Minutes of the PS-SPS Users Meeting held on May 4th, 2023

Next user meeting: May 11th, 2023 10:30 CEST

EURO-LABS Transnational Access call for applications

has been sent out to the users via the ps-sps-users mailing list (e-group).

News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator (E. B. Holzer)

New start time of the Weekly User Meeting: 10:30

New injector Schedule --> linked from the top of the user webpage https://ps-sps-coordination.web.cern.ch/ps-sps-coordination/

User Schedules updated

AWAKE not in the super-cycle today during MD period

Sometime during the week end (still to be defined) special Super-cycle to compensate AWAKE for the 480 cycles lost duirng the Thursday MD: 2 SFTPRO + 3 AWAKE

Requests to be addressed to the Physics Coordinator include:

• Increases of the intensity on target --> send your high intensity requests for 2023 now!
• Changes to the super-cycle other than simply asking to use unused cycles in the PS
• Choice of primary target when the target is shared by other users (e.g. other beam lines)

Requests to directy address to OP:

• PS users, as long as you are not sharing the target with another user: being taken out of the super-cycle or reducing the number of cycles in the super-cycle
• Ask for additional cycles which would otherwise stay empty (i.e. not taking the share of other users)
• Reduce the intensity on target (as long as you are not sharing the target) outside working hours - PS EA and SPS NA user during working, please go via the SBA beam line expert when you want to reduce target intensities!

All parasitic running needs to be approved and properly scheduled --> send email to spsco@cern.ch

The supercycle aims to deliver:

• 1 out of 10 cycles to IRRAD / CHARM
• 1 out of 20 cycles to T9 target
• 1 out of 20 cycles to T10/T11 target
• 40% to ISOLDE
• 1.66E12 p/s to nTOF

–> The supercycle needs to be a bit longer than in run2 to accomplish this sharing
–> for example 3 SPS cycles work very well with that sharing. --> standard supercycle when there are no other activites (for example during the night)
This sharing is not always possible, e.g. when the LHC is being filled.

Instructions to PS users:

• If you do not require beam for at least 15 minutes --> please inform the ccc, so that they can distribute the cycles to other users
• your program is ok with fewer cycles --> please inform the ccc, that they can give one of your cycles to another user!

PS Machine Report (Denis COTTE)

• PS is now in full operation, availability above 92% last week
• TOF : low intensity beam provided on dedicated cycle from 26/04 to 02/05. Back to nominal intensity since Tuesday.
• EAST : Very nice spill shape provided for all destinations following a great job of operation team. T9 stopped taking beam, free cycle reattributed to T8 or TN.
• MTE : intensity increased from 650 ppp to 1150 ppp on the 27th of April.

SPS Machine Report (Please Add Your Name Here)

• SFTPRO:
  • Very good availability – no major issues
  • Spill quality: small modifications done on the RF side to try to improve the quality of the spill
  • 10th May dedicated MD will need beam to P42 also if possible
  • 50 and 100 Hz automatic compensation on → still sometimes the algorithms hits boundaries and provokes shots with very large 50 and 100 Hz
• AWAKE:
  • Physics started on Monday – no major stops or issues until now
• HiRadMat:
  • 1h of extractions provided Wednesday morning – everything looks rather as expected and not major issues seen in the profile measured (unfortunately very difficult to say more as on emittance measurement available in the SPS)

Safety / Radiation Protection (Please Add Your Name Here)

n_TOF (Nikolas Patronis)

• EAR1: The first n_TOF neutron inelastic measurement was succesfully accomplished. First results are promising and we are optimistic that (n,n’) reactions can be studied at n_TOF. On 03.05.2023 almost the full day was spent to change the setup from HPGe detector to capture setup (C6D6 and sTED) for the study of 181Ta(n,g) reaction.
• EAR2: One more week of auxiliary capture setup measurements
• NEAR: Change of irradiation configuration on 03.05.2023. Till 10.05.2023 (Wednesday) -> study of 94Zr(n,g) using 15mm B4C filters
• PoT: 2.3E18
• Scheduled beam-off Wednesday 10.05.2023 -> 09:00 - 14:00 (5h); change of NEAR irradiation setup

East Area Beam Status (Laurie Nevay)

T09: No issues. No users for coming weeks.
T10: Smooth operation.
T11: No issues.

East Area Users Tour de Table

T8: IRRAD / CHARM (F. Ravotti)

Running smoothly, no issues. Weekly access on Wendnesday: installed one active experiment for LHCb and exchanged passive samples (mainly for TE-MSC) in IRRAD. In CHARM, installation of a user in pos. 13 (TE-MPE, DQHDS system). During access, exchanged also a faulty valve on a vacuum pump sitting between the IRRAD and CHARM areas (BE-EA). Issue with access system (no access from ~11:30) made us postpone the commissioning of a detector being tested in CHARM and delayed the restart of the beam (back ~15:30). Very good beam all week long and weekly intensity goal achieved (see plot below):

Next access on Wednesday. We hare happy to profit of the free T9 cycle to T8 whenever possible. Thanks and apologies for not being able to attend today.

