SNOWMASS VILLAGE—Leon Lederman, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988, leads a group of distinguished physicists in a Spanish-language presentation at Carbondale Community School on Monday, July 9 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“La Noche de la Ciencia,” which is free and open to the public, begins at 6 p.m. with lively science demonstrations by the traveling Physics Van of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Spanish-speaking physicists will be on hand to offer translations.
During a refreshment break at 7 p.m., Dr. Lederman and many other physicists—including those speaking Spanish—will be available for informal conversations. At 7:30 p.m., Prof. Arnulfo Zepeda of CINVESTAV in Mexico, a member of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, will speak on “Ultra-Energetic Cosmic Rays: A New Window to Our Universe. At 8 p.m., a panel will discuss “What Does Basic Science Have to Offer Us: Questions and Responses.”
Among the panelists who have confirmed their participation:
- Gabriela Barenboim (Argentina), of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois near Chicago;
- Gustavo Burdman (Argentina), of Boston University and California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory;
- John Ellis (Colombia), of CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland;
- Belen Gavela (Spain), of the University of Madrid;
- Ramon Miguel (Spain), of the University of Barcelona;
- Mayda Velasco (Puerto Rico), of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois;
- Luis Manuel Villasenor (Mexico), of the University of Michoacan;
- Arnulfo Zepeda (Mexico), of CINVESTAV;
…and many more.
To reach Carbondale Community School, take route 82 to 133 and turn left; go to Doloras Way and turn right; after passing the rental equipment store, turn right and look for the school sign.
La Noche de la Ciencia is a community outreach effort of the Science Outreach Center in Carbondale, and of “Snowmass2001: A Summer Study on the Future of Particle Physics.” The three-week conference is being held at the Snowmass Conference Center. For more information, see the website: http://www.snowmass2001.org.
SNOWMASS VILLAGE—From a balloon ascent to Tabletop Science; from an evening Sky Party to Physics on Stage; from a Virtual Science Fair to hands-on exhibits: Science Weekend has something for everyone of every age on Saturday and Sunday, July 7 and 8, in and around the Snowmass Village Mall.
As part of the three-week “Snowmass2001” physics conference, Science Weekend keynotes an effort that “will take public outreach and education efforts to a new level, thanks to a remarkable response from the whole particle physics community,” says theoretical physicist Elizabeth Simmons of Boston University, coordinator of Snowmass2001 outreach efforts.
Here’s the program:
Saturday
| 10 AM | Virtual Science Fair (Incline A): Explore physics and astronomy on-line with physicists and teachers to guide you through interactive science web sites from around the world (continuous through 4 PM). |
| Science on the Mall: Large-scale interactive exhibits from SciTech, the science museum in Aurora, Illinois; levitation and more “Wonders of Superconductivity” from the University of Houston; and many more activities as children learn through play and adults discover fresh perspectives (continuous through 4 PM). | |
| Tabletop Science (Incline B): Small-scale science complements the large-scale exhibits on the Mall, with scientists and teachers to answer your questions and encourage your explorations (continuous through 4 PM). | |
| Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors): Performance groups from the University of Illinois and Michigan State University dramatize science principles and paradoxes—followed by a lively question and discussion session (additional performances at Noon, 2 PM and 4 PM). | |
| 11 AM | Planetarium Show (Lift Ticket Pavilion, indoors): Astronomers and educators from Chicago’s famed Adler Planetarium lead explorations of the cosmos (additional shows at 1 PM and 3 PM). |
| 30-Minute Lecture (Lecture Room): Greg Landsberg, “Out-of-this-world Physics—Extra Dimensions and Parallel Universes.” | |
| Noon | Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) |
| 1 PM | Planetarium Show (Lift Ticket Pavilion, indoors) |
| 30-Minute Lecture (Lecture Room): Fred Stein, “Physics and Philosophy” | |
| Conversation (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors): Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman | |
