ALICE Newsletter No. 398
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No.398,
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ONGOING AND UPCOMING EVENTS
Have you ever imagined standing on the roof of ALICE -
prototypes of ALICE 3 Muon Identifier (MID) - based on plastic scintillators and MWPC technology - are being installed on top of the ALICE magnet and tested by our colleagues:
Solangel Rojas Torres, Laura Helena Gonzalez Trueba, Salvador Beltran Rivera, Yael Antonio Vasquez Beltran, Dezső Varga, and László Tercsi.
Highres figure in CDS
- LHCC 165 Week - 2-5 March 2026
- LHCC Open Session: Monday 2 March, Main Auditorium (CERN): "ALICE Status Report" by Francesca Carnesecchi (INFN e Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (IT))
- LHCC Open Session: Monday 2 March, Main Auditorium (CERN): "ALICE Status Report" by Francesca Carnesecchi (INFN e Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (IT))
- International Women's Day, 8 March: We would like to celebrate the women of ALICE by creating a poster featuring as many of us as possible. We invite you to take part by uploading your preferred photograph (in a 3:4 aspect ratio) to the CERNBox link by 4 March.
- ALICE UPC Workshop: Katowice, Poland, 15-19 June 2026
- Mentoring@CERN 2026 - Join as a Mentor This Year!
Please complete your registration by the end of February.
- ALICE Calendar 2026
- ALICE approvals calendar for 2026
NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Hard Probes 2026 - call for speaker nomination for ALICE Plenary talk: Please send your proposals to alice-cc@chairs@cern.ch by 14 March.
ALICE submitted 40 talk abstracts whose titles can be seen in the link here (outcome pending)!
- Accelerator Report: Protons are heading towards the LHC by Matteo Solfaroli, Deputy Leader of the Operations Group (BE-OP)
Many activities are currently progressing across the accelerator chain as the complex moves steadily towards full operation. In the injectors, beam commissioning is advancing well, with the highlights being the start of the physics programme at ELENA on 20 February and the ongoing scrubbing run in the SPS.
- Who’s who in the CERN senior leadership team: Get to know the new CERN Directorate, their backgrounds and their new roles, and watch the video interview with CERN Director-General Mark Thomson
- HiLumi LHC: full-scale tests start
- ALICE Conference Committee members positions available:
- expertise in LF, Detectors/upgrades and HF are needed.
- please send your nomination (self nominations are welcome) interest to CC chairs: Alice-cc-chairs@cern.ch before 13 March
EVENTS OF INTEREST
- CERN Colloquium, Thursday 26 Feb 2026, 16:30, Main Auditorium (CERN): "Towards a Future Flagship Collider at CERN - The European Strategy for Particle Physics" by Karl Jakobs (University of Freiburg (DE))
- Archives, Library and Open Science events, Tuesday 3 Mar 2026, 11:00: "Library Science Talk - Technology, Community, and Consortium: The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)" by Martin R. Kalfatovic (International Image Interoperability Framework Consortium)
- TH String Theory Seminar, Tuesday 3 Mar 2026, 14:00: Talk by Shiraz Minwalla (TIFR)
- BE Seminars, Friday 6 Mar 2026, 16:00: "Design and validation of a micrometric and adaptable calibration bench for Frequency Scanning Interferometry sensors" by Julia Anna Jeanne Calmels
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
- ALICE successfully completed the cosmics data taking campaign, with a total of 466 hours (194% of the target) collected.
- Since Tuesday afternoon ALICE has been in SUPERSAFE (with additional safety conditions for ITS, MCH, MID and TRD) for the tests with the injection lines and the following tests scheduled during the commissioning with beam, and it is proceeding with tests with replay runs to identify the optimal number of EPNs for taking pp data at a collision rate of 750 kHz.
- On Thursday, 26 February the first beams were circulated in the machine!
- ALICE successfully completed the cosmics data taking campaign, with a total of 466 hours (194% of the target) collected.
- Open shift blocks (to be filled urgently):
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.
- DCS, ECS, and QC expert shifts starting from 19 May.
- DCS, ECS, and QC expert shifts starting from 19 May.
- Run Manager (23 Feb - 8 Mar 2026): Ravindra Singh
Ravindra Singh is a postdoctoral researcher at INFN Padova. Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at GSI, Darmstadt. He completed his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IITI), where his research focused on heavy-ion physics and data analysis. His primary research activities are centered on the data analysis of heavy-flavour azimuthal correlations and femtoscopy studies in hadronic and heavy-ion collisions. During his involvement in the collaboration, Ravindra has taken all major operational shifts, including QC, ECS, DCS, and SL.
