particles

From National Geographic Spain, right click to translate. Why are particle accelerators so important as machines that help us find the answers to the questions of how the universe works and why we are here.

Physicists use particle accelerators to replicate the early Universe’s conditions, revealing insights from the Big Bang to the formation of atoms. Data generated in particle physics experiments and theoretical physics can offer a glimpse into the earliest moments of the cosmos.

Kmele Foster, host of Dispatches from The Well, visited Fermilab last spring to speak with scientists about how exploring the mysteries at the heart of particle physics can help us better understand some of the most profound mysteries of our universe. This Big Think production features Bonnie Fleming, Don Lincoln, Doga Kurkcuoglu and Rachel Pfaff.

From Big Think, Feb. 16, 2023: Common sense says nothing is nothing but science proves that nothing is in fact something. Fermilab’s Don Lincoln explains at the tiny quantum level, empty space is actually a vibrant place with tiny subatomic particles appearing and disappearing.

From Science News, September 22, 2022: Emily Conover explains in this video why the universe contain so much more matter than antimatter told through the lens of a classic, 8-bit video game, with matter and antimatter locked in an epic battle for cosmic supremacy. Experiments like DUNE will examine ghostly subatomic particles known as neutrinos to provide clues.

From NBC News, May 4, 2022: A new research initiative that includes Fermilab scientist Alan Bross plans to scan Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza using energetic particles from space. The new device is a high-powered telescope to map the Great Pyramid’s internal makeup from all angles and could help scientists “see” inside the ancient structure to glean new details about its mysterious inner chambers.

From Science News, April 22, 2022: A more detailed survey of the Great Pyramid is being planned by a team of researchers who will place much larger detectors than previously used outside the pyramid measuring muons from multiple angles. The results will provide a 3-D view of what’s inside in the Great Pyramid, says Fermilab particle physicist Alan Bross.

From Live Science, March 14, 2022: Fermilab’s Alan Bross is leading a team planning to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest pyramid ever constructed in ancient Egypt. The team will use powerful scans to analyze muons in greater detail aiming to answer the question of what exists in two mysterious voids in the pyramid.

From World Nuclear News, December 7, 2021: A neutrino detection kit has been installed in the containment of Argentina’s Atucha 2 reactor in support of a US-Argentine experiment to learn more about the mysterious particles. Scientists of the vIOLETTA Project are using sensitive Skipper CCD equipment designed and prepared by Fermilab and Berkeley labs. It will be able to detect interactions between neutrinos and a silicon matrix. The experimental arrangement will give them insights on neutrinos at previously unexplored low energy ranges.

From Wired, December 5, 2021: Years of conflicting measurements have led physicists to propose a “dark sector” of invisible particles that could explain dark matter and the universe’s expansion. Now, four analyses released yesterday by the MicroBooNE experiment from Fermilab and another recent study from the IceCube detector at the South Pole both suggest that these more complex neutrino theories may be on the right track—though the future remains far from clear.