What is neutral naturalness?

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.

An entrepreneurial way of thinking goes beyond commercialization. It is a mindset that helps drive new processes, build more effective teams and enable partnerships. Twenty-one staff members from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator, Argonne National, Princeton Plasma Physics and Ames National Laboratories recently took part in the second cohort of the Strategic Programs for Innovation at the National Labs, or SPIN Program, developed by the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Over 12 weeks, the cohort members with a variety of roles learned to think like entrepreneurs with the goal of increasing innovation at their labs. 

Charles Thangaraj, Fermilab’s senior technology development and commercialization manager, noted that skills like negotiation, communication, cost-benefit analysis and team building all are available to anyone, regardless of their work. “The core idea behind SPIN is to take some of the very best tools developed for business and organizational success and try to apply them in a national lab setting. I think it has proven effective,” he said. 

Based on the success of the inaugural program with Fermilab and Argonne, the Cohort 2 program expanded this year to include Princeton Plasma Physics and Ames Laboratories. The organizers hope to expand it even further for Cohort 3. Participation in the program is merit-based; members are selected through recommendations and an application process.

The selected cohort members came from a variety of work backgrounds, including science, operations, media relations and economics. “We were a wide variety of participants,” said Associate Scientist Sudeshna Ganguly, one of the seven Fermilab cohort members. “That was my favorite part, actually. All of us were showing leadership in different ways. As a team, we exhibited a cohesive sense of responsibility and acted when necessary. Somehow, we managed to do that as individuals and enjoyed the process very much.” 

Through a series of lectures and team-building exercises designed to increase communication and collaboration strategies, the program introduced cohort members to concepts that they applied throughout and ultimately, brought back to their labs. The cohort met at the University of Chicago, Fermilab and Argonne.

The main thrusts of the program were the innovation lab projects. Initially, each cohort member was asked to identify three ideas to increase innovation at their labs. The individuals were then randomly placed into small groups, which worked together over next four weeks to pare these ideas down to two, discussing, negotiating and merging them along the way. 

Learning to conduct customer discovery to get feedback on what people thought were stumbling blocks toward achieving innovation at their labs was a crucial part of this process. To this end, the groups interviewed many stakeholders across the four labs, from scientists to operations to leadership, established employees and those in their early careers, collecting data that helped inform their ideas within their groups and finding themes and commonalities.

“The findings from our customers were very eye-opening for me,” said Akshay Murthy, another cohort member and an associate scientist who recently took on a management role. “It really came down to the fact that many people across the national lab complex feel that innovation at the labs is difficult due to a variety of barriers. We used these interviews as an opportunity to learn more about these barriers and identify solutions.” 

By end of the second month, the small groups merged into two. Each group of 10 to 12 cohort members then had to settle on just one idea, which they described in a 15-minute presentation to leadership from the participating national labs and the SPIN coaches from University of Chicago. A Q&A session at Demo Day on the final day of the cohort followed. 

After participating in SPIN Cohort 2, Murthy said, “I have a better perspective on the operations of national labs, as well as how to be a successful high-level leader — skills that are important to build. That is one of reasons I signed up.”

Both innovation lab projects produced tangible ideas to be brought back to the laboratories for discussion. Ganguly’s team has already written and submitted a funding proposal to the University of Chicago’s Joint Task Force Initiative to implement theirs. And all cohort members are excited to help to establish this entrepreneurial and innovation-focused mindset as part of their labs’ culture. 

“It is a pleasure to see this program grow from two labs in the first cohort, then four. Hopefully, more labs join next year,” said Mauricio Suarez, Fermilab’s deputy head of industry engagement and the Fermilab point of contact for this program. “It is important to grow the network between the labs’ personnel. It is also satisfying to see how the participants improve in their presentation skills, problem formulation, customer discovery, etc. Demo Day made it clear why we want to make this opportunity available to Fermilab staff.” 

Those who would like to learn more about the application process for SPIN Cohort 3, scheduled to take place in early spring 2024, should connect with Mauricio Suarez at suarez@fnal.gov.

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have teamed up with the DuPage County branch of the NAACP to support high school student researchers participating in the NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, or ACT-SO. In July, six of these students went to the NAACP National Convention to showcase their scientific work. 

