ALICE Newsletter No. 402
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No.402,
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ONGOING AND UPCOMING EVENTS
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- ALICE Mini Week: 30 March - 2 April
- "ALICE 3" Week: 4-8 May 2026: Please register by 20 April if you plan to participate in person!
- 7th ALICE Upgrade Week Calaserena Resort, Geremeas, Cagliari, 14-18 September 2026:
Please note that the current hotel rates are valid up to 1 April, 2026.
- CERN LHC Seminar 7 April by Fabrizio Chinu, B-Meson production in pp collisions at √s = 13.6 TeV
- rehearsal 1 April 16.00
- ALICE UPC Workshop: Katowice, Poland, 15-19 June 2026
- CERN Closure: Friday, 3 April (Good Friday) and Monday, 6 April (Easter Monday)
- ALICE Calendar 2026
- ALICE approvals calendar for 2026
| Deadline: 10 April 2026 |
NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
| It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Mark Rayner, esteemed editor of CERN Courier, on Monday, 23 March. We had a close collaboration with Mark across many fronts - from our contributions to the energy frontier to featured articles and notable inclusion of ALICE findings in every issue. He was genuinely interested in our physics and extended his unwavering support. At CERN Courier, Mark served first as deputy editor and later as editor. In this role, he brought new insights and rigor to the publication. Mark earned a doctorate in particle physics from the University of Oxford, focusing on muon-beam cooling. He later worked on neutrino physics, including the T2K experiment in Japan, and spent some years at the World Economic Forum covering the socioeconomic impact of Big Science. Mark’s passing is a profound loss to us as well as to the international science communities. The loss of such a bright and young mind makes it all the more deeply felt. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends. |
- ALICE Breakthrough Prize PhD Grant 2026 (ALICE-BP-PhD-2026): PhD grants funded thanks to the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics awarded to the ALICE Collaboration. Deadline: 30 April 2026
- CERN Courier March-April 2026, Energy Frontier: The flavour dependence of jet structures
- Accelerator Report: The 2026 run will be short but intense: By Bettina Mikulec
- HiLumi LHC: cryogenics equipment arrives underground
- Crystal shadowing to reduce beam losses
EVENTS OF INTEREST
- Detector Seminar, Friday 27 Mar 2026, 11:00: "A new dimension for ATLAS: The High Granularity Timing Detector" by Stefan Guindon (CERN)
- CERN Colloquium, Monday 30 Mar 2026, 16:30: "Quantum Computing: Promise, Peril and Responsible Sharing" by Barry Sanders
- TH String Theory Seminar, Tuesday 31 Mar 2026, 14:00: "Polar states in AdS3 holography" by Ji Hoon Lee (ETH)
- "Rising Stars" 31 Mar 2026 at CERN Science Gateway
- Archives, Library and Open Science events, Wednesday 1 Apr 2026, 11:00: "Meet the author of Space Times Matter: One Hundred Short Stories About the Universe" by Michael Albrow
NEW PAPERS ON THE ARXIV
PAPERS IN THE COLLABORATION REVIEW
Papers currently open for comments can be inspected using the link: Paper in Collaboration Review (Open for Comments).
NEWS FROM POINT 2
- ALICE
- LHC continued with the pp physics production campaign, with good overall availability except for an issue with cryogenics in Sector 81 on Thursday morning. ALICE is taking data at 750 kHz with positive magnet polarities.
- On Wednesday, an access was scheduled by the LHC for the SND emulsion exchange, and in ALICE it was exploited by CTP, DCS, and MFT.
- On Thursday, some special runs were granted to the ITS team to study the improvements in global reconstruction obtained by accommodating different timing across layers (which will be needed for Run 4).
- On Friday, 27 March 27, the filling scheme with INDIV (25ns_2390b_2377_2045_2180_144bpi_22inj_2INDIVs) is planned in the LHC. This configuration will be exploited by the FIT team to study the background observed on the A and C sides.
- LHC continued with the pp physics production campaign, with good overall availability except for an issue with cryogenics in Sector 81 on Thursday morning. ALICE is taking data at 750 kHz with positive magnet polarities.
- Open shift blocks (We need to urgently fill the following shifts:):
If you have any question about the training and, overall, on how to get ready to cover these earlier shifts do not hesitate to contact us (alice-rc@cern.ch). Dedicated trainings can be arranged.
- a partial QC block starting on 8 April (AA-NN)
- a full ECS block starting on 7 April (MM-AA-NN)
Please let us know if you can help with them, even partially.
