DOCSLIB.ORG

A Joint Fermilab/SLAC Publication Dimensions of Particle Physics Issue

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Joint Fermilab/SLAC Publication Dimensions of Particle Physics Issue dimensions volume 03 of particle physics symmetryA joint Fermilab/SLAC publication issue 08/09 oct/nov 06 symmetry | volume 03 | issue 08/09 | oct/nov 06 dimensions of particle physics symmetryA joint Fermilab/SLAC publication On the Cover Every particle physics laboratory makes room for visiting scientists from around the world, and almost all particle physicists need a home away from home on a regular basis. Accommodations, such as these at Fermilab, tend toward the austere, but then so do the lifestyles of physicist travelers. Photos: Sandbox Studio Office of Science U.S. Department of Energy 3 Commentary: InterAction Collaboration 26 Deconstruction: ILC Cryogenics “In the months and years ahead, the majority of The proposed International Linear Collider will journalists who tell the story of 21st-century parti- use 16,000 superconducting cavities made cle physics will do an excellent job. From time of niobium, and scientists around the world are to time, inevitably, they will get it wrong—at least working on the cryogenic system needed to as we see it. A true test of our character is how keep the cavities cool. we react to this level of media coverage.” 28 Gallery: Quark Park 4 Signal to Background A new sculpture garden created in a vacant Lightning strikes; rainy-day roof rehab; right on downtown lot in Princeton, New Jersey, Quark time; taking care of business, lyrically; ‘critters’ Park wants its visitors “to have a moment of as safety monitors; big jump needed to be top- enjoyment, a glimpse of beauty, and a sense of cited; letters. the dimensions of contemporary science.” 10 Close Quarters 32 Essay: Joe Willie During their visits at other labs, physicists learn “How does a high school in upstate New York that it’s a small world after all, especially when become a hot spot for monitoring the correla- they stay in no-frills dorms. The lab life helps tion between cosmic rays and solar flares? The build professional networks and long-lasting story goes back to a flier…about an outreach friendships across the planet. program called QuarkNet in the spring of 2000.” 16 Catching neutrinos in China ibc Logbook: Cosmic Microwave Background The first particle physics experiment with lead- John Mather and George Smoot shared the 2006 ership almost equally split between China Nobel Prize for experiments on board of the and the United States would be located deep COBE satellite. It took Mather’s experiment only beneath the mountains of Southern China, nine minutes to record enough data to confirm looking for neutrino interactions. the big-bang theory. 22 The European Strategy for Particle Physics bc 60 Seconds: Acceleration of Particles The CERN Council Strategy Group has presented Imagine a surfer riding a wave. If the surfer pad- its recommendations in particle physics, focusing dles at the right speed and gets on a wave at on a policy for Europe to “maintain and strengthen the right time, the surfer will be accelerated to its central position” in the field. the speed of the wave. from the editor Emerging particle physics in China Traditionally, the big five particle physics laboratories have been Fermilab and SLAC in the United States, CERN in Switzerland, DESY in Germany, and KEK in Japan. However, a changing world economy is bringing new players into the game. China, in particular, is currently investing rapidly in basic science research, including particle physics. During my recent trip to Beijing, I was impressed by the Institute of High Energy Physics’ dedication to building a rich, long-term particle physics research program. The Chinese realize that they must grow their program over time through domestic investments and international collaboration. One such collaboration is described in this issue of symmetry. If funded, the Daya Bay neutrino experiment would be a world-class experiment led by Chinese and US physicists, and the largest scientific collaboration ever between these two countries. Domestically, new facilities at IHEP will make a significant contribution to particle physics, commensurate with a relatively young program. Meanwhile, expatriate scientists are beginning to return to China to work in an expanding research effort. More foreign scientists are visiting China, and the Americans and Europeans with whom I spoke were all enthusiastic about working on the new Chinese experiments. Support for basic science