High school student working with Fermilab scientist publishes research

Quantum computing is a ripe research area for aspiring young scientists, but few find themselves authoring a research publication before higher education. This was not the case for Avi Vadali, an enterprising young researcher who sought out a research position at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory the summer before his senior year of high school. He ultimately helped author a journal article about machine learning and quantum computing that has gone through the peer-review process and will appear in Quantum Machine Intelligence soon.

It all started the summer before his senior year of high school when Vadali decided he wanted to join a research lab. “I was really into physics; I had been doing math research up until then and wanted to explore research a bit more,” he said. So, Vadali said he started reaching out to a variety of professors and researchers, ranging from academics at universities to national labs, such as Fermilab.

Responses were few and far between, but that didn’t dissuade Vadali. He said that he remembered attending a Saturday Morning Physics lecture with Fermilab scientist Gabriel Perdue. “He presented quantum computing in a really approachable way,” said Vadali, “So I thought, ‘Yeah, I’d definitely love to work with him.’”

When Perdue got Vadali’s email, he said he was glad to hear from a student who had participated in Saturday Morning Physics. The 11-week long program connects students with researchers through a series of lectures and virtual lab tours. Students who sign up are encouraged to attend all the lectures. When they complete the series, they get a certificate that they can use as part of their college application package.

When Perdue responded to Vadali’s email, he wasn’t entirely sure how much research Vadali would be able to accomplish. It wouldn’t be the first high schooler he had invited into the lab, and Perdue said he was wary about any young student’s productivity. “School needs to be their main focus,” said Perdue, “Vadali had to get A’s in all his classes, and I didn’t want to tell him to skip class to do research.”

But Perdue was pleasantly surprised; every time he threw Vadali a task, Vadali would take it and run. “He was really impressive,” Perdue said, “I basically treated him like a senior graduate student.” Rather than sit with Vadali and go line-by-line through code, for example, Perdue said that they would talk about high-level problems, and Vadali would “go off and solve them.”

The group’s research goal was to write a program that could predict if a quantum computer could reliably solve specific problems. Although quantum computers can solve problems over one million times faster than high-performance supercomputers, quantum computers suffer from high error rates. It can be risky performing incredibly complex calculations on quantum computers because the reliability of the output is not guaranteed and running the computer requires an abundance of resources. 

Vadali and the Fermilab team wanted to use classical computing to predict how much error would be on a result calculated by a quantum computer. “If you’re able to get a sense of the error, you can determine if running an experiment is worth it,” said Vadali, pointing to a scenario where the predicted error is so high that running a quantum computing experiment would be pointless because the result would be completely inaccurate. 

To make these predictions, the researchers built a machine-learning algorithm — the kind of computer program that uncovers nuanced patterns in data — and fed it complex datasets that embodied the kinds of problems a researcher might try to solve with a quantum computer.  

“When I came in, they already had some code written,” Vadali said, “and I started doing the machine learning stuff.” Vadali had coding experience, which helped him get into the swing of things, and he’d even taken a few machine-learning classes. 

Even so, Vadali said it was a “big learning curve,” figuring out the scientific jargon and how to do real research successfully. “I learned a ton about what it means to be an academic conducting research at a high level,” said Vadali. “It is really hard to get research opportunities as a high schooler, and I’m really grateful that Gabe was willing to take a chance on me.”

In total, Vadali spent about a year working with Perdue, first as a class credit and then, after graduating, working as a summer student. When Vadali was accepted into the California Institute of Technology in 2022, he said he decided to dive into research. Now his research focuses on studying fracton phases of matter, a subfield of condensed matter theory, which he said is “basically just mathematical physics.” He attributes his decision to continue research in part to his experience at Fermilab. 

“Getting early experience with quantum technology, academic paper writing and being part of a research group was really, really nice for me,” Vadali said. It gave him a sense of the field and the kind of research he liked doing, he said, but also how to integrate into a research group. 

He encourages other high school students to reach out to professors to experience research before going to college. “Don’t be discouraged when people don’t respond or people say no,” he said, “And when people say ‘yes,’ that’s a big opportunity; don’t let it slip by.”

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.

Neutrinos are the most abundant matter particles in the universe. Lightweight and elusive, they may hold the key to answering some of the greatest mysteries in particle physics and astrophysics. But these fundamental particles rarely interact with other matter, making them extremely difficult to detect and study.

The international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, an experiment hosted by U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, promises to crack wide open the field of neutrino physics. DUNE will be the most comprehensive neutrino experiment in the world when it starts receiving the world’s most powerful neutrino beam, provided by an upgraded particle accelerator complex at Fermilab.

On Sept. 11, Fermilab and the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, signed a project planning document to advance DUNE. This document follows two initial agreements signed in 2017 and 2021 in which CERN agreed to provide two large, approximately five-story-tall cryogenic vessels for the experiment. Each would house one of the DUNE particle detector modules planned for the experiment’s site in South Dakota, and each would be filled with 17,500 tons of liquid argon. The project planning document lays out the details of the equipment that CERN will provide, the quality standards it has to meet, and when it will be shipped to the United States. 