| 2 PM | Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) |
| 3 PM | Planetarium Show (Lift Ticket Pavilion, indoors) |
| 30-Minute Lecture (Lecture Room): Michael Peskin, “Particle Physics” | |
| Conversation (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors): Greg Snow and Jeff Wilkes, cosmic rays and balloon ascent (see also Sunday at Sunrise) | |
| 4 PM | Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) |
| 8:30 PM | Evening Sky Party (Campfire Circle): Astronomers and educators from Adler Planetarium explorations of the night sky at Campfire Circle, just a short walk away from the lights of the Mall (until 10 PM). |
Sunday
| Sunrise | Cosmic Ray Balloon Ascent (Baseball Field): An attempt to re-enact the 1911 discovery of cosmic rays by Victor Hess. Dressed in period costume, physicists will go aloft with cosmic ray detection equipment. |
| 10 AM | Virtual Science Fair (Incline A), through 4 PM |
| Tabletop Science (Incline B), through 4 PM | |
| Science on the Mall, through 4 PM | |
| Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) | |
| 11 AM | Planetarium Show (Lift Ticket Pavilion, indoors) |
| 30-Minute Lecture (Lecture Room): Bernice Durand, “The Sky” | |
| Conversation (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors): Greg Snow and Jeff Wilkes, cosmic rays and balloon ascent (see Sunday at Sunrise) | |
| Noon | Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) |
| 1 PM | Planetarium Show (Lift Ticket Pavilion, indoors) |
| 30-Minute Lecture (Lecture Room): Sean Carroll, “Einstein’s Legacy: Gravity and the Forces of Nature” | |
| Conversation (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors): Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman | |
| 2 PM | Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) |
| 3 PM | Planetarium Show (Lift Ticket Pavilion, indoors) |
| 30-Minute Lecture (Lecture Room): Michael Turner, “How the Universe Got Going” | |
| 4 PM | Physics on Stage (Lift Ticket Pavilion, outdoors) |
For more information, call the Snowmass2001 Press Room at 970-923-8313, and visit the web at http://www.snowmass2001.org. Fermilab, offering organizational and logistical support for Snowmass2001, is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
BATAVIA, Ill.— From rockets to hot-air balloons, from soap bubbles to egg-crash derbies: Visiting scientists and science teachers will team up with Roaring Fork Valley organizations to offer kids a special combination of learning and summer fun during “Snowmass 2001: A Summer Study on the Future of Particle Physics,” June 30-July 21 at the Snowmass Conference Center.
The Science Outreach Center of Carbondale will bring a special one-week session (July 2-6) of its Brainteasers Summer Camp program to the site of Snowmass2001, with guest appearances by physicists attending the particle physics workshop. Brainteasers will offer “Phantasmagorical Physics” sessions for two age groups. Six- to ten-year-olds will explore energy, magnetic and electric fields, momentum, atoms, pressure and Newton’s laws of motion. Eleven- to fourteen-year-olds will experiment with energy by building cars and rockets, exploring the concepts of motion, collision, and conservation laws.
“Our goal is to provide the best in inquiry-based instruction, fostering a child’s natural capacity for individual problem-solving and critical thinking, while having all the fun that a summer camp can offer,” says Center director Linda Froning.
Brainteasers Science Camps have been annual events since 1985, devoting an entire week to a single topic. This year, the focus on physics coordinates with the Snowmass summer study. During the second and third weeks of the conference, visiting physicists will also take part in the Brainteasers camps at their Carbondale home site.
To find out more about the Science Outreach Center in Carbondale, about Brainteasers at Snowmass, and about registration and fees, contact director Linda Froning lfroning@rof.net, telephone 970-963-2922, or fax 970-963-3577.
Meanwhile, back at the Snowmass Mall, more physicists and teachers will host two-hour programs at Camp Snowmass each morning for elementary and middle school children during the conference’s second and third weeks (July 9-13 and July 16-20). Planned activities include cosmic ray studies, making giant soap bubbles at Science on the Mall’s hands-on exhibits, building motors, building model hot-air balloons, and crash testing model passenger vehicles made of eggs.
