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Fn Ee Rw Ms I F N E E R W M S I FERMILAB AU.S. DEPARTMENT OF E NERGY L ABORATORY Physics Conferences 10 Photo by Reidar Hahn Volume 22 INSIDE: Friday, October 15, 1999 Number 20 2 B All You Can B f 4 Hyperons at the Crossroads 6 Cabibbo Takes His Place in the World 8 State Senate Hearings 13 Talk of the Lab All You Can B by Sharon Butler Back in the mid-eighties, said Fermilab Director Mike Witherell, it was hard to get anyone working on the CDF and DZero experiments excited about B physics, the physics of mesons containing the bottom quark. He remembers being rebuffed when he tried to organize a session on the topic at a Snowmass Summer Study for high-energy physics. The dominant reaction was: hadron colliders (like FermilabÕs) canÕt do B physics, so why bother? That sentiment changed with the advent of silicon vertex detectors, tiny electronic devices that wrap in layers around the hair-thin particle beams. These devices are able to resolve distances as small as 10 to 20 microns. Such fine resolution is critical for separating the tracks of B meson decays from the tracks of, say, W boson decays. The introduction of silicon vertex detectors into the CDF detector reaped a nice reward when Run I data were analyzed. Last year, the scientific collaboration announced the best measurement yet suggesting evidence of CP violation in B mesons. With that measurement, the CDF scientists proved that B physics can indeed be done at hadron colliders like the Tevatron. Indeed, both the CDF and DZero collaborations will have silicon vertex detectors during Run II to pursue B physics. The new excitement about the possibilities of doing B physics here at Fermilab drew nearly 200 physicists to a workshop on the subject earlier this month. The unitarity triangle, a cardboard cutout of which is held here by physicist Mark Wise, of Caltech, is a geometric translation of the constraints on various parameters of the Standard Model. Applying the triangle to B physics, scientists are hoping to find the values for each of the sides and the angles. If the Standard Model is correct, the values they find by experiment should obey the rules of trigonometry. If the values donÕt agree, then the experimenters will have discovered some Photo by Reidar Hahn new physics phenomena. 2 FERMINEWS October 15, 1999 ÒBLESS THEE, BOTTOM! BLESS THEE! THOU ART TRANSLATED.Ó B ~ SHAKESPEARE, A Midsummer-NightÕs Dream This was a Òkickoff meeting to get people moving,Ó Physicists are eager said Andreas Kronfeld, a theoretical physicist at to study the B meson Fermilab who was one of the organizers. For because its oscillation experimenters who are now busy completing between particle and the upgrades of their detectors, it was a chance antiparticle makes it a to think about the physics they are after, added uniquely promising system Manfred Paulini, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley for studying the nature of National Laboratory and another workshop matter at the shortest organizer. Other scientists involved in pulling distance scales, in a way the workshop together were Richard Jesik, of that is complementary to Indiana University, Robert Kutschke and Zoltan experiments involving new Ligeti, of Fermilab, and Barry Wicklund, of Argonne particle production. It is National Laboratory. this promise of B physics to test the Standard Model Scientists from FermilabÕs two largest scientific and probe for where it falls collaborations, CDF and DZero, attended, apart that has led SLAC, presenting their expectations and aspirations in California, and KEK, in for B physics experiments when the Tevatron Japan, to build e+e- cranks up again next year. Also present were ÒB factories,Ó which can Courtesy of Manfred Paulini representatives of a proposed experiment at produce much purer samples of B mesons than Fermilab called BTeV, which will be dedicated Left: A10-meter cross hadron colliders can. On the other hand, the section of the CDF to studying B physics. Tevatron offers certain advantages in the study detector, showing an Following plenary sessions, in which speakers of B physics. It produces all species of B particles, event in which a B meson reviewed the status of the field both theoretically decayed into a J/psi in contrast to the B factories, where only certain particle and a kaon. and experimentally, the meeting broke into parallel kinds of B particles appear. Inset: Enlargement of a sessions in several areas of B physics. In those 1-centimeter cross section The Tevatron also produces about 3,000 times sessions, experimenters confronted theorists in an showing the B decay at more B mesons than the new B factories. That exchange that sought to clarify the capabilities of its point of origin, just allows experimenters to study rare decays: the 723 microns from the the detectors, explore new means of making critical more B mesons produced, the more likely the rare collision point of protons measurements, and plan simulations of Run II species will appear, and will appear in numbers and antiprotons. experiments. large enough for analysis. Rare decays of particles As Ligeti put it, ÒItÕs important to lock the theorists delight physicists because of the hope that the and experimenters in one room. Features that are unusual phenomena will reveal new physics. theoretically interesting arenÕt always feasible for ÒIn rare decays,Ó said Kronfeld, ÒyouÕre always experimental investigation. looking for a surprise.