Choose timezone
Your profile timezone:
PS/SPS User Meeting
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 summery of your activities!
PS/SPS User Meeting
PS-SPS Users Meeting for Week 21 held on 22 May 2025
Coordinator for this week: P. Martinengo
-
Current PS / SPS User schedule v1.1.1
(Version 1.1.2 for H2) -
Injector schedule (v1.1) for 2025 is available here: https://edms.cern.ch/document/3057281/latest
EuroLabs : Application are open. Please submit your requests.
News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator
M.R. Jäkel, P. Martinengo
Proton Run 2025
- Physics Start p+ EA & nTOF Wednesday 19.03.2025
- Physics start Isolde Friday 28.03.2025
- SPS NA Physics start EHN1 Monday 14.4.2025
- SPS NA Other Physics start Thursday 17.4.2025
- LHC start delayed by ≈ 1 week
Newly vacant beam slots :
- SPS H4 - W40 (beam restrictions apply)
Please contact SPS.Physics.Coordinator@cern.ch if you want to apply for any of theses slots.
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)
Pressure rise in T2 TBID observed after increase in intensity sent to T2.
- TE/VSC has rechecked the BIS interlock directly connected to pump for 1e-6 mbar. It has been agreed among all experts to reestablish the 100 units on T2 and monitor the behaviour of the device.
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 (Ruben Garcia Alia)
- Good Thu-to-Thu availability of ~95% (though access will be needed in near future for C6 Finemet cavity)
- Optimization of AWAKE bunch parameters
- Improved setting up and qualification of LIU BCMS beams for SPS MDs
- Progress with oxygen 4+ beam commissioning and setting up of 10 GeV protons for EAST
SPS Machine Report (Panos, Stephane)
Short term schedule:
Availabilities:
- LHC: 96.8 %
- FTARGET: 82.9 %
- AWAKE: 97 %
Fire Alarms (BA1 & BA6)
- Sun 18.05: 4 fire detectors triggered in BA1 → fire brigade intervened, lost patrol in BA1 & BA2. → Approx. 6h40 downtime.
- Tue 20.05: Alarms in BA1 & BA6, no intervention, but BA1 had to be repatrolled → Approx. 3h30 downtime.
- Issue followed-up by TIOC.
Operation
- Sun 18.05: SFTPRO hysteresis compensation tests removed — tripped mains due to aggressive trims. → New LSA MakeRule in place from Michi to avoid propagation of such trims
- Tue 20.05: Access from 07:30–13:00 for cryo intervention in BA6 (crab cavities). Multiple interventions handled in parallel.
- Wed 21.05: No beam from LN4 →Approx. 2h24 downtime.
Beam & Systems
- SFTPRO longitudinal blow-up (200 MHz compensation): new setting applied — fixed target beam stability improved.
- TBID T2 vacuum issue: recovering — no vacuum spikes observed in the last two weeks.
Safety (James Devine)
- Thank you for all the ISIECs submitted this week, and also those in advance for the next couple of weeks. For those who still need to submit their ISIEC, the link is here (CERN login required).
- Thanks also to those who let us know when they are ready earlier than planned! This is also very helpful, and we will try to fit you in sooner for the inspection if possible.
- The EP safety office will be closed on the 29th May (CERN Holiday), please don’t ask for an ISIEC on that day - we can offer you slots on Wednesday 28th or Friday 30th.
- As a reminder, there is a power cut request pending for the 23rd June for the AMBER experiment, it will be formally announced once approved by TIOC/FOM.
- The safety panel has now been updated for 2025, you can find it here.
TT42 Main: n_TOF (Alice Manna, Paolo M Milazzo)
Heavy interventions have been completed in all experimental areas on 20 and 21.05.
In particular,
- in EAR1 a transmission station has been installed, making possible for the first time at n_TOF the measurement of (n, tot) cross sections. The first measurement will be devoted to the study of 63Cu and 65Cu(n tot). A Fission chamber, hosting 235U samples, is used to evaluate the filtered neutron beam.
In parallel and longer, LaBr3 detectors have been set to study the 25Mg(n, gamma) reaction. - in EAR2 the collimator at the entrance of the experimental area has been changed moving from the study of neutron capture reactions to neutron induced fission ones. Micromegas detectors have been set to study the 236U(n, f) reaction.
