Difference between revisions of "FermiLab"

Revision as of 21:31, 11 February 2008

AP Physics C Particles Project Wiki Page for FermiLab

Team member pages

• Tim B.
• Will H.
• Vail K.
• Nelly "Crazy Eyes Killa" K.
• Hannah S.
• Isaac Z.

Task list

1. Homework reading assignments
   1. Particle Adventure Readings:
      1. What is fundamental
      2. What is the world made of
      3. What holds it together
      4. How do we know any of this?
      5. How do we experiment with tiny particles?
      6. Any other parts you find interesting
   2. Basic experiments
   3. Particle Fireworks
      1. Table of Elementary Particles
      2. Generations of Elementary Particles
      3. Play with elementary particles
2. Homework questions
3. Notes from FermiLab
4. Presentations
5. Labs
   1. Radioactive decay
   2. Bubble Chamber
   3. BaBar
   4. OSPP
6. Group Project
   1. Z Boson mass
   2. Cosmic rays

Resources

The Nobel Prize website ^[1] is a valuable historical reference (probably because lots of the people who did this work won them). For a detailed look at high energy experiments, see FermiLab's exhibit ^[2]. General information and links are on the course website, ^[3]. Books (yes, actual books) are on reserve for your use in the SJS library. See especially ^[4].

1. ↑ Nobel Prizes
2. ↑ Search for the Building Blocks
3. ↑ AP Physics C1 website Particle Physics page
4. ↑ Lederman, chapter 6

Questions? Send email to the Science Federation Be sure to replace the letters AT with @ in your email.

Fermilab History

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located near Chicago, Illinois, is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics.

As of January 1, 2007, Fermilab is operated by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC, a joint venture of the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association. URA is a consortium of 91 leading research oriented universities primarily in the United States, with members also in Canada, Japan, and Italy. Fermilab is a part of the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor.

Fermilab's Tevatron is a landmark particle accelerator. In fact, at 6.28 kilometers in circumference, it is the world's highest energy particle accelerator. In 1995, both the CDF and D0 (detectors which utilize the Tevatron) experiments announced the discovery of the top quark.

In addition to high energy collider physics, Fermilab also hosts a number of smaller fixed target experiments and neutrino experiments, such as MiniBooNE (Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment), SciBooNE (SciBar Booster Neutrino Experiment) and MINOS (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search). The MiniBooNE detector is a 12 meter diameter sphere which contains 800 tons of mineral oil lined with 1520 individual phototube detectors. An estimated 1 million neutrino events are recorded each year. SciBooNE is the newest neutrino experiment at Fermilab; it sits in the same neutrino beam as MiniBooNE but has fine-grained tracking capabilities. The MINOS experiment uses Fermilab's NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam, which is an intense beam of neutrinos that travels 735km through the Earth to the Soudan Mine in Minnesota.

In the public realm, Fermilab is host to many cultural events, not only public science lectures and symposia, but also classical and contemporary music concerts, folk dancing and arts galleries, when the Homeland Security Advisory System permits. Currently the site is open to all visitors from dawn to dusk who present valid photo identification.

A small herd of American bison, started at the lab's founding, lives on the grounds, symbolizing Fermilab's presence on the frontier of physics and its connection to the American prairie. Some fearful locals believed at first that the bison were introduced in order to serve as an alarm if and when radiation at the laboratory reached dangerous levels, but they were assured by Fermilab that this claim had no merit.

Asteroid 11998 Fermilab is named in honor of the laboratory.