ACT-SO provides students the opportunity to learn about and compete in various fields, including STEM, performing arts, humanities, visual arts, business and culinary arts. “Its main purpose is really to give students an opportunity to showcase their talents, explore areas that they might not have an opportunity to explore and to basically find out what they want to do when they get out of high school,” said Thomas Reed, the ACT-SO coordinator for the DuPage County Branch of the NAACP. 

This year, 26 students in the Chicagoland region produced original research in ACT-SO’s STEM category under the mentorship of experts from the two national labs and the University of Illinois Chicago. Argonne has provided mentors for this program for 10 years and Fermilab for the past three years. 

“Actively participating in shaping the future of science is an integral part of our laboratory mission and our ultimate goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists,” said Victor Mateevitsi, an Argonne computer scientist and ACT-SO mentor. “The ACT-SO program enables us to collaborate closely with students, assisting them in realizing their innovative research ideas while providing them a real-world insight into the life of a scientist at a national laboratory.”

Six high school students — Jasmine Armstead, Bryan Mann, Daniel Mason, Paisley Namowicz, Chandler Brady and Amalachukwa Agwuncha — went to nationals, which brought together gold-medal-winning students from more than 200 counties across the United States.

Four of the students representing the DuPage County branch of the NAACP won the national competition, including Brady and Agwuncha. 

“The whole goal for this partnership is really to fill the pipeline to get more diverse people into the sciences, into STEM in general. That’s one of the things we try to do with ACT-SO,” said Reed. “We’re focused on African-American students in this program, and we want to see them go all the way through college, grad school, then work in research labs throughout the U.S. and the globe or become professors.” 

Onward to nationals 

The students who went to the finals in Boston worked on a wide range of projects, including a thermal vest to help people with sickle cell anemia; the effect of psychological stress on blood pressure; predicting the magnitude of tornadoes; evaluating the viability of solar sails; monitoring air quality across built environments; and anesthetic drug discovery.

Armstead, a 12th grader at Plainfield East High School in Plainfield, Illinois, created a thermal vest to help people with sickle cell anemia in cold weather. “When your hands and feet tend to get cold first it’s because your blood vessels start constricting and blood goes back up to your core,” said Armstead. As she has sickle cell anemia, she could measure the effects of the vest for herself. 

Namowicz, an 11^th grader at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois, worked on predicting the magnitude of tornadoes, using machine learning. She and her fellow students said they appreciated hearing from speakers from Fermilab, Argonne and other places as part of the ACT-SO program. “It really helped to inspire us as high school students to hopefully have similar outcomes like they did,” said Namowicz. “They were very inspirational and were able to help encourage us to lead similar paths.”  

Agwuncha, a 10th grader at Proviso Mathematics and Science Academy in Forest Park, Illinois, worked on analyzing air-quality levels around Chicago. “The program uncovered one of my hidden strengths,” Agwuncha said. “I discovered that I delivered confident and concise oral presentations. Working with a scientist taught me valuable work ethic skills, such as communication and time management.”

Mann, a ninth grader at Waubonsie Valley High School, said that ACT-SO was “a very enjoyable experience that pays off in the end, and even if you don’t win, I think the experience is the most important thing, especially for my community that would be participating in it.” His project involved evaluating the viability of solar sails. 

Mason, an 11^th grader at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois, studied the effect of psychological stress on blood pressure using supercomputer simulations, which has never been done before. Mason said, “This program at ACT-SO has really helped me take my skills more seriously for science, allowing me to see for myself that I could actually have a passion for computer science, medicine or psychology.” 

“Generally, the projects have some beneficial impact on society, whether it’s to the environment, medicine, improving accessibility to technologies or some other social impact,” said Marco Mambelli, a senior software developer at Fermilab and ACT-SO mentor. “It’s very nice to see how the students are interested in doing research and making a better world.”

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.

U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory scientist Marcela Carena has been recognized as one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notable Women in STEM for 2023 in the publication’s Sept. 4 issue.

Head of the Theory Division at Fermilab, Carena is a professor of physics at the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics. In October 2022, she was one of two scientists to be named the 2022 Department of Energy Distinguished Scientist “for leadership and influential contributions to particle physics, including novel theoretical ideas and strategies for HEP experiments related to the Higgs boson, dark matter and electroweak baryogenesis, and promoting Latin American participation in DOE-hosted experiments.”

The Chicago-based business publication has honored industry and community leaders from Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Michigan; and New York since 2017. Honorees of Crain’s Notable Recognition Programs receive media exposure and exclusive LinkedIn community and networking events.

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.