--- Minutes of the PS & SPS User Meeting --- # PS-SPS Users Meeting for Week 26 held on 25 June 2026 Coordinator this week : Martin Jäkel ## News from the PS & SPS Physics Coordinator M.R. Jäkel, P. Martinengo **NEW TESTBEAM WEBSITE https://testbeams.web.cern.ch** is up and running, 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/) :::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 **Beam requests** : Please submit via [new interface](https://asm.app.cern.ch/coordination/beam-requests) (!) ::: :::warning **Latest Injector schedule** : 2026, [[v 1.5](https://edms.cern.ch/document/3180469/1.5] **New Test Beam Schedule**: v1.4 (attached to agenda). v 1.4.1 in work. ::: After the transition to ASM for the user schedule, we are currently working on a new way to show the current published schedule automatically. Currently we upload new versions to Indico. **Target intensities:** See via [ASM](https://asm.app.cern.ch/experimental-area/experiments) :::success **EuroLabs :** Currently funding under review. ::: ### 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 :::info ### TS Beam stop times (as a function of cool-down)! ➢29/06 at 6:00 am stop of LHC beams ⇾ start of LS3 for LHC ➢**29/06 at 7:00 am Stop of SFTPRO beam** ⇾ 24 h cool-down ➢29/06 at 9:00 am stop of TOF ⇾ 22 h cool-down ➢**29/06 at 3:00 pm stop of EAST proton beams** ⇾ 16 h cool-down ➢30/06 at 4:00 am stop of all other proton beams (AD only) :::  --- ## PS Machine Report (Marc Delrieux) - Overall availability Thu - Thu : 93.5 % - Operation is driven by LHC high-intensity. A lot of stability issues on LHC beams which consumed most of the time of the OP teams - HEARTS wanted a T8 slot with low energy protons but we didn't have time to "revive" the cycles - Several POPS trips which is in degraded mode since Fri 12/06. Not clear how the degraded mode relates to trips. Investigations planned during the ITS. After a trip last week we couldn't restart due to a server down in ccr, which required an intervention by BE-CSS (not a piquet) during the night - A few RF cavities trips - An issue with a bending in the FTN line caused some downtime for TOF - ITS planning beam cuts: - 29/06 9 am TOF - 29/06 3 pm EAST - XSEC response tests with different beam positions planned 1 pm - 3 pm and at restart - 30/04 4 am AD ## SPS Machine Report (Theodoros Argyropoulos) - Availability Thu-Thu: 88.9% - Main downtime due to Injectors - LHC high-intensity setting-up continuously throughout the week. Porblems with beam stability at the injectors and losses at LHC injection. Not included in the reported availability but shown in the accumulated spills below. - LHC will stop on Monday morning (28/06). Quench tests are scheduledfrom Saturday (27/06)  - Technical stop next week until Thursday ## Safety (Alexandre Acerra Gil) - 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: - SHIP - ALICE FOCAL - BI READOUT CONS - BI XBPF - RE1 AMS L0 - Obligatory to **wear the PPE** 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 in EP Safety. - For special requirements (e.g. **flammable gases**, lasers, bringing your own lifting table, etc.) contact us as soon as possible. ## n_TOF (Alice Manna, Paolo M Milazzo) Smooth data taking - EAR1: Study of the 235U(n, f) cross section with Parallel Plate Avalanche Co and a plastic scintillator wallNEAR: tion measurements on a 94Nb sample - EAR2: Set-up of 27 C6D6 liquid scintillators to study the 25Mg(n, g) reaction - NEAR: Activation measurements on a 94Nb sample   Many interventions are planned during the technical stop. ## East Area Beam Status (D. Banerjee) On call phone number: :phone: [67500](tel:+41227667500) **T9**: Good operation. Files checked for STCF. **T10**: Good operation. **T11**: Platform installed for P371. CLOUD hodoscopes removed - thank you to CLOUD for the support here. In-vacuum scintillator will be installed during technical stop upstream in the mixed zone. ## East Area Users Tour de Table ### T8 Main/Parallel: IRRAD/CHARM (F. Ravotti / S. Fiore) Fair beam delivery in week 25: intensity delivered to T8 ~2.4E+16 p/w and TID generated by the CHARM target ~400 Gy/w (both values below the high-intensity referece lines - see below).  