- in NEAR the campaign devoted to investigate the radiation hardness of a diamond detector has been completed and the set-up for activation measurement has been mounted.
East Area Beam Status (J. Bernhard)
On call phone number: 67500
T9: Good operation.
T10: Beam files preliminarily checked for Polar-2.
T11: No user.
East Area Users Tour de Table
T8 Main: IRRAD_CHARM (F. Ravotti / S. Fiore)
Very good week - intensity delivered to T8 >2.5E16 p/w. The TID in CHARM reference position (R10 this week, where a lower dose-rate is delivered) was about 300 Gy (see below). Beam centering continue to be extremely good >97% of centred spills on both axes.
During the access on Wednesday, in IRRAD we installed a new setup for irradiations in controlled atmosphere for TE-MSC. The MWPC in IRRAD Zone 1 was also re-installed in preparation for the T8 MD slots scheduled for the beginning of next week (see below). All other IRRAD experiments continue. In CHARM removed setups by CAEN-ATLAS, installed new by BE-CEM.
** Preliminary Plan T8 MD slots May 26-27 **
- Mon. 26th in the evening: IRRAD experiments out of beam (we will call the CCC to confirm);
- Tue. 27th @ 1am: CHARM Target out of beam;
- Tue. 27th 1am-5.30am: T8 MD with lower momentum proton beams;
- Tue. 27th morning till 9.30pm: IRRAD experiments back in beam (standard beam conditions);
- Tue. 27th 9.30pm till Wed. 28th 4am: T8 MD with lower momentum proton (and Oxygen ions if time will allow it) beams;
- Wed. 28th 4am: beam OFF and areas in ACCESS mode
The plan has been agreed with Marc.
In case there will be the time for propagating also Oxygen ions to T8 already (second priority), the maximum ion intensity per spill that can be extracted from the PS (as per agreement with RP) will be of 2E10 charges/spill and maximum energy 1 GeV/n. During the MD slots, EAST spills not used for T8 can be re-directed to the other EAST destinations, if needed.
From the beginning of the year:
T9 Main: WCTE (Xiaoyue Li)
- Beam data and calibration data taken over the past week
- Beam momenta +190, +200, +210 MeV/c to study muon PID and efficiency around typical cut in analyses. ~2.5k muons per momentum step
- Positron min. bias data at +80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 MeV/c, +250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500 MeV/c for the study of e/μe/μ separation and energy calibration for tagged γγ
- +800 MeV/c, +600 MeV/c, +950 MeV/c, -800 MeV/c, and -600 MeV/c electron/positron data for electron nuclear scattering, ~45 million events
- Dedicated runs to take kaon data at +1.1 GeV/c and -1.15 GeV/c for the study of atmospheric ττ neutrino and proton decay p→Kνp→Kν in Super-K
- Laser ball calibration data was taken with varying laser intensities with PMTs receiving an average of sub p.e. to ~10 p.e.
- Ni/Cf calibration data (gamma source) taken at three positions in the detector with 15% - 60% duty factor
- Gadolinium (Gd) loading started at 10 pm on May 21
- HSE approval of modified procedure, which allowed the loading to 0.03% Gd concentration to start before we receive all the removal resins needed for the removal of 0.2% Gd in detector
- Two different ex-situ apparatus to monitor the water quality and Gd concentration during Gd injection
- Expect to reach 0.03% by May 23, Friday
- Detector decommissioning and disassembly plans are made. Expect last beam data taking on June 3rd, and fully moved out of T9 by the end of June 10th.
T10 Outgoing Main: SHIP LS-SBT (Annika Hollnagel)
Test Beam exposure for SHiP SBT with two LS prototype cells.
Successfully concluded (nearly) 2 weeks of test beam on Wednesday 2025-05-21:
- muons @5GeV (very stable and reliable beam, no MD :) )
- 2 LS-SBT prototypes cells: ~200l liquid scintillator (LAB + PPO) with 2 WOM + SiPM light detectors
- Prototype A: Polished AlMg4,5 inner surface
- Prototype B: Alanod reflector inner surface
- complete scan of prototype A and B in horizontal orientation (x, y, rotation)
- partial scan of prototype B in vertical orientation (x, y, rotation)
- default DAQ: eMUSIC readout & WaveCatcher digitiser
- first test of SAMPIC digitiser 👍
- first test of FASTIC readout 👍
- first data taking with self-triggered readout
Successful rotation(horizontal -> vertical) of prototype A on Monday 2025-05-19. (Many thanks to the transport group!)