During his mandate, Ravindra will finalize the cosmics data taking for the central barrel alignement and he will coordinate the crew activity during the software tests that will be performed in preparation for the pp data taking. He will also contribute to the initial part of the intensity ramp-up, during which different special runs will be performed.
CONFERENCES
CURRENT CONFERENCES AND SCHOOLS (starting this week)
- Lake Louise Winter Institute, Lake Louise, Canada, 1-7 March
- XXXIX Rencontres de Physique de la Vallée d'Aoste La Thuille, Aosta Valley, Italy, 1-7 March
SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES (events within 3 months or deadline within 1 month)
- HEPiX Spring 2026 Workshop, Lisbon, Portugal, 20 April, abstract deadline 1 April
- 37th Rencontres de Blois - Particle Physics and Cosmology, Blois, France, 10-15 May 2026, abstract deadline 28 February
- possibility of 2 to 4 plenary on specific topic -> contact CC chairs
- possibility of 2 to 4 plenary on specific topic -> contact CC chairs
- LHCP 2026: 14th Large Hadron Collider Physics Confernece, Paris, France, 18 - 22 May, anstract (posters) deadline: 20 March
- CENTRAL preparation for talks
- CENTRAL preparation for talks
- WPCF 2026: 18th Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Budapest, Hungary, 18-22 May, abstract deadline: 30 March
- Invitation for 1 overview talks: Femtoscopy Overview, (contact CC chairs and PWG) + invitation to submit abstract in different tracks
- BEACH 2026: XVI International Conference on Beauty, Charm, Hyperons in Hadronic Interactions, Florence, Italy, 8-12 June, abstract deadline: 28 February
- QCD@Work 2026 - International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics - Theory and Experiment, Trani, Italy, 16-19 June, abstract deadline 1 April
- Invitation plenary (25+5 min)talk on “Review of recent results from LHC collaboration in light colliding systems(25’) and recent results from ALICE and future perspectives” + possibility of contributed talks on specific topic -> contact CC chairs
- Invitation plenary (25+5 min)talk on “Review of recent results from LHC collaboration in light colliding systems(25’) and recent results from ALICE and future perspectives” + possibility of contributed talks on specific topic -> contact CC chairs
- 18th International Workshop on Meson Physics (MESON2026) KRAKÓW, POLAND , 26 June, abstract deadline 25 March
SCHOOLS
- NFN School of Statistics 2026 (INFNStat2026), Caserta, Italy, 14-19 June, registration deadline 13 March
- 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 | ||
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22-27 Mar 2026 |
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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 February 2026
- Bologna University, Italy
- Bartin Lisesi, Türkiye
- colleague’s family, UK
- Perri, Italy
- Tuesday 24 February 2026
- Secteur Bel age du Centre social protestant, Switzerland
- Secteur Bel age du Centre social protestant, Switzerland
- Wednesday 25 February 2026
- colleague’s friends, Spain
- dsm firmenich Science and Research Leadership Team, Switzerland
- Thursday 26 February 2026
- 1st Lyceum of Volos, Greece
- Norberto Rosa, Italy
- Chase Grammar School, UK
- Liceo Scientifico Tito Lucrezio Caro, Italy
- Friday 27 February 2026
- Friends School Lisburn, UK;
- UNITRE SAN SEBASTIANO DA PO, Italy;
- Los janfris maximus, Spain
- Saturday 21 February 2026
- ALICE Virtual Visits
- Monday 23 February 2026 virtual visit for ALICE in Surat, India
- Monday 23 February 2026 virtual visit for ALICE masterclass in Catania
- Wednesday 25 February 2026 virtual visit for ALICE masterclasses in Thessaloniki and Pavia
- International Masterclasses - Hands-on Particle physics
- Monday 23 February 2026 ALICE masterclasses were held in Catania
- Wednesday 25 February 2026 ALICE masterclasses were held in Thessaloniki, Bari, Puebla, Pavia and Tuzla
- New IPPOG Publication: "IPPOG: a global network for particle physics outreach and education", Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2026) 141:177
- Recent Social Media Highlights:
- ALICE 3 MID
- ALICE EMCal
- International Day of Women and Girls in Science
- Curiouser and curiouser: a riddle at the ALICE detector
DIVERSITY
- 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.