DZero

On March 2, 1995, the top quark discovery at Fermilab was announced by scientists on the CDF and DZero collaborations, and the sixth and final quark was added to the Standard Model. We ask two members of the collaborations to reflect on this groundbreaking moment in particle physics.

The CDF experiment at Fermilab measured the mass of the W boson and came up with an answer that no one expected.

Scientists discovered a new particle by comparing data recorded at the Large Hadron Collider and the Tevatron.

From the CERN Courier, March 9, 2021: The discovery of an odderon, predicted to exist almost 50 years ago, was the result of a collaboration between CERN and Fermilab using data from the Large Hadron Collider as well as Fermilab’s DZero experiment. The results were presented at a CERN physics talk and are reported in a joint publication on the observations that were made in December 2020.

Twenty-five years ago, scientists on the CDF and DZero particle physics experiments at Fermilab announced one of history’s biggest breakthroughs in particle physics: the discovery of the long-sought top quark. The collaborations on the two experiments jointly made the announcement on March 2, 1995, to much fanfare. We take a look back on this day in Fermilab history a quarter-century ago.

The CDF and DZero collaborations at Fermilab announced the discovery of the top quark in 1995, the final undiscovered quark of the six predicted by theory. The biannual prize is given for an outstanding contribution to high-energy and particle physics.

Physicists often find thrifty, ingenious ways to reuse equipment and resources. What do you do about an 800-ton magnet originally used to discover new particles? Send it off on a months-long journey via truck, train and ship halfway across the world to detect oscillating particles called neutrinos, of course. It’s all part of the vast recycling network of the physics community.

Measuring a certain parameter of particles emerging from Tevatron collisions helps us better understand how the unified electromagnetic and weak forces broke into separate distinct entities in the universe’s early moments.

From The New York Times, May 28, 2018: At CERN in Switzerland and Fermilab in Illinois, there is always a sense of discovery — about the past, present and future.

From ars technica, Feb. 29, 2016: Fermilab’s found a brand-new species—the first particle with four flavors of quarks.