Beam centering on the X-axis: ~85% of the spills were within +/- 2mm from the center (e.g. degraded w.r.t. the previos week). On the Y-axis we are till above 95%. Transmission efficiency recovered on Friday (up to 7.1E11) but slowly went down to 6.7E11 and fluctuating. We kindly ask PS to look into that again. In IRRAD we removed ALICE/DRD5 experiment and installed new samples for groups within DRD3. The GDD team (EP-DT), ATLAS, TE-MPE, and LHCb experiment continue. There was not HEARTS ion-MD during cooldown. In CHARM we removed the additional rack setup from CMS HCAL SiPM FEE, and the setup by ALICE FOCal LV PS. Tests by SY-RF for 10 MHz cavities and ATLAS LAr FEE continue, together with R2E test with modified setups by BE-CEM. A new setup by ATLAS muon DCT was also installed. * we continue until Monday 29th at 13h00 when all irradiations in IRRAD and CHARM will be stopped. From 13h00 to 15h00 a scan to assess the ageing of the XSEC095 foils will be performed by BE-OP and SY-BI. Then we start the TS with access expected on Tuesday. ### T9 Outgoing Main: ALICE RICH (Roberta Pillera, Nicola Mazziotta) We had a successful beam test week. Good beam except for some minor interruptions. We have tested the new cooling system for the RICH-gas system taking data up to our target temperature of -40°C. Data analysis is ongoing. During the lowering of the temperature we had a small gas leak but recovered quickly. Thanks for the support to all the CERN staff.  ### T9 Main: STCF ECAL & PID (Lailin Xu) * Finished the installation and obtained the safety clearance on Wed *  * Thanks to Dipanwita for setting up the 15 GeV pi- beams for us * Already started to take data, first check looks good, some fine tuning is ongoing in parallel *  ### T9 Incoming Main: SHIP (Horst Fischer) * SHiP LS-DSBT prototype detectors: * Two weeks testbeam in T9 - mostly muons, second week SHiP DUBT behind DSBT (3m space along beam reserved, 1.5m requested by DUBT team) * 2 Aluminium boxes (120cm x 80cm x 20cm and 160cm x 80cm x 20cm) each filled with 200l liquid scintillator (LAB+ PPO EDMS 2963340v1), each instrumented with 2 WOM light detectors with * SiPM readout, on rotation platforms on DESY and TRAGKRAFT scanning tables. * Beam telescope of plastic scintillator bars with PMT readout upstream / downstream of prototype detectors. * DAQ & slow control (1 office PC and 1 Laptop) on office table. * IBC storage tank filled with 600l of liquid scintillator and liquid handling system consisting of pump & hoses. * Leakage retention safety measures. * 24/7 shifts, always two people will be present.  ### T10 Outgoing Main: EIC ePIC pfRICH (Brian Page, Alexander Kiselev) * 2 weeks of PS beam time (June 10 - June 24); mostly stable beam with good uptime - big thanks to the whole PS team * Achieved ~stable running by the begining of this week * Booked significant data over the range of available beam energies * Included most of our proposed tests / running modes (Expansion volume scan, mirror tests, ASIC test, filter comparisons) * See preliminary pion/proton separation  * Our team's first time at CERN test beam facilities - overall a very positive experience  ### T10 Outgoing Parallel: EIC DRICH (M. Contalbrigo) Ater a long installation, we had 2 weeks of productive data-taking with the real-scale prototype (1/6 of the final realization). We were able to image Cherenkov rings with reference detector (MaPMTS) and targeted detector (SiPM), test the performance with the optics mimicking the final one in ePIC, practice in the interplay of the two radiators, study hadron identification and electron separation, and take data with upstream and downstream tracking to investigate multiple scattering and beam backgrounds. All together, was a very successful campaign and we thanks the SPS/PS coordination for this opportunity and the CERN technical teams for all the support. dRICH imaging: visible on the left is the aerogel box, immersed inside the C2F6 gas volume. On the righ there are the MaPMTs and SiPMs detector boxes that intercept the light from gas and aerogel, respectively.  dRICH radiator interplay: using the gas to tag pions and electrons, one can isolate the protons and kaons.  ### T10 Main: ALICE ITS3 (Hartmut Hillemanns) Objective of this test beam is to further characterise the MOSAIX MAPS sensor for ITS3 in combination with various babyMOSAIX, so 2 DUT in parallel to be tested to make optimal use of the beam time. - Installation of MOSAIX Telescope done - alignment done - data taking started ### T10 Incoming Main: ATS XCET (M. van Dijk) Preparation of the beam test ongoing, all looking well so far! We will test a new prototype for the XCETs to be deployed in LS3 in the East Area, which will substantially ease the existing access procedure. ### T11 Incoming Main: P371 (Vincent Verhoeven) Beamtime: July + August - Transport arrived Tuesday 23.06. - Crane to area Wednesday 24.06. - Safety Friday 26.06. - First tests with beam planned over the weekend (without target) - Tuesday 30.06. Installation of ToF detector in controlled Area - Tuesday or Wednesday 01.07. target filling   Thanks to the Cloud collaboration for sharing the resources with us. ## TT66 Outgoing Main: FIREBALL 4 (Please insert your name) ## North Area Beam Status (D. Banerjee) On call phone number: :phone: [67500](tel:+41227667500) **General**: Please remember to remove material from the beam, especially in telescopes that are semi-permanently installed. If the telescope