To find out more about Camp Snowmass, registration and fees, contact director Sue Way <sway@aspensnowmass.com>, telephone 970- 923-0570, or visit the web at http://www.aspengov.com/recreation/campsnowmass.html.
The goal of the education outreach efforts at Snowmass2001 is to have physicists from around the nation—and from other nations—share their passion and enjoyment of science in the world around us.
“Scientists have the same curiosity and excitement about the world that children do,” says theoretical physicist Elizabeth Simmons of Boston University, coordinator of Snowmass2001 outreach. “As we gather to shape our future research into the nature of the universe, it’s our pleasure and responsibility to encourage the curiosity and potential of the next generation of scientists and citizens.”
Simmons, a Trustee of the Aspen Center for Physics, notes that the Center has a well-established local outreach program, while children like her son Ari have long enjoyed the community’s day camps. “This summer, we have a chance to combine these efforts and expand them,” she concludes.
With the expanded Brainteasers and Camp Snowmass, there should be some distinctive essays on “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” when school starts up again.
“Snowmass 2001,” running June 30-July 21 at the Snowmass Conference Center, represents a unique opportunity to gain new insights into the world around us. To arrange coverage of this world-class science gathering, visit the Web at—
www.fnal.gov/pub/snowmass/media_registration.html.
Fill out the registration form, and submit it electronically; or print it and fax it to Fermilab’s Office of Public Affairs at 630-840-8780.
For more on the conference and schedule, visit Snowmass2001.org.
Fermilab, providing organizational and logistical support for Snowmass 2001, is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
BATAVIA, Ill.—A select group of 24 high school science teachers from across the country will share the singular opportunity to bring the high-energy physics frontier back to their classrooms through the QuarkNet teacher training workshop July 1-6 at the Snowmass Conference Center, during the three-week conference “Snowmass 2001: A Summer Study on the Future of Particle Physics.”
QuarkNet, a nationwide collaboration of 36 universities and research institutions, uses the web (which was developed by particle physicists) to connect high school students with real-life data from ongoing high-energy physics experiments at Fermilab, the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory operating the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron. And later this decade, students will also connect on-line with experiments at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Part of our commitment as physics researchers is to reach out to students who will be the next generation of our nation’s scientists,” says Randal Ruchti of the University of Notre Dame, one of QuarkNet’s original sponsoring institutions.
After their intense week of training at Snowmass, the 24 science teachers will disperse to spend the rest of the summer doing the equivalent of graduate student work on high-energy physics experiments, at Fermilab, at CERN, or at their sponsoring institutions. They will work alongside physicist mentors, experiencing the day-to-day realities of what must go into an experiment before any new discoveries can be produced. They will take those experiences back to their classrooms, offering first-hand 21st century insights into the classical physics principles dating back to Isaac Newton.
“QuarkNet gives working physicists an opportunity to get directly involved with teachers and high-school kids, and to help them participate in scientific research and discovery,” adds Ruchti, a collaborator at Fermilab’s DZero collider detector.
This third annual QuarkNet teacher training workshop is the first to be held at Snowmass, where some 750 of the nation’s top particle physicists will be gathered to assess the future of their field. The previous two QuarkNet workshops have already begun to influence that future with results like these in classrooms across the country:
- a Texas teacher and his physics class assembled a Plexiglas cloud chamber, a cubic meter in size, tracking the paths of cosmic rays through their classroom;
- an Iowa teacher arranged for his class to spend a semester working as research assistants on a particle physics experiment at nearby Iowa State University;
- a Virginia teacher taught an entire first semester of physics with the theme, “The Hunt for the Higgs,” illustrating such classical principles as conservation of energy and momentum in the context of research into the particle postulated as the source of mass for all other elementary particles;
- a teacher in Long Island, New York brought a quantity of scintillating plastic back to his class, where his students used it to measure the lifespan of the muon particle.
