h12 july v11 - ego

2

C O N T E N T S

NEWS FROM THE SITE AND THE COLLABORATION 3Alternative Energies at EGOStart of VSR2Toward the realization of Advanced VirgoFirst light in CALVA

NEWS FROM THE WORLD 11The Guardian of Nothing - Part 2

LIFE IN CASCINA 15Viva CalcioNE!Biathlon 2009

OUT & ABOUT 16The Spring Excursion 2009

PEOPLE 17Latest news

THE GRAVITATIONAL VOICE - AUGUST 2009

�h - The Gravitational Voice� is an internal

publication of the European Gravitational

Observatory (EGO) and the Virgo

Collaboration.

The content of this newsletter does not

necessarily represent the opinion of the

management.

Editor: Carlo Bradaschia

Editorial Staff:

Angela Di Virgilio

Gary Hemming

Dominique Huet

Martin Mohan

Severine Perus

Design:

Severine Perus

Published in electronic format on the EGO

Web:

www.ego-gw.it

E D I T O R I A L

We would like to take the opportunity of the publication of h12 to remind you that this year, being the InternationalYear of Astronomy (IYA2009) is full of events, local, national and worldwide. After the summer pause, Octoberwill be very rich.The week from 10 to 17 October 2009 has been chosen as the �European week of Astroparticle Physics�, invitingphysicists, laboratories, sites of experiments to organize open days, talks for the general public and exhibitions(http://europeanweek.astroparticle.org/). This proposal comes from the two bodies in charge of coordinating theEuropean efforts of astroparticle physics. ASPERA (http://www.aspera-eu.org/) and ApPEC (http://www.appec.org/);in both organizations the EGO Council is present with its chairman and vice-chairman.Following the unprecedented success of IYA2009's 100 Hours of Astronomy, another series of events is beingplanned for 23-24 October 2009. This new IYA2009 Cornerstone Project is called Galilean Nights(http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/348/) and will see amateur and professional astronomers aroundthe globe taking to the streets and pointing their telescopes to the wonders that Galileo observed 400 years ago.On October 26 there will be the opening ceremony of the Astroparticle Physics Exhibition, organized by the INFNat the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in Roma.

EGO and Virgo are planning to participate in allthese occasions and all our readers are warmlyinvited to suggest ideas and contribute to theirrealization.Besides all these artificial events the sky alwayscontributes with many beautiful natural events.Among these, last Virgo Week was treated to thelongest solar eclipse of the 21st century. The eclipsewas visible in the middle of the Pacific Oceanand partially in central China. To allowastronomers and people all around the world towitness this spectacle, the Chinese AstronomicalSociety, supported by the Chinese Academy ofSciences, hosted a live broadcast of the eclipse(http://eclipse.astronomy2009.org.cn/english).Late participants to the Biathlon buffet and peopleon nightshift between 21 and 22 of July couldenjoy this vision. Nightshift workers did not reportin the log-book about any visible effect in ourdata.

http://europeanweek.astroparticle.org/

http://www.appec.org/

http://www.aspera-eu.org/

http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/348/

http://eclipse.astronomy2009.org.cn/english

Cost reductions have becomebuzzwords in many organizations.However it may be very difficult tofind some room for reducing costs,especially when prices increase, asis the case of energy.

In this context, EGO is no exceptionand has to face higher energy coststhan some years ago, also becauseits energy consumption needs haveincreased. A deeper look at theenergy consumption reveals that theair conditioning system is one of thegreediest systems on site in termsof energy consumption. Besides thefact that air conditioning is not aluxury in hot Italy, it is crucial forVirgo that some parts of theexperiment such as the towers arekept at constant temperature. Airconditioning is therefore essential!

That was indeed the rationale of thisproject, called �Alternative energies�which, in its first phase, aimed atanswering the question: �are theresolutions available on the marketwhich can enable the renewal of500m³/h of air in a terminal buildingand at the same time allow us tomake drastic reductions in energyconsumption costs? A competitivemarket survey was carried out andits results tend to prove that: �YESTHERE ARE!�.

