--- Minutes of the PS & SPS User Meeting --- # PS-SPS Users Meeting for Week 36 held on 3 September 2026 Coordinator this week : Martin Jäkel  ## News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator M.R. Jäkel, P. Martinengo :::success **LAST USER MEETING of Run 3** Latest public schedule: [1.4.10](https://asm.app.cern.ch/coordination/published-schedule) * Restart of weekly meetings: Mid 2028, few weeks before EA restarts * Next call for EA beam time requests: **Nov/Dec 2027 (for 2028 run) * Next call for EA & NA beam time requests: **Oct. 2028 (for 2029 run)** **Test Beam Day** : 7. Oct.2026 * Results and feedback from Run 3 * Plans for Run 4 test beam ::: **New Testbeam Welcome Website (BE-EA) https://testbeams.web.cern.ch** Please use it and give us feedback on: https://codimd.web.cern.ch/bJEzOaAcTS2B6UZY1wG9Sg. **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/) :::danger **Physics Run 2026 Information :** * All physics runs stop on Monday 31.08 at 06h ::: :::warning **Latest Injector schedule** : 2026, [[v 1.7](https://edms.cern.ch/document/3180469/1.7)] ::: --- **Target intensities:** See via [ASM](https://asm.app.cern.ch/experimental-area/experiments) --- ### News from the Facilities Operations Meeting (FOM/TIOC) --- ## PS Machine Report (Alex Huschauer)  - excellent availability over the last days of the run - lots of co-activities and MD requests that the OP team tried to handle and balance ## SPS Machine Report (Kevin Li)  * Switch to low energy ion run went without issues - delivered beam one day in advance - thanks to the excellent work from the shif crews and the colleagues from EA * No major fualts causing downtime (slight source tuning required over the weekend) * Concluded run 3 ## Safety (Marcus Jankowski) - Thank you for your cooperation - Please remember that the same safety rules apply during the LS - For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us (ep-safety-office@cern.ch) ## TT2A Outgoing Main: n_TOF (Giuseppe Tagliente) It has been a remarkable year of operation for n_TOF, with 17 successfully conducted measurements and more than 8 tests. Most importantly, 6 of these measurements were performed with entirely new setups and novel techniques. Thanks to the support from the PS, we have achieved an unprecedented proton flux over the past two years, which allowed us to successfully complete these remarkably high number of experiments  ## East Area Beam Status (B. Rae) On call phone number: :phone: [67500](tel:+41227667500) (stopped for the year) **T9/T10**: Good operation. **T11**: Good operation. Shutter closed and upstream detectors were uninstalled from the mixed zone. Scaffolding platform to be removed next week. ## East Area Users Tour de Table ### T8 Outgoing Main: R2E (Please insert your name) ### T9 Outgoing Main: RE47 EIC Barrel ECal(Hwidong Yoo, Jeongsu Bok) We successfully took electron, mixed, and muon beam data with two Pb/SciFi imaging layers, the bulk sector, and the AstroPix 9-chip module. We measured the energy deposition and shower development using a total of 56 SiPM channels, with H2GCROC and Flash ADC readouts for comparison. These data will be very useful for optimizing the readout parameters and data acquisition under beam conditions. We greatly appreciate your support. From these data, we will evaluate the performance of imaging-layer prototype, including Npe/GeV, energy resolution, time resolution, and position resolution, as well as rate capability of AstroPix 9-chip module.  ### T10 Outgoing Main: DRD6 RADICAL (Please insert your name) ### T11 Outgoing Main: P371 (Please insert your name) ### T9 Outgoing Parasitic: STRAW TRACKER RD (Please insert your name) ## North Area Beam Status (B. Raë) On call phone number: :phone: [67500](tel:+41227667500) (stopped for the year) **H4**: Good operation beam already given to users Thursday Lunch time. **H8**: Beam already given to users Thursday morning, very successful run at 40 AGeV/c. ## North Area Users Tour de Table ### H4 Outgoing Main: MANDATE (Igor Ostrovskiy) - Successful campaign. Good beam (thanks to Bastien and co). All NTDs irradiated with A/Z=2.4, 2.2, and Primary, as per the request. RP release inspection passed, beam line cleared. Thanks to everyone for their support (Michael Lazzaroni and co. for the table, Aikaterini Theoni Kantzouri and co. for the alignment) ### H8 Outgoing Main: NA60+ (Enrico Scomparin, Sasha Milov) A good quality 40A GeV beam became available already on Thursday morning. After setting our detectors a focus scan was performed using our ALPIDE telescope.   