ALICE Newsletter No. 394
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No.394,
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ONGOING AND UPCOMING EVENTS
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From the ARC: Silvia Pisano (Run Coordinator), Krystian Roslon (Deputy Run Coordinator), and Cristian Andrei (current Run Manager) are fully prepared to start data-taking with cosmics as shifts resume on Monday 2 February.
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Answer to Last week's Photo: “Mohd. Danish Azmi (Aligarh Muslim University) and Arindam Das (SINP, Kolkata) pose with Kai Schweda during routine maintenance of the second station of the ALICE Muon Spectrometer. Photo courtesy: Mohammed Mohisin Khan (Aligarh Muslim University)" |
- LHC Seminar, 3 Feb 11 AM, Council Chamber (CERN): "Observation of deuteron and antideuteron formation from resonance-decay nucleons with ALICE" by Dmitar Mihaylov, Sofia University.
- "4 Feb | Annual testing of sirens across Switzerland": The canton of Geneva authorities wish to remind you that the annual testing of sirens across Switzerland is taking place on Wednesday 4 February 2026 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- ALICE Calendar 2026
- ALICE approvals calendar for 2026
NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
- "Accelerator Report: Run 3 operations counting down to LS3" By Bettina Mikulec, Leader of the Operations Group (BE-OP)
- "Take part in the 2026 Mentoring@CERN programme": Registration will be open from 1 to 28 February, and the mentoring round will run from April to December, with flexible meeting schedules to suit your needs.
- "Building a culture for success" by Mark Thomson, Director-General of CERN
As we prepare to implement the High-Luminosity LHC and secure approval of a flagship collider to follow it, we must work together to create the best possible environment for success.
- "Help shape how CERN improves" New year, new ways of working. Here’s our chance to suggest which processes could be improved at CERN.
- "ALICE welcomes its new management". More about the new management on the ALICE website.
EVENTS OF INTEREST
- BE Seminars, Friday 30 Jan 2026, 16:00: "HiRadMat: a high-power beam facility at CERN" by Paraskevi Alexaki (University of Liverpool (GB))
- QCD Seminars, Monday 2 Feb 2026, 14:00: "Improving lepton-collision predictions with next-to-minimal effort: the case of VBF contributions" by Stefano Frixione (INFN)
- "CERN Winter School on Supergravity, Strings and Gauge Theory 2026" 2-6 Feb
- "Children and overexposure to screens" 3 Feb
- CERN Colloquium, Wednesday 4 Feb 2026, 16:30: "Centaur Science: Adventures in AI+Physics" by Jesse Thaler (MIT)
- TH BSM Forum, Thursday 5 Feb 2026, 13:30: "Beyond high energy neutrinos and behind ultra-high energy neutrinos" by Dr Diego Redigolo
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: YETS activity is continuing.
- YETS activity is continuing, and detectors and central systems are progressing with the scheduled maintenance. On Wednesday, January 28th a DCS workout took place, while on Thursday, January 29th a first cosmic run was attempted, during which some minor issues appeared that have been eventually fixed, and the test run was successfully taken. On Wednesday, February 4th the test on the ramping of the magnets - both dipole and solenoid - will be performed, while on February 12th (or, as a backup, on February 17th) the machine will proceed with the annual LHC-Experiment Handshake test. On Friday, January 30th a visit to ALICE cavern has been organized by the Run Coordination for the LPC and the RC team of the other experiments.
- Shift operations will resume on Monday, 2 February with the cosmics data taking.
- YETS activity is continuing, and detectors and central systems are progressing with the scheduled maintenance. On Wednesday, January 28th a DCS workout took place, while on Thursday, January 29th a first cosmic run was attempted, during which some minor issues appeared that have been eventually fixed, and the test run was successfully taken. On Wednesday, February 4th the test on the ramping of the magnets - both dipole and solenoid - will be performed, while on February 12th (or, as a backup, on February 17th) the machine will proceed with the annual LHC-Experiment Handshake test. On Friday, January 30th a visit to ALICE cavern has been organized by the Run Coordination for the LPC and the RC team of the other experiments.
- 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.
- ECS:
- 1 partial block starting on 2 February(AA-NN)
- 1 full block starting on 8 March (MM-AA-NN)
- SL:
- 1 full block starting on 26 February (MM-AA-NN)
- ECS:
- Current Run Manager (26 Jan - 8 Feb): Cristian Andrei
Cristian Andrei is a physicist from Bucharest NIPNE. He is a specialist in pion, kaon, and proton production in high-multiplicity pp events, studying the dependence of their production as a function of charged-particle multiplicity and event shape. He is an active member of the PWG-LF, where he has made significant contributions, and has been a member of several analysis and paper review committees (ARC, IRC). Cristian has substantial experience in data taking and ALICE operation at P2. Since 2016, he has taken up all central shifter positions repeatedly: ECS, DCS, QC, and SL. He also has experience in operating ALICE during the previous heavy-ion run period and took several RM terms in the past. Since 2025, he is also the ALICE Training Coordinator.
