Fermilab guest composer sets out to interpret particle physics through music

India’s Department of Atomic Energy, or DAE, reached a milestone in their participation in building a 215-meter-long particle accelerator in the United States, known as the Proton Improvement Plan II project, or PIP-II. DAE recently informed the U.S. Department of Energy that India is officially moving from the research and development phase to the construction phase for its contributions to the PIP-II project at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

This significant transition solidifies a scientific partnership between the United States and India that has been nearly 20 years in the making. DAE institutions now can start to construct the components that they will send to the U.S. to enable the PIP-II project.

Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India Ajit Kumar Mohanty stated, “The sustained collaborative efforts during the research and development phase of PIP-II have validated and demonstrated many interesting and exciting developments that would be very important for building next generation accelerators for science and technological applications in India. The success of the research and development phase have facilitated the smooth transition to the construction phase of PIP-II. This success has also provided very high confidence in reaffirming our commitment of in-kind contribution of $140 million and extending all possible support till scheduled completion of PIP-II activities successfully.”

In June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and U.S. President Joe Biden met to deepen bilateral cooperation between the two countries on cutting-edge scientific infrastructures. The resulting White House statement (item no. 10) highlighted DAE’s in-kind contribution toward the collaborative development of the PIP-II accelerator.

“We are very excited about India’s critical technical contributions to the Proton Improvement Plan II project at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. These contributions will help to deliver a record-setting proton beam that will power scientific discoveries for years to come,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, DOE’s director of the Office of Science. “We look forward to continuing this longstanding partnership between India’s Department of Atomic Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy.”

The PIP-II project is building a state-of-the-art superconducting linear accelerator at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, 40 miles west of Chicago. It will enable the world’s most intense beam of neutrinos that scientists will shoot from Fermilab in Illinois to the gigantic particle detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in Lead, South Dakota. DUNE will be the most comprehensive neutrino experiment ever built, with the goal of uncovering secrets of the universe by studying the properties of the elusive neutrinos.

“We are thrilled that our partners in India have reached this major milestone in their PIP-II participation,” said Fermilab Director Lia Merminga. “Many people have worked hard for years to make sure this partnership could thrive. We at Fermilab value deeply the expertise and capabilities of our colleagues in India and I look forward to working with the DAE institutions to build the PIP-II particle accelerator.”

The PIP-II partnership is a symbiotic relationship and part of the Indian Institutions and Fermilab Collaboration. While providing next generation accelerator capabilities, the collaboration on PIP-II also provides Indian scientists and engineers the training, technical insight and know-how for the development of their domestic particle accelerator program and future projects.

PIP-II is the first particle accelerator on U.S. soil to be built with significant contributions from international partners. Institutions in France, India, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom are contributing technologies, instrumentation and expertise to build the accelerator.

In India, participating institutions include the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, the Inter-University Accelerator Centre in New Delhi, the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology in Indore, and the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre in Kolkata.

Many of these Indian institutions will provide a significant number of technical components for PIP-II, including superconducting acceleration structures, electromagnets and radio-frequency power sources. These will be fabricated in India and transported to Fermilab for installation.

 

 

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

Chicago-based composer and accomplished pianist Mischa Zupko has been named 2024 guest composer by the Fermi Research Alliance. In collaboration with scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the Civitas Ensemble in Chicago and saxophonist Timothy McAllister, he will create music to interpret particle science in new ways.

“From what I have come to understand, the ability to imagine, in a physical sense, phenomena relating to the behavior and interaction of elementary particles is impossible, but the attempt to imagine, is where the beauty lies,” he said.

For many of his compositions, Zupko draws inspiration from themes of the universe, cosmic phenomena and mathematical models. Eclipse: Chamber Music of Mischa Zupko, with violinist Sang Mee Lee and cellist Wendy Warner, was recorded by Cedille Records in 2016 and conveys the alignment of the sun and moon, while the evening sky is the focal point in his cello piece From Twilight. Zupko stated in his guest composer proposal that these subjects are “spiritual” to him and to the music that he writes. He is eager to work with Fermilab scientists to musically explore projects such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Zupko will not only collaborate with scientists on his Fermilab composition, but also with fellow chamber musicians Winston Choi, piano; Yuan-Qing Yu, violin; and Ken Olsen, cello, who are the members of the Civitas Ensemble, and guest Timothy McAllister, saxophone. While Zupko wrote Eclipse based on a specific mathematical model that he constructed, he hopes to compose his Fermilab piece based on a scientific model.  He plans to include the completed composition as a world premiere recording on Cedille Records for a new release of his work in 2026.

“Though the mathematics [represented by Eclipse] are simple, they were essential in the process to achieve the very specific effect this piece intended and informed the intuitive aspects of the writing in profound ways,” he said. “I have always wanted to go deeper into this process, modeling numeric sequences on actual data from running experiments to see if the data itself can serve as a link between the various ways we experience our reality.”

Zupko is a third-generation composer. He received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree and a doctorate in composition from Indiana University Bloomington. He has been named guest artist and participated in residency programs at various institutions, including the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, the Music Institute of Chicago, Western Michigan University, and Roosevelt University. Zupko has most recently had his music performed at Chamber Music Northwest, the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference, and the Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park, among others. Since 2010, he has served as lecturer of musicianship studies at DePaul University.