in China is currently very strong. During conver- sations, I was astounded to hear that ex-scientists and engineers make up about two thirds of the Chinese government. I am sure this is helping drive investment in basic research, but that interest in science is also reflected in many other ways. The English-language Chinese newspaper available in the guest house at IHEP featured a research science story on the front page every day I was there, something unheard of in US newspapers. Chinese particle physics research is going through a rapid transition, leading to a more elaborate and serious program. Leading Chinese scien- tists acknowledge that it will take perhaps 15 years or more to reach the upper tier of global particle physics programs, but they will make valuable contributions in selected areas before then. The international community should support and include China: Its programs will enhance the global par- ticle physics effort and bring rewards beyond the scientific results. David Harris, Editor-in-chief Symmetry Editor-in-Chief Publishers Print Design and Production PO Box 500 David Harris Neil Calder, SLAC Sandbox Studio MS 206 650 926 8580 Judy Jackson, FNAL Chicago, Illinois Batavia Illinois 60510 USA Executive Editor Contributing Editors Art Director Mike Perricone Roberta Antolini, LNGS Michael Branigan 630 840 3351 telephone Peter Barratt, PPARC 630 840 8780 fax Managing Editor Stefano Bianco, LNF Designers www.symmetrymagazine.org Kurt Riesselmann Reid Edwards, LBNL Aaron Grant Anilou Price [email protected] Catherine Foster, ANL Staff Writers Tara Kennedy Elizabeth Clements James Gillies, CERN (c) 2006 symmetry All rights Silvia Giromini, LNF reserved Brad Plummer Web Design and Production Heather Rock Woods Jacky Hutchinson, RAL Xeno Media symmetry (ISSN 1931-8367) Siri Steiner Youhei Morita, KEK Hinsdale, Illinois is published 10 times per year Kelen Tuttle Marcello Pavan, TRIUMF by Fermi National Accelerator Mona Rowe, BNL Web Architect Laboratory and Stanford Interns Perrine Royole-Degieux, IN2P3 Kevin Munday Ben Berger Yuri Ryabov, IHEP Protvino Linear Accelerator Center, 06 | oct/nov symmetry | volume 03 issue 08/09 Rachel Courtland Yves Sacquin, CEA-Saclay Web Design funded by the US Department Karen Acklin of Energy Office of Science. Dave Mosher Boris Starchenko, JINR D.A. Venton Maury Tigner, LEPP Alex Tarasiewicz Jacques Visser, NIKHEF Web Programmer Linda Ware, JLab Mike Acklin Ute Wilhelmsen, DESY Tongzhou Xu, IHEP Beijing Photographic Services Fermilab Visual Media symmetry Services 2 commentary: interaction collaboration The media have a central role in telling the story of research in particle physics. We need to put aside our differences and keep our eyes on the big picture if we are to make the most of this vast resource, say members of the InterAction collaboration. Particle physics and the press These are exciting times for particle physics, and the world’s press are taking notice. As the Large Hadron Collider prepares to begin operations, as the International Linear Collider becomes an ever more clearly defined project, as programs for neutrino physics and astrophysics flourish, and most of all as long-awaited discoveries reveal the secrets of the universe, our friends in InterAction collaboration members met in Hamburg recently with other particle physics communicators. the media will share the adventure. Their stories Photo courtesy of the InterAction collaboration. and articles, TV programs, blogs, and podcasts will inform and inspire others with the spirit of excitement that particle physicists are feeling admiration for all projects and experiments that at the start of the 21st century. lead to discovery—or one that begrudges The journalists who tell our story will have every word of praise for others’ work. Without wildly varying backgrounds, skills, and points of fail, the media will pick up on our tone. So view. Their pieces will cover the spectrum of will our colleagues, our students, scientists in science journalism. They will define and describe; other disciplines, and we ourselves. It will be compare and contrast; make judgments and part of what defines the kind of field that we are. express opinions; and praise and criticize. Writing Competition will always exist, and this is a in language that is accessible to their readers, good thing. People care passionately about their they will at times seem wanting in their grasp of work. Of course they want to see it recognized, scientific subtleties. Sometimes they will appear and defend it if it is unfairly criticized. But we to lack