After a pleasant journey, the stay on site began with a joint dinner, during which Prof. Matthias Schott explained the significance of Bonn's participation for the ATLAS experiment and the respective contributions of the individual workshops were discussed in depth in a mutual exchange.
The CERN visit took place the following day. For the upcoming upgrade of the ATLAS pixel detector, in which the University of Bonn is significantly involved and to which the precision mechanics workshops and the electronics workshop of the FTD in particular are making important contributions, this on-site visit gave almost everyone involved a personal and direct impression of the size and complexity of the ATLAS detector for the first time and thus contributed significantly to a better understanding of the upcoming work. Dr. Christian Grefe is a research associate at the Physikalisches Institut and works at CERN on a permanent basis. He first introduced his colleagues to the ATLAS control room with general information about the ATLAS detector and the ATLAS collaboration, before the ATLAS detector itself was visited in three groups.
Christian Grefe then presented the model and concept of a potential successor accelerator to the LHC in the CLIC showroom, explaining in particular the requirements for manufacturing the necessary mechanical components. In the afternoon, discussions took place in smaller groups on project coordination with the respective counterparts at CERN. The fact that Prof. Jochen Dingfelder happened to be at CERN at the same time unexpectedly allowed for additional intensive discussions with the employees of the precision engineering workshops.
After an uneventful return journey on Wednesday, the workshops and administration were fully staffed again the next day.
Everyone involved agrees that this on-site visit to CERN was very strenuous, but extremely valuable for understanding the requirements of the scientists and thus in particular for the upcoming work as part of the ATLAS upgrade, and thanks Matthias Schott for his initiative.