Then a review of the existingtechniques highlighted a particularlyinteresting technique which seemedto present many benefits and wouldbe worth further investigation: theair cooling and heating by EarthTube Heat Exchangers (ETHE). Thebenefits of such a solution arenumerous: reduction of fuel

consumption (for supplying theboilers), reduction of the powerc o n s u m p t i o n f o r e l e c t r i crefrigeration, reduction of themaintenance costs, simplification ofthe equipment maintenance activitiesand reduction of the CO2 emissions,which is absolutely essential in aworld more aware than ever of thenecessity to turn to the sustainableenvironment concept.

But could it be applied to the Virgoexperiment?

Before being able to answer thisquestion, let�s see how Earth TubesHeat Exchangers work. Theprinciple is rather simple andconsists of taking advantage of thenearly constant temperature of thesoil some meters below the surface.The inlet ventilation air is then ledthrough a long earth tube in whichit will, depending on their relativetemperatures, take up heat from, orleave heat to, the surrounding soil.

ETHE are currently being used forresidential, agricultural or industrialpurposes as a viable and economicalalternative to the conventionalheating, cooling or heat pumpsystems since they do not need toutilize any compressors, chemicalsor burners and only blowers arerequired to move the air.

It seems that the origins of ETHEcome from the Persian Empire.However, recent implementationsof such a system in Austria,Denmark, Germany, France andIndia have contributed to extendingit to other parts of the world.

It is becoming now fairly commonsince the mid-1990s. ETHE arereferred to in many different ways:air-to-soil heat exchanger, earthtubes, earth channels, earth canals,earth-air tunnel systems, ground tubeheat exchanger, ground coupled heatexchanger, subsoil heat exchangers,underground air pipes, Canadian

3THE GRAVITATIONAL VOICE - AUGUST 2009

N E W S F R O M T H E S I T E A N D T H E C O L L A B O R A T I O N

Alternativeenergies at

EGO:

an experimentalapproach

wells or Puits provençal. It shouldnot be confused with the hypocaustthat was the precursor of today�scentral heating systems, based onfuel burning and hence polluting!

To understand whether ETHE canrepresent a valid alternative solution,it was decided to carry out afeasibility study to see if there couldbe a possible application on site,first by installing temperature

sensors in the soil at a depth of 1.5m and 2.50 m and doing 6 monthsof daily continuous measurements.As a result of this 6-month dataacquisition, the average soiltemperature was found to bebetween 15 and 18°C.

Second, calculations and simulationswere needed to determine theoptimum parameters of the ETHEaccording to Virgo needs, the soil

and the environment, in thehypothesis of an installation in oneof the terminal buildings. Hundredsof simulations were done with aspecialist software. Then theconstruction of an ETHE prototypestarted with the digging of a trenchinto the soil. Unfortunately heavyrains and consequently the floodingof the site interrupted these worksfor many weeks.



In the meantime the first results ofthe 3-month data acquisition on thesoil temperature have been collectedand are encouraging. Considerationshave been made on drainage andhealth. Some studies even indicatethat ETHE may reduce buildingventilation air pollution.Finally, the installation of the 45meter long heat exchanger tubescould start. The figure below showsthe positioning of the measurementsystems.Although the first impressions are

rather positive, it is still too early tomake a conclusion on the feasibilitystudy for implementing on site anETHE system for the Virgoexperiment. Many questions are stillopen. In particular a comparativestudy will have to be carried out onthe Energy consumption costs. Isuggest that you read the nexteditions of h to know more aboutthat!

D. TROSZEZYNSKI

Running VSR2 onthe shoulders

of VSR1

VIRGO has finally reached andovercome the date of its second longterm science run called VSR2. Datacollection has started the 7th July2009 at 23:00 local time. The enddate is not yet fixed. Besides thepossibility of a break for a fewmonths in mid 2010, the end ofVSR2 will be determined by start-up of the activities for the installationof AdVirgo, presumably mid 2011.According to plans two other LIGOgravitational wave detectors in theUSA, at Hanford and Livingston,join Virgo with their scientific data

taking called S6. The VSR2/S6 eventis the confirmation of thecollaboration between both LSC andVIRGO communities initiated inMay 2007 with the joint VSR1/S5run. These three interferometers willoperate simultaneously as a uniquedetector, thus enhancing the rejectionof fake events, the amplitude of theobserved sky, and making alsopossible the triangulation of the GWsources.As I have already had the occasionto write in these pages (http://www.ego-gw.it /public/hlet ter/doc/h_5_JULY2007.pdf), VSR2 willalso be a good step forward alongthe �muddy path of the epic historyof science�, and only the time aheadwill tell if we leave traces in themud. It is certain that intention isstrong and the spirits are well forgedto go Gravitational Wave hunting.