appreciation for something that we care have everything to gain by maintaining perspec- deeply about; occasionally they may even give tive. There will be hundreds of stories during more credit than we deserve. the years ahead. Today’s lukewarm review will be It is accepted wisdom that the press almost tomorrow’s encomium—and vice versa. We always get it wrong. Actually, in our experience, should take them all in our stride, because we ultimately they get it just about right. In the months are in this together for the long haul. We all and years ahead, the majority of journalists who want to discover how the universe works. It’s a tell the story of 21st-century particle physics will big universe with room, and credit, enough for do an excellent job. From time to time, inevitably, everyone. they will get it wrong—at least as we see it. A true test of our character as a field is how we react to This article is being published simultaneously in the October issues of symmetry and CERN Courier (www.cerncourier.com).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CERN Courier–Digital Edition
    CERNMarch/April 2021 cerncourier.com COURIERReporting on international high-energy physics WELCOME CERN Courier – digital edition Welcome to the digital edition of the March/April 2021 issue of CERN Courier. Hadron colliders have contributed to a golden era of discovery in high-energy physics, hosting experiments that have enabled physicists to unearth the cornerstones of the Standard Model. This success story began 50 years ago with CERN’s Intersecting Storage Rings (featured on the cover of this issue) and culminated in the Large Hadron Collider (p38) – which has spawned thousands of papers in its first 10 years of operations alone (p47). It also bodes well for a potential future circular collider at CERN operating at a centre-of-mass energy of at least 100 TeV, a feasibility study for which is now in full swing. Even hadron colliders have their limits, however. To explore possible new physics at the highest energy scales, physicists are mounting a series of experiments to search for very weakly interacting “slim” particles that arise from extensions in the Standard Model (p25). Also celebrating a golden anniversary this year is the Institute for Nuclear Research in Moscow (p33), while, elsewhere in this issue: quantum sensors HADRON COLLIDERS target gravitational waves (p10); X-rays go behind the scenes of supernova 50 years of discovery 1987A (p12); a high-performance computing collaboration forms to handle the big-physics data onslaught (p22); Steven Weinberg talks about his latest work (p51); and much more. To sign up to the new-issue alert, please visit: http://comms.iop.org/k/iop/cerncourier To subscribe to the magazine, please visit: https://cerncourier.com/p/about-cern-courier EDITOR: MATTHEW CHALMERS, CERN DIGITAL EDITION CREATED BY IOP PUBLISHING ATLAS spots rare Higgs decay Weinberg on effective field theory Hunting for WISPs CCMarApr21_Cover_v1.indd 1 12/02/2021 09:24 CERNCOURIER www.
    [Show full text]
  • Jul/Aug 2013
    I NTERNATIONAL J OURNAL OF H IGH -E NERGY P HYSICS CERNCOURIER WELCOME V OLUME 5 3 N UMBER 6 J ULY /A UGUST 2 0 1 3 CERN Courier – digital edition Welcome to the digital edition of the July/August 2013 issue of CERN Courier. This “double issue” provides plenty to read during what is for many people the holiday season. The feature articles illustrate well the breadth of modern IceCube brings particle physics – from the Standard Model, which is still being tested in the analysis of data from Fermilab’s Tevatron, to the tantalizing hints of news from the deep extraterrestrial neutrinos from the IceCube Observatory at the South Pole. A connection of a different kind between space and particle physics emerges in the interview with the astronaut who started his postgraduate life at CERN, while connections between particle physics and everyday life come into focus in the application of particle detectors to the diagnosis of breast cancer. And if this is not enough, take a look at Summer Bookshelf, with its selection of suggestions for more relaxed reading. To sign up to the new issue alert, please visit: http://cerncourier.com/cws/sign-up. To subscribe to the magazine, the e-mail new-issue alert, please visit: http://cerncourier.com/cws/how-to-subscribe. ISOLDE OUTREACH TEVATRON From new magic LHC tourist trail to the rarest of gets off to a LEGACY EDITOR: CHRISTINE SUTTON, CERN elements great start Results continue DIGITAL EDITION CREATED BY JESSE KARJALAINEN/IOP PUBLISHING, UK p6 p43 to excite p17 CERNCOURIER www.
