Fermilab

Fermilab

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia 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). 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 (4 miles) 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 is also host to 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 40-foot (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.

Experiments

* Tevatron proton-antiproton collider: D0 and Collider Detector at Fermilab
* MiniBooNE: Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment
* Sciboone: SciBar Booster Neutrino Experiment
* MINOS: Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search
* MINERνA: Main INjector ExpeRiment with νs on As
* NOνA: NuMI Off-axis νe Appearance (proposed)