PS-SPS Users Meeting for Week 16 held on 17 April 2025

Coordinator for this week 16 : Martin Jäkel
Coordinator for week 17 & 18 : Paolo Martinengo

News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator

M.R. Jäkel, P. Martinengo

Reminder: Beam time 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, DRDC, INTC, RB or IEFC. Consider joining a DRD collaboration, if you require more beam time.

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

News from the Facilities Operations Meeting (FOM)

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 (Alex Huschauer)

• smooth operation this week
• EAST T9 and TN continue operating at 15 GeV (not compatible with TOF parasite)
• so far we managed well to keep the high flux for TOF despite the missing parasites on T9 and T8

SPS Machine Report (Kevin Li)

No major faults - problems still persisting with TECS for crystal shadowing; limit on total intensity in the machine to 250e10; mitigation will be investigated; problem with RF cavities power system, burnt resistor had be be exchanged; problem under investigation by RF;

• Physics beam delivery since Monday (slightly earlier even); beams mostly stable so far;
• Vacuum spikes on T4 TBIU under investigation; no correlation with beam or machine status found;
• LHC beams less often taken than anticipated, due to issues on the LHC side; still planning to take mostly LHCINDIV over the coming days;
• AWAKE beams extracted towards experiment in view of start of run on Easter Monday;

Incoming:

Safety (Marcus Jankowski)

n_ToF (Alice Manna and Paolo M Milazzo)

Long intervention in EAR2 has been completed on 15.04 for change of the experimental setup.
A set of LaBr3 and HPGE (used to study the 87Sr(n, g) reaction) have been removed, and the STED (Segmented liquid scintillators for Total Energy Detection) array has been mounted.

Data taking on:
• EAR1: C6D6 detector for the study of the 97,98Mo(n, g) reaction
• EAR2: study of the 124Sn(n, g) reaction
• NEAR: Study of radiation hardness for a diamond detector

Protons received

East Area Beam Status (N. Charitonidis)

On call phone number: 67500

T9 / T10: No issues to report. Good operation.
T10: Will change beam later today with ALICE ITS3 who continue.
T11: No user.

East Area Users Tour de Table

T8 Main: IRRAD/CHARM (F. Ravotti / S. Fiore)

Smooth operation week in T8. Proton fluence level above the weekly reference value (~2.8E16 p/w). TID generated by the CHARM target at the reference position is 570 Gy. Beam centering on T8 was again excellent on both axes (>97% of the time center within +/- 2mm). PS/F61/T8 transmission not verified this week.

Tuesday (when CHARM irradiations already completed) the CCC worked in the preparation of a wider beam (~15-18mm FWHM at BPM3 with reduced intensity) to be used beginning of May for a complex LHCb experiment. Access on Tuesday at 16:00 to install dosimetry samples for this special beam (that run until the beam stopped on Wednesday).

During the weekely acces of Wed. April 16th, new samples (DRD3) were added in IRRAD. The SY-BI experiment was removed while TE-MSC, EP-DT and LHCb TimeSPOT continue. In CHARM removed samples by ALICE, exchanged samples by BE-CEM. Beam back with standard conditions.

Next access will be on Wednesday April 23rd.

T9 Main: WCTE (Jiri Kvita)

• WCTE is continuously taking data of both the beam monitors and 83 multi-PMT modules (1.5k+ PMT readout channels total).
• A successful matching of events between the separate beam monitors readout and the mPMT readout was demonstrated.
• A successful tests of the readout high rates using momenta of 1.5 GeV/c was performed.
  • able to operate at trigger rate of 4k / spill at 20k particles / spill (double of what we ran before)
• Several data are being taken periodically, of physics interest:
  • low momentum electrons study (below 200 MeV/c) as background of similar charge to higher-momenta muons.
  • medium momentum runs 200 – 300 MeV/c with longer waveform window to capture Michel electrons.
  • runs at 780 MeV/c for muons quasi elastic scattering measurements.
• New trigger board arrived, tests will start after the Easter after firmware update.
• Gadolinium loading schedule being discussed.
  
  
  

T10 Incoming Main: ALICE_TIMING (Manuel Colocci)

• ISIEC form submitted
• XCSA table requested
• Installation next Wed morning

T10 Outgoing Main: ALICE_ITS3 (Paolo Martinengo)

Very smooth start, excellent beam (800 ms) since the very beginning
Very stable, we completed our high priority measurements already
after 4 days. Continuing with optional ones.
Discussed with the next user, we can stay in the zone if the DESY table is not needed
elsewhere.

