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PS/SPS User Meeting

Europe/Zurich
874/1-011 (CERN)

874/1-011

CERN

75
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Martin R. Jaekel (CERN), Paolo Martinengo (CERN)
Description

Minutes of Meeting 

The template for the minutes of meeting for the weekly PS & SPS users meeting can always be found using this link: https://codimd.web.cern.ch/0aHs5uqmSPuII76-SaaQdg

Please pre-fill them before the meeting with a summary of your activities!

PS-SPS Users Meeting for Week 29 held on 17 July 2025

Coordinator for week 28 & 29 : Martin Jäkel
Coordinator for week 30 : Paolo Martinengo

EuroLabs : Application are open. Please submit your requests.

News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator

M.R. Jäkel, P. Martinengo

End Physics Run 2025 Information

  • NA Physics p+ : 24.11.2025
    NA Physics Pb Ion 28.11-08.12
  • EA Physics PB Ion (T8) 17.11-08.12
    EA Physics p+ (T9) 24.11
    EA Physics p+ (T10/T11) 08.12

PRELIMINARY dates for 2026 run (taken from 187th EATM)

  • 11th February 2026 – Start of EA Beam Commissioning + T08 Start
  • 18th February 2026 – Start of EA Physics
  • 2nd March 2026 – Start NA Beam Commissioning
  • 13th March 2026 – Start of NA physics

Waiting for release of next official injector schedule, but dates should be rather stable.

Newly available beam opportunities :

  • EA/T10 Week 33 (13.Aug)
  • Some paralell options available

Reminder: Beam time (main user) exceeding the limits of 2 weeks PS beam time and 1 week SPS beam time per year need the approval of one of these CERN committees: SPSC, LHCC or RB. Endorsment of DRDC or IEFC is a pre-requirement for longer beam time that still needs SPSC approval. Endorsement of beam time by the scientific committie does not guarantee the beam time can be scheduled.

Target intensities:
See via ASM (accessible from within the CERN network).

News from the Facilities Operations Meeting (FOM/TIOC)

Impact 253721: SSO was upgraded from Keycloak 24 to Keycloak 26 on Monday, 14th of July Monday, 14th of July Monday, between 7 PM and 8 PM. - some minor issus with several logbooks unavailable for ≈ 30 minutes.

Upcoming SPS MDs next weeks :

https://be-dep-ea.web.cern.ch/content/md-planning-north-area
Dedicated SPS MDs - if not anounced differently - are taking place from 8:00 to 18:00


PS Machine Report (Y. Dutheil)

  • availabilikty of 89%
    • degraded operation due to PSB R4 last week
    • Several short trips for RF in the PS
    • No major issues

SPS Machine Report (Michael Schenk)

  • NA availability: 74.7 %
  • Main issues
    • Degraded beam (1.5 days) due to missing PSB ring (no exchange needed)
    • MKP thyratron (Saturday, ~7 h downtime)
    • TBIU T2 vacuum leak (Wednesday evening)
      • Meeting with various experts this morning, followed by study with vacuum experts just now to decide whether intervention needed asap (i.e. next week), or can continue
      • Result: Looks like we can continue for now – vacuum level stable for 30’ with 3xSFTPRO in SC and 30 units on T2. Monitoring situation closely. Spare is being prepared nevertheless.
      • Thanks to long parallel MD users for allowing stress test
  • Upcoming
    • Next week
      • Monday: Follow up TBIU T2 incident
      • NA physics
      • HRM3 run (Monday & Tuesday)
      • MDs: dedicated (Wednesday, 8 - 18 h), long parallel (Thursday), short parallel (Friday)

Safety (James Devine)

  • Electrical safety - if you find extension leads in your zone that look like this…  Do not use them, the sheath of the cable needs to go all the way inside the plug or socket. If you find this in your zone please call me (168824, working hours only!) and I will come and make the situation safe, or arrange for someone else to make it safe.

