From National Geographic (Spain) April 21, 2023: A little over a year ago, the high-precision measurement of the W boson was announced with an accuracy of 0.01%, twice as great as the best previous measurement. In finding the mass of the W boson to be significantly higher than predicted by theory, it deviates markedly from the Standard Model predictions.
CDF
Scientists and engineers from around the world collaborate with Fermilab to develop state-of-the-art technologies and solve the mysteries of matter, energy, space and time. Here is a look at 10 ways they advanced science and technology this year.
The CDF experiment at Fermilab measured the mass of the W boson and came up with an answer that no one expected.
Fermilab’s CDF experiment has recently announced a measurement of the mass of the W boson with unprecedented precision. Even more interesting, the measurement disagrees with theoretical predictions. If confirmed, this could be a very big deal. In this video, Fermilab’s Don Lincoln gives a far-ranging explanation of the measurement and its significance.
From Popular Mechanics, April 9, 2022: New research shows the W boson is heavier than scientists expected with the discovery going against the Standard Model of particle physics. Recently, a 400-person team announced the results of data they carefully sifted through of more than four million collisions from the Collider Detector at Fermilab.
From AZO Quantum, April 11, 2022: The W boson, one of nature’s force-carrying particles, has been detected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) team, which includes 400 scientists from across the world.
From the BBC, April 7, 2022: Scientists of the CDF collaboration have found a tiny difference in the mass of the W Boson compared with what the theory says it should be – just 0.1%. If confirmed by other experiments, the implications could be enormous and could challenge the Standard Model of particle physics.
Scientists of the Collider Detector at Fermilab collaboration have achieved the most precise measurement to date of the mass of the W boson, one of nature’s force-carrying particles. The measured value shows tension with the value expected based on the Standard Model of particle physics.
Twenty five years ago, in March 1995, the CDF and DZero collaborations at the Fermilab Tevatron, announced the discovery of the top quark. Join the virtual celebration of the discovery’s 25th anniversary on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at the Top Quark Silver Jubilee.
The top quark is the heaviest known elementary particle, as small as an electron but 340,000 times more massive! We don’t know how small those particles are, only that they are smaller than 1/1000th the size of a proton which itself is 1/100,000th the size of the smallest atom, hydrogen. Millionths, billionths, … soon we’re talking small numbers!