As a bonus, the Long Island teacher also earned the privilege of introducing the noted science writer Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter, Longitude) at a collaboration meeting of ATLAS, a collider detector being built for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. ATLAS, another CERN detector collaboration, the Compact Muon Solenoid, and Fermilab’s DZero and CDF collider detector collaborations, are major participants in QuarkNet.
During its five-year launching phase, QuarkNet aims to build a network of 60 research centers (adding 12 institutions each year from among the four collider detector collaborations), connecting high school classes with these world-class particle physics experiments. This year’s participating institutions are: Argonne National Laboratory; Duke University; Florida Institute of Technology; Iowa State University; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Rutgers University; Texas Tech University; University of California at Davis; University of Iowa; University of Kansas and University of Mississippi.
Each member institution sponsors two area high school teachers for training and mentoring. They become “lead teachers,” and are in turn responsible for training 10 more teachers through local workshops. In this way, QuarkNet hopes to reach 720 high school science teachers and several thousand students across the country.
The QuarkNet Project is supported in part by the National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov and the U.S. Department of Energy http://www.energy.gov. For more information, visit the QuarkNet website at http://quarknet.fnal.gov
“Snowmass 2001” represents a unique opportunity to gain new insights into the world around us. To arrange coverage of this world-class science gathering, visit the Web at
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/snowmass/media_registration.html.
Fill out the registration form, and submit it electronically; or print it and fax it to Fermilab’s Office of Public Affairs at 630-840-8780.
For more on the conference and schedule, visit Snowmass2001.org.
Fermilab, offering organizational and logistical support for Snowmass 2001, is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
BATAVIA, Ill.—Physicists, often regarded as having their heads in the clouds, will take their stereotype literally during an aerial experiment in the early morning of Sunday, July 8 at Snowmass, Colorado when they lift off in a hot-air balloon to re-create the 1912 discovery of cosmic rays by Austrian physicist Victor Hess.
Launched from the Snowmass Rodeo Grounds at 6 a.m., the balloon flight represents a highlight of “Science Weekend” during the three-week conference “Snowmass 2001: A Summer Study on the Future of Particle Physics,” sponsored by two divisions of the American Physical Society. The flight also launches a weeklong workshop (July 16-21) for Snowmass-area high school teachers and students, preparing them to participate in a cosmic ray experiment that will also involve schools throughout North America.
SALTA (Snowmass Area Large-scale Time-coincidence Array) will set up a cosmic ray detector network in collaboration with five high schools, including Wheaton North High School in Illinois and four in the Snowmass area: Aspen High School, Basalt High School, Roaring Fork Valley High School in Carbondale and Lake County High School in Leadville. SALTA will link up with four other arrays in a continent-wide network of high school and college students in California (CHICOS), the Midwest and South (CosRayHS), Nebraska (CROP), Seattle (WALTA) and Edmonton, Canada (ALTA). The SALTA project is made possible by an anonymous benefactor and the cooperation of Fermilab.
“This is a real science experiment, not a toy,” says SALTA co-director Greg Snow, a physicist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and a Fermilab experimenter. “The equipment is coming from a world-class cosmic ray experiment called CASA (Chicago Air Shower Array), which ran for almost nine years in Utah and was retired in 1998. The leader of the CASA experiment was James Cronin, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1980.”
During the SALTA workshop, student-teacher teams (usually one physics teacher and three students from each school) will learn to use the detector equipment and other instruments, such as oscilloscopes. They’ll train in using high-voltage power supplies. They’ll attend talks from leading researchers on the physics of cosmic rays, along with the principles of particle accelerators and collider detectors.
“We want to emphasize that they’re all participating in a bona fide cosmic ray experiment, making real measurements, with potentially publishable results,” Snow says, adding that previous workshops in Nebraska have led students and teachers to “embrace the project, carving out time in their classes, before school and after school to conduct their research and send reports to us.”