The spot was much narrower in the vertical direction, with an overall dimension of 600x200 mum2 After other strong efforts by Maarten, he was able to reduce the beam size in the horizontal direction to ~550 mum. All these test were performed at low intensity (at most a few 10^4/spill)  We evaluated the contamination of the beam via correlations of the XCET with XSCI and other scintillators of ours. Values are around 5-6%, slightly larger wrt 150A GeV  On Friday, we had a high-intensity exercise, with the help of Sebastien and Mikko from RP, and Maarten. The PM of the XCET was changed on Wednesday (thanks to Inaki and his team!), after the failure at 150 A GeV. A beam intensity up to 1.6e7 (larger than the nominal intensity foreseen for NA60+/DiCE) was performed. We investigated the linearity of the response of the XCET wrt XSCI, up to the highest intensity. The results are very encouraging. We will soon check these results against the dose measurements that were performed in parallel by RP people  The beam spot at the nominal intensity of 1e7/spill shows only a modest increase with respect to low intensity --> 600 x 200 mum2  Here you can see in more detail the evolution of the beam spot vs intensity (some not well understood displacement only above nominal intensity):   Here you can see the evolution of the ADC spectra of the XCET up to the highest beam intensity, showing modest modifications and confirming that the detector can be used for monitoring both intensity and contamination of the beam.   As a side remark, although the number of counts on the XSCI signal was still well-correlated with the XCET, the corresponding ADC spectra were very much degraded. The performance could be re-established by a small displacement of the beam, showing that a localized damage on the scintillator had occurred. All along the 40 AGeV period, studies were done by Panos on the compensation of the 50 Hz frequency (and multiples) that was seen last year on beam detectors and MWPCs. Compensation algorithms based on the current of the SPS magnets at flat top and on the beam scintillators along the line were tested. An accurate analysis is still to be performed but we see a clear improvement. Hereafter the time distribution of the VMM3A time stamps for fired strips in the MWPC (integrated over several spills), the second taken with compensation algorithm on the beem line scintillator.   Hereafter similar plots, referring to the XSCI, showing an clear improvement when compensation is on (here still at 150 A GeV)   More systematic checks of the data are still needed to get a coherent picture. To come soon. Studies on MWPC prototype-3 Data taking continued, despite the DAQ computer lost its motherboard. Fortunately, the repair took time during the high-intensity beam studies, so beam time was lost. Data was collected with two prototype chambers which needs to be analyzed in a systematic approach. Basic plots, showing current status: amplitudes, custer sizes and gain curve.    ### H8 No Beam: STRAW TRACKER RD (Please insert your name) ### H4 Outgoing Parasitic: RE44 HERD (Zijun Xu)  Successful Data taking campaign with silicon strip beam monitor. Thanks a lot to the infrastructure team and the beam experts for the support. Thanks a lot to MANDATE. Passed the RP measurement at Monday morning. --- ## AoB The Physics Coordination stays active during the LS3, and is reachable at the usual email address sps.physics.coordinator@cern.ch (on a best effort basis). Experiments running throughout the LS3 need to be in the schedule. Please contact us in good time before the installation. Thanks to all experiments throughout the Run 3 for contributing to this meeting and the diverse physics program beyond colliders. --- _Minutes by the respective speakers, edited by the Physics Coordination_