Swift disassembly on Wednesday 2025-05-21.
T10 Main: Polar-2 (J. Hulsman, H. Li)
-
Detector setup done.
-
Safety clearance done.
-
Beam configuration files ready.
-
Detector parameters under tuning now.
T10 Incoming Main: P349+ (Please insert your name)
North Area Beam Status (J. Bernhard)
On call phone number: 67500
H2: Good operation.
H4: Good operation.
H6: Good operation. CERF started yesterday with high intensity beam.
H8: Good operation.
M2: Good operation. Intensity on T6 to be increased on 28.05. to 150 units.
P42/K12: Good operation. Yesterday, a pipe belonging to the fire brigade water network close to ECN3 was damaged during works, but is already repaired.
TT66 Main: HIRADMAT (Please insert your name)
TT41 Main: AWAKE (M. Bergamaschi)
Issue with electron beam RF source on Saturday, intervention needed on Sunday to replace Thyratron, now+ ok.
Soffered by Fire-alarm in SPS that limited beam time on Sunday and Tuesday.
Contine with physics program till end of next week
TELMAX Outgoing Main: PAX (Michael Roosa)
Last week we finished up a very successful test beam in the TELMAX zone of the AD.
We successfully deployed a Transition Edge Sensing x-ray microcalorimeter to measure antiprotonic atoms and characterized future areas for performance improvement.
- Machine: Reduced beam rate with MMBE or slow extraction from ELENA.
- Fabrication: Faster detector thermalization and better pixel isolation.
- Analysis: Dynamic gain corrections with detector heating and PSD for background.
North Area Users Tour de Table
H2 Main: LHCB_ECAL (L. Martinazzoli)
Successful data taking so far:
- Set up the readout system to be used in Run4
- Characterised the prototype with our testbeam electronics
- Now focusing on the full readout chain for Run4
Observed some issue with 60 GeV/c:
- all the figures of merit of the prototype are worse at that energy, without physical reason
- Bastien will verify the file (thanks!!!)
H2 Incoming Main: NA61_SHINE (Bartosz Maksiak, Aleksandr Dmitriev)
- Beam scheduled for 28.05 (secondary hadron, various beam momenta)
- Main plan: calibrate our calorimeter and prepare for proper data taking that starts one week later
- Vacuum to be modified (already agreed with Philippe) and safety clearance to be scheduled
- We would like to borrow DWCs from Laza for the period: 28.05-26.06
H4 Main: NA64e (Vladimir Poliakov)
Smooth data taking.
We recorded around 55k spills and accumulated around 2.5x10^11 EoT.
H6 Outgoing Main: CMS MTD ETL ETRO (Marcos Fernandez)
Test beam time devoted for the MIP Timing Detector (MTD) of CMS, in particular for the Endcap Timing Layer (ETL). This is a new detector that will be operational in the CMS upgrade.
We tested hybrids made of 16x16 HPK LGADs with their readout chip called ETROC. Two setups were running:
-
One setup inside the telescope, with 2 fresh hybrids. Goal was integration of 2 independent readout boards within the AIDA telescope, addressing synchronization and combined readout. Test was challenging but succesful.
-
Second setup behind the telescope is the same as last week’s. Four hybrids in a hardcover suitcase sittin on a XSCA yellow table. We tested thermally stressed detectors (cycled -50 to 50 C) to study the stability of bump bonds. All detectors survived up to the 126 thermal cycles.
- We also performed time resolution studies as a function of applied bias for one detector. These are time consuming runs, we need of the order of 6 h per voltage step. We completely characterised 1 detector. We will now benefit of extra parasitic time during the DRD3 testbeam coming next week to complete these studies.
We would like to express our grattitude to SPS coordination for granting extra parasitic time in H6B and to Laurie for his very responsive support everytime we needed.