Cosmic rays are among the many kinds of radiation reaching the top of the earth’s atmosphere from outer space. Cosmic rays provide scientists with information on violent, energetic processes in distant stars, allowing them to study the fundamental particles and forces of nature under conditions far beyond the reach of man-made particle accelerators. The highest-energy cosmic rays reach energies a million times as great at Fermilab’s Tevatron, the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator.
Victor Hess (1936 Nobel Prize) proved the existence of cosmic rays during a balloon flight launched from Northern Bohemia on August 7, 1912, that reached an altitude of nearly 17,500 feet. Bringing aloft the current state-of-the-art equipment in radiation measurement, the “electroscope,” his data showed radiation levels increasing with altitude. Hess concluded that “a radiation of very high penetrating power enters our atmosphere from above,” from what we now call outer space.
“In any talk, lecture or book about cosmic rays, you’ll encounter the name of Victor Hess,” Snow says. “This was a pivotal measurement in the last century’s research on cosmic rays. We’ll try to re-enact the Victor Hess flight as well as we can.”
Snow plans to staff the ground station, receiving information from SALTA co-director and University of Washington physicist Jeff Wilkes, who will be costumed in 1912 fashion.
“I’ve already made arrangements with the University of Washington Drama Department to check out a period costume, complete with Austrian naval officer’s cap, which contemporary photos show Hess wearing,” Wilkes said. “He will go aloft with present-day cosmic ray detector equipment as well.”
“Snowmass 2001” represents a unique opportunity to gain new insights into the world around us. To arrange coverage of this world-class science gathering, visit the Web at
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/snowmass/media_registration.html.
Fill out the registration form, and submit it electronically; or print it and fax it to Fermilab’s Office of Public Affairs at 630-840-8780.
For more on the conference and schedule, visit Snowmass2001.org.
Fermilab, offering organizational and logistical support for Snowmass 2001, is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
BATAVIA, Ill.—“Snowmass 2001” will bring more than 500 of the country’s leading physicists together in the Rocky Mountains to look beyond the horizon.
What will they see? Just as in a physics experiment, they won’t know until all the results are in. For media, that means an opportunity to report the unfolding story of this key field of U.S. science from June 30 through July 21 at the Snowmass Conference Center, during “Snowmass 2001: A Summer Study on the Future of Particle Physics.”
The conference, co-sponsored by two divisions of the American Physical Society, will “take stock of the new possibilities at the highest energies, in experiments of exquisite sensitivity, through metaphorical travel to new theoretical realms, and in experiments that look at the universe through new eyes,” says conference organizing committee co-chair Chris Quigg, a theoretical physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab, near Chicago.
For members of the media who may not be conversant with the latest (or even earliest) developments in particle physics, the conference will feature jargon-free, plain-English explanations of all the goings-on.
And thanks to a remarkable response from the whole particle physics community, Snowmass 2001 will take public outreach and science education efforts to a new level.
“Science Weekend” of July 7 – 8 will offer an extravaganza of activities for people of all ages who are curious about the world they live in. “Science on the Mall” will feature physics vans from several universities; large-scale equipment from the SciTech museum, of Aurora, Illinois; lectures; hands-on experiences for children; a science book fair, featuring some of the nation’s most renowned science writers along with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman; and presentations by Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. QuarkNet, a nationwide network connecting high school teachers and students with particle physics experiments, will hold a weeklong training workshop. Large-scale cosmic-ray detectors will join local Colorado high schools to a North American network in collecting experimental data. Public lectures, science programs for local day camps and Spanish-language outreach efforts round out the menu. The outreach activities have drawn funding from many public and private sources.
Also on the program, physicists will stage teach-ins on such topics as String Theory, one of the hottest new areas in particle physics; and on the Physics of the Universe, striving for an understanding of nothing less than how everything we know came to be. The directors of the world’s leading high-energy physics laboratories—such as Fermilab, in Batavia, Illinois; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in Palo Alto, California; DESY, in Hamburg, Germany and CERN, the European Particle Physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland—will meet to discuss the future of their research.