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- a partial QC block starting on 8 April (AA-NN)
- Run Manager (23 Mar - 5 Apr 2026): Anisa Khatun
CONFERENCES
CURRENT CONFERENCES AND SCHOOLS (starting this week)
- The 22nd International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2026), University of California, Los Angeles, USA, 22-27 March
- Moriond/QCD2026, La Thuile, IT: 60th Rencontres de Moriond on "QCD & High Energy Interactions", La Thuile, Italy, 22-29 March
- Exotic Hadron Spectroscopy 2026, Cambridge, UK, 30 Mar - 1 Apr
SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES (events within 3 months or deadline within 1 month)
- HEPiX Spring 2026 Workshop, Lisbon, Portugal, 20-24 April, abstract deadline 1 April
- 37th Rencontres de Blois - Particle Physics and Cosmology, Blois, France, 10-15 May 2026, abstract deadline 31 March
- possibility of 2 to 4 contributed talks => contact CC chairs
- QCD Evolution 2026 Workshop, El Escurial, Spain, 11-15 May, abstract deadline 30 April
- WPCF 2026: 18th Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Budapest, Hungary, 18-22 May, abstract deadline: 30 March
- Invitation to submit abstracts
- BEAUTY 2026 at Maastricht, NL, 1 June, abstract deadline 15 Apr 2026
- Invitation for 2 plenary talks:
- LHC multi-exp talk on recent results with light collision systems at the LHC and future perspectives, focus on the role of heavy flavours.
- Recent ALICE results and prospects for Run4 and 5 (focus on HF/DQ)
- Contact CC chairs
- Possibilities for lighting talks and posters for juniors
- Invitation for 2 plenary talks:
- 4th Joint ECFA-NuPECC-APPEC Activity Workshop "Synergies between the EIC and the LHC", Cagliari, Italy, 8-10 June, abstract deadline 30 April
- QCD@Work 2026 - International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics - Theory and Experiment, Trani, Italy, 16-19 June, abstract deadline 1 April
- Invitations for multi-exp talk: recent results from LHC collab in light colliding systems (in particular pilot O-O and Ne-Ne runs).
- (25+5)-recent results from ALICE and future perspectives (25+5)
- 1 contributed talk (15+5)
- Contact CC chairs
- 17th Conference on Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum (QCHS26), Wrocław, Poland, 29 June - 4 July, abstract deadline 26 April
- Strong and Electro-Weak Matter 2026 (SEWM), Helsinki, Finland, 17-21 August, abstract deadline 30 April
- 9th Conference on Micropattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD2026), Prague, Czechia, 31 August - 4 September, abstract deadline 24 April
- 23rd International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI), 6-10 Jul, abstract deadline 31 March
- Still looking for a plenary speaker
- Still looking for a plenary speaker
- ISMD 2026, Chungli, Taiwan, 17-21 Aug
- invitations for several topical ALICE plenary talks
- invitations for several topical ALICE plenary talks
- Vertex 2026 in Stoos, Switzerland, 20–24 July
- two invitations for talks on ITS2 operations and ITS3 sensor characterisation
SCHOOLS
- QCD Master Class 2026 (school), Saint Jacut de la mer, France, 28 August - 10 September, registration deadline 31 March
- The XXII LNF Spring School “Bruno Touschek” in Nuclear, Subnuclear and Astroparticle Physics, INFN, Frascati, Italy, 11-15 May, registration deadline 30 April
| Upcoming major conferences | ||
18-22 May 2026 |
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21-26 Jun 2026 |
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30 July - 5 Aug 2026 |
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JUNIOR'S CORNER
Message from Junior Representatives (Bianca, Rohaan, Sara)
- ALICE Run 3 Analysis Resources: a collection of all resources and news that can be helpful for people engaged in the analysis of ALICE Run 3 data. This is especially beneficial for those new to the Run 3 data analysis.
- Link to all ALICE Theses
- ALICE Theses website
- Guidelines for ALICE Thesis Video: a ~3-min video summarising the key results of the PhD thesis.
OUTREACH NEWS
- ALICE visits this week:
- Saturday 21 March 2026
- Winchester College, UK
- Tuesday 24 March 2026
- Pakistani delegation for CERN Council
- Polhemskolan, Sweden; FEED, Switzerland
- Wednesday 25 March 2026
- Northbridge House Canonbury, UK
- CNPAM, Brazil
- Friday 27 March 2026
- The Queen Katherine School, UK
- Queen Elizabeth High School, UK
- Saturday 21 March 2026
- ALICE Virtual Visits
- Monday 23 March 2026: virtual visit for Particle Therapy Masterclass held in Thessaloniki, Greece
- Monday 23 March 2026: virtual visit for Particle Therapy Masterclass held in Thessaloniki, Greece
- International Masterclasses - Hands-on Particle physics:
- Tuesday 24 March 2026 ALICE masterclasses were held in
- Orsay
- Gqeberha (South Africa)
- Nantes
- Sofia
- Bologna
- Tuesday 24 March 2026 ALICE masterclasses were held in
- Recent Social Media Highlights:
DIVERSITY
- On 8 March, International Women's Day, the ALICE Collaboration recognizes the important contributions of women to the activities and achievements of the collaboration. The 130 women featured in the poster represent a fraction of the 450 women in the ALICE Collaboration, including about 200 female students. More information in the ALICE Diversity Office webpage.
- ALICE Diversity Office website can be accessed here. Your feedback is important. You can send us an email that will be treated confidentially by using the email address: alice-diversity-office@cern.ch or send us an anonymous message by using this form.