ALICE Newsletter No. 400
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No.400,
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ONGOING AND UPCOMING EVENTS
On the afternoon of Saturday, 7 March 2026, the LHC delivered the first pp collisions at √s = 13.6 TeV, marking the beginning of the final year of Run 3 data taking.
We aim to record a large minimum-bias pp data sample of approximately 28 pb⁻¹, with an increased interaction rate of 750 kHz.
High-resolution picture in CDS
Final laps at the LHC:
The final physics season at the LHC has just kicked off! The experiments will record collisions until the end of June, when work will begin on transforming the machine into a high-luminosity accelerator.
- SQM Rehearsal: 16-20 March 2026
- LHC Career Networking Event 2026: 17 March 2026 at CERN Main Auditorium
- ALICE Mini Week: 30 March - 2 April
- CERN Closure: Friday, 3 April (Good Friday) and Monday, 6 April (Easter Monday)
- 7th ALICE Upgrade Week Calaserena Resort, Geremeas, Cagliari, 14-18 September 2026:
It is highly recommended to register and reserve the rooms as soon as possible to benefit from the discounted rates (until 1 April 2026) and room availability.
- ALICE UPC Workshop: Katowice, Poland, 15-19 June 2026
- ALICE Calendar 2026
- ALICE approvals calendar for 2026
NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
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- The flavour dependence of jet structures: CERN Courier Energy Frontier: Mar-Apr 2026
- Hard Probes 2026 - call for plenary speaker nomination (deadline: 14 March)
- Invitation for 30’ ALICE highlight talk
- Please send your proposals to alice-cc@chairs@cern.ch
- 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
- 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
- Accelerator Report: The 2026 run will be short but intense: By Bettina Mikulec
Every day counts, so the LHC operations teams have mapped out a precise sequence of running phases to maximise the physics output during the machine’s final months
- HiLumi LHC: cryogenics equipment arrives underground
- Crystal shadowing to reduce beam losses
EVENTS OF INTEREST
- "EFT, Everywhere, All at Once" 16–20 Mar 2026 CERN
- TH Cosmo Coffee, Wednesday 18 Mar 2026, 11:30: "Testing cosmology and dark matter with the Lyman-alpha forest" by Prof. James Bolton (University of Nottingham)
- Theory Colloquia, Wednesday 18 Mar 2026: "A Unified Approach to the Self-Force Problem" by Ira Rothstein (CMU)
- Detector Seminar, Friday 20 Mar 2026, 11:00: "Design, Performance and Status of the CMS MIP Timing Detector" by Bryan Cardwell (University of Virginia (US)), Murtaza Safdari (Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (US))
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
- On Saturday, 7 March, the LHC declared the first Stable Beams of 2026, starting the intensity ramp-up toward this year’s pp physics production.
- The first intensity steps - with 4, 12, 75, 400, 800, and 1200 circulating bunches in the machine - have been completed. During these steps, ALICE carried out several dedicated runs and detector activities, including:
ITS colour run, ITS staggered timing tests, a fill with zero magnetic fields (both dipole and solenoid) for detector alignment, TPC field-cage stability test, and Runs at low collision rate to study the detector material budget
- 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.
- We urgently need to fill the QC block starting on 30 March (MM-AA-NN)
- DCS, ECS, and QC expert shifts starting from 19 May
- We urgently need to fill the QC block starting on 30 March (MM-AA-NN)
- Run Manager (9 - 22 Mar 2026): Nicolas Strangmann
CONFERENCES
CURRENT CONFERENCES AND SCHOOLS (starting this week)
- APS Global Physics Summit 2026: APS Joint March Meeting and April Meeting 2026, Denver, Colorado (United States), 15 - 20 March
- 89 Annual Conference of the DPG and DPG Spring Meeting of the Matter and Cosmos Section (SMuK), Erlangen (Germany) 15-20 March
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
- LHCP 2026: 14th Large Hadron Collider Physics Confernece, Paris, France, 18 - 22 May, abstract (posters) deadline: 20 March (FOR POSTERS ONLY)
- WPCF 2026: 18th Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Budapest, Hungary, 18-22 May, abstract deadline: 30 March
- Invitation to submit abstracts + 1 plenary overview on Femtoscopy (contact CC chairs)
- BEACH 2026: XVI International Conference on Beauty, Charm, Hyperons in Hadronic Interactions, Florence, Italy, 8-12 June, abstract deadline: 15 April
- 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 chais
- 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
- 18th International Workshop on Meson Physics (MESON2026) KRAKÓW, Poland, 25-30 June, abstract deadline 25 March
- 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
- 14th edition of the International Workshop on e+e– collisions from Phi to Psi, 8-11 Jun, abstract deadline 16 March
- 23rd International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI), 6-10 Jul, abstract deadline 31 March
- invitation for highlights relevant to cosmic rays - please contact CC Chairs
- other contributions possible
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 | ||
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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 7 March 2026
- University of Birmingham School, UK
- IES Margarita Salas, Spain
- Iwate University, Japan
- colleague’s friends, Lithuania
- Tuesday 10 March 2026
- 3rd General Lyceum of Giannitsa, Greece
- ZSE Opole, Poland
- European School of Georgia, Georgia
- Collège de Saussure, Switzerland
- Thursday 12 March 2026
- Liceo Dell’Aquila Staffa, Trinitapoli, Italy
- Friday 13 March 2026
- Hayes School, UK
- Saturday 7 March 2026
- ALICE Virtual Visits
- Monday 9 March 2026: virtual visit for Particle Therapy Masterclasses held in Bulgarian Institutes
- Tuesday 10 March 2026: videoconference with ALICE masterclasses held at UNAM, Mexico
- Monday 9 March 2026: virtual visit for Particle Therapy Masterclasses held in Bulgarian Institutes
- International Masterclasses - Hands-on Particle physics:
- Tuesday 10 March 2026 ALICE masterclasses were held in Katowice, CERN, Cape Town iThemba Labs and UNAM Mexico
- Tuesday 10 March 2026 ALICE masterclasses were held in Katowice, CERN, Cape Town iThemba Labs and UNAM Mexico
Recent Social Media Highlights:
- Do all jets lose energy in the same way?
- International Women’s Day, 8 March
- LHC Career Event: 17 Mar 2026
- ALICE 3 MID
- ALICE EMCal
- International Day of Women and Girls in Science
- Curiouser and curiouser: a riddle at the ALICE detector
- Strangeness at its extremes
- ALICE welcomes its new management
- Nature article: deuteron and antideuteron formation
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.