Now we are at the start of the VSR2story and well into the organizationset-up. We are sitting firmly on theshoulders of our past experiencewith VSR1 (18th May 2007 at 21:00UTC - 1st October 2007 at 05:00UTC). Finally with also a bit ofpride, I can confirm that VSR1 hasbeen a fairly good success, even ifat the moment the cosmos has notblessed us with a marvellous GWdetection. The collaborationresponded well to the "RunOrganizer" requests, and all groupshave participated in the fearedp l a n n e d s h i f t s w i t h a nunderstandable spirit of sacrifice.

Furthermore, the performance ofVSR1 by itself strongly confirmsmy opinion of the success. Theoverall duty cycle was about 81%(see fig.1 on the next page) withmany long data taking periods ofmore than 20 hrs and a maximum�Science Mode� duration of 94.3hrs (see fig.2).Also the trend of the NS-NS inspiralrange horizon during VSR1demonstrates that the organizationof the commissioning activitiesduring this run has achievedsatisfactory results increasing bymore than 43% its initial value



http://www.ego-gw.it/public/hletter/doc/h_5_JULY2007.pdf

http://www.ego-gw.it/public/hletter/doc/h_5_JULY2007.pdf


of about 3 Mpc up to a final valueof about 4.5 Mpc (see fig. 3 rightbelow).

As this is a good occasion forremembrance I would like to remindyou that VSR1 consisted of a totalof 135,3 days, equivalent to 406shifts of 8hrs with 2 people involvedeach time: one operator and onescientist. At that time all the groupsof the Virgo collaboration wereinvolved (EGO, INFN-Firenze/Urbino, ESPCI/LMA, LAL,LAPP, INFN-Napoli, NIKHEF,OCA, INFN-Perugia, INFN-Pisa,INFN-Roma1, INFN-Roma2 plusthe final participation of INFNPadova/Trento and INFN Geova).Approximately 7 operators and 110scientists operated in the controlroom. It is worth remembering alsothe significant contribution of allthe people on-call each 24 hours per

day (11 ITF subsystems plus 4 EGOsite services), and last but not leastwe should remember the weekly runcoordinators. As always it appliesin these cases I may have forgotten

someone and I apologize in advancefor this. However, at this point itseems to me that these numbersalone testify to the effort.

Soon after VSR1 the commissioningactivity re-started with strongimpetus. In May 2008 the situationwas such that still today when welook at the Virgo sensitivity wereference the curve of 5th May 2008(see fig. 4, next page).

Unfortunately the well knownincident to the North End vacuumwindow broke the calm and all planswere changed abruptly to start theinterventions for the Virgo +upgrades as soon as possible.Without being discouraged and witha great dose of self control wepassed through the valley ofdesperation and frustration. Afterabout a year of intense activitieshaving crossed a sea of varieddifficulties and passing the columnsof Hercules we are now sailing inthe calm waters of a vast ocean ofnew experiences.For the sake of all the variousreview committees, and all the GWcommunities, we are now in theposition to announce the event ofVSR2 being almost in time withour moving average schedule.In fact, thanks to an impressivecommissioning the perspective isnow quite different: the actual Virgosensitivity, as visible in figure 4, isnot that far from the design




goal, and the NS-NS inspiral horizonwith a value of about 8 Mpc is almostdoubled with respect to VSR1 (seefig.5).