    [Show full text]
  • Luis Alvarez: the Ideas Man
    CERN Courier March 2012 Commemoration Luis Alvarez: the ideas man The years from the early 1950s to the late 1980s came alive again during a symposium to commemorate the birth of one of the great scientists and inventors of the 20th century. Luis Alvarez – one of the greatest experimental physicists of the 20th century – combined the interests of a scientist, an inventor, a detective and an explorer. He left his mark on areas that ranged from radar through to cosmic rays, nuclear physics, particle accel- erators, detectors and large-scale data analysis, as well as particles and astrophysics. On 19 November, some 200 people gathered at Berkeley to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Alumni of the Alvarez group – among them physicists, engineers, programmers and bubble-chamber film scanners – were joined by his collaborators, family, present-day students and admirers, as well as scientists whose professional lineage traces back to him. Hosted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of California at Berkeley, the symposium reviewed his long career and lasting legacy. A recurring theme of the symposium was, as one speaker put it, a “Shakespeare-type dilemma”: how could one person have accom- plished all of that in one lifetime? Beyond his own initiatives, Alvarez created a culture around him that inspired others to, as George Smoot put it, “think big,” as well as to “think broadly and then deep” and to take risks. Combined with Alvarez’s strong scientific standards and great care in execut- ing them, these principles led directly to the awarding of two Nobel Luis Alvarez celebrating the announcement of his 1968 Nobel prizes in physics to scientists at Berkeley – George Smoot in 2006 prize.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cosmic Microwave Background: the History of Its Experimental Investigation and Its Significance for Cosmology
    REVIEW ARTICLE The Cosmic Microwave Background: The history of its experimental investigation and its significance for cosmology Ruth Durrer Universit´ede Gen`eve, D´epartement de Physique Th´eorique,1211 Gen`eve, Switzerland E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. This review describes the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in 1965 and its impact on cosmology in the 50 years that followed. This discovery has established the Big Bang model of the Universe and the analysis of its fluctuations has confirmed the idea of inflation and led to the present era of precision cosmology. I discuss the evolution of cosmological perturbations and their imprint on the CMB as temperature fluctuations and polarization. I also show how a phase of inflationary expansion generates fluctuations in the spacetime curvature and primordial gravitational waves. In addition I present findings of CMB experiments, from the earliest to the most recent ones. The accuracy of these experiments has helped us to estimate the parameters of the cosmological model with unprecedented precision so that in the future we shall be able to test not only cosmological models but General Relativity itself on cosmological scales. Submitted to: Class. Quantum Grav. arXiv:1506.01907v1 [astro-ph.CO] 5 Jun 2015 The Cosmic Microwave Background 2 1. Historical Introduction The discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) by Penzias and Wilson, reported in Refs. [1, 2], has been a 'game changer' in cosmology. Before this discovery, despite the observation of the expansion of the Universe, see [3], the steady state model of cosmology still had a respectable group of followers.
