Division of systems engineering

The ancients understood that heroes, like Orion with Sirius, need their faithful companion. IRFU engineers and physicists and their collaborators are no exception to the rule and have just completed the development of a modern Sirius, a key element of the super spectrometer separator (S³) under construction at GANIL. The tests having been successful and the system has been moved to GANIL for its final installation.

In Greek mythology, Sirius, Orion's faithful four-legged companion, an outstanding hunter, was transformed into a constellation and placed at his side. This famous canid also gave its name to the brightest star in the night sky. IRFU physicists have just honoured him in their own way, this time in the world of detectors.

The large aperture (90 mm) quadrupole superconducting electromagnet for the CERN HL-LHC project, manufactured and tested at 4.2 K by the IRFU teams, reached its nominal gradient of 120 T/m (defined for 1.9 K) the 5th of March, 2021. These very good results validate the design and manufacturing process proposed by the IRFU engineers and were the subject of a technology transfer to the industrial companies working on the European project QuaCo (QUAdrupoleCOrector). This magnet was produced as part of the LHC upgrade in luminosity project called HiLumi-LHC. These NbTi magnets are part of the insertion magnets. They may be placed upstream and downstream of detectors such as ATLAS and CMS at the center of which the 2 beams cross to make the collisions. They should ensure the compression of the beams before collisions and thus contribute to increasing the integrated luminosity of the HL-LHC (i.e. the total number of collisions), up to ten times greater than the initial nominal value of the LHC.

The ancients understood that heroes, like Orion with Sirius, need their faithful companion. IRFU engineers and physicists and their collaborators are no exception to the rule and have just completed the development of a modern Sirius, a key element of the super spectrometer separator (S³) under construction at GANIL. The tests having been successful and the system has been moved to GANIL for its final installation.

In Greek mythology, Sirius, Orion's faithful four-legged companion, an outstanding hunter, was transformed into a constellation and placed at his side. This famous canid also gave its name to the brightest star in the night sky. IRFU physicists have just honoured him in their own way, this time in the world of detectors.

An X-ray camera, intended to equip the Sino-French SVOM satellite, has just been assembled and delivered by scientists and technicians from the Institute for Research on the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (CEA/Irfu). This high-tech prototype will capture high-energy photons (X-rays) emitted during the explosion of massive stars or the fusion of dense stars. The camera, particularly compact and innovative, integrates in a very limited volume, a complete detection chain, an active thermal control and a filter wheel. It will be placed at the focus of a telescope 1.15 m long to form the MXT (Microchannel X-ray Telescope). With a field of view of 1 square degree, for only 35 kg of mass, the MXT telescope, equipped with an original "faceted" optics inspired by lobster eyes, will make it possible to locate the position of the most powerful cosmic explosions in the Universe with a precision better than 2 arcmin. After various tests, including a calibration campaign in Germany, the assembly will be shipped to China in November 2021 to be integrated into the SVOM satellite, which is scheduled for launch at the end of 2022.

See : Timelapse of the MXT camera assembling in cleanroom