remains in-beam, it should be as minimal material as possible please. **H2/H4**:Good operation. **H6**: Good operation. Higher rate tuned last night when beam was available. **H8**: Good operation beam-wise, but big issue with SAPHIR table from last Thursday onward. One of the screws driving the vertical motion and the nut it engages with were found to be badly damaged. The vertical motion was locked out on Friday morning. Functionality was restored to the next user team that installed on Monday (DRD6 IDEA DRC, US team) by placing the Tragkraft moving table on top of the SAPHIR table, found to work but not a great solution. Repairs will only be possible in LS3; similar solution foreseen for final user of SAPHIR this year (week 31, DRD6 IDEA DRC Korean team). Discussions with Korean team ongoing. **M2**: Stable operation. **P42/K12**: Mostly good operation. Small issue with a fan of the power converter for QUAD.101.046 on Tuesday with about 1.5 hours of downtime.  ## North Area Users Tour de Table ### H2 Main: DRD6 SIW ECAL (V. Boudry) Sorry not been present: we are all on our way back. Let's be clear: **This was the best beam time of my life** Despite the lack of air conditionning (broken) in B81, and the heat increasing the noise in our sensors, we had a near perfect running: very few beam brake-up, and we could smoothly operate our 15k channel prototype. We took 300+ runs with - scans with e+ from to 7.5 GeV to 99 GeV (purity at 74 GeV and 99 GeV ~70%), at several places, - fine uniformity scans, with e+ and muons, - angular scans with all e+ energies, - large statistics of muons for calibration, thanks to the intense beam provided: this has spared many hours of boring night shifts, - extended exploration of electronics settings, including TDCs for the 1st time. That will be a material of analysis for many young physicists (50% of the team, incl. 3 PhD) for at least 2 years. So a big thank you to the SPS and H2 teams, with a special mention to Bastien and Nikos. My apologies to the TREC team for the delay in answering, and thank you for their availability. Yesterday (Wednesday 24th), we made a bit of room for the CRILIN prototype on the NIHKEF plateform, it wss bit tight, but we managed; by the opening time of this meeting (_report written on the 24th evening_), we should have removed all our material from PPE172 and handed over the control of H2 to Elisa and Ivano, after their safety check. ### H2 Incoming Main: DRD6 CRILIN (Elisa Di Meco, Ivano Sarra) Installation completed between yesterday MD and this morning, thanks a lot to the DRD6 SIW ECAL for the huge collaboration. ISIEC clearance obtained, final checks to the setup alignment and daq in progress but we're almost ready to take data!  ### H2 Incoming Main (July 3-8): FASERNU (Haruhi Fujimori) Since our beam time starts next week, I added it to the incoming section. Share beam time with FASERnu and FASERCal team FASERν emulsion detector: A sub-detector of the FASER experiment Goals: Study the characteristics of hadron interactions in tungsten using small 100 layers (emulsion + tungsten) detector Testing and improving the detector performance (scanning/tracking/vertexing) at the run4 scenario (5x10^5 /cm^2 x 4 angle tilts) FASERCal: Proposed for HL-LHC Run 4 as off-axis neutrino detector Prototype: 11 monolithic layers (=25,344 cubes), 3,360 WLS fibers + SiPMs Goals: Study the characteristics of hadron and electron interactions and shower development (e.g. channel occupancy), multi-kHz rate Schedule: July 1st: Installation/crane operation/preparation July 2nd: continue preparation July 3rd: beam tuning July 4th-8th: beam exposure to the detector Beam line setup  Beam requests  Note: No preference between electrons and positrons beams A high-purity e± beam cannot be delivered to both H2 and H4 simultaneously Negotication with the H4 users is required to see whether we can use the beam on the final day (July 7). ### H4 Main: LHCB_ECAL (L. Martinazzoli, E. Caire) Overall a quite difficult beamtime. After the first day, we found a good compromise allowing both H2 and H4 to run with a beam of sufficient quality. Thanks a lot to the H2 users for the fruitful discussion! The LHC tests (supercycle with 1 spill) limit the statistics and the possibility to have long homogeneous scans. We observed strange behaviors of the beam, in particular sudden changes in rate (even up to 10x) which could impact the quality of the data due to rate effects in the PMTs. Some discussions with the CCC suggested the HL tests as cause. Still investigating with Nikos, but we should have now found ways to keep the problem at bay. Physics program had to be rearranged and some measurements scrapped. However we are now in a more stable configuration. Still an intense program left till Monday to prepare the last measurements needed for the