Moreover we have refined ourexperience with the automatedprocedures for acquiring the ITFlocking, and a great deal of workhas been performed to review andbuild up the on-line and off-line dataanalysis tools. This does not meanthat the entire story is behind us butjust that, without stopping the walk,much progress has been made tryingto make our future less uncertain.What remains is quite presumablythe hardest to achieve but takingdata during VSR2, with a stabledetector configuration, will probably

allow us to progress towards our besttarget, as has been demonstratedduring VSR1.The moment has finally arrived forme to say something about the VSR2organization. After this longintroduction it is quite evident thatat least initially the run organizationwill follow the guidelines adoptedfor VSR1.

There will be three daily shifts of 8hrs. Each (starting at 07:00, 15:00and 23:00 local time) with twopeople involved: one operator andone scientist. The operator will haveto run the ITF locking automatedprocedures and the scientist will haveto monitor the detector status andthe quality of data making use

of the available on-line data-analysistools. Both the operator and thescientist will have to make reportsof any special event that could triggerthe interest for an off-line analysisof experts. The short term ordinaryrun coordination has been assignedto weekly run coordinators that willoperate in collaboration with the runorganizer.

As a general rule the shifts have beenassigned to each group of thecollaboration according to the rateof their members in the Virgo authorlist. Also the newly arrivedHungarian group RMKI has beenasked to participate in the shifts.According to the initial plans theshifts have been scheduled for aperiod of 87 days from the 7th July2009 up to the 2nd October 2009.As a result 261 shifts have beenassigned with the followingpercentage distribution (see tablebelow). The same rule has beenadopted for the assignment of therun coordination weeks.

With the aim of guaranteeing theminimum recovery time frompossible detector failures it has beenforeseen the on-call for 11 specific



ITF subsystems (Alignment, DAQ,Detection, Electronics, Locking,Laser & Injection, MSC, On-lineComputing & Network, Software,Suspension Electronics & Software,TCS) and 5 EGO Site Services(Network & Global Security System,Site Infrastructure-Conditioning,Site Infrastructure-Electricity,Vacuum, Interferometer Operation).According to preliminary plansduring VSR2 there will be periodsof data taking breaks forin f ras t ruc ture main tenance(5hrs./week) and commissioningactivities (48 hrs/month). Theseactivities will be scheduled incoordination with the other twoLIGO detectors.Plans are being defined to achievealso signals of GW event triggersfrom other detectors (GRB andneutrino signals).

In conclusion I would like to say atthe beginning of such an importantperiod for our community thateverything was ready, or almost, tostart this new adventure that will seemost of us involved for quite a longtime. I really hope that satisfactionsand articles will come sweeteningthe taste of the long hours spent inthe control room.Best wishes for a fortunate data-taking!

R. PASSAQUIETI

Run Coordinator

PS: As you may know, we have verynice big news. After a very fast shakystart-up things have progressed infairly impressive way. After only oneweek of run Virgo has achieved afantastic record with its longestlocking period that is of 143 hrs.This sounds more like a world, orbetter galactic and perhaps cosmic,record!

Toward therealization of

Advanced Virgo

The e f fort o f the Virgo

Collaboration to both createAdvanced Virgo and be a main actorin opening the way to GWastronomy has been on-going for afew years. After the approval andstart of Advanced LIGO in 2008 thiseffort has turned into a rush - to staycompetitive with our Americancolleagues and realize the detectorwith a similar timeframe, and to bepart of the 2nd generation networkfrom the start.

The long path towards the approvalof Advanced Virgo started onNovember 3rd in front of theExternal Review Committee (ERC),cha i red by Bar ry Bar i sh .Challenging panel indeed! We wentin front of them the first time, havingpresented a preliminary design. TheCommittee remarked that we shouldhave done a lot of extra work toallow them to fulfill their mandateand they established a monthlytelecom to follow up AdvancedVirgo activity.

In April, after an explicit request bythe ERC, the EGO Councilappointed a Project Leader for AdV.This certainly was a sign thatfunding agencies were lookingfavourably at the opportunity ofrealizing AdV.Eventually the time for the finalreview session came. With respectto November, a lot more work hadbeen done on the detector designand on the project management. Thistime we went in front of them havingreleased the AdV Baseline Design,the cost and manpower plan, theW B S ( w i t h m o s t o f t h eresponsibilities assigned to the labs),and the planning.