    [Show full text]
  • 6.2 Transition Radiation
    Contents I General introduction 9 1Preamble 11 2 Relevant publications 15 3 A first look at the formation length 21 4 Formation length 23 4.1Classicalformationlength..................... 24 4.1.1 A reduced wavelength distance from the electron to the photon ........................... 25 4.1.2 Ignorance of the exact location of emission . ....... 25 4.1.3 ‘Semi-bare’ electron . ................... 26 4.1.4 Field line picture of radiation . ............... 26 4.2Quantumformationlength..................... 28 II Interactions in amorphous targets 31 5 Bremsstrahlung 33 5.1Incoherentbremsstrahlung..................... 33 5.2Genericexperimentalsetup..................... 35 5.2.1 Detectors employed . ................... 35 5.3Expandedexperimentalsetup.................... 39 6 Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect 47 6.1 Formation length and LPM effect.................. 48 6.2 Transition radiation . ....................... 52 6.3 Dielectric suppression - the Ter-Mikaelian effect.......... 54 6.4CERNLPMExperiment...................... 55 6.5Resultsanddiscussion....................... 55 3 4 CONTENTS 6.5.1 Determination of ELPM ................... 56 6.5.2 Suppression and possible compensation . ........ 59 7 Very thin targets 61 7.1Theory................................ 62 7.1.1 Multiple scattering dominated transition radiation . .... 62 7.2MSDTRExperiment........................ 63 7.3Results................................ 64 8 Ternovskii-Shul’ga-Fomin (TSF) effect 67 8.1Theory................................ 67 8.1.1 Logarithmic thickness dependence
    [Show full text]
  • PDF) Submittals Are Preferred) and Information Particle and Astroparticle Physics As Well As Accelerator Physics
    CERNNovember/December 2019 cerncourier.com COURIERReporting on international high-energy physics WELCOME CERN Courier – digital edition Welcome to the digital edition of the November/December 2019 issue of CERN Courier. The Extremely Large Telescope, adorning the cover of this issue, is due to EXTREMELY record first light in 2025 and will outperform existing telescopes by orders of magnitude. It is one of several large instruments to look forward to in the decade ahead, which will also see the start of high-luminosity LHC operations. LARGE TELESCOPE As the 2020s gets under way, the Courier will be reviewing the LHC’s 10-year physics programme so far, as well as charting progress in other domains. In the meantime, enjoy news of KATRIN’s first limit on the neutrino mass (p7), a summary of the recently published European strategy briefing book (p8), the genesis of a hadron-therapy centre in Southeast Europe (p9), and dispatches from the most interesting recent conferences (pp19—23). CLIC’s status and future (p41), the abstract world of gauge–gravity duality (p44), France’s particle-physics origins (p37) and CERN’s open days (p32) are other highlights from this last issue of the decade. Enjoy! To sign up to the new-issue alert, please visit: http://comms.iop.org/k/iop/cerncourier To subscribe to the magazine, please visit: https://cerncourier.com/p/about-cern-courier KATRIN weighs in on neutrinos Maldacena on the gauge–gravity dual FPGAs that speak your language EDITOR: MATTHEW CHALMERS, CERN DIGITAL EDITION CREATED BY IOP PUBLISHING CCNovDec19_Cover_v1.indd 1 29/10/2019 15:41 CERNCOURIER www.
    [Show full text]
  • Reversed out (White) Reversed
    Berkeley rev.( white) Berkeley rev.( FALL 2014 reversed out (white) reversed IN THIS ISSUE Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory Tabletop Physics Bringing More Women into Physics ALUMNI NEWS AND MORE! Cover: The MAVEN satellite mission uses instrumentation developed at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory to explore the physics behind the loss of the Martian atmosphere. It’s a continuation of Berkeley astrophysicist Robert Lin’s pioneering work in solar physics. See p 7. photo credit: Lockheed Martin Physics at Berkeley 2014 Published annually by the Department of Physics Steven Boggs: Chair Anil More: Director of Administration Maria Hjelm: Director of Development, College of Letters and Science Devi Mathieu: Editor, Principal Writer Meg Coughlin: Design Additional assistance provided by Sarah Wittmer, Sylvie Mehner and Susan Houghton Department of Physics 366 LeConte Hall #7300 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-7300 Copyright 2014 by The Regents of the University of California FEATURES 4 12 18 Berkeley’s Space Tabletop Physics Bringing More Women Sciences Laboratory BERKELEY THEORISTS INVENT into Physics NEW WAYS TO SEARCH FOR GOING ON SIX DECADES UC BERKELEY HOSTS THE 2014 NEW PHYSICS OF EDUCATION AND SPACE WEST COAST CONFERENCE EXPLORATION Berkeley theoretical physicists Ashvin FOR UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN Vishwanath and Surjeet Rajendran IN PHYSICS Since the Space Lab’s inception are developing new, small-scale in 1959, Berkeley physicists have Women physics students from low-energy approaches to questions played important roles in many California, Oregon, Washington, usually associated with large-scale of the nation’s space-based scientific Alaska, and Hawaii gathered on high-energy particle experiments.