  • Reminders:

    • Helmets and safety shoes are required in all beam line areas
    • Long trousers (or leggings) are required everywhere where safety shoes are required. T-shirts are permitted. Link to HSE memo: https://edms.cern.ch/document/2193556/1
  • Ordering safety shoes and helmets can be done from the CERN store urgency window in Meyrin (Building 73), this allows you to try the shoes on and will be quicker than waiting for SCE to deliver them. https://sce-dep.web.cern.ch/stores/urgency-windows

TT42 Main: n_TOF (Alice Manna, Paolo M Milazzo)

Smooth data taking:
In EAR1 measurement of 56Fe(n, gamma) reaction, with C6D6 liquid scintillators (+LaBr3 in the Neutron Escape Line)
In EAR2 the study of the 41Ca(n, p) reaction with a set of silicon strip detectors
In the NEAR: Activation measurements

East Area Beam Status (Laurie Nevay)

On call phone number: :phone: 67500

T10/T11: Last Friday night, the issue of not being able to move the beam stoppers for T10/T11 reoccurred. The piquet intervened and it was eventually fixed in the early hours of Saturday. No issues since then. This panel will be inspected and all cables checked thoroughly at the end of the Year in the YETS.

T9: Good operation. Beam files checked for LHCb TORCH.
T10: Good operation.
T11: No issues after Friday.

East Area Users Tour de Table

T8 Main: IRRAD_CHARM (S. Fiore / F. Ravotti)

Very good run this week. We received on T8 ~2.6E16 p/w as shown below. The TID in CHARM approach the reference value. Beam centering statistics are very good this week: ~>91% on both axis. The gain of all IRRAD BPMs was finally tuned last Thursday morning during a PS beam stop.

On the Wednesday access slot in IRRAD we installed a new LHCb experiment (scintillating fiber samples) and ATLAS ITk module. Moreover, several sample batches are being irradiated occupying almost all irradiaiton systems and the IRRAD shuttle: EP-DT, LHCb VELO, DRD3 (SiC, LGADs samples, etc.), CMS BRIL, AIDAinnova structures, etc.). The long-run experiments TE-MSC (polymers in inert gas and ambient air and epoxy resins in ambient air) are also ongoing.

In CHARM we installed two new setups, one from SY-RF for 10 MHz cavities amplifiers, and a second one for QPS energy extraction systems by TE-MPE. New component tests started for BE-CEM as well, and SY_BI continues testing diamond detectors and Timepix.

We continue until Wednesday with access, as usual, at 9am.

T9 Main: LHCB_TORCH (Marion Lehuraux)

We had our first safety visit allowing us to use beam to align our timing stations and get some time of flight measurement with external detectors.
We obtained the expected time of flight ploat for 3, 5 and 8 GeV but also parasite peaks that we had to hunt down. We made some progress on it but it’s not yet perfectly understood.

For the TORCH prototype itself we have difficulties powering the electronics due to the longer cables now needed to reach the top of much higher prototype. Plan today is to shorten cables as much as possible and then conduct a light-tighteness test so we can then start data taking.

T10 Outgoing Main: ALICE_RICH (M. Nicola Mazziotta)

Smooth data taking after the beam stopper issue fixed on Saturday morning. We took data with negative beam at 2, 3, 4 and 10 GeV/c. The beam Cherenkov threshold counters have been succeful used to tag electrons < 4 GeV/c. Data analysis is now on going.

T10 Main: BL4S (Şeyma Esen)

  • Cabling has finished.
  • Safety Inspection completed. We can turn the beam on!
  • Detector calibrations are ongoing (DWCs)

DAQ Scheme:

Experimental Setup

Targets:

T10 Incoming Main: EIC BARREL ECAL (Jeongsu Bok)

T11 Main: P349+ (V. Verhoeven)

Taking data.

Target is filled. Runs very stable.
Might have to refill to reduce condensation at one point.

