Fermilab Floods
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Volume 19 Friday, August 2, 1996 Number 15 f INSIDE Fermilab 2 University Close-Up: South Alabama 6 Better and Better: Floods Fermilab Upgrades 8 Painless Physics by Judy Jackson, Office of Public Affairs 9 Profiles in Record-setting rainfall on July 17 and 18 f Particle Physics: shut down Fermilab’s Tevatron accelerator, Reidar Hahn turned site roadways into rivers, and sent employees exploring unfamiliar highways to find ways to get to work. “I saw parts of the state of Illinois where Accelerator Division Staf I thought I might y continued on page 4 Photo b Water poured through a cable tray at B3 in the accelerator ring. Main Ring Road at midday on July 18. f A quick working sketch Accelerator Division Staf of the Main Ring showed y flooded areas of the accel- erator tunnel. Inner circle Photo b ndicates Main Injector South Alabama and Sweet Home Fermilab Research by the University of South Alabama high-energy physics group combines two professors, undergrad- uates, high school students and a strong feeling of unity. by Donald Sena, Office of Public Affairs Sitting in a cramped trailer–office and talking about science research at Fermilab, Merrill Jenkins and Kent Clark, professors who constitute the entire particle physics group at South Alabama University, make an impressive, albeit small, team. As Jenkins sits on the edge of his seat, enthusiastically explaining South Alabama’s involvement in an experiment, Clark amplifies his partner’s words with a nod, a well-placed “yes,” or even the end of a sentence when Jenkins pauses briefly to find the perfect description. Later, the two professors walk through their dank beam hall crowded with experimental equipment amid components still physics. The two professors received their first South Alabama professors Merrill Jenkins (left) and in boxes, alternately explaining how their con- funding in 1990. tribution to a study will fit in with overall Kent Clark install the “We think we may be unique in the trigger hodoscopes in the physics goals. country in that we’re the only physics program E871 experimental hall. Theirs is an intimacy that can get lost at funded by [the Department of Energy] that has universities with larger programs, and a unity no graduate program,” said Clark. that Jenkins and Clark hope to carry over as Jenkins and Clark hope to change that, but they attempt to expand their program. said it will take some time and work. They “I have the highest regard for them,” said must prove to the state commission on higher “ I have the highest Craig Dukes of the University of Virginia and education there is a need for a graduate pro- regard for them. cospokesman for E871. “They are very much a gram and students will find jobs when they team, and they get an amazing amount done leave. The professors admit they must first They are very considering they don’t have graduate students.” increase the number of undergraduates with The Program physics majors. much a team, and The physics department at South Alabama A Fermilab History they get an has seven faculty members and produces about While a graduate student at Florida State, two physics graduates each year. Although it is Clark performed his Ph.D. experiment at the amazing amount a small department compared with some of the Stanford Linear Accelerator in California. Later, done considering other institutions working at Fermilab, Jenkins as a postdoc at Rice University, he performed said it contains forward-thinking professors. his first Fermilab study, E609. He said collabo- they don’t have “Every faculty member...is actively involved rators were looking for jet production in in research of one type or another,” said p–nucleus interactions. graduate Jenkins. “It’s something that we take pride in “It’s ancient history because we were in our department.” looking for jets,” said Clark. students.” The university, in Mobile, started the high- Jets are streams of secondary particles energy group when Jenkins arrived in 1988. At spraying out from the collision of two sub- ~ Craig Dukes that time, Clark was engaged in other types of atomic particles, they are now considered com- cospokesman research but wanted to get back to particle monplace to observe. for E871. Jenkins performed his dissertation experi- physicists joined this experiment in the early ment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, planning stages. studying cascade hyperon resonances. In 1983, “There were a lot of attractive features to he was hired as a postdoc by Fermilab to work this experiment,” said Jenkins. “First of all, it’s in the Physics Section. At the Lab he collabo- a very clever experiment. Secondly, it’s a small rated on two experiments, including E705, the collaboration—so small that a group like us hadronic production of charmonium and direct can contribute heavily...,” he