    [Show full text]
  • Mysteries of the Universe
    Mysteries of the Universe Harry Ringermacher, Ph.D. General Electric Research Center Schenectady, NY Elliott-Nowell-White Science Symposium Oct. 11, 2012 Overview • Astronomy 101 - Scales of distance, light measure • The “Big-Bang Universe” – how we see • What do we know about Dark Matter and Dark Energy ? • The search for Dark Matter “Astronomy 101” Andromeda galaxy photo by H. Ringermacher Milky Way scaled against our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda 100,000 Ly 1 light year = distance light travels in 1 year 6,000,000,000,000 miles Time-line of the Universe Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe – WMAP (2001) Cosmic Background Explorer COBE – forerunner (1989) WMAP produced unprecedented images of the earliest light in the universe – the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) What did WMAP discover? • Universe is 13.7 billion years old , (± 1%) • First stars ignited 200 million years after the Big Bang . • Light in the WMAP picture is from 379,000 years after the Big Bang . • Content of the Universe: 4% Atoms, 23% Cold Dark Matter, 73% Dark Energy . • The Universe will expand forever (it is “flat”) and is accelerating . • The nature of the Dark Energy and Dark Matter is still a mystery . 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics Blackbody from and anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation John Mather George Smoot NASA Goddard UC Berkeley The Accelerating Universe • How do we measure the speed of expansion? • Astronomers use “Standard Candles” • Astronomers use the brightest “candle” SUPERNOVA 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae Brian Schmidt, Australian Nat’l U.
    [Show full text]
  • NSF Sensational 60
    Cover credits Background: © 2010 JupiterImages Corporation Inset credits (left to right): Courtesy Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Gemini Observatory; Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation; Zee Evans, National Science Foundation; Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation; Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation, adapted from map by Chris Harrison, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Tobias Hertel, Insti- tute for Physical Chemistry, University of Würzburg Design by: Adrian Apodaca, National Science Foundation 1 Introduction The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. Congress passed legislation creating the NSF in 1950 and President Harry S. Truman signed that legislation on May 10, 1950, creating a government agency that funds research in the basic sciences, engineering, mathematics and technology. NSF is the federal agency responsible for nonmedical research in all fields of science, engineering, education and technology. NSF funding is approved through the federal budget process. In fiscal year (FY) 2010, its budget is about $6.9 billion. NSF has an independent governing body called the National Science Board (NSB) that oversees and helps direct NSF programs and activities. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. NSF is the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. Each year, NSF receives over 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly. NSF has a total workforce of about 1,700 at its Arlington, Va., headquarters, including approximately 1,200 career employees, 150 scientists from research institutions on temporary duty, 200 contract workers and the staff of the NSB office and the Office of the Inspector General.