Cherenkov veto factor ~50 (test in May was ~100)

TT66 Incoming Main: HIRADMAT (A. Goillot)

Preparations for CMS ongoing. Beam time next week.

TELMAX Main: PAX (Gonçalo Baptista)

  • No major incidents since last week.
  • Measurements ongoing for antiprotonic Silicon x rays.
  • Something in the environment might be causing a degradation in temperature stability of our cryostat.

North Area Beam Status (Laurie Nevay)

On call phone number: :phone: 67500

General: failure of a magnet in the wobbling for T2 causing a spike in vacuum in the instrumentation upstream of the target. The North Area beams were stopped last night. It was agreed among all experts to resume operation for now (nominal intensity) and monitor the situation.

H2: XTDV.021630 exchanged, normal operation resumed.
H4/H6/H8/M2/P42/K12: Generally, good operation.

North Area Users Tour de Table

H2 Outgoing Main: NP02 (Filippo Resnati)

Beam and beam instrumentation integration
  • Beam performs well
    • All relevant momenta already available
    • Good rate and stability
  • Overall beam instrumentation works well too
    • Signals to create the triggers are ok
    • Retrive the data from DIP server works ok (cross checks ongoing)
    • Timing is ok (cross checks ongoing)
    • Low pressure Cherenkov needs some attention by the experts
  • Central Trigger Board (CTB) trigger successful implemented
    • New firmware for the CTB with the beam
    • Not deployed yet, but tested
    • it will be deployed in the coming weeks
Photon Detectors
  • Used successfully to take data triggering on beam
  • During the day with membrane and cathode modules
    • Cathode data were taken in selftrigger and in fullstream mode
  • During the night with membrane modules only
  • Total collected events
    • 12 GeV: 6 M events (Cherenkov pressures not tuned)
    • 5 GeV: 1.443 M - 687 K events (Cherenkov pressures not tuned) + 756 K event (Cherenkov pressures tuned)
    • 2 GeV: 516 K events (Cherenkov pressures not tuned)
TPC operation
  • LAr purity higher than requirements
  • Cathode operation at nominal voltage -154 kV
  • Understanding and improving the electronic noise on top and bottom charge readouts
    • Central UPS is injecting significant noise. Bypassed for the moment. Investigatng the use of low pass filters
    • Implementation of filters on cathode HV Power Supply to suppress ripple noise
  • Progress with top TPC electronics integration in the DAQ
DAQ
  • Trigger Primitive Generation (TPG)
    • Initial TPG development started
    • Took data from bottom TPC with HV on and bias on the CRPs
    • Preliminary searches for micro discharge-like events show no candidates
  • Bottom TPC operation
    • no issues detected, good overall noise, long tracks, channel mapping ok

Very good progress in the detector commissioning and beam instrumentation commissioning.
Two weeks to prepare for next beam period.

H2 Main: DRD6 HGCCAL (Yong Liu)

  • General status

    • The HGCCAL prototype successfully installed Wednesday and aligned with the beam positioning
    • A beam telescope prototype was installed and a grounding issue was resolved in Thursday morning (thanks to safety inspections and suggestions by James)
    • Safety clearance was issued by the Safety Office in Thursday morning -> ready to go
    • All beam files have been prepared (thanks to the kind help of Nikos and Bastien)
  • Planning

    • Muon beams (160 GeV) for MIP calibration
    • Electron beams for energy scans: 10 - 80 GeV (major focus), high energy points (120 - 350 GeV)
    • Hadron beams (160/180 GeV)for beam telescope studies

H2 Incoming Main: CMS_HF (Please insert your name)

H4 Outgoing Main: NA64e (L. Molina Bueno)

Presentation provided in Indico with the summary of the run

H4 Main: DRD1 (Please insert your name)

H4 Parallel: GIF++ (Martinengo P. & Pezzullo G.)