“Snowmass 2001” represents a unique opportunity to gain new insights into the world around us. To arrange coverage of this world-class science gathering, visit the Web at
www.fnal.gov/pub/snowmass/media_registration.html.
Fill out the registration form, and submit it electronically; or print it and fax it to Fermilab’s Office of Public Affairs at 630-840-8780.
For more on the conference and schedule, visit Snowmass2001.org.
Fermilab, providing organizational and logistical support for Snowmass 2001, is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Batavia, Ill.-The proprietor of one of the nation’s first sites on the World Wide Web today (March 1) unveiled a new, redesigned version of its website. Officials at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, home of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator as well as either the second or third website in the nation, said they designed the new site to make the science of high-energy physics more accessible to the laboratory’s virtual visitors.
“On a typical day, Fermilab’s website receives more than sixty thousand hits, from everyone from schoolchildren to U.S. senators,” said Fermilab Public Affairs Director Judith Jackson. “We want to make it easy for them to find the information they are looking for, and easy for them to share our excitement about science.”
The World Wide Web was born in 1991 at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as a tool to allow particle physicists to communicate experimental results to scientific colleagues around the world. Physicists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California established the first U.S. website in late 1991. Fermilab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the next two sites at about the same time in June 1992.
In the Web’s early days at Fermilab, the people who used it were physicists sharing results of their experiments. In 1994, Fermilab made its first attempt to use the Web as a way to communicate with a broader audience. The occasion was the announcement of evidence for a new fundamental particle of matter, the top quark. Some 12,000 people clicked on www.fnal.gov to learn about the top when the particle made its debut in an April 1994 press conference at the laboratory.
“It seemed like a lot of hits at the time,” Jackson said.
Last summer’s observation at Fermilab of another subatomic particle, the tau neutrino, brought a peak of 270,000 hits on the days following its announcement.
In the 1990s, Fermilab’s website grew quickly as both a working medium for physicists and as a communications tool for the laboratory. Subsites of increasing sophistication and a wide range of styles proliferated. By the end of the decade, the site had become a treasure trove of “content,” in Web parlance, but it could be difficult for visitors to find what they were looking for. Laboratory officials decided it was time for a change.
In February 2000, Fermilab staff began work on a new site that would keep the extraordinary content of the old one but make it more accessible and easier to navigate. Rather than applying a cosmetic fix to the current site, the staff worked with Chicago Web design firm Xeno Media on a makeover that would have not just a new look but a new architecture and navigation scheme as well. Today’s roll-out marks a new step in the evolution of Fermilab’s website from a tool for physicists to a medium of communication between the laboratory and the rest of the world.
“Our goal for the new site was to make it possible for anyone who comes to the Fermilab website in search of information to find it quickly and easily,” said Xeno Media’s Kevin Munday. “The site should have a good look and feel. And it should be clear to visitors that the site is alive and up to date.”
Headlines in a home page news box will display each day’s hot topics from Fermilab, linked to featured news stories, websites, photos and press releases. A “Press Pass” button leads to press resources and to FermiNews, the laboratory’s news magazine. A page devoted to “Fermilab and the Community,” designed to strengthen relations between the laboratory and its neighbors, provides an email link for neighbors to send questions and concerns for a quick response from Fermilab. The site continues to feature information about particle physics not only at Fermilab but at other high-energy physics laboratories and universities worldwide. Fermilab staff expect the “Physics Questions People Ask Fermilab” section to remain among the new site’s most-visited pages.
The site emphasizes Fermilab’s role as a Department of Energy national laboratory and provides links to information about both DOE and Universities Research Association, Inc., the university consortium that operates Fermilab.
The roll-out of the new website coincides with the March 1 start of Collider Run II at Fermilab’s Tevatron particle accelerator. When high-energy particle collisions begin at the Tevatron later this month, the new website will show live online collision displays, just as scientists see them in Fermilab’s experiment control rooms. Physicists’ hopes are high that Run II will produce important discoveries in particle physics at the laboratory.