Ó ÒThe interaction between theory and experiment Workshop participants were sent back to their is a matchmaking game,Ó Ligeti said. ÒExperiment- academic and research institutions with homework alists often have conservative views of what they to do: computer simulations of experiments (dry can measure. The theorists have extravagant runs, but without real data) to flesh out ways of dreams about what they would like to see improving measurementsÑor, better yet, to push measured. Bringing them together can produce the limits of experimentation. The scientists will ideas that are both theoretically interesting and reconvene in February and issue reports in May. experimentally testable.Ó FERMINEWS October 15, 1999 3 HYPERONS At The CROSSROADS by Mike Perricone New results, new capabilities for precision measurements and questions about future directions: Hyperons are particles at a crossroads. ÒWhat is the message we want to send to Fermilab and to the whole high-energy physics community in terms of accelerators and experimental programs?Ó asked Emmanuel Monnier of the University of Chicago, co-chairman with FermilabÕs Doug Jensen of the Hyperon Õ99 conference held at Fermilab from September 27 to September 29, attracting 65 participants from 11 countries. ÒWhat are we going to do in 10 years?Ó Monnier continued. ÒAnd what about the mid-term interval? The best result of this conference will be to have everyone convinced of the increasing value of this physics.Ó Like neutrons and protons, hyperons belong to the baryon family made up of three quarks. But hyperons are distinguished by having at least one strange quark in their three-quark makeup. They decay by the weak force with a lifetime of about 10 -10 seconds. The source of concern surrounding this three-quark challenge is the expected phase-out of the 800 GeV fixed target run of the Tevatron in January 2000, as the Lab continues preparations for Collider Run II. As Vincent J. Smith of the University of Bristol pointed out, there were hopes among the participants that the conference wouldnÕt represent a forum for Òwhat should have been done, and wonÕt be done now.Ó Hyperon physicists declare that a high-energy beam such as the TevatronÕs is a highly effective way to get the numbers of particles for the precision measurements they need. And in fact, the Tevatron is currently running in an unofficial Òhyperon mode.Ó ÒFrom the beginning of this laboratoryÕs history, Fermilab has been engaged in hyperon physics,Ó said Fermilab Deputy Director Ken Stanfield in his opening remarks. ÒAs we speak, the last planned 800 GeV fixed target run has two operating experiments, HyperCP and KTeV, both in the hyperon business.Ó HyperCP is searching for CP violation, or asymmetries between matter and antimatter, in hyperon decays, while KTeV is in the hyperon business by coincidence. KTeV (Kaons at the Tevatron) is mainly searching for CP violation in decays of the neutral kaon, a particle consisting of two quarks (one strange quark and one down quark). But hyperonsÑand lots of themÑemerge as by-products of the process producing the kaons. KTeV actually produced a significant hyperon result that Stephen Bright of the University of Chicago presented to the conference. KTeV measured a 4 FERMINEWS October 15, 1999 cascade or Ξ0 hyperon beta decay (a weak decay emitting an electron) almost exactly matching a result predicted in the early 1960s by Nicola Cabibbo, whose contributions include the Cabibbo angle that led to the well-known CKM (Cabibbo-Kobayashi- Masakawa) Matrix critical to the advance of particle physics over the last four decades. Photos by Jenny Mullins Monnier noted that KTeVÕs direct measurement of Lee Pondrom (top) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Gary Goldstein (right) of Tufts University spoke on CP violation in the neutral kaon system occurred hyperon production and polarization. Nicola Cabibbo (left) within 35 years of the discovery of CP violation in presented his Òpersonal shopping listÓ for future hyperon that system. By comparison, a similar phenomenon research, after hearing the announcement of a result with hyperons is still unobserved. And nearly 40 bearing out his prediction from the early 1960s. years after the prediction, a hyperon decay similar to the well-known neutron beta decay has just been confirmed.
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