T9 Outgoing: LHCb ECAL (Matteo Salomoni)

Unfortunately cannot attend today, again. Apologies.

Summary of the work performed:

Telescope under test functional, following picture shows beam structure for 14 GeV hadrons for the two LHCb-SciFi style planes under test:

Synchronization between telescope DAQ and LHCb-ECAL test beam DAQ successfull.

New LHC-ECAL Module-0 tested under electron irradiation (5 GeV). Calibration system successfully tested.

T10 Outgoing: ALICE TOF (Yongwook Baek)

• Beam test has been successfully done for 2 MRPCs.
• HV scan, position scan, Rate scan
• After RP measurement, all materials have been removed from beam area

T10: ALICE ITS3 (Paolo Martinengo)

installation completed (two telescopes) yesterday (started already on Tuesday), safety inspection at 10:00. Started data taking late afternoon. Gas alarm (CLOUD) in 157, little impact. COllimators stuck this morning, Maarten quickly fixed them. New beam files prepared by Maarten and Elisabetta, thanks a lot.

T11: CLOUD (Eva Sommer)

Problems with the gas system. The CLOUD team apologises for the disruptions yesterday. We have solved the ozone generator issue now and hopefully things will work smoothly from now on.

AWAKE (Livio Verra, Giovanni Zevi Della Porta)

Last week:

• Completed DPS commissioning
• DAQ/Trigger test with plasma and all diagnostics
• Cabling for next-generation plasma source (July)
• Cleaned cavern and RP visit in preparation for protons beam

This week:

• Begin 3 weeks of proton running for Discharge Plasma Source testing
• Monday (May 1): stable beam, 2 extractions per cycle
• Tuesday/Wednesday: beam on/off due to LHC lifetime issues, but still collected useful data
• New for 2023 : no beam during parallel MD (Thursdays), to be compensated with additional cycle at another time (one extraction per minute from 8 to 18 = 600 extractions)

North Area Beam Status

H2, H4, H6, and H8 Beams (Laurie Nevay)

H2/H4 - Nikos reports smooth running.
H6 - B1/B2 cards replaced Friday afternoon - thanks to ATLAS ITK pixel for being flexible with access for first line. Instability seems to be resolved.
H8 - Nothing from Maarten - smooth running.

Other Beams P42, K12, and M2 (Laurie Nevay)

M2: Beam commissioning completed and handed over to AMBER on 27th April. On Tuesday night it was observed that the upstream CEDAR was a bit too low which has been fixed on Wednesday morning. Both CEDAR’s operation checked at 190 GeV/c.
P42-K12: Commissioning successfully completed on 28.04., now muon and kaon beams to NA62. Generally smooth operation - some trouble with CEDAR diaphragm motor / end-switch being resolved.

North Area Users Tour de Table

P42-K12 and M2

K12: NA62 (Roberto Piandani)

A problem with our CEDAR detector prevented us to have a proper data taking. The detector team with the help from BE-EA experts is working to fix the problem as soon as possible.
We made calibration run using a muon beam.

M2: AMBER (Maxim Alexeev)

• Taking advantage of the timely provided beam we are smoothly proceeding with the commissioning.
• Over the past weekend we have concluded the first part of the ECALs calibration with the electron beam and presently hadron beam is used for the commissioning of the CEDARs and other detectors.

• Was found that the CEDARs have an abnormal He consumption. The problem is being investigated by EN-BE-BI.
• The position of one CEDAR was not optimal and during the alignment it run into the adjustment limits. On 03.05.23 has been moved wrt. the support by Yannis. Looks OK (Dipanwita managed to perform a pressure scan), waiting for the update on the status.

EB Holzer: The request was approved.

H2

H2: CALICE ScW-ECAL + AHCAL (Yong Liu)

Status of the period in Apr. 27 - May 4

• Setup in H2 beamline: combined ScW-ECAL + AHCAL prototypes
• Finished positioning scans with 100 GeV muons
• Finished energy scans with electrons and pion
  • Electrons: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, 120; 150, 200, 250, 350 GeV
  • Negative pions: 10, 15, 20, 30; 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, 120; 350 GeV
• Muon runs: XCET efficiency studies
  • Scan pressures of Cherenkov threshold counters in the range of 0.2 - 2.0 bar
• Inclined beam incidence: prototypes rotated by ~5 degrees (ongoing today)