The final session was not easy. Themembers of the committee were wellprepared. They had studied thedocumentation provided and werewell aware of the �weak points� ofthe project. However, the final reportreleased to the EGO Council is reallysupportive. In brief, it states that: - the scientific motivation is verystrong; - It is plausible that AdV will joinAdvanced LIGO in early detections

(but achieving this goal requiresaggressive schedule, early fundingavailability, capable management); - The technical solutions are sound,risks are reasonable; - The cost estimate is reasonable; - The management is capable.Finally �The ERC membersunanimously believe Ad Virgo asproposed is a worthwhile investmentfor funding.�

The EGO Council convened inCascina on July 2-3 and examinedthe report. Though a formal approvalof the project could not be decided�The Council recognized that theAdvanced Virgo project fulfills allthe requisites to become its medium-term scientific programme accordingto the art. 14 of its Statute anddecided to submit it to theConsortium Members for fundingapproval. The Council asked to theVirgo Collaboration to continue theadvancement of the project in orderto produce a technical design reportbefore mid 2010. The Council gavethe authorization to the Director tostart placing orders for preparatoryworks by using the funds existing inthe 2009 EGO budget�.

This part of the meeting minutesreads very much as a decisive step:we may expect that the project willstart in early fall (an extraordinaryCouncil meeting has been scheduledon October 6th in Rome).So, we go on: now that the ERCreview is over we must focus onthe open issues. We need to go backto the design finalization effort:several points are still at conceptuallevel. We need to prepare the issueof the big order of the mirrorsubstrates. We must complete thesharing of the constructionresponsibilities among the labs. Wemust define the communication andreporting procedures to ensure aplain running of the project.Plenty of work for everybody. Butnow we can also count on theenthusiasm generated by beingreally close to approval.

G. LOSURDOAdV Coordinator

THE GRAVITATIONAL VOICE - AUGUST 2009

L I F E I N C A S C I N A

9


in November 2006, four Virgo labswere involved: ESPCI, LAL, LAPPand LMA trying to take advantageof the expertise from eachcontributor.

At that time, the overall cost of theexperiment was evaluated to 560 k�and about two third were requestedto �2nd EGO R&D program onGravitational Wave Detection�. Theother third was supplied in-kind byLAL. For scientific and financialreasons, we choose to build CALVAin two phases: first, a clean roomhousing the small cavity in order totest the CALVA principles andduring these tests, the second roomand the 50-m vacuum pipe will beinstalled.

The first semester of 2007 wasalmost idyllic as CALVA receivedfrom LAL the needed support forinfrastructures and mechanics whichwere the largest activities at thattime. Day by day, all parts, inparticular the two clean roomshousing the experiment (one for theshort cavity, the other one for theend mirror) and the vacuum tanksand suspension systems for themirrors, were conceived withoutmajor problems. The first call fortender concerning the first cleanroom was made during the summerand on the exact day we had tochoose the provider, the nightmarebegun. The routine control madeevery three years to check the statusof the hall ceiling revealed adamaged part which was full ofasbestos. Such a discovery preventsany installation of a long-termexperiment like CALVA. The uniquesolution was a complete removal ofthe ceiling and its asbestoscomponents which has to be handledwith great care: suddenly, theCALVA installation was postponedat least for months, or provenimpossible. Several months wereneeded to find and implementthesolution. The positive side of thisdifficulty was that the hall wascompletely empty and there was noneed to share it with anotherexperiment as had been previously

future. Then, the easier part of thetrack was behind us: it was time toshake the concept to check itsvalidity and to design a completeexperiment starting from scratch.Finally, the CALVA idea survivedto possible attacks and simulationsproved its correctness. On the onehand, it was impossible frommanpower and financial point ofview to build a full interferometer.So, the CALVA optical scheme isthe minimal one involving coupledcavities as shown on Figure 1: twoFabry-Perot cavities sharing onemirror. In practice, the reflectivitiesof the mirrors are similar to theAdvanced Virgo ones. The firstcavity is a low finesse and shortcavity while the second one is ahigh finesse and long cavity in orderto mimic the behaviour of thepower/signal recycling cavitiesversus Fabry-Perot cavities inAdvanced Virgo. Moreover, as themain laser power is about 1 Watt,the mirror weights has been chosento mimic the same radiationpressure effects as in AdV. The scaleof CALVA is the typical scale ofsuch middle-scale experiments, i.e.few tens of meters. We chose tohave L1 = 5 meters and L2 = 50meters.