    [Show full text]
  • Nov/Dec 2020
    CERNNovember/December 2020 cerncourier.com COURIERReporting on international high-energy physics WLCOMEE CERN Courier – digital edition ADVANCING Welcome to the digital edition of the November/December 2020 issue of CERN Courier. CAVITY Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities drive accelerators around the world, TECHNOLOGY transferring energy efficiently from high-power radio waves to beams of charged particles. Behind the march to higher SRF-cavity performance is the TESLA Technology Neutrinos for peace Collaboration (p35), which was established in 1990 to advance technology for a linear Feebly interacting particles electron–positron collider. Though the linear collider envisaged by TESLA is yet ALICE’s dark side to be built (p9), its cavity technology is already established at the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser at DESY (a cavity string for which graces the cover of this edition) and is being applied at similar broad-user-base facilities in the US and China. Accelerator technology developed for fundamental physics also continues to impact the medical arena. Normal-conducting RF technology developed for the proposed Compact Linear Collider at CERN is now being applied to a first-of-a-kind “FLASH-therapy” facility that uses electrons to destroy deep-seated tumours (p7), while proton beams are being used for novel non-invasive treatments of cardiac arrhythmias (p49). Meanwhile, GANIL’s innovative new SPIRAL2 linac will advance a wide range of applications in nuclear physics (p39). Detector technology also continues to offer unpredictable benefits – a powerful example being the potential for detectors developed to search for sterile neutrinos to replace increasingly outmoded traditional approaches to nuclear nonproliferation (p30).
    [Show full text]
  • Big and Small
    Big and Small R D Ekers1 CSIRO-ATNF Sydney, NSW, Australia E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Technology leads discovery in astronomy, as in all other areas of science, so growth in technology leads to the continual stream of new discoveries which makes our field so fascinating. Derek de Solla Price had analysed the discovery process in science in the 1960s and he introduced the terms 'Little Science' and 'Big Science' as part of his discussion of the role of exponential growth in science. I will show how the development of astronomical facilities has followed this same trend from 'Little Science' to 'Big Science' as a field matures. We can see this in the discoveries resulting in Nobel Prizes in astronomy. A more detailed analysis of discoveries in radio astronomy shows the same effect. I include a digression to look at how science progresses, comparing the roles of prediction, serendipity, measurement and explanation. Finally I comment on the differences between the 'Big Science' culture in Physics and in Astronomy. Accelerating the Rate of Astronomical Discovery - sps5 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 11–14 2009 1 Speaker © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence. http://pos.sissa.it Big and Small Ekers 1. Exponential Growth in Science Harwit [1] showed that most important discoveries in astronomy result from technical innovation. The discoveries peak soon after new technology appears, and usually within 5 years of the technical capability. Instruments used for discoveries are often built by the observer. He also noted that new astronomical phenomena are more frequently found by researchers trained outside astronomy.
    [Show full text]
  • CERN Courier – Digital Edition Welcome to the Digital Edition of the May/June 2020 Issue of CERN Courier
    CERNMay/June 2020 cerncourier.com COURIERReporting on international high-energy physics WLCOMEE CERN Courier – digital edition Welcome to the digital edition of the May/June 2020 issue of CERN Courier. This month’s issue looks at the latest progress in niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) accelerator SUPER magnets for high-energy exploration. Discovered to be a superconductor more than half a century ago, and already in widespread commercial use in MRI CONDUCTOR scanners and employed on a giant scale in the under-construction ITER fusion THE RISE OF experiment, it is only recently that high-performance accelerator magnets made NIOBIUM-TIN from Nb3Sn have been mastered. The first use of Nb3Sn conductor in particle physics will be the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), for which the first Nb3Sn dipole and quadrupole magnets have recently been tested successfully at CERN and in the US. As our cover feature describes, the demonstration of Nb3Sn in the HL-LHC also serves as a springboard to future hadron colliders, enabling physicists to reach significantly higher energies than are possible with present-generation niobium-titanium accelerator magnets. To this end, CERN and the US labs are achieving impressive results in driving up the performance of Nb3Sn conductor in various demonstrator magnets. Sticking with accelerators, this issue also lays out the possible paths towards a high-energy muon collider – long considered a dream machine for precision and discovery, but devilishly difficult in its details. We also describe the rapid progress being made at synchrotron X-ray sources, arguably the most significant application of accelerator science in recent decades, towards understanding the molecular structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
    [Show full text]