said, gesturing photon production. to Clark. Just after Jenkins’ Clark nodded and added, “It’s been fun arrival in Mobile in 1988, because everyone is easy to work with. It’s a he and Clark began South fairly tight-knit collaboration.” Alabama’s first–ever partici- The two professors accepted the responsi- pation in a high-energy bility of building the trigger hodoscopes for physics experiment. The E871. The purpose of the hodoscopes is to study at Fermilab, E771, capture all of the cascade decays, while rejecting included B hadron produc- some beam interactions that occur between the tion. Some of the primary collimator and the downstream spectrometer. physics goals of the experi- ment included the observa- Student Involvement tion of B production in The two professors spent a year designing fixed-target collisions. The and building the hodoscopes, but they had South Alabama team help. In keeping with their philosophy of worked on the photon achieving a balance between teaching and calorimeter—a huge array of experimenting, Jenkins and Clark involved scintillating glass sur- undergraduates from their institution, as well as Merrill Jenkins of the rounded by lead glass. The physics tool mea- Alabama high school students, in the construc- University of South sured photon energies and positions to recon- tion of the hodoscopes, Three undergraduates Alabama installing E871 struct decay modes. E771 collaborators are still equipment for the CP and three students from the Alabama Academy analyzing data from the study. violation experiment. of Mathematics and Science spent many weeks testing the photomultiplier tubes attached to Searching for CP Violation the end of every paddle. In all, students tested about 115 tubes for CP violation—the observed difference the experiment. Two undergraduates even between matter and antimatter in the uni- drove to Fermilab with the professors to install verse—outside the kaon world now occupies the hodoscope stands and visit the high-energy the South Alabama duo. CP violation has been physics lab. observed only in kaon decays. KTeV, a fixed- “These are students, including high school target experiment in the present Fermilab run, students, who want to be scientists, and so it is will continue the long line of kaon studies. a wonderful way to broaden their education However, another fixed- and get them involved in research, even if it is target experiment, E871, or something as elementary as finding the oper- the HyperCP experiment, ating voltage of a tube,” said Clark. “Anything will attempt to observe CP we can do to get them involved in research at violation in other types of any level is going to help their education and decays. Jenkins, Clark and show them what it’s all about.” the other collaborators will The drive to involve undergraduates in study the decay of the cas- research permeates the small physics faculty, cade particle and lambda according to Jenkins. Everyone in the depart- hyperon and their anti- ment tries to get students interested in experi- matter counterparts; any mentation, and working in a small program observed difference in the makes it easier. decays would be evidence “It’s a good component of their overall for CP violation. Dukes said education...to be exposed to this, no matter the Standard Model predicts what they do when they get out, whether it’s in that CP violation is present, industry, teaching in high schools or going on but the magnitude of the Kent Clark, professor at to graduate school,” said Jenkins. “And the fac- phenomenon is uncertain. He said if CP viola- the University of South ulty is very much committed to see that every tion is present but unexpectedly small, experi- Alabama, getting his student has that opportunity.” ■ part of the experiment menters may not be able to see it. Hoping to ready. build upon their expertise, the South Alabama Fermilab have to pull out my passport,” said Facilities into rushing waterfalls, and water poured into Engineering Services Section Head David the accelerator tunnel. As waters rose on Floods Nevin, describing his trip to the Laboratory Thursday morning, so did concerns about the early Thursday morning. electrical feeder that powers sump pumps for continued from page 1 Fermilab does not measure rainfall levels at the accelerator tunnel. Lab officials feared the Laboratory, but weather centers in neigh- floodwaters might overwhelm a sandbag barrier boring communities recorded up to 18 inches and engulf the feeder, cutting off power to the of rain during the storm. The flood’s most pumps laboring to cope with incoming water. serious effects on Fermilab operations stemmed The decision to breach a dike early Thursday from the flooding of vital pumps in the water afternoon allowed staff to drain the water into cooling system at Casey’s Pond, near the Main Ring Lake and removed the threat to the Water covers Main northern site boundary.