An aerial view of FermilabCourtesy of www.theory.fnal.gov
Melissa Tan,
University of Chicago
04/02/08
Despite impending federal budget cuts and the approaching closure of the world’s current largest particle accelerator, researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) are still hard at work trying to understand the subatomic structure of the universe.
Located in Batavia, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, Fermilab is one of the many national laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Run under contract by the University of Chicago and the Universities Research
Despite impending federal budget cuts and the approaching closure of the world’s current largest particle accelerator, researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) are still hard at work trying to understand the subatomic structure of the universe.
Located in Batavia, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, Fermilab is one of the many national laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Run under contract by the University of Chicago and the Universities Research
Association, it specializes in high-energy particle
physics and aims to “advance the understanding of the basic nature of matter and energy” [1].
However, research at Fermilab may be in serious jeopardy due to financial woes. While the federal budget proposed by President Bush had called for an 18-percent increase in funding for the lab, spending targets forced Congress to cut back on many programs, and physical sciences were among the hardest hit. Under the new proposed budget Fermilab will receive $320 million, a 14-percent drop from the $372 million it had expected [2].
The laboratory is a pure research institute, and its scientists mainly study the fundamental nature of matter and energy, seeking to answer questions about the origin of the universe. For example, it has been able to describe the state of the universe up to just a few milliseconds after the Big Bang, said Fermilab docent Felicia Svoboda [3].
In February, Fermilab announced that an experiment by the Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics (COUPP) had found evidence disproving a 10-year-old claim about the nature of dark matter, hypothetical matter that cannot as yet be detected, but whose presence in the universe can be inferred from observable gravitational effects. According to Dennis Kovar, acting associate director for high-energy physics in the Department of Energy, it could make up 85 percent of the total matter of the universe. COUPP’s discovery is expected to significantly narrow down the search for such particles. The experiment also resurrected one of the oldest tools in particle physics: the bubble chamber, which prior to this had almost completely vanished from high-energy physics laboratories [4].
This ability to reinvent existing technology to meet new demands is becoming more important now due to Fermilab’s monetary troubles. Andrew Sonnenschein, a scientist working at COUPP, said that though research was still ongoing, the budget cuts had affected staff and equipment [5]. Currently, all Fermilab employees have to take at least one week of unpaid leave every two months, and major projects such as its proposal to develop and host the International Linear Collider (ILC) have come to a halt due to lack of funding [6]. “The ILC is too big to fund easily,” Sonnenschein said. “In fact, it’s too big to fit within any of the existing funding mechanisms. With small projects, there can be less bureaucracy because there are more strategies for funding them” [5].
However, research at Fermilab may be in serious jeopardy due to financial woes. While the federal budget proposed by President Bush had called for an 18-percent increase in funding for the lab, spending targets forced Congress to cut back on many programs, and physical sciences were among the hardest hit. Under the new proposed budget Fermilab will receive $320 million, a 14-percent drop from the $372 million it had expected [2].
The laboratory is a pure research institute, and its scientists mainly study the fundamental nature of matter and energy, seeking to answer questions about the origin of the universe. For example, it has been able to describe the state of the universe up to just a few milliseconds after the Big Bang, said Fermilab docent Felicia Svoboda [3].
In February, Fermilab announced that an experiment by the Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics (COUPP) had found evidence disproving a 10-year-old claim about the nature of dark matter, hypothetical matter that cannot as yet be detected, but whose presence in the universe can be inferred from observable gravitational effects. According to Dennis Kovar, acting associate director for high-energy physics in the Department of Energy, it could make up 85 percent of the total matter of the universe. COUPP’s discovery is expected to significantly narrow down the search for such particles. The experiment also resurrected one of the oldest tools in particle physics: the bubble chamber, which prior to this had almost completely vanished from high-energy physics laboratories [4].
This ability to reinvent existing technology to meet new demands is becoming more important now due to Fermilab’s monetary troubles. Andrew Sonnenschein, a scientist working at COUPP, said that though research was still ongoing, the budget cuts had affected staff and equipment [5]. Currently, all Fermilab employees have to take at least one week of unpaid leave every two months, and major projects such as its proposal to develop and host the International Linear Collider (ILC) have come to a halt due to lack of funding [6]. “The ILC is too big to fund easily,” Sonnenschein said. “In fact, it’s too big to fit within any of the existing funding mechanisms. With small projects, there can be less bureaucracy because there are more strategies for funding them” [5].
