From MIT Technology Review, Oct. 21, 2019: We’ve seen ripples in space-time only when the universe’s biggest events occur. Now there might be a way to spot them ahead of time. MAGIS-100 is a project designed to see whether shooting frozen atoms with lasers can be used to observe ultrasensitive signals that might be stretching through space-time. If successful, it could help usher in a new era of “atom interferometry” that could reveal some of the secrets of gravitational waves, dark matter, quantum mechanics, and other heady topics.
In the news
From University of Maryland, Oct. 17, 2019: Fermilab scientist Charles Thangaraj received the 40 under 40 Chicago Scientists award at the 2nd Annual Halo Awards on Oct. 12 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The Halo Awards ceremony recognizes scientists for their dedication to translating research into real-world applications that meaningfully impact people’s lives.
From Brookhaven National Laboratory, Oct. 11, 2019: Dmitri Denisov, a leading physicist and spokesperson of the DZero experiment, has been named deputy associate lab director for high-energy physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In this role, Denisov is responsible for Brookhaven’s strategic planning in high-energy physics and oversees a wide range of particle physics projects at the lab.
From CERN, Oct. 15, 2019: A new result by the CMS Collaboration narrows down the mass of the Higgs boson to a precision of 0.1%. After reporting the observation of the Higgs boson at the CERN LHC in 2012, scientists the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have been busy understanding exactly its place within the standard model of particle physics. Any straying from expectations could be an indication of new physics.
From Inside Science, Oct. 11, 2019: Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer is quoted in this article about the discussion surrounding the world’s next big atom smasher. Europe and China both plan to build one, but scientists are debating if it’s worth it.
From UChicago News, Oct. 15, 2019: Astronomers at the University of Chicago, MIT and elsewhere have used a massive cluster of galaxies as an X-ray magnifying glass to peer back in time, to nearly 9.4 billion years ago. In the process, they spotted a tiny dwarf galaxy in its very first, high-energy stages of star formation. Fermilab and University of Chicago scientist Brad Benson is a co-author of the study.
From Black Hills Pioneer, Oct. 10, 2019: Representatives from the British Consulate, Fermilab and Sanford Underground Research Facility were on hand for a dinner in Rapid City, South Dakota, in honor of the Red Arrows and the ongoing scientific and technological relations between the UK and the U.S. In 2017, the UK committed $88 million to the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer notes that the first science and technology agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom was driven by neutrino physics.
From Kane County Chronicle, Oct. 14, 2019: Fermilab at the Kane County Sheriff’s Office will conduct live gunfire tests of Fermilab’s on-site gunfire detection system from 9 p.m. to midnight Oct. 17.
From CERN, Oct. 7, 2019: The CMS collaboration has measured for the first time the variation, or “running,” of the top quark mass. The theory of quantum chromodynamics predicts this energy-scale variation for the masses of all quarks and for the strong force acting between them. Observing the running masses of quarks can therefore provide a way of testing quantum chromodynamics and the Standard Model.
From Rapid City Journal, Oct. 9, 2019: For the past 17 years, shovels, safety goggles, tramway cars and other remains of the defunct Homestake gold mine lingered in a closed-off tunnel under the city of Lead, South Dakota. Now the tunnel is alive with activity again, thanks to preparations for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab.