--- Minutes of the PS & SPS User Meeting --- # PS-SPS Users Meeting for Week 22 held on 28 May 2026 Coordinator this week : Martin Jäkel ## News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator M.R. Jäkel, P. Martinengo **CLEAR** will run during LS3 (electrons up to 220 MeV) If interested, contact Davide Gamba (Davide.Gamba@cern.ch) Further Infos : [CLEAR.CERN](https://clear.cern/?check_logged_in=1), [CLEAR Scientific Board Meeting](https://indico.cern.ch/event/1661754/) :::info **Physics Run 2026 Information :** * n-TOF p+ : 05.02.2026 -> 31.08.2026 * EA Physics p+ : 11.02.2026 -> 31.08.2026 * NA Physics p+ : 11.03.2026 -> 03.08.2026 * NA Pb Ions : 07.08.2026 -> 31.08.2026 * EA Physics PB Ion (T8) 19.08.2026 -> 31.08.2026 ::: :::info **Beam requests** : Please submit via [new interface](https://asm.app.cern.ch/coordination/beam-requests) (!) Currenty open periods : * LS3 East Area * LS3 North Area * TELMAX / AD Elena ::: **New Injector schedule** : 2026, [[v 1.5](https://edms.cern.ch/document/3180469/1.5]   Main changes: - 2 days of LHC quench tests end of June —> beneficial for NA physics, as LHC high-int. tests will stop 2 days earlier - Reduction of LHC ion MD3 from 1 day to half a day and moved to 11th of June —> this is during the HiRadMat run, but on the other hand 1 day of LHC MD preparation (originally on 11th of June) advanced to 5th of June - LHC high-int. tests start 1 day earlier (Sunday) :::info **EuroLabs :** Applications are CLOSED. Currently funding under review. ::: **Target intensities:** See via [ASM](https://asm.app.cern.ch/experimental-area/experiments) ### News from the Facilities Operations Meeting (FOM/TIOC) **Upcoming SPS MDs next weeks :** https://be-dep-ea.web.cern.ch/content/md-planning-north-area Dedicated SPS MDs - if not anounced differently - are taking place from 8:00 to 18:00 --- ## PS Machine Report (Alex Huschauer) - Availability significantly impacted by RF issues in the PS and PIMs issues in L4 since yesterday - overall ~92% since last Thursday - first ions to T8 Wednesday morning ## SPS Machine Report (Panos Zisopoulos) Overall availability since last Thursday **91.5%**: * LHC: 95% * North Area: 93.7%  NA spill performance:  - Main downtime sources: - BEQ2 Compensator trip due to incorrect manipulation (~1 h) - LINAC4, PSB & PS issues & accesses - still ongoing for LINAC4 & PSB - SF6 leak in circuit breaker of 18kV grid — intervention ~30' #### Beams Delivered - **North Area** proton physics (ongoing) - **LHC Pb ion commissioning**: 1 b → 3 b → 14 inj. trains; energy matching correction applied - **LHC Pb ion VdM beam** (Wed): 27 injections, 432 bunches, ~1.5e10 ch/b, ~1.5 µm emittance per plane; vertical scraping ~1% to stay within intensity limit - **Parallel MDs**: LIU long parallel MD last Friday (50 Hz noise study + transverse tails generation in LHC operational beam) #### Issues/Achievements - LHCION2 rephasing investigation on Tuesday for the whole afternoon - Issue is being followed up and RF expert is having a look today - **Wednesday and today**: **LINAC4 faults almost all day — no protons to NA** - Completed operational test with TECA, including continuous controller for alignment - DCCT-based 50 Hz feed-forward correction (UCAP) tested and already operational with ion run #### Upcoming (Wk 23) - **LHC**: Pb ion physics ongoing - **NA**: Proton physics — to resume once LINAC4 situation resolved - **LHC MD preparations** (Fri 29 May, 08:00–18:00) - Supercycle: 1 SFT + 1 LHCMD ## Safety (Marcus Jankowski) - New member of the EP Safety Office: Maria Kapousidou - Please complete your [ISIEC submission](https://ep-th-safety.web.cern.ch/isiec-safety-clearance/) with all hazards at least one week in advance. A dedicated time slot for safety inspections is reserved for Wednesday afternoons (15:00-17:00). - **Missing ISIECs**: - CMS HGCAL - ALADDIN - CMS PPS - Obligatory to **wear the PPE and long trousers** as defined