Selected pictures of event display with ScW-ECAL + AHCAL prototypes

• 100 GeV 𝜇−
  • 
• 60 GeV 𝑒−
  • 
• 60 GeV 𝜋−
  • 
• 350 GeV 𝜋−
  • 

General plans for May 4 - 10

• To evaluate the EM and hadronic performance of AHCAL alone
• Will move out ScW-ECAL prototype in May 4 or 5
• Energy scans with electrons and negative pions (10– 120 GeV)

H2 Incoming: CMS HF - Week 19 (Alexi Mestvirishvili)

Preparation is ongoing
Scheduled safety inspection at Wednesday , May 10 at 3p.m
Need electrons with energies 50, 70, 90, 110 Gev and pions 30, 50, 70 Gev
Hopefully files from last year exist

H4

H4: GIF++ (Martin)

• Test beam runs partially fine with 10 setups running in parallel. Some experiments had issues with readout electronics (needing a complet replacement) and one setup needed to exchang e a broken chamber.
• Ecogas and CMS-RPC now testing new gas mixture with increased CO2 content.
• If good beam for the rest of the week, all setups should be able to complete their program.
• Sharing beamtime works (as usual) fine with RD51, with 3 fixed access times for them during the day but no access during the nigth. Still running in parallel will mean some potential beam time is lost (access / low intensity pion beam…)
• A bit of surprise : Access requests from NA64e for upstream area.

H4: RD51 (Yorgos Tsipolitis, Eraldo Oliveri)

• Test beam running smoothly
• All setup (5/5) in data tacking
• Few Pions runs planned for the remaining part of the beam (tuning today @2pm with Bastien)
• End of the beam, next Wednesday 10th of May – if no MD, RP measurements will be done outside the area.

H4: STRAW Tracker RD (Temur Enik, Katerina Kuznetsova)

• running smoothly (see RD51)
• next Wednesday: moving to H8 beam dump

H4 Incoming: NA64e - Week 19 (Please Add Your Name Here)

H6

H6: ATLAS ITk PIXEL (Andre Rummler)

After some setup issues (mostly tuning of irradiated modules related) we started good data taking Thursday evening which continued successfully. We managed to run five modules simultaneously (compared to four last years). First two batches (same samples at 0° and 15°) concluded; currently third batch with partially new samples. Many data were taken and at least one lession regarding tuning improvement learnt. Investigation on improving the cooling of irradiated quad module ongoing (currently mounted; very challenging). FW experts on-site and working on improvement of triggering. DAQ sw development also ongoing and planned to be tested on the WE.

Beam position adjusted to telescope ACONITE after issues with magnets; as soon as CMS is ready will try to go back to old agreed 0/0 position (on wire chambers).

Unrelated observations:
Yesterday the large gate for the loading zone between neutrino platform and rest of EHN1 (close to AMS) was open at 18:00 without anybody nearby. I closed it subsequently. It should be avoided both for the HVAC as well as the birds…

On Tuesday observed large leak (most likely HVAC); reported to CCC-TI.

H6: CMS PIXEL (B. Ristic)

• Started installation yesterday. Setup mostly complete
• CERN transport service failed to deliver our chiller in time -> Waiting for it
• In the mean time tuning and debugging the system
• Once chiller arrives, we’ll start tuning our irradiated sensors and start the measurement programme.
• Agreed with beamline physicists to widen the beam. They will perhaps change the position to which we will adapt

H6: RD42 (Harris Kagan)

• Detectors, electronics, power supplies, a new computer and people arrived yesterday throughout the day.
• Computer and software was tested successfully on Wed; diamond detector was pumped overnight.
• The Malta telescope was setup this morning and is now fully operational. The diamond module is the device at 45 degrees marked by the red tape:

• We expect data taking to begin this afternoon after the diamond is fully pumped and we adjust the beams to our nominal position. Presently the beams seem to be off by 3-5mm towards the Saleve.
• We have a full testbeam schedule of the final diamond detectors after surface processing using the final ATLAS BCM’ geometry. Assuming this testbeam is successful, ATLAS should be in a position to begin producing their final modules.

H6 Incoming: CERF - Week 19 (Marco Tisi, Robert Froeschl, Fabio Pozzi)

• CERF run 2023 will have several external users
• We expect (as usual) a tight schedule with rather short irradiations
• Do not access the areas downstream CERF even when the beam is OFF. Please call us if you need to access, we will agree on a suitable time.

H8

H8: LHCb VELO (Andrea Lampis, Martin van Beuzekom)

• Characterisation of 3D sensors (TimeSpot project).
• Data taking proceeds fine.
• Very happy with beam intensity and beam spot.
• Installed second setup (Timepix4 telescope) yesterday.

H8 Incoming: CMS MTD - Week 19 (Giulia Sorrentino)

• Preparing for the start of the operations next Wednesday

AOB

AMBER intensity increase to 100-130 units on the T6 target starting the Friday 05.05.23 afternoon for 3-4 days was approved.

Minutes by the respective speakers, edited by E. B. Holzer and M. Schwinzerl