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Helmut Braun in the ‘80s

Helmut Braun in the ‘80s. Hugh Montgomery Jefferson Laboratory Colloquium in Memory of Helmut Braun CERN, June 24, 2011. Outline. CERN Experiment NA9 Fermilab Experiment E665. CERN NA9. I was Spokesman of EMC, which, during the time I was there, involved: NA-2

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Helmut Braun in the ‘80s

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  1. Helmut Braun in the ‘80s Hugh Montgomery Jefferson Laboratory Colloquium in Memory of Helmut Braun CERN, June 24, 2011

  2. Outline CERN Experiment NA9 Fermilab Experiment E665

  3. CERN NA9 • I was Spokesman of EMC, which, during the time I was there, involved: • NA-2 • Characterized by its forward spectrometer • NA-28 • The very small angle scattering introduced by Sven Kullander, Per Grafstrom et al. • NA-9 • The “full” experiment with a vertex magnet in addition to the FS magnet • As I recall, perhaps a little scurrilously, Danielle Treille and Bjorn Wiik were the SPSC referees • There was considerable emphasis on particle identification and we could tell that we would only be approved if we incorporated Aerogel in the design •  This we did and Helmut jointed EMC to play a major role in the particle ID

  4. NA9 Collaboration

  5. NA 9 Spectrometer

  6. NA 9 Vertex Magnet and Cerenkov Counters

  7. Helmut in NA 9 • Helmut had two excellent Wuppertal students • HeinerBruck: went on to DESY to work on the magnets for HERA & is still there • Manfred Potsch: now Senior Consultant at MPS Consult GmbH near Mannheim • Helmut, and this was a characteristic, was deep into the technical issues of gas Cerenkovs and gas recirculation; purification systems were the key • He developed a relationship with a CERN staff member, Michel Bosteels whobecame Helmut’s point of reference for such systems.

  8. Renaissance Man • Helmut was really a renaissance man, at least in the sense that he followed with great appetite the appearance of fractals and chaos in the conversations of physicists • He and I often ate lunch, out of phase with most, at Tortella’s. Helmut inevitably advanced some new thoughts on the subject and its extensions, Mandelbrot and his set (beard & moustache).

  9. Renaissance Man • This openness to mathematical treatments led him to push for something more sophisticated than the traditional analysis of the binary on-off states from the different particle ID detectors • This meant introducing Bayesian statistics and of course convergence was slower • This frustrated me as spokesperson - the goal was to get results out, and quickly • Helmut was imbued with a bloody minded, almost self-destructive intellectual honesty which allowed him to ignore the raves & rants of people who merely wanted results

  10. NA 9 Particle ID  How the sensitive ranges of the different detectors interplayed

  11. NA 9 Particle ID  Resulting acceptance for different particles

  12. NA 9 Fragmentation Functions  Effort and innovation rewarded

  13. .. And so to the New World ..

  14. Fermilab - E665 • On to Fermilab, where Helmut became a family friend • The vertex detector, cerenkovs, etc were in from the beginning and again, Helmut went for the most sophisticated analysis of the particle ID detectors • He also became interested in personal computers; perhaps this had started earlier but he started playing with Atari devices • He got us into trouble by appearing in a magazine article (promoted at least by Atari) in which it seemed as though the whole of Fermilab relied on Atari personal computers to interact with the world…

  15. E665 Proposal • When I asked Erwin Gabathuler, who was our CERN boss at the time, whether we were really going to Fermilab, he replied: “You must keep all your balls in the air …“ • Perhaps you can guess at my reply....

  16. E665 Spectrometer Later the downstream Cerenkov became a RICH counter The experiment used two ex-Cyclotrons, the Chicago Cyclotron as a magnet and the Rochester Cyclotron as hadron absorber.

  17. E665 NIM Paper • Helmut’s student UweEcker, was the lead author of the first paper out of E665 on the z dependence of hadron production • Its fun to compare the two author lists…

  18. Helmut Braun and Fermilab • There were feuds in both EMC and E665; Helmut was never in the eye of those storms, but he did push for intellectual excellence in our publication patterns • I believe he was very comfortable with the way that groups at Fermilab approached the physics. A bit more to his liking than, say, DELPHI… • Once, he approached me in my Fermilab staff role to see whether there were opportunities for him to work at Fermilab. • Nothing seemed to fit; or did I fail to find a fit?? • Who knows?

  19. Helmut’s Attribute(s) • I recall a man who enjoyed the social side of physics, who interacted well with people in general, who had enormous respect for competent technologists, and who looked to respect his colleagues and to seek reciprocation • I spoke to him last perhaps four or five years ago at CERN when I was there reviewing Atlas-UK. He had changed, but imperceptibly

  20. Helmut in retrospect • I count myself privileged to be able to have called Helmut Braun a colleague     • Have fun when you talk about Helmut – I’m sorry I cant be there in person • Helmut was resilient in the face of adversity and would not support “wailing and gnashing of teeth”…

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