Another important field of research at Fermilab is neutrino physics. Neutrinos are uncharged subatomic particles that are notoriously hard to detect because they almost never interact with matter. They exist in three different forms—muon neutrinos, electron neutrinos, and tau neutrinos—and can switch between these forms seemingly at random. To investigate these transformations, Fermilab runs two neutrino beam experiments, MiniBooNE and Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS), which respectively investigate the transformation of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos and tau neutrinos [7]. MiniBooNE uses a large tank of mineral oil to detect neutrino interactions, but in MINOS, a beam of protons is turned into a beam of muon neutrinos, which travels 450 miles through the earth to a detector 800 meters underground in an old iron mine in Soudan, Minnesota [7].
However, its projects are not all cold research with little relevance to daily life. Fermilab also runs a neutron therapy center for cancer patients with Northern Illinois University [3]. Neutron therapy uses a neutron beam, generated by Fermi’s particle accelerator, which fires at tumors to kill malignant cells. This differs from traditional radiation therapy, where charged particles may be fired at tumors, subsequently ionizing and damaging healthy cells as well. Since neutrons are uncharged, they do not ionize surrounding tissue, and are also more effective at killing tumor cells than X-rays, another common form of cancer treatment. While radiation therapy often requires around 30 treatments over the course of two months, neutron therapy is often twice as efficient [8]. However, neutron beam therapy only works against certain cancers, and thus is not a common treatment.
Fermilab is perhaps best known for its particle accelerator, the Tevatron. Currently the largest and most powerful accelerator in the world, the Tevatron’s name originates from how it can accelerate protons and antiprotons to energy levels as high as one trillion electron volts, or one TeV.
Its position will soon be usurped, however, by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. A multi-million dollar effort by the European Union, the LHC is expected to officially begin operations in May 2008 [9]. Fermilab makes its own antiprotons to be used in the Tevatron, and prevents them from interacting with matter by holding them in place with magnetic fields. The LHC, in contrast, will use proton-proton collisions, a decision influenced by the difficulty of obtaining antimatter—one million protons are required to generate an average of 10 antiprotons [3].
Both the Tevatron and the LHC have one main objective: to obtain the grand prize of particle physics, the Higgs boson. In the Standard Model of particle physics that describes three of the four fundamental forces in the universe, only gravity, or the origin of mass, remains unexplained. The Higgs boson, thought to give mass to other particles, is the missing piece of the puzzle [10].
It has escaped detection so far, but scientists hope that the energy levels the LHC can provide—up to 14 TeV—will be high enough to finally provide a glimpse of the elusive particle [11]. The pursuit of the Higgs at Fermilab is also a race against the clock, since the Tevatron is scheduled to shut down in 2009 [12]. Any hopes that the ILC could replace the Tevatron have been dashed due to the precarious financial situation.
In science, however, cooperation is just as important as competition. Although there exists a healthy rivalry between the two, Fermilab operates a remote LHC center so that data analysis can be carried out almost constantly due to time zone differences [3]. Also, the data from the LHC and the proposed ILC, which will use electron-positron collisions, will be complementary [13]. Most of Fermilab’s projects are international collaborations, and flags from a multitude of nations are displayed prominently on the walls and in the courtyard. Though the future of Fermilab and the role of the United States in high-energy particle physics research remain uncertain, the international scientific community will probably not be short of new data anytime soon.
Works Cited:
1] Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory website, February 23, 2008.http://www.fnal.gov/pub/about/whatis/mission.html
[2] Chang, Kenneth. “Budget Cuts Will Mean Layoffs at Fermilab.” The New York Times. December 22, 2007.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/science/22fermi.html
[3] Interview with Felicia Svoboda, February 15, 2008.
[4] Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). “COUPP experiment tightens limits on dark matter.” Fermilab press release, February 14, 2008. http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/COUPPdarkmattersearch.html
[5] E-mail interview with Andrew Sonnenschein, February 27, 2008.
[6] Furlough policy on Fermilab website, February 22. www.fnal.gov/faw/furlough/policy.html
[7] Fermilab website, February 22, 2008. www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/physics/neutrino/index.html
[8] “NIU Launches Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab.” December 6, 2004.http://www.niu.edu/PubAffairs/RELEASES/2004/dec/neutrons/INT.shtml
[9] Large Hadron Collider Machine Outreach website, February 22, 2008. http://lhc-machine-outreach.web.cern.ch/lhc-machine-outreach/
[10] Website of Higgs Physics Group at DØ, February 22, 2008. http://www-d0.fnal.gov/Run2Physics/higgs/
[11] Ellis, John. “Beyond the standard model with the LHC.” Nature 448, 297-301 (19 July 2007). Published online July 18, 2007. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7151/full/nature06079.html
[12] Kunz, Tona. “Closing in on the Higgs.” Fermilab website feature, February 8, 2008. http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive_2008/today08-02-08.html
[13] Heuer, R. “The International Linear Collider ILC - a Status Report.” Nuclear Physics B (Proc. Suppl.) 154 (2006):131-136.