During his mandate, Cristian will collaborate to the restarting of the data taking with the cosmics campaign for the central barrel alignement, focusing on the final checks on the systems and in the finalization of the documentation for the central shifters."
CONFERENCES
CURRENT CONFERENCES AND SCHOOLS (starting this week)
SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES (events within 3 months or deadline within 1 month)
- "Trento" Workshop on Advanced Silicon Radiation Detectors, Perugia (Italy), 17-19 Feb, Abstract deadline: 31 January
- Lake Louise Winter Institute, Lake Louise, Canada, 1 March, Abstract deadline 31 January
- Rencontres de Moriond 2026, La Thuile, 22 March, Registration deadline 8 February
- Inviation for 6 talks, still have some openings (PWGs CF, HF, DQ) Contact CC Chairs or PWG convenors
- Inviation for 6 talks, still have some openings (PWGs CF, HF, DQ) Contact CC Chairs or PWG convenors
- Exotic Hadron Spectroscopy 2026, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 30 Mar - 1 Apr, Abstract deadline 1 February
- CPOD 2026: 16th Workshop on Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement, CERN, 13-17 April, abstract deadline 1 February
- BEACH2026: 16th International Conference on Beauty, Charm, Hyperons in Hadronic Interactions, Florence, Italy, 8 June, abstract deadline 28 February
- 17th International Conference on Nuclear Reaction Mechanisms, Varenna, Italy, 14 June, abstract deadline 31 January
- ICHEP 2026: 43rd International Conference on High Energy Physics, Natal, Brazil, 30 Jul - 5 Aug, abstract deadline 2 February (central submission deadline for posters : 16February)
- 37th Rencontres de Blois — Particle Physics and Cosmology, Blois, France, 10-15 May 2026,
- Invitation for an overview talk: contact CC chairs
SCHOOLS
- International Doctorate School "Frontiers in Nuclear and Hadronic Physics 2026" (FNHP2026), Firenze, Italy, 16-28 Feb.
- ISOTDAQ 2026: International School of Trigger and Data Acquisition, Bucharest, Romania, 1-10 Jul 2026, Registration deadline: 28 Feb.
This the 16th of a series of International Schools dedicated to introduce those with an education in physics, engineering or computing (ranging from undergrads to postdocs) to the "arts and crafts" of triggering and acquiring data for physics experiments.
- 2026 European School of High-Energy Physics, Ostróda, Poland, 19 Jun - 2 Jul 2026, Deadline for applications: 20 Feb.
The School is targeted particularly at students in experimental HEP who are in the final years of work towards their PhDs, although candidates at an earlier or later stage in their studies may be considered.
- Third Advanced School on the Operation of Accelerators (ATSOA2026), CERN, Switzerland, 20-24 April, registration deadline 31 January
| 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)
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- 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.
- 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.
OUTREACH NEWS
- ALICE visits: visits to ALICE cavern are possible till 19 February~
- ALICE visits this week:
- Saturday 24 January 2026
- Malvern College, UK
- colleagues’ family and friends, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Romania, France
- Sunday 25 January 2026
- colleague’s friends, Italy
- Monday 26 January 2026
- Strasbourg University, France
- CERN colleagues; ALICE open visit
- Tuesday 27 January 2026
- JUAS (Joint Universities Accelerator School), Archamps, France
- General Lyceum of Melissia, Greece
- ALICE Grid team, Romania
- Wednesday 28 January 2026
Godalming College, UK - UK STFC-ALICE, UK
- colleague’s friends, Spain
- Thursday 29 January 2026
- UK LTA visit, UK
- 2nd General Lyceum of Agios Dimitrios, Greece
- Usak High School.Türkiye
- New Scientist Magazine visitors, Netherlands
- Philharmonie de la Genève Internationale, Switzerland
- colleague’s friends, Poland
- Friday 30 January 2026
- colleagues’ family and friends, Italy, UK, France, Denmark
- CERN EN-ACE colleagues;
- TU Dortmund, Germany; coordinators and representatives, Switzerland
- Saturday 24 January 2026
Recent Social Media Highlights:
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| Looking back at the 2023 Pb run, ALICE was ready to collect brand-new data. But when the first beams collided, something strange appeared: part of ITS went blank. Sarah Porteboeuf, recalls: “During the first two minutes of data taking, I saw that our inner tracking system had a problem: There was a hole and it wasn’t our misconfigured detector”. The issue was traced to a small contamination of lead-207 ions in the beam, causing oscillations that sent particles to ALICE. By adjusting the beam and its magnets, LHC specialists were able to nearly eliminate the background noise and get ALICE back on track. Story in Symmetry Magazine. |
DIVERSITY
- "25 by ’25 initiative: diversity progress at CERN"
The five-year project focused on improving nationality and gender diversity across the Organization.
- 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.