BATAVIA, Ill.—Scientists on Friday powered down the nation's largest particle accelerator that for nearly three decades has been revealing insights into the building blocks of matter.
The Tevatron particle accelerator a four-mile-long circular track outside Batavia, Ill. was closed Friday after nearly three decades in use. But closing the Tevatron accelerator a four-mile-long circular track that fires particles at dizzying speeds won't mean the end of cutting-edge research at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. While the Tevatron has been surpassed in size and speed by the 17-mile track at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, Fermilab has a full plate of experiments ahead, both at its existing facility and at those yet to be built.
"For many here it is a sad day, because they have spent many years making this machine sing," said Pier Oddone, Fermilab's director. But now, "it is time to move on." Fermilab will likely take a back seat to the Large Hadron Collider for a number of years, but American scientists are already playing a big role at that facility as well as laying the groundwork for new research in the U.S."As you move on to the next generation of machines, they have to become international projects" because they are so complex and expensive, said Fred Vylla, executive director of the American Institute of Physics, an umbrella of 10 different physical-science societies.
The Tevatron, which has operated since 1983 and is the largest of seven accelerators at the facility, has led to the discovery of a host of fundamental subatomic particles, including the tau neutrino and the top quark. Its construction led to the industrial production of superconducting magnets, which made MRI machines widely available. And it has generated more than a thousand Ph.D. dissertations.
In its early days, the Tevatron was used to shoot particles at a target. More recently, scientists have studied the collision of proton and antiproton particles.While the accelerator will stop generating new information, scientists say they have thoroughly mined only about half the data it spat out in the last 10 years, and that it will be two to three years before all the data are gone through. That means some particles could still be hiding—such as the Higgs boson, or so-called God particle.
"The accelerator has been turned off, but the physics goes on," said Dmitri Denisov, co-spokesman for DZero, one of the experiments on the Tevatron.Fermilab employs about 1,900 people, including 300 to 400 scientists. Another 2,100 scientists are visiting researchers. Officials expect these numbers to dip for a few years in the wake of the Tevatron shutdown, but to bounce back to current levels by 2015 as other projects ramp up.Fermilab's other accelerators will continue to operate. Scientist plan to use one to repeat an experiment performed here that might confirm recent research from the Large Hadron
Collider showing neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light—a result that apparently contradicts Einstein's theories.Fermilab scientists are also installing in Chile a device they created called the Dark Energy Camera, which will conduct the largest galaxy survey ever.Down the road, Fermilab will focus on what scientists call "high intensity physics," in a new facility dubbed Project X that could be under construction by the end of the decade. Instead of accelerating particles faster and with more power, it will aim to pack more particles into the smallest possible stream.
"You can't keep getting a bigger hammer," said Roger Dixon, head of Fermilab's accelerator division. "We have to find new ways to open the physics window."
Write to Joe Barrett at joseph.barrett@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203405504576603183266013812.html
In its early days, the Tevatron was used to shoot particles at a target. More recently, scientists have studied the collision of proton and antiproton particles.While the accelerator will stop generating new information, scientists say they have thoroughly mined only about half the data it spat out in the last 10 years, and that it will be two to three years before all the data are gone through. That means some particles could still be hiding—such as the Higgs boson, or so-called God particle.
"The accelerator has been turned off, but the physics goes on," said Dmitri Denisov, co-spokesman for DZero, one of the experiments on the Tevatron.Fermilab employs about 1,900 people, including 300 to 400 scientists. Another 2,100 scientists are visiting researchers. Officials expect these numbers to dip for a few years in the wake of the Tevatron shutdown, but to bounce back to current levels by 2015 as other projects ramp up.Fermilab's other accelerators will continue to operate. Scientist plan to use one to repeat an experiment performed here that might confirm recent research from the Large Hadron
Collider showing neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light—a result that apparently contradicts Einstein's theories.Fermilab scientists are also installing in Chile a device they created called the Dark Energy Camera, which will conduct the largest galaxy survey ever.Down the road, Fermilab will focus on what scientists call "high intensity physics," in a new facility dubbed Project X that could be under construction by the end of the decade. Instead of accelerating particles faster and with more power, it will aim to pack more particles into the smallest possible stream.
"You can't keep getting a bigger hammer," said Roger Dixon, head of Fermilab's accelerator division. "We have to find new ways to open the physics window."
Write to Joe Barrett at joseph.barrett@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203405504576603183266013812.html
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