Excavation of the large caverns of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility that will house the cryogenic vessels, detector modules and related infrastructure a mile underground in South Dakota is nearly 80% complete.

“The signing of the project planning document is an important milestone for the project at a timely moment,” said Joachim Mnich, CERN Director for Research and Computing, who signed the document on behalf of CERN. “The construction of components for the large cryostats — CERN’s contribution to the infrastructure of the project — is in full swing.”

DUNE will study neutrinos that are produced at Fermilab, outside Chicago, and then sent straight through earth and rock to Lead, South Dakota, 800 miles away. No tunnel is needed: Neutrinos’ ghostly nature, which makes them hard to catch with a particle detector, allows them to fly through normal matter unimpeded. 

To study how neutrinos change along the way — a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillations — physicists will measure the neutrinos with a near detector hosted at Fermilab and huge far detectors in an underground laboratory at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead. DUNE will also be able to detect neutrinos from astrophysical sources such as supernovas and will search for new subatomic phenomena such as proton decay.

DUNE is remarkable for its international character: More than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 institutions in more than 35 countries, plus CERN, make up the DUNE collaboration. Collaborators are contributing expertise and resources to the design and construction of the experiment, providing economic benefits to partner institutions and countries.

“This is a historic moment for LBNF/DUNE. CERN is our largest international partner, and we are grateful for their contributions to this enormous particle physics experiment,” said Lia Merminga, Fermilab director. “We are looking forward to receiving the first components of the large cryogenic vessels next year. Then the installation can begin, bringing us one step closer to physics!”

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.

This press release was originally posted by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on Sept. 18, 2023.

Editor’s note: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory designed, built and tested 18 of the 37 cryogenic accelerator modules that are installed in the LCLS-II linac. In total for LCLS-II, 41 modules were delivered to SLAC of which Fermilab supplied 20 modules, including spares, and Jefferson Lab, a key partner in this project, supplied the remainder. The performance of these modules on the test stand dramatically exceeded the then state of the art and set the stage for an additional upgrade (LCLS-II HE) and for future CW FELs.

Menlo Park, Calif. – The newly upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory successfully produced its first X-rays, and researchers around the world are already lined up to kick off an ambitious science program.

The upgrade, called LCLS-II, creates unparalleled capabilities that will usher in a new era in research with X-rays. Scientists will be able to examine the details of quantum materials with unprecedented resolution to drive new forms of computing and communications; reveal unpredictable and fleeting chemical events to teach us how to create more sustainable industries and clean energy technologies; study how biological molecules carry out life’s functions to develop new types of pharmaceuticals; and study the world on the fastest timescales to open up entirely new fields of scientific investigation.

“This achievement marks the culmination of over a decade of work,” said Greg Hays, the LCLS-II project director. “It shows that all the different elements of LCLS-II are working in harmony to produce X-ray laser light in an entirely new mode of operation.”

Reaching “first light” is the result of a series of key milestones that started in 2010 with the vision of upgrading the original LCLS and blossomed into a multi-year ($1.1 billion) upgrade project involving thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians across DOE, as well as numerous institutional partners.

“For more than 60 years, SLAC has built and operated powerful tools that help scientists answer fundamental questions about the world around us. This milestone ensures our leadership in the field of X-ray science and propels us forward to future innovations,” said Stephen Streiffer, SLAC’s interim laboratory director. “It’s all thanks to the amazing efforts of all parts of our laboratory in collaboration with the wider project team.”

Taking X-ray science to a new level

XFELs produce ultra-bright, ultra-short pulses of X-ray light that allow scientists to capture the behavior of molecules, atoms, and electrons with unprecedented detail on the natural timescales on which chemistry, biology and material changes occur. XFELs have been instrumental in many scientific achievements, including the creation of the first “molecular movie” to study complex chemical processes, watching in real time the way in which plants and algae absorb sunlight to produce all the oxygen we breathe, and studying the extreme conditions that drive the evolution of planets and phenomena such as diamond rain.

LCLS, the world’s first hard XFEL, produced its first light in April 2009, generating X-ray pulses a billion times brighter than anything that had come before. It accelerates electrons through a copper pipe at room temperature, which limits its rate to 120 X-ray pulses per second.

“The light from SLAC’s LCLS-II will illuminate the smallest and fastest phenomena in the universe and lead to big discoveries in disciplines ranging from human health to quantum materials science,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “This upgrade to the most powerful X-ray laser in existence keeps the United States at the forefront of X-ray science, providing a window into how our world works at the atomic level. Congratulations to the incredibly talented engineers and researchers at SLAC who have poured so much into this project over the past several years, all in the pursuit of knowledge.”

The LCLS-II upgrade takes X-ray science to a whole new level: It can produce up to a million X-ray pulses per second, 8,000 times more than LCLS, and produce an almost continuous X-ray beam that on average will be 10,000 times brighter than its predecessor — a world record for today’s most powerful X-ray light sources.