“Mischa Zupko’s profound grasp of musical theory and composition coupled with a longstanding curiosity about particle physics, along with previous compositions inspired by cosmic phenomena, renders him the ideal choice as the 2024 FRA guest composer at Fermilab,” said Visual Arts Coordinator Georgia Schwender, who manages the FRA guest composer program at Fermilab on behalf of FRA.

Editor’s note: Work created by former FRA guest composers and artists are featured in the public exhibition Beyond the Visible at the Schingoethe Center of Aurora University Jan. 29 – May 10, 2024. The exhibition will highlight Fermilab-inspired work by Mare Hirsch, David Ibbett, Jim Jenkins, Chris Klapper & Patrick Gallagher, Ricardo Mondragon, Ellen Sandor and Roger Zare.

The FRA guest composer program at Fermilab is funded by the Fermi Research Alliance, which manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

When was the last time your laptop or cloud storage notified you that it was running low on space? Or you transferred a file only to find out that a bug in the system caused damage, and you could no longer access the information? Data storage, access, and connectivity are important aspects of life in our digital age.

Quantum science researchers and engineers also handle valuable information and must ensure that the information stored in quantum devices remains intact. Silvia Zorzetti, engineer at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is pursuing an innovative approach. Her research aims to help preserve quantum information by focusing on improvements to the way we transport it.

Zorzetti earned an Early Career Award from the Department of Energy for her research proposal. The award provides $2.5 million over the next five years to support her work and create opportunities for students and young researchers to join her.

Quantum information is highly fragile and can be lost due to material and environmental disturbance. Researchers refer to this as decoherence. To extend the lifetime of quantum information, researchers at the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center at Fermilab employ superconducting radio-frequency devices and place the devices into ultra-cold refrigerators.

Zorzetti introduced a new perspective. She aims to figure out how to transmit quantum information out of the fridge without damaging it.

“This project aims to uncover new potentials in quantum information science, specifically by improving the transfer of quantum information from ultra-cold fridges onto fiber optics,” explained Zorzetti.

She emphasized that achieving the capability to transmit quantum information over significant distances holds implications for diverse scientific domains, including national security, quantum communication and network technologies.

“This research has the potential to advance the creation of the quantum internet, quantum networks featuring quantum processing units, and sensor networks,” she said.

Zorzetti is currently investigating microwave-optical transducers, tools that convert microwave photons into optical photons—tiny packets of light. She proposes to explore the use of superconducting cavities with long coherence time to enhance the conversion efficiency and employ fiber-optic cabling and optical photon counters to prevent information loss.

Superconducting radiofrequency cavities are powerful tools for detecting dark matter and constructing scalable quantum computers. Researchers at the SQMS Center are at the forefront of research into these devices. Reading out the quantum information, however, poses a challenge. External electronics used to amplify the quantum information introduces noise and may lead to information loss. Microwave-optical transducers offer a solution by efficiently counting single photons in the optical region, where photon counting is more feasible.

“Optical readout has proven to be the most efficient method for many applications,” Zorzetti said. “The challenge lies in the conversion process. If we can efficiently convert microwave to optical photons at the quantum threshold, we preserve the information and enhance the overall efficiency compared to typical methods.” Through careful design and optimal engineering, it seems possible to improve the microwave-optical conversion efficiency up to 50%, a result still out of reach.

Zorzetti’s research will occur at the SQMS Center, one of five DOE quantum information science centers. SQMS’s hallmark is understanding the foundational materials used in quantum information science. Zorzetti’s award builds on this work and moves it forward. The proposed research will utilize and expand existing facilities, equipment, and infrastructure initiated with Fermilab’s Lab Directed R&D program.

“We are delighted to congratulate Silvia for earning the prestigious Early Career Award,” said Anna Grassellino, director of the SQMS Center. “Silvia’s exceptional leadership in research and workforce development within our center has been consistently noteworthy, and this award rightly recognizes her ongoing impact on both fronts. The SQMS Center eagerly anticipates the outcomes of Silvia’s innovative research, leveraging the state-of-the-art facilities and unique resources available at Fermilab.”

Zorzetti’s journey at Fermilab spans 12 years. She first joined the lab as a participant in the Italian Summer Student program in 2011. She joined the laboratory as an employee in 2017. In addition to the research she leads at SQMS, Zorzetti also serves as the Ecosystem and Workforce Development leader for the center.

Reflecting on her experience, Zorzetti said, “I worked at the lab for three summers as a student. I quickly realized that Fermilab was a unique environment that connected me to the work in new ways.”

The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center at Fermilab is supported by the DOE Office of Science.

The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center is one of the five U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. Led by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, SQMS is a collaboration of more than 30 partner institutions—national labs, academia and industry—working together to bring transformational advances in the field of quantum information science. The center leverages Fermilab’s expertise in building complex particle accelerators to engineer multiqubit quantum processor platforms based on state-of-the-art qubits and superconducting technologies. Working hand in hand with embedded industry partners, SQMS will build a quantum computer and new quantum sensors at Fermilab, which will open unprecedented computational opportunities. For more information, please visit sqmscenter.fnal.gov.

Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.