“May the world one day learn of the discovery of the Higgs boson from the new Fermilab home page news box,” Jackson said.
Fermilab is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Batavia, Ill-Officials at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory today (March 1) announced the start of Collider Run II at the Tevatron, the highest-energy particle accelerator now operating in the world. Researchers at Fermilab hope that high-energy particle collisions at the Tevatron in Run II will yield significant, long-awaited discoveries about the fundamental nature of matter in the universe.
Fermilab Director Michael Witherell expressed satisfaction at the culmination of the laboratory’s decade-long preparations for Run II and anticipation of the scientific opportunities it will provide.
“I am delighted that we are starting Run II on time,” Witherell said. “Now we can look forward to the excitement of seeing new physics results. We can’t predict what Nature has in store for us. All we can guarantee is the opportunity for discovery.”
Like Witherell, many Fermilab scientists stressed that, while they have models and theories, they do not know what new physics Run II will reveal. Nevertheless, world attention has focused on Fermilab’s two collider detectors at the Tevatron, CDF and DZero, as the next possible venue for discovery of the Higgs boson, an as-yet-unseen particle that physicists believe may determine the property of mass. Late last year, experiments at the Large Electron Positron collider at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, detected hints of what might have been signals of the Higgs. However, the LEP accelerator shut down before scientists there could either confirm or rule out a Higgs sighting. If the Higgs boson does exist at a low enough mass, Fermilab experiments may be able to detect it during Run II.
Run II also has the potential for revealing much more new physics, including evidence for a theoretical model known as supersymmetry, signals of possible extra dimensions in the universe, new insight into the asymmetry between matter and antimatter and a better understanding of the top quark, discovered at Fermilab in 1995 during Collider Run I. All are subjects with profound implications for modern particle physics and for the understanding of the fundamental physical workings of the universe.
“Two recent results from other experiments add to the excitement of Run II,” said Fermilab theorist Joseph Lykken. “The results from Brookhaven’s g-minus-two experiments with muons have a straightforward interpretation as signs of supersymmetry. The increasingly interesting results from BABAR at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center add to the importance of B physics in Run II, and also suggest new physics. I will be shocked and disappointed if we don’t have at least one major discovery.”
During Run II, beams of protons at an energy of 980 billion electron volts will collide with beams of antiprotons at the same energy, for a total energy of 1.96 trillion electron volts at the collision point, a 10 percent increase over the energy of Run I. However, the greatest enhancement of the Tevatron’s capability will come from the use of a new injection accelerator, the $260 million Main Injector, completed in 1999. The Main Injector and other improvements will permit a much greater rate of high-energy collisions in the Tevatron, providing more than a 20-fold increase in the number of particle collisions observed and recorded at the particle detectors. Because the new phenomena that physicists are seeking occur extremely rarely in particle collisions, the increased collision rate is critical to making discoveries.
Although Collider Run II officially began on March 1, it will take some weeks before Fermilab physicists begin seeing physics results from the upgraded and newly configured Tevatron.
“Turning on the Tevatron is not like turning on a toaster,” said Fermilab Operations Chief Robert Mau, whose department operates Fermilab’s accelerators. “Besides the approximately seven miles of particle beam enclosures, the accelerator complex includes 44,000 controllable devices and more than a hundred thousand readbacks. Millions of components, circuits and parts all have to work together. The Tevatron is one of the most complex devices on earth. It takes a while to get it up and running.”
Mau expects to see proton beams in the Tevatron within a few days. Experiment collaborations at the CDF and DZero detectors should begin observing proton-antiproton collisions later in March. The collaborations, each comprising about 550 physicists from universities and laboratories throughout the nation and the world, have each completed five-year, $100-million upgrades to take advantage of the Tevatron’s enhanced capabilities.
“Our sensitivity to new physics comes not only from the big increase in numbers of collisions,” said CDF collaborator Rob Roser. “We gain an additional factor due to beam energy and a further increase due to the improvements in our detector. For top-quark physics, for example, we are looking at about a 50-fold improvement over Run I.”
Run II will continue, with a mid-course interruption for further upgrades and improvements to accelerators and detectors, until 2007. At about that time, results will begin to emerge from a new accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will have seven times the Tevatron’s energy and will overtake the Tevatron at the high-energy frontier. Fermilab scientists are eager to make the most of the opportunities now before them.
Experimenter Robin Erbacher expressed the prevailing sentiment among physicists at the laboratory after five years of work and preparation for Run II.
“I’m ready to get my hands on some data and analyze it,” Erbacher said.
Fermilab is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, whose Office of Science funds more than 90 percent of the federally supported research in high-energy physics in the United States.
Is there life in cold winter water? Why do lice like your hair? How do you put antimatter in a bottle?
Visitors to the Lederman Science Education Center at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will have an opportunity to explore these and other questions at an Open House on Sunday, February 11. At the Open House, held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., visitors can explore hands-on science exhibits, play computer games and meet prominent scientists.
“We have a variety of activities for kids and parents,” said Marge Bardeen, head of Fermilab’s Education Office. “Children can study the microscopic life in a frigid drop of water, explore magnetic fields with the help of Fermilab graduate students and look at insects galore. They can go on a science scavenger hunt. We will offer snacks and drinks. It will be a festive atmosphere.”
Parents and teachers can learn about Fermilab’s many educational programs and investigate the latest in science toys. Information about the Open House is available from the Lederman Science Center at 630-840-8258.
Named for former Fermilab director and Nobel Prize winner Leon M. Lederman, the Science Center opened in 1993. More than 20,000 students visit the center annually, and a range of education programs provide information and support for about 6,500 teachers around the country. Funding for the center is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Education, the State of Illinois, the non-profit Friends of Fermilab, private foundations and donations from individuals.
Fermilab is a Department of Energy national laboratory operated under contract by Universities Research Association, Inc.
Photos available on-line at http://www-visualmedia.fnal.gov:591/VMSSearch_Online.htm
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For additional help, please contact the Office of Public Affairs, Fermilab, (630-840-3351)
Sunday visitors to the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will soon be able to take their science questions straight to the experts. Beginning on Sunday afternoon, September 3, two Fermilab physicists will be on hand in the laboratory’s Wilson Hall each Sunday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. to talk with visitors, answer questions and explain everything from the Higgs boson and the Big Bang to how a particle accelerator works.
“We’ll even try to help with their kids’ science homework,” said Fermilab physicist Peter Garbincius. Garbincius, a Batavia resident, organized the “Ask a Scientist” program to help Fermilab visitors understand the world-class science that goes on in their neighborhood, and to strengthen relationships between Fermilab and community residents.
More than 50 Fermilab physicists responded to Garbincius’s call for “Ask a Scientist” volunteers at the laboratory. Many said they welcomed the opportunity to help make the work they do at Fermilab more understandable to neighbors and other visitors. Fermilab, one of two high-energy physics laboratories in the nation, operates the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator. Physicists from 36 states and many foreign countries study high-energy proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron, in order to explore the fundamental structure of matter at the smallest scale.
Each year, tens of thousands of visitors come to Fermilab’s open site to learn about science, to attend concerts and lectures, to hike and bike on the laboratory’s trails, or to join in the laboratory’s annual Prairie Harvest. Garbincius and his colleagues hope that “Ask a Scientist” will make the laboratory more understandable.
“Ultimately, Fermilab’s future requires the continuing support of our neighboring communities,” Garbincius said. “Our goal with ‘Ask a Scientist’ is to answer people’s questions about why we’re here and what we’re doing. Or about any other science subjects.”
Now, about those homework problems?
Fermilab is a Department of Energy national laboratory operated under contract by Universities Research Association, Inc.