“The LCLS’s history of world-leading science will continue to grow with these upgraded capabilities,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of DOE’s Office of Science. “I really look forward to the impact of LCLS-II and the user community on national science priorities, ranging from fundamental science research in chemistry, materials, biology, and more; application of the science advances for clean energy; and ensuring national security through initiatives like quantum information science.”

Partnerships for sophisticated technology

This accomplishment is the culmination of an extensive collaborative effort, with vital contributions from researchers across the world. Multiple institutions, including five U.S. national laboratories and a university, have contributed to the realization of the project, a testimony to its national and international importance.

Central to LCLS-II’s enhanced capabilities is its revolutionary superconducting accelerator. It comprises 37 cryogenic modules that are cooled to minus 456 degrees F — colder than outer space – a temperature at which it can boost electrons to high energies with nearly zero energy loss. Fermilab and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility played pivotal roles in designing and building these cryomodules.

“At the heart of the LCLS-II Project is its pioneering superconducting accelerator,” said Fermilab Director Lia Merminga. “The collective engineering, technical and scientific expertise and talent of the collaboration deserve immense credit for its successful construction and for delivering world-class performance in a remarkably short period of time.”

The superconducting accelerator works in parallel with the existing copper one, allowing researchers to make observations over a wider energy range, capture detailed snapshots of rapid processes, probe delicate samples that are beyond the reach of other light sources and gather more data in less time, greatly increasing the number of experiments that can be performed at the facility.

“It is wonderful to see this tremendous achievement, which is powered by the state-of-the-art LCLS-II superconducting accelerator,” said Stuart Henderson, the laboratory director of Jefferson Lab. “Jefferson Lab is proud to have contributed to this achievement through our construction of half of the cryomodules, in collaboration with Fermilab and SLAC. This achievement builds upon more than a decade of development of this powerful particle accelerator technology.”

In addition to a new accelerator, LCLS-II required many other cutting-edge components, including a new electron source, two powerful cryoplants that produce refrigerant for the niobium structures in the cryomodules, and two new undulators to generate X-rays from the electron beam, as well as major leaps in laser technology, ultrafast data processing, and advanced sensors and detectors.

The undulators were developed in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. Numerous other institutions, including Cornell University have contributed to other key components, underscoring the widespread commitment to advancing scientific knowledge.

“Congratulations to SLAC and to the impressive team of accelerator experts from the Department of Energy Labs across the country that built LCLS-II,” said Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Mike Witherell. “This unique new facility will provide many new opportunities for discovery science.”

The “soft” and “hard” X-ray undulators produce X-rays with low and high energy, respectively — a versatility that allows researchers to tailor their experiments more precisely, probing deeper into the structures and behaviors of materials and biological systems.

“We’re excited to see our collaborations with SLAC and Berkeley Lab help to empower this light source of the future,” said Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns. “The advanced technology behind LCLS-II will enable the DOE user facility community to significantly increase our understanding of the world around us. Congratulations to SLAC and to everyone who contributed to this remarkable scientific achievement.”

Enabling breakthrough science

Researchers have been preparing for years to use LCLS-II for a broad science program that will tackle challenges that were out of reach before.

For example, scientists will be able to study interactions in quantum materials on their natural timescales, which is key to understanding their unusual and often counter-intuitive properties — to make use of them to build energy efficient devices, quantum computers, ultrafast data processing, and other future technologies.

By capturing atomic-scale snapshots of chemical reactions at the attosecond timescale — the scale at which electrons move — LCLS-II will also provide unprecedented insights into chemical and biological reactions, leading to more efficient and effective processes in industries ranging from renewable energy to the production of fertilizer and the mitigation of greenhouse gases.

The X-ray pulses generated by LCLS-II will allow scientists to track the flow of energy through complex systems in real time. This will provide an unprecedented level of detail to inform the development of fields such as ultrafast computing, sustainable manufacturing, and communications.

At the intersection of physics, chemistry, and engineering, materials science also stands to benefit substantially from the new capabilities of LCLS-II. The enhanced X-ray laser’s potential to observe the internal structure and properties of materials at atomic and molecular scales is predicted to lead to breakthroughs in the design of new materials with unique properties, to impact a range of industries from electronics to energy storage to aerospace engineering.

Life’s processes occur at scales and speeds that have often eluded detailed study. LCLS-II’s ability to create “molecular movies” can illuminate these phenomena, revolutionizing our understanding of life at the its most basic level. From the intricate dance of proteins to the machinery of photosynthesis, LCLS-II will shed light on biological systems in never-before-seen detail.

“Experiments in each of these areas are set to begin in the coming weeks and months, attracting thousands of researchers from across the nation and around the world,” said LCLS Director Mike Dunne. “DOE user facilities such as LCLS are provided at no cost to the users — we select on the basis of the most important and impactful science. LCLS-II is going to drive a revolution across many academic and industrial sectors. I look forward to the onslaught of new ideas — this is the essence of why national labs exist.”

SLAC is a vibrant multiprogram laboratory that explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. With research spanning particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, materials, chemistry, bio- and energy sciences and scientific computing, we help solve real-world problems and advance the interests of the nation.

SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. 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.