TDR. Side note: patrolling PPE134 I observed one of the beam pipes flange tilted. Probably it’s nothing relevant  ### H4 Incoming Main: ALICE FoCal (Tommaso Isidori) Installation of the FoCal-H pre-production prototype & a few layers of detection of the FoCal-E silicon pads Goals: * [FoCal-H] Performance validation with preproduction version (final readout design, fully instrumented, new fibers, new SIPMs ) * [FoCal-H] Calibration and DAQ workflow fully ALICE O2-integrated (online RECO + QC) * [FoCal-H] Peformance study with cooling system * [FoCal-H] Peformance study with 3x3mm SiPMs (as opposed to the 6x6mm, current ones), and fibers from an alternative producer (Kuraray) * [FoCal-E] testing of new sensors production on new readout PCB + data concentrator * [FoCal-E + FoCal-H] Combined data acquisition using the ALICE-O2 infrastructure (?) Beam * Hadrons (+/-) 60, 80, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 * Electron 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 150, 180, 200 *If needed, the rest of the energies will be extrapolated.* ### H6 Outgoing Main: ATLAS ITK STRIP (Lennart Huth) * Some problems with starting up the chillers and other components -> Andre Rummler not available any more * Otherwise smooth setting up * Completed program ahead of time as the beam was super stable, especially over night * R5 module irradiated to end of life worked nicely and preliminary results indicate that performance targets are fullfiled * Readout mode tests also concluded in-time * DAQ tests not possible due to part incompatibility that could not be resolved at CERN * Thanks to the local beam line support for nice tuning and quick support! ### H6 Outgoing Parallel: ATLAS BCM PRIME (Vasileios Mouzakis) * We have taken data for a single-chip and a 3-chip board. * We would like to put a pCVD diamond on the 3-chipp board along with the silicon and take data. ### H6 Outgoing Parallel: CMS PIXEL (Branislav Ristic) * Main measurement programmes on Phase-2 production modules finished. Some optional data points could not be taken in time * Delays due to issues with chiller (Many thanks to ATLAS LAr technicians for their help) an motion stages. Thank you so much to all the beamline physicists, technicians and coordinators that always made our beam times a success no matter what broke or was forgotten in the preparations :) ### H6 Main: ALICE ITS3 (Elena Dall'Occo) - installation of 3 setups extremely smooth - after a few hiccups with the alignment, started to take data with all 3 setups - beam parameters match the needs: thanks to Laurie for the beem tuning! ### H6 Parallel: EP PIXEL (Dominik Dannheim) * Thanks to Laurie for the efficient beam tuning yesterday night! * Current beam parameters are good for our small-area H2M device under test. We profit from the high rate and small beam size. * Good communication with other users ALICE ITS3 and MONOLITH. * Currently no sample changes or other accesses planned from our side. ### H6 Incoming Main: SY-BI STRAWS (Robert G. Larsen) Detectors are undergoing final assembly and testing, we plan to start installation June 29th. Safety inspection has been requested for Wednesday afternoon. ### H8 Outgoing Main: DRD6 MAXICC (S.Moneta, M.Lucchini) MAXICC prototype consists in a two-layers cystal calorimeter with full e.m. showers containment and about 24 X0, with 114 PWO crystals all readout by SiPMs. In the rear segment (~18 X0) each crystal has an additional SiPM equipped with an optical filter, which absorbs most of the scintillation light while transmitting Cherenkov photons, to be used for dual-readout corrections in hadronic showers. The setup was installed into a dark climatized box placed in front of the HIDRA prototype, on the same movable platform. The DAQ (EUDAQ) was common wih the hadronic calorimeter, to allow simultaneous data taking. Successfull data taking between Wednesday 17 and Sunday 21. Muon scan for calibration of all channels exploiting the SAPHIR table (before the issue on the vertical movement). Electron energy scan to measure energy resolution and linearity. Mixed hadron energy scan performed in order to study hadronic showers in the hybrid (MAXICC+HIDRA) dualreadout prototype. Observed some preliminary impact of the momentum slit collimator on electron energy (with some energy dependent behavior). Impact between 1.5 and 2.0%. Issue with the SAPHIR table that did not allow to scan and calibrate the full prototype in vertical position (luckly calibration with muons was already completed). We thank a lot Marteen for his kind support during the whole data taking.    ### H8 Outgoing Parallel: DRD6 IDEA DRC (Ruggero Turra) Hidra calorimeter (dual readout, fiber calorimeter) was placed just behind Maxicc, and we collected data combined. We collected O(10M) events: muons (50-160 GeV), positron (6-160 GeV), hadrons (10-160 GeV).  