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Physics at Fermilab
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Accelerators - R&D for Future Accelerators


Creating new tools to study matter, space and time

Like explorers setting out for new territory, physicists need the right equipment to explore the inner space of the particle world. The deeper they penetrate matter, the more powerful and complex are the instruments they need. Only by pushing the frontiers of technology, can physicists probe nature's deepest secrets and discover the unexpected.

High-energy physicists rely on four essential ingredients to build the best "microscopes" to study matter at its smallest scales:

  • powerful machines to accelerate particles
  • strong magnets to steer high-energy particle beams
  • complex detectors to record particle tracks with high precision
  • innovative computing solutions to store and analyze billions of particle collisions
Scientists at Fermilab actively pursue the advancement of all these fields. Fermilab scientists and engineers collaborate with scientists from industry and universities around the world to develop
  • the next generation of particle accelerators
  • superconducting magnets based on innovative materials and design
  • silicon-based particle detectors with superfast readout technology
  • real-time data screening systems and cost-effective computer farms
  • global computing systems for effective data access and analysis and much more.
The projects spur the development of new technology in many other areas, including cooling-systems design, vacuum technology, electrical engineering and precision surveying methods. New technical solutions have benefited disciplines such as medicine, astronomy, materials science and computer science.

Technology highlights at Fermilab

Slide show on some of the technology spin offs from high energy physics

Homepage of Technical Division


last modified 2/23/2001   email Fermilab

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