On the other hand, it had no sensefor LAL to pursue the CALVAadventure alone and when theproject has been proposed to STAC

This summer, in parallel withVSR2, laser beams will circulateand resonate for the first time in theCALVA cavity. This event willrepresent a major milestone in theexperiment life which has not beena quiet journey up to now.

CALVA was born in August 2006,in the plane back to Los Angeles,as the conclusion of a discussionwith Patrice Hello. During thatsummer, we spent few days inCalTech together with the 40-meterteam. The studies on signal recyclingwere going on at that time and itobviously appears that, once again,the lock acquisition will be a difficultissue. For the �Advanced�generation, the increase of laserpower, the higher Fabry-Perotfinesses and the addition of a newmirror could make the lockacquisition trickier than for Virgo.In order to avoid all these problems,we converged on the use of auxiliarylasers with a different wavelengthfor the lock acquisition. Each cavitywill be locked using the auxiliarylaser and then brought to the mainlaser resonance in a deterministicway. First estimations on the cornerof an envelope were promising andthis technique was a way to bypassthe main difficulties of theacquisition. Moreover, we were alsoconvinced training scientists on areal instrument and not only usingsimulations was mandatory for the

First Light in CALVA

THE GRAVITATIONAL VOICE - AUGUST 2009 10

foreseen. It allows us to design alarger clean room for the centralpart. Even if this event was the worstwe had to face, the construction ofthe clean room has been punctuatedby several unpleasant annoyances.The concrete floor was so smooththat the ground painting was notable to stick to it. The removal ofthe first painting layer and thescratching of the floor led to anincredible amount of dust: the cleanroom and even the hall were coveredby a small layer of talcum powder.After the difficult and long cleaning,we also faced water flooding withoutany damage. Despite the obstacles,the clean room was finally delivereda n d e a s i l y m a t c h e s t h especifications.

It was time to unpack the vacuumtanks we received three monthsbefore and bring in the protectionpackage to avoid dust or shocks.After the previous difficulties, wewere not ready to take any risk forthe next installation step. Leak testshad been performed after fabricationby the manufacturer but we planedto do them again on site. At the firstopening, it clearly appeared thatgrease had been used for gasketinstallation while it has been statedthat these tanks were foreseen tohouse mirrors and that no pollutionwas allowed. Moreover, passing awhite cloth on the tank internal partsrevealed a magnificent pinksubstance, probably the product used

to test welding.So, it was clearthe obstacleswere not behindus and ourhopes for aneasy installationwere cooleddown. It wasnot dramaticand has beensolved by ac o m p l e t ecleaning of thetanks but theaccumulationof all thesestones in ours h o e s w a s

going to become painful. Each timea milestone seemed on hand, it wasthrown a few weeks or monthsahead. Also removing smallergravels, we finally qualified thetanks and linked them with thevacuum pipe as it is shown on thepicture 2. Using an ion pump, wewere able to reach 10-6 mbar on bothtanks. But, as Virgo did with theNorth End tower, our viewports(bought before the Virgo incident)presented some defects after the firstventing. New gravels but ourmotivation will not decrease and wewill go on till the end.The installation of the other majorcomponents: optics, electronics andsuspensions was quite relaxingcompared to the infra-structuresetup. The acquisition system whichmirrors exactly the Virgo+ one runsperfectly well and the DataDisplaypresents thef i r s t A D Cchannels. Ass h o w n o nFigure 3, themirrors havebeen installedw i t h t h e i rsuspensions intheir vacuumt a n k s .Moreover, wehave been ableto move themu s i n g t h emagne t -co i lsystem driven

by the control system. The localcontrols in charge of the orientationof the mirror are in place around thevacuum tank and are under test andcalibration. Once this step will bedone, we will inject the laser beamin the vacuum tanks and see the firstresonances of the small cavity.Anyway, some unusual failures orerrors occurred and we are almostconvinced that a curse has been puton CALVA or the hall is built on anold Gaullic cemetery. Moreseriously, building a full experimentfrom scratch in an empty hall is areal challenge which looks likeroller-coasters: it is exciting; younever know what will happen afterthe next looping and when it finallystops, you are sagging at the knees.But, it is so pleasant that youimmediately go back for anotherrun.