North Area Beam Status (N. Charitonidis)

On call phone number: 67500

H2/H4: Smooth operation.
H6: One dipole magnet went into fault on Wednesday at 3am as did a few other magnets in other lines causing a loss of beam in H6. It was reset in the morning when ATLAS HGTD called. Otherwise, good operation.
H8: Beam commissioning completed successfully. First user installed in H8C, large beam vertical and small horizontal, smooth operation so far!
M2: Beam commissioning completed and zone handed to user on 14th April. Installation ongoing.
P42/K12: Beam commissioning done, waiting for final collimation checks (today).

Main HiRadMat (A. Goillot, N. Charitonidis)

Pre comissioning test on 23.04, optics for DPA & Fireball to be checked.

Incoming Main AWAKE (M. Bergamaschi )

Tested some extractions to awake yesteray. Today access for marker laser beam alignem t.
Ready for beam next week

North Area Users Tour de Table

H4 Main: GIF++ (Paolo Martinengo)

First beam already on Friday, week-end devoted to complete installation.
Safety clearance on Monday afternoon, all set-ups now taking data
CMS-CSC (2)
ATLAS-MPI
ECOGAS
CMS-RPC (2)
ATLAS-MM
Straw Tracker parasitically in PPE134

H4 Incoming Main: NA64e (Laura Molina Bueno)

We start installation and commissioning next wednesday with slightly modified setup. We completed the isiec form and we have requested our safety visit for next Friday 25th at 15.30. We plan to complete commissioning by 30th of April when we will installe the additional vacuum and remove all material of the line. We plan to take data with electrons at 100 GeV and dedicate last week of our run to positrons until 23rd when we finish. The week from 7th of july after oxygen stop will be dedicated to negative pions at 40 and 50 GeV as this can be done in parallel to the user in H2.

H6 Main: ATLAS_HGTD (Stefano Manzoni)

We completed the setup installation over the weekend, and the safety check was successfully passed on Monday morning.

Due to a failure of the main chiller in H6A, we began data taking on Tuesday afternoon, after connecting the cold box’s main cooling circuit to the second smaller chiller available in the area.

This morning, we finished the measurements of the first DUT. We are now preparing to mount a 1x2 module. Given the larger area of the module, we would appreciate if the beam could be stretched more along the Y-axis, if possible.

H6 Parallel: AIDAINNOVA_WP6 (Jordi Duarte)

Installation and commisioning during Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon passed the safety check.
Some issues with one of the elements of the setup (CROC producer) but smooth and estable data taking since Yesterday noon.

Setup:

• AIDA Telescope and TLU
• CROC plane for pile-up rejection
• HPK LGADs as timing reference
• Cold box with ethanol chiller at -20 deg.
• DUTs readout with CAEN digitezer (16ch), integrated into EUDAQ2
• EUDAQ2 used as common DAQ (all elements integrated)

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H6 Parallel: ATLAS_AFP_TOF (Tomáš Komárek)

• Safety clearance on Tuesday afternoon
• All systems operational, but tuning still required
• PicoTDC runs and provides sensible data, but enters bad state after a few minutes of running
• Next: ref timing detector analysis, proper readout timing in, SiT tuning, PicoTDC FW fixes in parallel
• Ultimate goal: take data with SiT + ToF (both HPTDC and PicoTDC) + SiPM to show PicoTDC timing resolution and efficiency

H8 Main: LHCB (Federico Ronchetti)

• Thanks to Vincent Marchand for the DESY Table
• Setup ready by Monday afternoon and safety visit scheduled and passed the same day
• Satarted to take data already Monday evening
• Basically uninterrupted beam for the past 3 days
• Thanks a lot to Maarten for the help and the nice beam

K12-P42 Main: NA62 (R.Piandani)

Last weekend we asked muon beam used for calibration of the various detectors
Monday afternoon we started the CEDAR filling with H2, filling finished around midnigth
Tuesday dedicated to the commissioning of the CEDAR
Wednesday final tets and checks of the detectors.
Today we started our physics program

M2 Main: MUONE (Please insert your name)

H4 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD (Please insert your name)

H8 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD (Please insert your name)

M2 Parasitic: AMBER (Please insert your name)

AoB

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