From HPC Wire, March 2, 2020: Fermilab scientists are collaborating with researchers at Argonne, where they’ll run simulations on high-performance computers. Their work will help determine whether instruments called superconducting radio-frequency cavities, also used in particle accelerators, can solve one of the biggest problems facing the successful development of a quantum computer: the decoherence of qubits.

From the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Brazil, March 6, 2020: On March 5-6, Brazil and the United States held the fifth meeting of the Brazil-U.S. Joint Commission on Science and Technology Cooperation in Brasilia to deepen collaboration in key priority areas for the benefit of both countries. FAPESP and Fermilab signed an MOU to deepen scientific and technical cooperation in high-energy physics, and UNICAMP and Fermilab signed a cooperative agreement for a state-of-the-art LBNF cryogenics system.

From CERN Courier, March 6, 2020: Physicist George Zweig writes a remembrance of Fermilab scientist and National Medal of Technology and Innovation winner Alvin Tollestrup.

Scientists have begun filling the ICARUS detector at Fermilab with liquid argon, moving one step closer toward neutrino oscillation measurements and the potential discovery of sterile neutrinos.

Twenty-five years ago, scientists on the CDF and DZero particle physics experiments at Fermilab announced one of history’s biggest breakthroughs in particle physics: the discovery of the long-sought top quark. The collaborations on the two experiments jointly made the announcement on March 2, 1995, to much fanfare. We take a look back on this day in Fermilab history a quarter-century ago.

From News at South Dakota State, Feb. 25, 2020: Two South Dakota State University professors are part of an international team of scientists and engineers working to uncover details about how the universe was formed. Stephen Gent and Greg Michna are using SDSU’s high-performance computing cluster to predict how argon circulates within the particle detectors to be constructed one mile beneath the earth’s surface. The detectors are for Fermilab’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, which will be installed in the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota.

What if you want to capture an image of a process so fast that it looks blurry if the shutter is open for even a billionth of a second? This is the type of challenge scientists on experiments like CMS and ATLAS face as they study particle collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. An extremely fast new detector inside the CMS detector will allow physicists to get a sharper image of particle collisions.

One of the most difficult problems to overcome in developing a quantum computer is finding a way to maintain the lifespan of information held in quantum bits, called qubits. Researchers at Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory are working to determine whether devices used in particle accelerators can help solve the problem. The team will run simulations on high-performance computers that will enable them to predict the lifespan of information held within these qubits using smaller versions of these devices, taking us one step closer to the age of quantum computing.

From Physics World, Feb. 24, 2020: The editor of Physics World lists the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility as one of the top 10 facilities to watch in the coming decade.

Those who study particle physics will find that every step of the journey offers a new perspective and new set of responsibilities. Symmetry chats with scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider to hear about differences between seven different rungs on the academic career ladder.