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In this issue:
BaBar Run Extended
Registration Now Open for Continuing Studies
Join the Comm Office for Breakfast
Planning a Workshop or Event? Tell Security

SLAC Today

Thursday - February 28, 2008

The BaBar Detector.
(Image courtesy of Peter Ginter.)

BaBar Run Extended

After the disheartening news of a shortened run this year, the BaBar team planned a new technical and physics program to extract the best possible results from the time available. After presenting their case to SLAC management and the Department of Energy, the accelerator operation shifted to a slightly lower energy, called the Upsilon(3S) resonance.

The 3S accelerator run currently underway searches for rare decays that could signal deviations from the Standard Model and potentially detect new types of particles or exotic new physics. The other main part of the 3S run is to fill in many of the missing pieces of the "bottomonium spectrum," the set of particles that include both a bottom quark and an anti-bottom quark. Understanding all the different ways that quarks form particles is vital for exploring our detailed theoretical knowledge of how quarks behave.

After presentation of this plan, the Department of Energy was sufficiently impressed with the physics case and the ability of BaBar physicists and the PEP-II accelerator team to undertake a significant re-orientation of the program that they granted the laboratory and the BaBar collaboration an extra month of running time—with April 7 as the new final date of running.

The new running time will be used for exploration of the Upsilon(2S) resonance, similar to the current run but at a slightly lower energy. This lower energy run will allow a comprehensive study of all the different bottomonium states and their decays. The lower energy also makes certain types of particle processes more likely to be observed. Approximately 140 million Upsilon(2S) decays will be collected, a number of decays comparable to the current 3S run.

By combining data from the two runs, the BaBar team will gain a much fuller understanding of all the different particles containing bottom and anti-bottom quarks. This large dataset will be a resource used to challenge and set the goals for the theoretical understanding of the quarks and their interactions for years to come.

Registration Now Open for Continuing Studies


Registration for spring quarter courses offered by Stanford Continuing Studies is now open, with classes beginning on March 31. There are more than 100 courses to choose from, ranging from the liberal arts, foreign languages and studio art to business, personal development and communication. In addition, Continuing Studies is sponsoring 10 free public events in the fields of biology, conservation, literature, music and art.

This spring there are dozens of new courses to choose from, including a science course on biotechnology and drug development, an online course on science writing and a business course on marketing.

SLAC employees who work at least half time may use Staff Training Assistance Program (STAP) funds to pay for tuition and registration fees.

A full course catalogue and registration forms are available online.

Join the Comm Office for Breakfast

(Photo - Breakfast)
Breakfast with Communications.

The Communications Office invites you to breakfast! We want to meet and talk with you, so stop by the Linear Café any working day between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m., grab coffee and a donut, and chat with us.


Planning a Workshop
or Event? Tell Security

SLAC's Security Office asks anyone planning an on-site workshop, conference or event to please notify Simon Ovrahim at osimon@slac.stanford.edu at least one day in advance. This will allow security guards to prepare for the influx of visitors and will also allow guards at the front gate to direct visitors to the correct location.

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