The analysis will take time. A few nice plots: * average electron shower as seen from one SiPM  * event display (e+ 20 GeV)  We had some issues with the rotating table (two times): experts turn if off/on and it worked. As already discussed, we had troubles with the SAPHIR table. Given the size of our detector we need to move the table horizonally and vertically many times to illuminate all the areas with electrons, in order to calibrate it. We had problem with one Cherenkov detector installed far from the experimental area on the beam line. Signal was very small. Experts wanted to replace the PMT since it was very old. ### H8 Main: DRD6 IDEA DRC (Nural Akchurin) The DRCAL-US team activities are scheduled from Monday, June 22 to Monday, June 29. So far here is the summary: 1. The SAPHIR table vertical motion was disabled due to a damaged jack screw and a brass nut. Tragkraft table with a capacity of 2 tons was placed on top of SAPHIR to enable vertical motion as a solution (see photo). 2. This arrangement generated unanticipated complications for the placement of the electronics near HG-DREAM. The problem was alleviated by reconfiguring the VME crates and positioning them on top of HG-DREAM. 3. The read-out for Tragkraft (table on top) proved not reproducible. On Tuesday, June 23, it was serviced for the better but there is large uncertainty on the position (1-2 cm). 4. The downward table motion is too fast and apparently cannot be slowed down. Table hits the bottom rather hard. Some rubber pads were installed during MD. 5. We rearranged our physics program to accommodate the shortcomings of the table and took data from Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning. The calibration scan indicates some improvements compared to last year (analysis ongoing). 6. We completed the em/had energy scans using the FERS readout by the MD. 7. We switched to the DRS readout on Wednesday for timing studies. Our physics program calls for em/had/muon runs in the nominal position as well as angle (rotation) scans. We will also position HG-DREAM at 90 degrees for additional optical studies.   ### H8 Incoming Main: LHCb (L. Martinazzoli) Installing in PPE138 the RICH setup with the TimePix telescope. Beam request: usual mixed hadron beam 180 GeV and high rate ISIEC submitted and visit confirmed by safety. Side note: requested DESY and XSCA tables, but the reques is not amongst the "tables" on the ASM app. ### H8 Incoming No Beam: RE1 AMS L0 (Please insert your name) ### M2 Main: AMBER (Norihiro DOSHITA) 1) Physics data taking is ongoing. -- reached 13k spills last week -- Tha DAQ system is being improved. -- Operations are affected by hot weather conditions. 2) Modifications will be made to improve the detector cooling systems in the LMD next week. ### K12-P42 Main: NA62 (Ilaria Rosa) Good operation this week with few setbacks (QUAD.101.046 faulty power converter fan on Tuesday and TRIM.045.820 faulty on Wednesday). The intensity tends to be lower during the LHC fill but most of the time promptly fixed after a call to the CCC operators. ### H6 Parasitic: ATLAS MALTA (Please insert your name) ### H6 Parasitic: MONOLITH (Please insert your name) ### H8 Parasitic: STRAW TRACKER RD (Please insert your name) ### H8 Incoming Parasitic: STI (L.S. Esposito) We will install the telescope in PPE128 starting from Monday.   We will run as parasitic during W27 and 28.  It would be helpful to know when the QNL 427 is powered down so we can test the telescope. The ISIEC will be submitted later today. ### H8 Incoming Parasitic: BI BXBPF (Inaki Ortega) I’m sorry, but I’m unable to attend the meeting today, as I am chairing an internal BI meeting. The new SiPM mezzanine for the XBPF will no longer be tested, as the purchase of the required electronic components has been put on hold until the end of the run, when the strategy for the XBPF will be clearer. Instead, we will test a third version of the North Area XBPF incorporating minor improvements to facilitate mass production and assembly. The parts have been ordered but have not yet arrived at CERN, which introduces some risk that the detector will not be ready in time. We will also test a second prototype of the XSCI in vacuum, featuring minor modifications to simplify mass production and assembly. The parts are ready for assembly. As the first versions of both the XBPF and XSCI prototypes have already been successfully validated with beam, and the new modifications are intended only to simplify production without affecting detector performance, these tests are considered a lower priority than the straw tracker beam test in H6, on which we are currently focusing our resources. ### M2 Parasitic: MUONE (Please insert your name) --- ## AoB --- _Minutes by the respective speakers, edited by the Physics Coordination_