Do not worry, the following episodewill be published in �h� and youwon�t miss the end of the story. Weall hope that it will be a happy endlike in a Hollywood production.By the way, you probably wonderwhat CALVA means. This is anacronym for �Cavités pourl�Acquisition du Lock de VirgoAvancé� (Cavities for LockAcquisition of Advanced Virgo).But CALVA is also a well-knownFrench alcohol made in Normandyusing apples.

F. CAVALIER




N E W S F R O M T H E W O R L D




VivaCalcioNE!

Over the past few weeks footballhas once again been played takingplace at the 'Gelsomino' as part ofCalcioNE (Football at the NE).Many rooky players have joined thefray this year to pit their skills againstthe seasoned group of coreprofessionals continuing to exhibittheir ability on the beautiful playingsurface, tenderly maintained byFabrizio Rossi.

Among events of note this seasonh a v e b e e n t h e a l l - a c t i o nperformances of Romain Bonnand,Julien Marque�s non-stop runningin a three-a-side match � yes, non-stop - Eric Genin�s perseverance infront of goal in spite of Fabrizio�sgoalkeeping exploits, FedericoNenci in his Pisa shirt and, mostastonishingly of all, Richard Day�scomplete avoidance of injury.

G. HEMMING

BIATHLON2009

In spite of an effort to organizethe fifth EGO/Virgo Biathlon duringthe cooler spring season, this year

it had to be in July. The initialproposal to run in May had beenruled out by an official letter fromthe whole Commissioning Teamrequesting a later date when thestruggle to prepare the best possibleinterferometer for VSR2 would beover.

So the run (the athletic one!) tookplace on July 21, followed by thetraditional buffet party by courtesyof the Director who kindly invitedall EGO and Virgo members andtheir families.Participation was reserved to teamscomposed of 4 athletes of any sex:3 foot runners and 1 bike runner(Biathlon). In this 2009 edition 7teams were aligned on the startingline. They were: Locking (favorites),Yes-We-Can (composed ofcollaborators from APC and LMAlaboratories), Naples (back after aone-year break), Dream Team,Losers, Optics and XY2 (the onlyteam with 2 female and 2 malemembers).

The run path along the wholeinterferometer service road, backand forth (12 km), consisted of thefollowing 4 stretches:

1. North arm, 0-1000 m, 1 km, onfoot2. North arm, 1000-2950 m, 2 km,on foot3. North arm, 2950-0 m + West arm,0-2950 m, 6 km, on bicycle4. West arm, 2950-0 m,3 km, on foot.

T h e o r g a n i z i n gcommittee rejected, aftercareful consideration, afew requests to haveshorter segments. Thepreferred philosophy wasthat at least some part ofthe run should requirereal physical effort. Inthe same spirit theprevious two 3 km bikestretches were unifiedtwo years ago into asingle harder (!) one of6 km long.As in 2007, the U-turn

points were 50 m before the armends in order to minimize seismicnoise (Virgo being in ScienceMode).

And here are the results of theBiathlon 2009:

Although Naples fought hard, theLocking team was successful infinishing again in first place.Spectators were particularlyimpressed by P. Ruggi�s bikeperformance which allowed him toovertake many of his competitors,thus demonstrating one may spendmuch time in the control room andstill be a great athlete.

The Optics team also stood on thepodium by taking third place: theirfinal runner crossed the finish lineonly a few meters ahead of the XY2team who, despite a modest start,made it back from last to fourthplace in the last two stretches.The Losers who indeed were losersonly in name, stole fifth place fromthe Yes-We-Can team (6th) and theDream team (7th).

