protons

Over the course of three years, scientists working on MINERvA recorded more than a million interactions of antineutrinos with other particles. This data allowed scientists to finally calculate the proton’s size using neutrinos, making this a statistically significant measurement of this characteristic.

The Magnet Detectives investigates the story of the assembly of the US-built magnets for the high-luminosity upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider. By doubling the number of protons inside the LHC and improving the beam dynamics, the upgrade will increase experimental datasets by a factor of 10.

From Big Think, Feb. 6, 2023: For the first time, the proton’s size and structure was measured using Fermilab’s MINERVA detector by studying proton/neutrino interactions. This new method, which studies weak force interactions, is a first step in which scientists can use to better understand the laws of the Universe.

One of two magnetic focusing horns used in the beamline at Fermilab that produces intense neutrino beams for MINERvA and other neutrino experiments.

For the first time, particle physicists have been able to precisely measure the proton’s size and structure using neutrinos with data gathered from thousands of neutrino-hydrogen scattering events collected by MINERvA, a particle physics experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

From Science News, August 17, 2022: Emily Conover explains the “intrinsic” charm of protons. A new analysis of experimental results and theoretical calculations in Nature hopes to unveil a better understanding of one of the most important particles in the universe.

From Nature Italy May 20, 2022: CDF co-spokesperson Giorgio Chiarelli tells the story of how Italy contributed to the measurement of the W boson mass, opening a door on new physics. For more than 10 years after the Tevatron detector at Fermilab produced the last crashes between protons and antiprotons, the collaboration announced the most precise measure of the W boson mass ever achieved.

From Engineering Update, January 6, 2022: Illinois-based Caldwell Group Inc. has customized a lifting frame that may be used in the summer of 2022 during transatlantic transportation of cryomodules to Fermilab for the Proton Improvement Program II (PIP-II) project. STFC-UKRI in the UK designed and assembled the lifting frame to meet impact, vibration, lifting, and transport load requirements in both the United States and Europe.

From the Observador (Portugal), April 18, 2021: The Muon g-2 experiment confirmed a small discrepancy previously detected between the measured values and those calculated by the most advanced theory we have with the probability that this measure is a statistical error is 1 in 100,000.