Tevatron sets all-time weekly integrated luminosity record of 6.7 pb^-1

As of midnight on Sunday, Tevatron experts at Fermilab set an all-time record for the total number of collisions produced in a single week. For the week ending Sunday, October 13, the Tevatron, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, achieved a weekly integrated luminosity of 6.7 inverse picobarns (pb^-1). The previous Run II weekly integrated luminosity record was 4.8 pb^-1. The previous all-time weekly integrated luminosity record of 4.9 pb^-1 was achieved during Run I. The Tevatron's latest record of 6.7 pb^-1 not only exceeded both of the previous records, it also beat them by a very wide margin.

In addition to setting a new record for the total number of collisions produced during a single week, last Wednesday, physicists also set a new record for the collision rate. At 8:50 a.m. on Wednesday, October 9, beam experts at Fermilab achieved a peak luminosity of 36 E30 inverse square centimeters per second, a measure for the collision rate of protons and antiprotons. Scientists are eager to increase luminosity and hence to produce more collisions, increasing the chance of observing new particle reactions involving quarks and other fundamental building blocks of matter.

The previous all-time Tevatron luminosity record was at 33.5 E30. The Run I record, achieved in 1995, is at 25.0 E30. In the near future, Fermilab scientists aim to achieve a luminosity of 40 E30 and a weekly integrated luminosity of 7 pb^-1.

When the Tevatron accelerator was originally constructed in 1983, the first luminosity goal was 1 E30. This first performance goal set a precedent of quoting luminosity in units of E30. The Tevatron's latest achievement of 36 E30 compared to its first goal of 1 E30, demonstrates the progress of the accelerator over the years.

For more information on the Tevatron’s performance, please check www.fnal.gov/pub/now/index.html.