However, its projects are not all cold research with little relevance to daily life. Fermilab also runs a neutron therapy center for cancer patients with Northern Illinois University [3]. Neutron therapy uses a neutron beam, generated by Fermi’s particle accelerator, which fires at tumors to kill malignant cells. This differs from traditional radiation therapy, where charged particles may be fired at tumors, subsequently ionizing and damaging healthy cells as well. Since neutrons are uncharged, they do not ionize surrounding tissue, and are also more effective at killing tumor cells than X-rays, another common form of cancer treatment. While radiation therapy often requires around 30 treatments over the course of two months, neutron therapy is often twice as efficient [8]. However, neutron beam therapy only works against certain cancers, and thus is not a common treatment.
Fermilab is perhaps best known for its particle accelerator, the Tevatron. Currently the largest and most powerful accelerator in the world, the Tevatron’s name originates from how it can accelerate protons and antiprotons to energy levels as high as one trillion electron volts, or one TeV.
Its position will soon be usurped, however, by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. A multi-million dollar effort by the European Union, the LHC is expected to officially begin operations in May 2008 [9]. Fermilab makes its own antiprotons to be used in the Tevatron, and prevents them from interacting with matter by holding them in place with magnetic fields. The LHC, in contrast, will use proton-proton collisions, a decision influenced by the difficulty of obtaining antimatter—one million protons are required to generate an average of 10 antiprotons [3].
Both the Tevatron and the LHC have one main objective: to obtain the grand prize of particle physics, the Higgs boson. In the Standard Model of particle physics that describes three of the four fundamental forces in the universe, only gravity, or the origin of mass, remains unexplained. The Higgs boson, thought to give mass to other particles, is the missing piece of the puzzle [10].
It has escaped detection so far, but scientists hope that the energy levels the LHC can provide—up to 14 TeV—will be high enough to finally provide a glimpse of the elusive particle [11]. The pursuit of the Higgs at Fermilab is also a race against the clock, since the Tevatron is scheduled to shut down in 2009 [12]. Any hopes that the ILC could replace the Tevatron have been dashed due to the precarious financial situation.
In science, however, cooperation is just as important as competition. Although there exists a healthy rivalry between the two, Fermilab operates a remote LHC center so that data analysis can be carried out almost constantly due to time zone differences [3]. Also, the data from the LHC and the proposed ILC, which will use electron-positron collisions, will be complementary [13]. Most of Fermilab’s projects are international collaborations, and flags from a multitude of nations are displayed prominently on the walls and in the courtyard. Though the future of Fermilab and the role of the United States in high-energy particle physics research remain uncertain, the international scientific community will probably not be short of new data anytime soon.
Works Cited:
1] Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory website, February 23, 2008.http://www.fnal.gov/pub/about/whatis/mission.html
[2] Chang, Kenneth. “Budget Cuts Will Mean Layoffs at Fermilab.” The New York Times. December 22, 2007.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/science/22fermi.html
[3] Interview with Felicia Svoboda, February 15, 2008.
[4] Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). “COUPP experiment tightens limits on dark matter.” Fermilab press release, February 14, 2008. http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/COUPPdarkmattersearch.html
[5] E-mail interview with Andrew Sonnenschein, February 27, 2008.
[6] Furlough policy on Fermilab website, February 22. www.fnal.gov/faw/furlough/policy.html
[7] Fermilab website, February 22, 2008. www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/physics/neutrino/index.html
[8] “NIU Launches Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab.” December 6, 2004.http://www.niu.edu/PubAffairs/RELEASES/2004/dec/neutrons/INT.shtml
[9] Large Hadron Collider Machine Outreach website, February 22, 2008. http://lhc-machine-outreach.web.cern.ch/lhc-machine-outreach/
[10] Website of Higgs Physics Group at DØ, February 22, 2008. http://www-d0.fnal.gov/Run2Physics/higgs/
[11] Ellis, John. “Beyond the standard model with the LHC.” Nature 448, 297-301 (19 July 2007). Published online July 18, 2007. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7151/full/nature06079.html
[12] Kunz, Tona. “Closing in on the Higgs.” Fermilab website feature, February 8, 2008. http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive_2008/today08-02-08.html
[13] Heuer, R. “The International Linear Collider ILC - a Status Report.” Nuclear Physics B (Proc. Suppl.) 154 (2006):131-136.
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