and provide you automagically with the result of our/that pipeline as of Q1/2024. And, cherry on the cake, we also provide you with a second level of security checks (“DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing”; https://gitlab.docs.cern.ch/docs/Secure%20your%20application/other-security-scans) as well as dedicated training courses (https://gitlab.docs.cern.ch/docs/Secure%20your%20application/security-training). Have a look! As, after all, we don’t want your friends (and CERN’s software stack) getting salmonella! 

Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report (https://cern.ch/security/reports/en/monthly_reports.shtml). For further information, questions or help, check our website (https://cern.ch/Computer.Security) or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

 

[1] We also hope to be able to tackle supply-chain problems when importing remote software packages, libraries, containers and virtual machines (https://home.cern/news/news/computing/computer-security-when-your-restaurant-turns-sour).

ndinmore Tue, 09/05/2023 - 11:42 Byline Computer Security team Publication Date Tue, 09/05/2023 - 11:38

Computer Security: Avoiding salmonella in your code

Writing quality software is like preparing an amazing meal for your friends. Quality ingredients. Established utensils. A clean kitchen (at least initially). And regular tasting to avoid giving your friends a disappointment (or salmonella). The same thing applies to coding. Choosing a suitable programming language. Using established software and version management tools. Preparing clean and well-documented lines of code. And repeated scanning and testing to find blunders, flaws, weaknesses, bugs and vulnerabilities ─ digital salmonella, in other words ─ in plenty of time and long before the software makes it into production. CERN’s IT department has two new tools that are just the thing to help you prepare a delicious software dinner for your friends: GitLab’s “Static Application Security Testing” and “Secret Detection”. Guaranteed salmonella-free.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is a pivotal component for securing your code. It is capable of examining the entire codebase in a quick and automatic manner as early as possible in the software development life cycle. With SAST, vulnerabilities can be found ahead of time in the development process. You just run SAST as another job within your regular pipeline build. Without halting your build process, areas for improvement, vulnerabilities and other kinds of digital salmonella are quickly identified and ready to be addressed by the cook-of-the-keyboard.

Similarly, scanning for secrets – another kind of digital salmonella – is another essential step. Secrets (like passwords, tokens, private keys and certificates) are the glue that bind together various application parts (like SaaS components, databases and cloud infrastructures). Such secrets are frequently hardcoded into source code since they are intended to be used programmatically. In fact, over 5 million secrets were found in public software repositories according to GitGuardian’s 2021 State of Secrets Sprawl report (https://www.gitguardian.com/state-of-secrets-sprawl-on-github-2021), up 20% from the previous year, and not even including plaintext secrets contained in private repositories! So, to keep your secret a secret, to keep the Organization secure, and to keep digital salmonella out, Git’s “Secret Detection” is another important tool to run during your build processes. It will make you aware of the use (and potential exposure!) of secrets, and allow you to get this fixed (see also our recommendations on how to keep secrets secret; https://security.web.cern.ch/recommendations/en/password_alternatives.shtml).

Both of these security tools, SAST and “Secret Detection”, are already available with CERN’s current GitLab Ultimate licence[1]. Details of how to employ them can be found on this dedicated webpage (https://gitlab.docs.cern.ch/docs/Secure%20your%20application/). Once enabled and running, the results are directly visible in the “Vulnerability Report” of your project. While their use is currently on a voluntary basis ─ please opt in! ─, we are planning to run these tools on a regular basis and provide you automagically with the result of our/that pipeline as of Q1/2024. And, cherry on the cake, we also provide you with a second level of security checks (“DAST – Dynamic Application Security Testing”; https://gitlab.docs.cern.ch/docs/Secure%20your%20application/other-security-scans) as well as dedicated training courses (https://gitlab.docs.cern.ch/docs/Secure%20your%20application/security-training). Have a look! As, after all, we don’t want your friends (and CERN’s software stack) getting salmonella! 

Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report (https://cern.ch/security/reports/en/monthly_reports.shtml). For further information, questions or help, check our website (https://cern.ch/Computer.Security) or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.

 

[1] We also hope to be able to tackle supply-chain problems when importing remote software packages, libraries, containers and virtual machines (https://home.cern/news/news/computing/computer-security-when-your-restaurant-turns-sour).

ndinmore Tue, 09/05/2023 - 11:42 Byline Computer Security team Publication Date Tue, 09/05/2023 - 11:38

Empowering change – new ambassadors at the CERN & Society Foundation From left to right: Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Dame Anne Richards and Professor Peter Jenni. (Image: CERN)

The CERN & Society Foundation, whose purpose is to support and promote the dissemination, to the widest possible audience, of the benefits of the mission of CERN, through education and outreach, innovation and knowledge exchange, culture and art, complements CERN’s goals with a philanthropic arm. This year, the Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of three new official ambassadors: Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Anne Richards and Peter Jenni, joining William Hurley (known as Whurley), who has served as a CERN & Society Foundation ambassador since 2018. Ambassadors are nominated by the Foundation Board for a period of three years (renewable) and serve on a voluntary basis to support the outreach of the Foundation.

As Director-General of CERN (2009–2015), Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer (DE) launched the concept of the CERN & Society Foundation to advocate collaboration and partnerships in support of CERN’s mission. Following the conclusion of his term as Director-General, he joined the CERN & Society Foundation Board as a member for two full mandates, the maximum allowed, until 2022. Several of the programmes now promoted by the Foundation were established with his close involvement as Director-General, among them the Beamline for Schools competition and Arts@CERN.

Dame Anne Richards (UK) first connected with CERN when she was a summer student and research fellow in the 1980s and has remained engaged in support of the Laboratory since then.  In 2014, she joined the CERN & Society Foundation Board as its first Chair, and guided the establishment and development of the Foundation until 2020.

Professor Peter Jenni (CH), a particle physicist, started his career at CERN in the 1970s and, among many other roles, was spokesperson for the ATLAS experiment until 2009. With Fabiola Gianotti, current Director-General of CERN, he launched the ATLAS PhD Grant Scheme, which has now evolved into the Non-Member State PhD Studentship Scheme. Peter served as a CERN & Society Foundation member and Deputy Chair from 2014 to 2020.

The CERN & Society Foundation Board is extremely pleased to benefit from the support and prestige of all the distinguished ambassadors and looks forward to working closely with them to spread CERN’s spirit of scientific curiosity for the inspiration and benefit of society.

 

Sources:

• https://cernandsocietyfoundation.cern/news/congratulations-anne-richards-being-awarded-damehood
• https://cernandsocietyfoundation.cern/news/capitalising-wider-understanding-benefits-science
• https://atlas.cern/Discover/Collaboration/Management/PeterJenni
• https://home.cern/about/who-we-are/our-people/biographies/rolf-dieter-heuer
• https://cernandsocietyfoundation.cern/news/change-leadership
• https://cernandsocietyfoundation.cern/page/whurleyr-william-hurley
• https://cernandsocietyfoundation.cern/news/whurleyr-be-first-cern-society-foundation-ambassador

ndinmore Tue, 09/05/2023 - 09:50 Publication Date Tue, 09/05/2023 - 09:44