Fermilab features

Asymmetry in the proton confounds physicists, but a new discovery may bring back old theories to explain it.

The prodigious amount of data produced at the Large Hadron Collider presents a major challenge for data analysis. Coffea, a Python package developed by Fermilab researchers, speeds up computation and helps scientists work more efficiently. Around a dozen international LHC research groups now use Coffea, which draws on big data techniques used outside physics.

A Fermilab scientist and his team have developed a new way to make antireflective lenses, enabling big discoveries about the cosmic microwave background radiation and the fabric of the universe.

Roshanda Spillers is a lifelong student. With five academic degrees under her belt and more to come, she’s one of the vital lab staff who make sure that the experiments’ electronics are in working order and that the particle accelerators are well-maintained. A new grandmother who’s learning piano while going to school, she encourages those who love science to pursue their dreams relentlessly.

Fermilab scientist and University of Chicago professor of astronomy and astrophysics Craig Hogan gives perspective on how the Holometer program aims at a tiny scale — the Planck scale — to help answer one of the universe’s most basic questions: Why does everything appear to happen at definite times and places? He contextualizes the results and offers optimism for future researchers.

The U.S. Department of Energy has given the U.S. High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider Accelerator Upgrade Project approval to move full-speed-ahead in building and delivering components for the HL-LHC, specifically, cutting-edge magnets and accelerator cavities that will enable more rapid-fire collisions at the collider. The collider upgrades will allow physicists to study particles such as the Higgs boson in greater detail and reveal rare new physics phenomena. The U.S. collaborators on the project may now move into production mode.

Engineers and technicians in the UK have started production of key piece of equipment for a major international science experiment. The UK government has invested $89 million in the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. As part of the investment, the UK is delivering a series of vital detector components built at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Daresbury Laboratory.

Over his nearly five decades at Fermilab, Ron Davis has done a little bit of everything as an operations supervisor working on the lab’s neutrino experiments. As someone who loves to work with his hands, he puts his talents to use for particle physics and, when he’s not at work, on his automobiles and motorcycles.

A veteran administrator with a love of flowers and true crime, Maxine Hronek draws on three decades of Fermilab experience to keep the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment running smoothly behind the scenes — and remind people that science takes the efforts of a whole community of dedicated individuals.

After more than 15 years of work, scientists at three DOE national laboratories have succeeded in creating and testing an advanced, more powerful superconducting magnet made of a niobium-tin compound for use in the next generation of light sources.