in the [safety video](https://indico.cern.ch/event/1645142/contributions/6916288/subcontributions/598017/attachments/3211079/5739980/2026_GeneralSafetyVideo_EA+NA.mp4) that was shared during the beamline user meeting and at the end of the ISIEC. Note that failure to do so is considered a professional fault ([EDMS 3413229](https://edms.cern.ch/document/3413229/LAST_RELEASED)). - **Food and drinks are not allowed** in radiologically classified areas. Use the dedicated coffee room outside the classified area instead (887/1-A92). - For **fluorinated gases** that are not supplied by the gas services, please check the [HSE website](https://hse.cern/f-gas/temporary-experiments) and contact us as soon as possible. - For special requirements (e.g. **flammable gases**, lasers, bringing your own lifting table, etc.) contact us as soon as possible. ## TT2A Main: n_TOF (Alice Manna, Paolo M Milazzo) Smooth data taking. During week 21: - EAR1: test of an array made of 16 LaBr3 detectors and of an Annular silicon detector - EAR2: investigating the noise in EAR2 - NEAR: activation measurements Today: heavy change of experimental set-ups in all areas.   ## East Area Beam Status (B. Rae) On call phone number: :phone: [67500](tel:+41227667500) T09: Good operation. Files to be finalised for IDEA CC with the experiment scalers. T10: Good operation. Last week beamline was in low-energy configuration, restored to normal for ALICE. T11: No user. ## East Area Users Tour de Table ### T08 Main: IRRAD-CHARM (S. Fiore / F. Ravotti) Average week in terms of beam delivery: intensity delivered to T8 ~2.4E+16 p/w (the lowest since the first weeks of the run) and TID generated by the CHARM target ~400 Gy/w (see below). Fair beam centering: only ~93-94% of the spills were within +/- 2mm from the centre on both X and Y axes (this compares with >97-98% of the previous weeks).  The lower intensity was also probably caused by the degraded beam transmission over the weekend. The plot below shows the transmission as measured by the XSECs of T8 (every coloum is the average of 6h). From Friday 22nd in the afternoon, the transmission lowers and stabilizes back to the usual value only on Sunday 24th in the evening.  From 5h30 to 8h00 on Wednesady morning, before the access, we had a Pb-ion MD in preparation to the HEARTS run. During the access, in IRRAD we installed new experiments from EN-EL (tunnel lights), DRD3 (LGADs sensors) and LHCb (VELO upgrade 2), while the rest of the sample batches alredy in the facility continue irradiation. In CHARM, we removed a test for ATLAS muon HV Power supplies, installed a test by BE-CEM (DI/OT) and two setups by RADNEXT Transnational Access users, plus usual change of setups by BE-CEM-EPR We run with the standard beam for a new full week. The IRRAD MWPC stays installed upstream IRRAD (IRRAD3 table) for a possible second slot for propagating ions to T8 (during proton cooldown) also next week (to be confirmed in due course). ### T09 Outgoing Main: ALICE RICH (Roberta Pillera, Nicola Mazziotta) Smooth data taking except for some beam interruptions on monday and tuesday. Setup using gas to extend electron identification to lower momenta. Preliminary analysis (tracking not optimized) using beam Cherenkov info shows good results.   ### T09 Main: IDEA CC (Nicola De Filippis) - Setup for IDEA CC installed yesterday on top of the DESY table. - Gas mixing unit installed in the gas rack at T9 and tested for gas leaks; request of 2l/min for gas flow under evaluation with Roberto Guida; pipes for nitrogen and the gas mixture installed - IDEA CC detector will be ready for safety clearance today; gas and electric preliminary inspection with Evelyne and Jame performed. - A second detector consisting of a small drift chamber prototype is expected to be installed by our collegues from IHEP beyond detector 1 by tomorrow; the same gas mixture and trigger of detector 1 will be used. ### T10 Outgoing Main: DRD6 MAXICC (S. Moneta, M. Lucchini, M. Campajola) Stable beam for most of the week, few down times (some of them scheduled in adavance). Two similar setups with PWO and BSO crystal matrices, close to full containment, readout by SiPMs, placed in a thermalized box. Use micromegas station for tracking. Mostly used pi- beams with different pi/e contamination depending on the beam energy. 5 GeV beam for calibration with MIPs (~90% of pions), lower energy beams with larger spots were used to illuminate the full matrix. The beamline DESY table to scan each crystal in calibration. The beamline Cherenkov counter was very usefull to select electrons during energy scans (low electron purity at lower energy).     ### T10 Main: ALICE TIMING (M. Colocci, B. Sabiu) - Setups installed yesterday (from both groups), all fine now - Doing IVs waiting for the beam at T10 ### TELMAX Outgoing Main: HYPER (A. Adigüzel, B. Ulukutlu, L. Kirchner, R. Gernhäuser) * Ended data taking campaign * Different measurement campaigns: ToT, strobe length scanning, temperature scans * Started analysis of vertex reconstruction  * Today RP clearance * Disassembly process started, craning expected this afternoon ## North Area Beam Status (B.Rae) On call phone number: :phone: [67500](tel:+41227667500) General: Frequent power converter failures in many EHN1 lines due to the ion supercycle. If you notice a sudden drop in rate or larger beam size, or if you see mangets in fault you can reset the magnets through the "Rectifier Status" button or call the CCC (77500)   **H2/H6/H8/M2**: Good operation. **H4**: Collimator XCHV.022368 stuck in beam. Issue identified with the control, fixed after short access. **P42/K12**: Good operation. Steering on T10 target done yesterday. ## North Area Users Tour de Table ### H2 Outgoing Main: DRD6 RADICAL (James Wetzel, Alexi Mestvirishvili) 1. TB from Wednesday to Monday - unusual ending time, but we shared area with OREO team 2. Successful test beam, excellent beams, most of the time three spills per super cycle 3. Electrons starting with 5Gev and up to 120 Gev. 4. Huge amount of data collected - few million per energy point 5. Seven (7!) undergraduate students had their first test beam experience! 6. If time appears later in the summer, we could benefit from additional beam time. 7. Special thanks to Suat Ozkorucuklu (Istanbul University) and his team for sharing manpower with QFib. 8. Special thanks to Laurent Forthomme (AGH University) for contributing his "Constellation" DAQ software and bespoke waveform analysis software [TDAnalyser](https://tdanalyser.docs.cern.ch). Our setup, the "RADiCAL" detector itself is under the grey plastic box. The setup (from left to right) two coincidence trigger PMTs, an MCP with 10 ps timing resolution, the RADiCAL, finally a Pb Glass Calorimeter.  First look at the data: - Waveforms  - Charge per channel  Group photo with the IU Team, James Wetzel, (Coe College/Iowa/USA), with Alexi Mestvirishvili (University of Iowa) on the catwalk:  Coe College (Iowa, USA) Undergraduate Student Walker Law being put to work at his first time at CERN.  ### H2 Main: DRD6 OREO (Pierluigi Fedeli) - We finished installing the setup on Monday evening and received clearance on Tuesday morning.  - Bastien and Nikos provided us with very pure electron beams and organized a chat to coordinate with the people in H4 (thanks!). - Given the beam availability in the North Area, we managed to calibrate the lead-glass detectors, equalize the crystals of OREO’s upper layer, and perform the first angular scans to find the axis of the PWO crystals.  - The plan for the next few days is to complete the equalization and calibration of OREO and start the high-statistics runs, the goal will be to test OREO performance with bremsstrahulung photons. ### H2 Incoming Main: CMS HGCAL (Arnaud Steen) We will test same system as we did at T9 between 13 and 20 of May. The detector is made of silicon modules and SiPM-on-tile modules. We plan to install the system on the Nikhef table and add Scintillator and PMTs in front of the table. We plan to test the system with electron beam, with energy between 20 and 300 GeV. We will also operate the system with muon and pin beam for calibration purpose. ### H4 Outgoing Parallel: SND (G. Vasquez) At first we tested the beam purity by exposing small emulsion bricks which we later developed. Successful week, with emulsion test brick first, with no indication of photon contamination :champagne:    Later we exposed for 30h in total 2 emulsion bricks with different muon momenta; 50, 80, 150, and 250 GeV  Thanks Nikos and Bastien for the dedicated preparation of muon files with no contamination ### H4 Main: SND (Gerardo Vasquez) Silicon/W target tracker test beam. The installation went well on Friday, Safety visit during the afternoon. We start the commissioning on Saturday after some delays. Test the system with muons over the past days.  We would like to move to electrons during the weekend. We will coordinate with Nikos for the preparation of the beam. ### H4 Incoming Main: CMS ECAL (Mattia Campana, Giulia Lavizzari) * We will transport and install spare SM36 68 readout units read equipped with very front end to back end electronics on Friday 29th May. Safety inspection scheduled for tomorrow afternoon or Monday depending from installation status * We will use electrons 20 to 250 GeV, and pions with high rate, preferably below 80 GeV towars middle or end of the CMS ECAL slot ### H6 Outgoing Main: DRD5 SMSPD (Adi Bornheim, Christina Wang) - Cold commissioning done by Thursday afternoon, SMSPD alignment done by late night, confirmed SMSPD working by Friday morning. - Successful data taking. Main goals achieved. Some calibration data could have been added in the end, but what we have is sufficient. - Area cleaned out Wednesday. We took until afternoon. - Thank you for all the help and support ! -  -  -  ### H6 Outgoing Parallel: MEDIPIX (Please insert your name) ### H6 Outgoing Parallel: QFIB (Suat Özkorucuklu)   A successful test beam, most of the time three spills per super cycle Seven (7!) undergraduate students had their first test beam experience!.  Special thanks to Laurent Forthomme (AGH University) for "Constellation" DAQ software and waveform analysis software [TDAnalyser](https://tdanalyser.docs.cern.ch).  ### H6 Main: Beamline Development (L. Nevay) Initial emittance scans going well. Will move to low momenta beams later today and compare CEDAR tagging with secondary and tertiary beams.  ### H6 Incoming Main: ALADDIN (Ilaria Panichi, Francesca Bucci) - Purpose of the test is testing the SiPMs functioning with a custum cooling system in an experimental environment. A beam of pions and protons with momentum of 120 GeV/c will be sent to a light-tight box containing a glass planoconvex lens of borosilicate glass used as the Cherenkov radiator. The Cherenkov light emitted in the lens will be detected with SiPMs housed in an aluminium structure inside the box. - We had delay due to the metallization of the ceramic interposer between the SiPMs and the PC board. This is the reason why we postponed the start of test from week 22 to week 23. - Ready to install next Wednesday, June 3rd. The lens has been aluminized and is at CERN; the kanga-box containing the support both for the lens and the photodetectors will be brought at CERN on Monday. - We need a chiller that can reach at least -20°C and during the last days we asked if there is one available to use in the beam test area. In the end we found one from the LHCb experiment suitable for our purposes.   ### H6 Incoming Parallel: CMS MTD ETL (Federico Siviero) - 6-planes telescope (3d-printed) with single-pad LGAD sensors from the pre-series ETL production - goal is to validate timing performance of the ETL pre-series and measure collected charge and stability - telescope will sit in the H6 cold box, chiller needed to run at -25C - data taking will be fairly easy, we will perform a bias scan and change the sensors mid-week - we will need Nitrogen: I opened a ticket yesterday with our budget code, but the system did not let me choose next week, so I had to choose the week from 17/6 to 24/6. Apologies for that, should have opened the ticket before. Hope it is still possible to have nitrogen / dry air. ### H8 Outgoing Main: LHCb SciFi (Federico Ronchetti) - Very successful testbeam: all fibre mats and SiPM tested, now time for offline analysis. - Access issue: a couple of time after MD all the zones became un-patrolled or in key access without us or UA9 doing anything. Recovered quickly though. - Thanks to Maarten for preparing online a nice muon beam. - Good cooperation with UA9 upstream. - Thanks for all the last years' testbeams. This was our last SciFi testbeam (at least for a while) :( - RP issue: measurement requested ~1.5 week ago but never received an email back. Very difficult to contact RP after and difficult communication. Finally, contacted RP officer : Christoph Tromel. We got the measurement but only at 17:00 yesterday we received the clearance. ### H8 Main: EIC ePIC pfRICH (Alexander Kiselev) * Moved most of the equipment to the installation area yesterday (GEM tracker, HV & LV power supplies, V1742 digitizer and DREAM electronics crates, NIM bin, DAQ PC) * Placed the frame and the crates on a DESY table *  * Should be ready for a safety inspection tomorrow 9:00 ### H8 Parallel: EIC DRICH (Marco Contalbrigo) dRICH is on track. Yesterday all the heavy equipment has been moved in and assembled thanks to the graet help of the CERN technical groups. Today all the services, optics and photosensor will be mounted, followed by the tracking and triggering station. Safety inspection is planned for tomorrow afternoom, taking into account some contingency.   ### H8 Incoming Main: CMS PPS (Francisco Garcia, Suat Özkorucuklu) PPS is continuing it standart set of test beam activities. Francisco and team will be doning timing detector setups. ### M2 Main: AMBER (Bran Blankenship) News from the previous week - Now in a stable physics data taking mode - Still waiting on DAQ firmware updates in order to go to highest beam intensities Plans for next week - Continue with physics data taking - Finish up firmware improvements and move to highest beam intensity - Take advantage of any MDs or loss of beam to make some minor detector changes ### K12 Main: NA62 (Lubos Bician) * Good data taking efficiency (>90%) when the beam is present. * Tuesday (26.5.) affected by: * LHC ion commissioning -- no beam to NA * Fire alarm in TCC8/ECN3 (at 8:30) -- less than 1 second detection (probably due to dust) * ECN3 ventilation issue -- so far no news on what the cause was; follow-up ongoing; started at ~same time as the fire alarm, lasted a few hours * Wednesday (27.5.) affected by: * LHC ion commissioning -- no beam to NA * LINAC4 issue * PS RF cavity intervention ### H6 Parasitic: ATLAS MALTA (Please insert your name) ### H8 Outgoing Parasitic: UA9 (Francesca Galluccio) We finished our 3 weeks of run 2026 yesterday morning. At 10:30 the area was free to re-install the beam pipes. We almost completed the whole program. The first measurement took a lot of time to tune. In the last week we performed the other 3 measurements we had planned. We have to thank the LHCb team for being very cooperative. Their muon run could last only one night; then we could turn back to pions/protons and continue our program. Many thanks to Maarten for being always available to switch the beam remotely for us while we were working remotely too, and the technical support team. ### H8 Parasitic: STRAW TRACKER RD (Please insert your name) ### M2 Parasitic: MUONE (Please insert your name) --- ## AoB --- _Minutes by the respective speakers, edited by M. Jäkel_