This year we saw highly motivatedathletes and very good performers!Apparently, teams have alreadyformed for the 2010 edition of theBiathlon!

C. BRADASCHIA

Romain looks on as Francesco andEric tussle for the ball!



The SpringExcursion 2009

It was a nice day, Sunday May 17.It started with a small panic when,arriving at the harbor of La Spezia,we discovered that most of theparking places has been taken thatday due to a bike race. The problemhad a happy outcome as every driverwas able to find a parking spot nottoo far away.

The enjoyable boat trip, with sunand fresh wind brought us to thePalmaria island at the southernextremity of the gulf of La Spezia.The group was large (29, a record!)and mixed, including six children,three of them fully autonomous andthree who were transported by the

happy parents, fully equipped withbackpacks and sunscreen.As soon as we landed at Palmaria adissident non-hiking family quit thecompany to remain on a nearbybeach.The rest of the group reached witha modest physical effort the Pozzalebeach, where the base camp was

setup for swimming and eating. Allthis has been done satisfactorily andincluded coffee at a nearby bar.In the early afternoon we attacked

the most challenging part of ourjourney, climbing about 190 m of aslope in about one hour. Immediatelyafter the steep rise, we went downon an even steeper slope that wasadvertized as �sentiero difficile�. Inspite of some moderate difficulty,

both stretches, uphill and downhillexposed us to the most beautifulviews of the small Tino islandlooking south and of the picturesquePortovenere village and therenowned Cinque Terre coastlooking north.

Back at sea level we re-establishedcontact with the dissident colleaguewho, had been visiting Portovenere.Our locations enabled us to takepictures of each other across the sea.Having completed the tour of theIsland we indulged in moreswimming and sunbathing whilewaiting for the return boat to LaSpezia.

Eco-remarks:During our excursion we had theopportunity to bemoan the existenceof the skeleton of an unwantedbuilding which had been improperly

O U T & A B O U T



P E O P L E

Another environment friendlyremark is possible about ourexcursion: besides the healthinessof walking in nature which polluteslittle, it was calculated that everyone of us climbing 190 m in aboutone hour used power of less than 40W and released to the atmosphereonly 10 g of CO2 (greenhouse gas)in addition to the few 100 g per hour,that we release breathing even inabsence of any activity.

C. BRADASCHIA

PS: Thank you to our colleagues F.Paoletti and R.Maillet for the beautifulphotos taken during the excursion!

Changes in h editorial staff

h warmly thanks Flavio Nocera forh i s sha rp comments andcontributions to the editorial teamsince the creation of the newsletter.

The arrival of the summer timebrought its bunch of happy eventsin the EGO community. Thus, twoEGO colleagues married and threeothers became parents.Our congratulations go this time to:

Elena Catalano who marriedGiuseppe on May 9, 2009

O U T & A B O U T

PERSONNEL MOVEMENTS

STAFF

Arrivals

Romain Bonnand

Trainee in the commissioning groupsince March 3.

Antoine Neveu

Trainee in the optics group sinceJune 3.

Gaëlle Parguez

Vacuum Engineer since July 1st inthe Vacuum Team.

Marta Budroni

Jo ined the Admin is t ra t iondepartment on July 13th asReceptionnist.

Paolo, born on April 29 who joins

the family of Massimo D�Andrea.

Julia Maeve born on April 29, first

baby of Martin Mohan and his

companion, Niamh.

And welcome to this world to:

Arianna born on April 27, who

makes her parents, Lara Coltelli and

Pietro, so happy! Unfortunately we

could not make it to have a photo!

Benjamin Canuel who sealed hisfate to Valentina on May 30, 2009

built close to the sea 30 years ago.One week later we heard the newsthat the Palmaria Eco-Monster hadbeen finally pulled down.

Flavio decided to quit the editorialteam to focus exclusively on hisresponsibilities as leader of theEGO electronics group. He hasbeen substituted by DominiqueHuet who we warmly welcome.

h also launches a call to the VirgoCollaboration to actively contributeto the team. Email to [email protected], if you areinterested or wish more information.

Season�s events

h12 july v11 - ego

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