In the news

From the Department of Energy, Aug. 17, 2020: Seven DOE national laboratories, including Fermilab, will lead a total of 14 projects aimed at both automating facility operations and managing data modeling, acquisition, mining, and analysis for the interpretation of experimental results. The projects involve large X-ray light sources, neutron scattering sources, particle accelerators and nanoscale science research centers.

From New Atlas, Aug. 12, 2020: An extensive search for a hypothetical particle has turned up empty. The sterile neutrino is a proposed subatomic particle that could even be a candidate for the mysterious dark matter, and although previous studies have hinted at its existence, and the MINOS+ and Daya Bay experiments have all but ruled it out.

From APS Physics, Aug. 10, 2020: Fermilab scientist Pedro Machado co-authors this article on how the MINOS and MINOS+ experiments at Fermilab and the Daya Bay experiment have placed the most stringent limits to date on a hypothetical fourth neutrino. Still, the possibility that such a particle exists remains open.

From the Department of Energy, Aug. 11, 2020: Fermilab scientist Chris Polly shares his love of physics, the importance of muons, a short history of scientists’ quest to measure how the muon wobbles in a magnetic field, and his journey to becoming leader of the Muon g-2 experiment.

From Forbes, Aug. 10, 2020: The Department of Energy announced the development of a national quantum internet, with DOE national laboratories forming the backbone. The Chicago Quantum Exchange is a meeting place for collaboration and community creation for national laboratories Argonne and Fermilab, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University, and a number of large corporations.

From Argonne National Laboratory, Aug. 5, 2020: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge has awarded 24 projects a total of 5.74 million node hours at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to pursue challenging, high-risk, high-payoff simulations. Fermilab scientists Andreas Kronfeld and Igor Rakhno are among those who have been awarded time on the facility’s Theta supercomputer.

From Photonics, July 27, 2020: The U.S. Department of Energy has unveiled a blueprint strategy for the development of a national quantum internet, reaffirming its commitment to widening the nation’s quantum capabilities by relying on its 17 national laboratories to serve as the backbone of the coming quantum internet and the secure transmission of information.

From CERN, Aug. 4, 2020: Established in 2013, the CERN Neutrino Platform has enabled significant European participation in the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and international, Fermilab-hosted Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, as well as the ICARUS neutrino experiment. These and other global experiments will refine physicists’ understanding of neutrino oscillations and help search for the existence of a possible fourth, “sterile” neutrino.

From Kopalnia Wiedzy, July 27, 2020: Amerykański Departament Energii opublikował plan budowy kwantowego internetu. Kwantowy internet będzie opracowywany przez DoE we współpracy z laboratoriami narodowymi, wśród których pierwsze skrzypce będą grały Argonne National Laboratory i Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

From Quality Digest, July 30, 2020: There is a critical need for a platform and community to support the recruiting and grooming of individuals in the metrology workforce and those interested in entering a career in metrology. For many professionals, the Coordinate Metrology Society is that platform. Fermilab’s Jana Barker weighs in on the opportunity provided by the Coordinate Metrology Society Conference.