Tevatron Gets the Hiccups
Apparently last night's earthquake near Gilberts, Illinois, about 25 miles from Fermilab, quenched the Tevatron. Its magnitude was 3.8.
("Quench" means "go from a superconducting state to not-superconducting." The magnets heat up and boil a lot of helium, which is discharged safely through relief valves.)
There are tilt meters mounted at a few spots in the tunnel to measure ground movement; sometimes distant major earthquakes can be detected. This is certainly the closest earthquake we've ever had. (I slept through it.) The Tevatron can withstand a little jiggling, and earthquake waves tend to be long, so the relative motion of different parts of the machine is generally small. Not this time.
Beam is back, and we expect to resume collisions shortly.
("Quench" means "go from a superconducting state to not-superconducting." The magnets heat up and boil a lot of helium, which is discharged safely through relief valves.)
There are tilt meters mounted at a few spots in the tunnel to measure ground movement; sometimes distant major earthquakes can be detected. This is certainly the closest earthquake we've ever had. (I slept through it.) The Tevatron can withstand a little jiggling, and earthquake waves tend to be long, so the relative motion of different parts of the machine is generally small. Not this time.
Beam is back, and we expect to resume collisions shortly.