12 GeV Upgrade

Preparations continue for the awarding of civil contracts in January 2009. For the Hall D Complex construction contract, the Best and Final Offers (BAFO’s) were received on Nov. 21 and are now under review. For the Central Helium Liquefier (CHL) Building Addition construction contract, the initial technical review of the proposals is complete and clarifications are due from the Offerors on Nov. 26. In support of these two construction contracts, the Architect-Engineering firms will review submittals and shop drawings, perform milestone inspections, and provide office and field consultations. Fee proposals for these A-E services have been received and are under review.

Physics

In Hall A, experiments E06-010, Measurement of Single Target-Spin Asymmetry in Semi-Inclusive Pion-Electroproduction on a Transversely Polarized 3He Target, and E07-013, Target Normal Single-Spin Asymmetry in Inclusive DIS n(e,e') with a polarized 3He Target, are now in stable production mode. The installation of three narrow-band lasers has improved the polarized helium-3 in-beam target polarization from around 50 percent to around 60 percent.

PAC 34 Call for Proposals Due Dec. 15
Proposals, updates and letters-of-intent for PAC 34 are due at the JLab User Liaison Office by close of business Monday, Dec. 15. Details can be found in the Call for Proposals and Proposal Submission information posted on the PAC 34 website.

Accelerator

The accelerator is settling into the time-honored groove of relatively stable high-energy beam delivery. The schedule for the next few weeks is to continue in this mode. Halls A & B received 223 hours of beam during the past week. The only notable repair was replacement of an electrical contact on the RSEP9A box supply.

Free-Electron Laser (FEL)

FEL staff members installed a new cathode, baked the gun and are already high-voltage conditioning. This is in only nine days from last operation. Staff members took advantage of the vault access during the gun work to make small but critical repairs and upgrades to the optical, vacuum, radiofrequency (rf) and diagnostics systems. Very significant progress has also been made in understanding the performance of the new drive laser with respect to phase stability.

Theory Center

A new paper (arXiv:0811.2440 [hep-lat]) reports the first unquenched calculation of the magnetic moments of the Δ(1232) and the Ω baryons using the background field method. This approach removes some of the systematic errors present in previous calculations by directly extracting the magnetic moment from the shift in the baryons' mass in a constant magnetic field. The results are consistent with experiment, with errors for the Ω comparable to the experimental ones and significantly smaller errors than experimental data for the Δ.

JLab's Safety Numbers

77 Days since Last Recordable Accident (JLab record: 331)
77 Days since Last Lost Workday Accident (JLab record: 676)

JLab Calendar of Events

Nov. 27-28: Thanksgiving holiday - JLab closed
Dec. 3: Colloquium and Public Lecture
Dec. 8-12: Muon Collider Design Workshop
Dec. 24-Jan. 2: Winter holidays/Shutdown days: JLab closed
 

Environment, Safety, Health & Quality

Control of Nonconforming Material or Products Procedure
The goal of a nonconforming material procedure is to correct, and ultimately prevent, material-related mistakes. Valuable time and money are wasted when JLab receives non-conforming material, where the usability of the product does not meet pre-determined requirements. This time and money could be spent on productive, mission-oriented work. Thus, it is in the lab's best interest to aggressively deal with this type of time drain.

JLab procedure provides a process for positive control of nonconforming material or products, including identification, reporting and disposition. JLab uses a graded approach when dealing with any type of nonconforming material or product, and the procedure applies to nonconforming material or products labwide, whether just received, during assembly or while in use.

A subset of nonconforming material is suspect/counterfeit items (S/CI); because of the significance of S/CI within the DOE complex and special requirements for their reporting and disposition, JLab has a defined program to manage these issues.

Computing and Networking Infrastructure (CNI)

Windows Active Directory Update
The CNI group will upgrade the Windows 2003 Active Directory domain to Windows 2008 AD domain during the next maintenance day: Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. During this time, all MIS (Management Information Systems) webpages will be unavailable, including the Insight page. The upgrade will last about two hours, and changes will be transparent to all users.

Calendar Server Work Over Holiday Break
The site's calendar server will be offline Saturday, Nov. 29, for database work. User's calendars will be unaccessible during this time. This includes locally installed CorporateTime programs as well as webcal.jlab.org access. All users will need to reconnect to the calendar server upon arrival at work after the weekend. Questions can be sent to Paul Letta.

Announcements

JLab Colloquium and Public Lecture
Gunter Luepke, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Science at the College of William and Mary, will speak on "High-resolution spectroscopy with a Free-Electron Laser: A new look at hydrogen in solids and its relationship to the energy crisis." The colloquium will take place in the CEBAF Center auditorium at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 3. Pre-colloquium coffee and cookies will be available at 3:45 p.m.

Children's Holiday Party
The JLab Children's Holiday Party is set for Saturday, Dec. 13, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. in the CEBAF Center lobby. All children of Lab employees, contractors and users are invited. The JAG is planning crafts, snacks and a visit from Santa Claus. Each family is asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy donation for Toys for Tots. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Toys for Tots Donation Drive
JLab is again participating in the U.S. Marine Corps’ annual Toys for Tots toy drive. Bring in your donation of new, unwrapped toys for children ages 1-12 by 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12. Marked drop boxes are located near the main entrances of CEBAF Center, VARC, ARC, Test Lab and the MCC.

Calling All Amateur Interior Designers: Ready, Set, Decorate!
JAG invites one and all to participate in its annual Door/Cubicle Decorating Contest. Decorations may go up as early as Dec. 1 and should be taken down by Jan. 5. Decorating materials should be fire resistant and only UL-approved lighting/electronics may be used. Don’t use food-based items in your decorations. To enter, e-mail JAG Chair Dave Williams with your name, building number and office/cube location by 5 p.m. Dec. 17. Prizes will be awarded on Dec. 22.

Children's Holiday Party Volunteers Needed
Join the fun at the Children's Holiday Party. Santa's helpers are needed, as well as craft and snack attendants. Please visit the Children's Holiday Party volunteer page to sign up.