H6 Main: CERF (T. Lorenzon)
- CERF week dates: Wed 21- Wed 28 May 2025 at PPE126 (today is the second beam time day)
- CERF: unique field calibration facility in NA H6 for radiation protection instrumentation used at high-energy accelerators
- This year: 12 research groups (9 external, 3 from CERN); first users have already arrived on site
- Progress so far:
- Yesterday: Wed 21/05:
- Smooth start-up of the facility: from beamline and facility configuration to beam setup. Thanks to all the CERN teams involved
- Time allowed to perform a first passive irradiation (high intensity) over night (tests on CERN DIS); some RP colleagues will analyse data
- From today onwards: users will receive beam in 8-hour shifts; one CERN-CERF shifter will always be present for support
- See, e.g., Italian National Hadron Therapy Center neutron monitoring system (setup ongoing since this morning)
- Yesterday: Wed 21/05:
- Usual operations:
- CERF is managed with a tight time schedule: 24/7 8-hour irradiation slots, frequent beam stops.
- All H6 downstream experimental areas are interlocked during CERF beam time period. You will see warning signs at the H6 access doors.
- PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS areas downstream CERF WHEN the BEAM is OFF. If you need short access, please call R. Froeschl (160058), F. Pozzi (166258), T. Lorenzon (67965)
H6 Incoming Main: DRD3 (Marcos Fernandez)
Three groups coming (sequentially) to test different LGAD brands (timing detectors), inside the telescope and making use of the existing coldbox:
- Torino-INFN (DC-RSD LGAD), 28-31 May
- IFCA-Santander (TI-LGAD), 1-10 June
- Brown University (AC-LGAD), 8-11 June
The ETROC suitcase will continue taking data in the parasitic position
H8 Outgoing Main: CMS PPS (F. Garcia)
The CMS-PPS team has tested two types of LGADs (standard/TI-LGADs).
A wide physics program was accomplished with a lot of data collected in different conditions and data in currently in analysis.
The beam conditions were excellent with a very narrow beam and high intensity with ~2mm rms in both planes and ~8e5 pions/spill. Many thanks to Maarten for this effort.
The safety inpection was smootly and no insidents registered. Many thanks to James et al.
The infrastructure team in the North Area has provided all that was needed. The XSCA2 was working well and thanks for Sylvain and Michael et al.
We would like to have a similar beam like this one in our next slot in July, if possible.
There were not incidents and all operation was quite smootly.
H8 Main: LHCB (L. Martinazzoli)
- Yesterday work to install the RICH and TimePix telescope went fine
- Partially interrupted to allow for beam tuning
- Some tests performed yesterday night with the telescope and the time reference but more work needed in the area before taking conclusions
- This morning planned another long access
Thanks to the infrastructure team for the help during the installation (DESY, XSCA, gas pipes, etc…)!
K12-P42 Main: NA62 (Michal Zamkovsky)
Overall good beam quality, but many empty bursts.
The transition from T4 to T10 is different compared to last week — while 36 units worked well previously, 40 units seems to be optimal for us now.
M2 Main: MUONE (Aldo Arena)
The detector commissioning is going quite well.
The Electromagnetic calorimeter is, after some iterations, calibrated within 2% ADC counts (thanks A. Gutierrez and F. Gray).
The trackers part of the commissioning got a little delay since we still lack the chiller. It has been ordered and it should be in its way, but if it will not arrive soon would be a problem.
The noise scans of the 2S Modules of the tracker gave good results, comparable to the lab results.
We are starting the threshold adjustments and synchronization to the main DAQ of the tracking stations with low intensity muons and then continue with the sychronization of the ECAL.
We got the Safety Clearence for the run and the physics data taking is planned starting June 1st.
H8 Parasitic: STRAW_TRACKER_RD (Please insert your name)
H8 Incoming Parasitic: ATLAS_TILECAL (G.Usai and T. Mkrtchyan)
Preparation started.ISIEC submitted but no feedback on inspection time. One crate need to be installed in the counting room. Would we be able to have signals from Cherenkovs routed to the patch pannel?, Vacum chamber crossing zone 158,was the dismounting scheduled?
M2 Parasitic: AMBER (Christophe Pires)
Nikolay Anfimov will be the run coordinator for the next months.
Preparation ongoing, no other news.
AoB
Minutes by the respective speakers, edited by M. Jäkel, M. Malkin, and M. Schwinzerl
There are minutes attached to this event.
Show them.