8 main setups with multiple detectors are participating in this test beam: 5 upstream, 3 downstream:
ATLAS NSW-MM, ATLAS-RPC, CMS-CSC, CMS-RPC, EP-DT2, ECOGAS, ATL-(s)MDT, ATL-MPI-RPC
Installation:
Most setups have been installed and have been taking data since Monday, July 14th. Thanks to Nikos and the BE team — since yesterday, when the beam was back, we’ve had a very good rate (>12,000 counts in coincidence).
There is a safety issue under discussion concerning one setup. A solution is currently being worked on.

H6 Main: ATLAS_ITK_PIXEL (Andre Rummler)

Data taking with the first batch has been concluded fully and very successfully. Batch has been changed against another unirradiated and irradiated (CYRIC) triplet. Currently tuning ongoing and planned to go into data taking later today.

H6 Outgoing Parallel: DRD3 DIAMOND (Thorsten Wengler)

H6 Incoming Parallel: ATLAS_MALTA (Theertha Chembakan, Carlos Solans Sanchez )

  • The MALTA Telescope is now in full operational mode.
  • Safety clearance for extended year-round operations was granted on April 15, 2025.
  • The Parallel User Week: July 16–23, 2025 & The Main User Week: July 23-30,2025
  • Planned activities during the Parallel & Main User Week include continued testing and Rotaional measurements of MALTA2 sensors.
  • The DUT (2e15 irradiated MALTA2 sample) was successfully installed yesterday.
  • Temperature and humidity are being actively controlled inside the cold box.
  • The setup is now ready for data taking.

H8 Main: ATLAS_TILECAL (G.Usai)

Data taking is progressing smoothly. No major issues in the setup, the glitches with the CANBUS in the legacy electronics were solved and calibration performed so we are going to take data also on legacy module.
Many thanks to Maarten for further optimisation of the new muon beams at lower energy!

H8 Incoming Main: LHCB (L. Martinazzoli)

Installation on 23rd with safety visit at at 16:30.

Goal: characterisation of micrometer-size silicon sensors; using TimePix telescope in PPE138

Current plans:

  • Week 30 (1st): commissioning with standard-rate beam. High-rate beam (>1e6/spill) is necessary to acquire meaningful statistics and characterise the small sensors. Actual requirements to be evaluated on site, day by day.
  • Week 31 (2nd): parallel beam compatible with MU2E.

As always, thanks to the beam expert and the infrastructure team for the support!

K12-P42 Main: NA62 (F. Gonnella, R. Piandani)

  • CEDAR pressure scan and alignment preformed last Saturday
  • Smooth data-taking: we acquired several good physics run
  • When minor problems are spotted (initial spike, beam quality, etc.), CCC operators are fast to fix them

M2 Main: MUONE (Aldo Arena)

We are in physics data taking, everything is going smoothly.
Yesterday, during MD, we brought the Beam Momentum Spectrometer (BMS) mechanics in the beam area and the plan is to install it during next MDs and start to use it as soon as the commisioning/installtion finish.
Thanks to Amber, we agreed that we will continue the data taking with the full setup during the evenings on August until they finish the installation during the day.

H4 Parasitic: MINICACTUS (Please insert your name)

H4 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD (Please insert your name)

H6 Incoming Parasitic: TRIDENT (Please insert your name)

H8 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD (Please insert your name)

H8 Incoming Parasitic: CMS PPS (F. Garcia)

All the preaprations for the upcoming test beam are in full swing and the expected setup foreseen at the moment is:

1.- Four (4) LGADs based setups each of them with several traking planes (~ 16 planes)
2.- One (1) cold box (dry ice) for the studies of Irradaited LGADs
3.- One Triple GEM tracker still in preparaitons
4.- Trigger scintillators
5.- Two XSCA tables (one already secured + one more pending confirmation)

The Physics program is quite broad with bias scans, LV scans with the main observable under study the time resolution and its mapping on the sensors.

