Page 27 - EUREKA! Fall 2017

In the Control Room

Carleton physicist Manuella Vincter troubleshoots at the Large Hadron Collider

While her colleagues on campus have When the LHC is functioning just too much information.
been chipping away at an upgrade smoothly, protons travelling just below “In the control room,” she continues,
to the ATLAS particle detector at the the speed of light collide every 25 “we also monitor the integrity of the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Carleton nanoseconds, converting energy to data. Are they clean? Are they being
physicist Manuella Vincter has spent mass by producing new particles, and recorded properly? Is the detector
the past three years on rotating shifts recreating, as Vincter explains, “the responding correctly to the prompts
near Geneva in the ATLAS experiment conditions of the early universe, less it’s getting? It would be really
control room, monitoring the data than a billionth of a second after the unfortunate if you took a lot of data
flow when the collider is running — Big Bang.” Most of these particles are and then realized they are corrupted
and troubleshooting when things go well known, and the data from these and you couldn’t actually interpret
wrong.
Vincter, the leader
of Carleton’s ATLAS
team, was at CERN (the
European Organization
for Nuclear Research)
for two years on a Killam
Research Fellowship
and remained on site
near Geneva during
her recently concluded
sabbatical.
Last May, after its
annual winter shutdown,
the LHC began smashing
together protons again,
Photo: and Vincter worked
a string of eight-hour
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“super exciting” albeit
tiring assignment for
tracker) upgrade also requires a accelerator more power and create Koffas’s colleague Prof. Dag somebody who’s not a
massive partnership. Koffas and more collisions — the ATLAS inner Gillberg, who joined Carleton’s Physics night owl. “That’s eight
colleagues in Carleton’s Physics and tracker must be able to cope with the Department last year after three hours of paying attention
Electronics departments are working LHC’s enhanced performance and last years as a research fellow at CERN, is non-stop,” says Vincter.
with researchers at eight universities for at least 10 years. The ATLAS detector focused on the measurement side of “The most important thing
across Canada and 90 other institutes is more complex than the space shuttle, ATLAS. Though he’s up to speed on is to make sure that it is
around the world. They’re currently operating safely. It runs at
in the R&D phase of the project, but a very high voltage and Photo:
based on results acquired over the “I see ATLAS as a series of smaller experiments. there are a number of Vollignis sam quis dolendia dolenihicia inctoratum explit remperum fuga. Nemquatius ea
past decade, the upgrade team knows You put in effort and there are results, and there is gas systems, so we have qui utatum
what changes they need to make. a complicated software
For starters, says Koffas, all the excitement and gratification at every stage. Each step program that tells us if
active elements in the new tracker has its own rewards.” things are working properly.” collisions can be discarded. But when them.”
will be made from silicon, whereas If a thunderstorm trips the power rare events occur — when collisions Although LHC data are shared
previously only the inner core was grid — or if a weasel chews through create “exotic” particles that are widely, researchers at CERN have
silicon. This will allow researchers to says Koffas. It may not have to fly, but it the project’s progress, he’ll get really an external electrical cable, which fundamental to our understanding time to process the results and look
reconstruct the trajectory of charged must be robust enough to be left alone involved when the new detector is happened last year — the LHC will shut of how matter interacts with natural for interesting physics (at least when
particles more precisely, a granularity and work for a decade. up and running. “We need all sorts down. Mundane issues, like plumbing forces — the results must be recorded they’re not working overnight shifts).
that will help them learn more about “I see ATLAS as a series of smaller of different skills on our team,” says problems, can do the same thing. As on the spot. “We only have one shot When they see something unexpected,
key LHC events. experiments,” he says. “You put in Gillberg. “The LHC can be most with any home computer, a sudden at taking that data and have to make a phenomenon that could lead to a
Moreover, because the LHC itself is effort and there are results, and there effective if we really ramp up the shutdown can be far from graceful, very fast decisions as to whether it greater understanding of our world,
scheduled for an upgrade in the early is excitement and gratification at every amount of data that is produced says Vincter, “so you need to babysit might potentially be interesting,” says their eyes light up — and all those
2020s — a process that will give the stage. Each step has its own rewards.” the LHC as it comes back up again.” Vincter. “We can’t store everything. It’s sleepless nights are worth it.
(continued on page 28)

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