The beam conditions needed for this campaing will be:

1.- Pions (~180GeV/c)
2.- Narrow beam (~2mm RMS in both planes)
3.- The highest intentisty possible (normally 50k/spill)

Our expectations is to manage a good compromise with the sharing od the beam and to manage to continue the physics program started already in the last test beam. If agreement can not be found, we suggest to move to PPE156 in H6 so the group’s efforts are not lost due to the lack of beam in the H8 area.

Many thanks in advance.

M2 Parasitic: AMBER (Please insert your name)


AoB


Minutes by the respective speakers, edited by M. Jäkel and M. Malkin

There are minutes attached to this event. Show them.
    • 10:30 10:35
      News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator 5m
      Speaker: Martin R. Jaekel (CERN)
    • 10:35 10:40
      PS machine report 5m

      Members of be-dep-ps-coordinators can upload material.

      Speakers: Alexander Huschauer (CERN), Alexandre Lasheen (CERN), Bettina Mikulec (CERN), Denis Gerard Cotte (CERN), Ewen Hamish Maclean (CERN), Ruben Garcia Alia (CERN), Yann Dutheil (CERN)
    • 10:40 10:43
      Safety / Radiation Protection 3m
      Speakers: Evelyne Dho (CERN), James Devine (CERN), Jean-Francois Gruber (CERN), Letizia Di Giulio (CERN), Marcus Jankowski (CERN)
    • 10:43 10:46
      nTOF 3m
      Speakers: Alberto Mengoni (CERN & INFN, Bologna), Alice Manna (CERN, Geneva), Michael Bacak (Vienna University of Technology (AT)), Paolo Maria Milazzo (Universita e INFN Trieste (IT))
    • 10:46 10:49
      East Area Beam Status 3m
      Speakers: Bastien Rae (CERN), Dipanwita Banerjee (CERN), Johannes Bernhard (CERN), Maarten Van Dijk (CERN), Michael Lazzaroni (CERN), Nikolaos Charitonidis (CERN)
    • 10:49 11:07
      East Area Users Tour de Table 18m
      • T8 Main: IRRAD_CHARM 3m

        Members of the ps-sps-users e-group can upload material

      • T9 Main: LHCB_TORCH 3m

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      • T10 Outgoing Main: ALICE_RICH 3m

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      • T10 Main: BL4S 3m

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      • T10 Incoming Main: EIC BARREL ECAL 3m

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      • T11 Main: P349+ 3m

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    • 11:07 11:10
      North Area Beam Status 3m
      Speakers: Bastien Rae (CERN), Dipanwita Banerjee (CERN), Johannes Bernhard (CERN), Maarten Van Dijk (CERN), Nikolaos Charitonidis (CERN)
    • 11:13 11:37
      North Area Users Tour de Table 24m
      • H2 Outgoing Main: NP02 3m

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      • H2 Main: DRD6 HGCCAL 3m

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      • H2 Incoming Main: CMS_HF 3m

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      • H4 Outgoing Main: NA64e 3m

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      • H4 Main: DRD1 3m

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      • H4 Parallel: GIF++ 3m

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      • H6 Main: ATLAS_ITK_PIXEL 3m

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      • H6 Incoming Main: ATLAS_MALTA 3m

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      • H6 Outgoing Parallel: DRD3 DIAMOND 3m

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      • H6 Parallel: ATLAS_MALTA 3m

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      • H8 Outgoing Main: ATLAS_TILECAL 3m

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      • H8 Main: ATLAS_TILECAL 3m

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      • H8 Incoming Main: LHCB 3m

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      • K12-P42 Main: NA62 3m

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      • M2 Main: MUONE 3m

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    • 11:37 11:40
      Parasitic Users 3m

      Reporting is not obligatory,
      Members of ps-sps-users e-group can upload material

      • H4 Parasitic: MINICACTUS 3m

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      • H4 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD 3m

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      • H6 Incoming Parasitic: TRIDENT 3m

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      • H8 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD 3m

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      • H8 Incoming Parasitic: CMS PPS 3m

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      • M2 Parasitic: AMBER 3m

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    • 11:40 11:43
      AOB 3m