Works in Progress
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory advances the understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership and resources for qualified researchers to conduct basic research at the frontiers of high energy physics and related disciplines.
The future research program at Fermilab includes:
Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment
Placing detectors at great depth benefits particle physics experiments because layers of earth and rock act as shielding to minimize background noise caused by approaching particles from space. Fermilab researchers have proposed plans to place a large detector in the deep underground laboratory to study neutrinos coming from a beam generated at Fermilab.
One proposed location for this detector is a proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory in Homestake Gold Mine near Lead, South Dakota. The laboratory could house experiments run by researchers from a wide range of sciences, including particle physics.
Mu2e
Mu2e is an approved experiment that will search for the conversion of a muon into an electron. Researchers have observed quarks converting from one type, or flavor, to another. They have also observed neutrinos oscillating from one flavor to another. This leads them to wonder if members of the charged lepton family, the electron, muon and tau particles, have a similar ability to convert to one another. Such a process, called charged lepton flavor violation, would represent unambiguous evidence of new physics.
In the experiment, researchers will use a novel detector to produce, transport and stop beams of muons in a target to study whether they can convert into electrons.
The Mu2e collaboration presently consists of 68 scientists from 17 institutions.
Project X
Project X is a proposed intense proton source that could provide beam for a variety of future physics projects. The proposed accelerator would consist of a superconducting linear accelerator that would inject charged hydrogen atoms into existing parts of the Fermilab accelerator complex, where they would be stripped of their electrons. The remaining protons could be accelerated for use in very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, such as NOvA and DUSEL. Simultaneously, Project X could supply protons to kaon- and muon-based precision experiments. The accelerator would contain superconducting radio frequency components similar in design to those designed for another proposed accelerator, the International Linear Collider.
NOvA
The NuMI Off-axis ve Appearance experiment, NOvA, will search for evidence of muon-to-electron neutrino oscillation by comparing the composition of the NuMI beamline at the source and in an underground laboratory in Minnesota.
Neutrinos are neutral particles that switch among three flavors: electron, muon and tau. Scientists have observed electron neutrinos from the sun changing to muon and tau neutrinos. They have seen muon neutrinos produced by cosmic rays oscillate to tau neutrinos. With the NOvA experiment, scientists are searching for a third type of neutrino oscillation: muon-to-electron.
Using two detectors, a 222-metric-ton near detector and a 15-metric-kiloton far detector, NOvA will search for evidence that muon neutrinos can change into electron neutrinos during the 500-mile trip. The experiment will examine how many muon neutrinos, vu, leaving the near detector at Fermilab appear as electron neutrinos, ve, at the far detector.
The NOvA collaboration consists of more than 180 scientists and engineers from 28 institutions.
MicroBooNE
The MicroBooNE experiment will use a 70-ton liquid argon time projection chamber, LArTPC, to examine neutrino beams at Fermilab. The experiment will attempt to answer why the MiniBooNE experiment observed excess events at low energies. MicroBooNE can differentiate between electrons and photons, unlike the MiniBooNE Cherenkov detector. Building the detector will help advance research and development efforts toward massive LArTPCs for long baseline neutrino and proton-decay experiments.
MINERvA
MINERvA is a neutrino-scattering experiment that uses the NuMI beamline at Fermilab to search for low-energy neutrino interactions. It is designed to study neutrino-nucleus interactions with unprecedented detail.
The number of neutrinos that detectors can observe increases with both neutrino beam intensity and detector size. The high intensity of the NuMI beamline, the most intense high-energy neutrino beam in the world, allows MINERvA to use a relatively small detector with many sensitive channels per unit volume to zoom in on the details of the neutrino interaction. This attention to detail will allow MINERvA to study the properties of the nuclei struck by the neutrinos and also to examine neutrino reactions.
To identify particles emerging from neutrino interactions, the MINERvA detector uses plastic scintillators that emit light when ionizing radiation or charged particles go through them. If placed end-to-end, the scintillator bars in the MINERvA detector would stretch 70 miles, about the distance from Fermilab's site in Batavia, Ill., to downtown Chicago and back. Fermilab, in collaboration with Northern Illinois University and with support from the state of Illinois, reduced the cost of procuring those scintillators by developing a state-of-the-art scintillating plastic extrusion facility on site. Engineers at the facility now build high-quality, low-cost detectors for particle physics experiments all around the world.
Researchers will assemble the detector in front of the MINOS, or Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, near detector at Fermilab.
MINERvA is a collaboration of nuclear and particle physicists from 18 institutions in the United States, Europe and South America. Technicians finished the first detector module in early 2006 and plan to complete construction in 2010.
MICE
Researchers looking for a method of cooling muons designed the MICE experiment to test the effectiveness of a technique called ionization cooling. Ionization cooling takes place when muons are sent through an absorber in which they lose momentum via ionization energy loss. They are then reaccelerated in a linear accelerator where their energy is restored only in the forward direction. MICE will use a single particle beam, with not more than one muon passing through the detector about every 10 nanoseconds. The experiment needs to balance the cooling from energy loss with the heating from multiple scattering of the muons.
Dark Energy Survey
The Dark Energy Survey, DES, will use a state-of-the-art, wide-field CCD imager and an existing telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to study the nature of dark energy. The DES will measure the density of dark energy and dark matter and study the expansion of the universe by observing galaxy clusters; the distortion of light from distant galaxies, known as weak gravitational lensing; galaxy angular clustering; and supernovae.
JDEM
The Joint Dark Energy Mission will take precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe in an effort to understand how it has changed over time. This could tell astrophysicists more about the nature of dark energy. JDEM will study the expansion rate with a space-based wide-field telescope using three different methods.
First, JDEM will compare the brightness of light from supernovae to the redshift of their light to determine the difference between the rate of expansion in the past and the rate of expansion closer to the present. Second, the observatory will study weak gravitational lensing, the slight distortion of images of distant galaxies caused by the bending of light by intervening mass. The level of distortion depends on the distance the light must travel and the distribution of the mass of the universe, as affected by its expansion. Third, JDEM will study the large-scale distribution of matter in the study of baryon acoustic oscillation. This technique studies the difference between the present distribution of matter and indications of the past distribution of matter that remain as temperature differences in the cosmic microwave background.
JDEM will be funded and developed by NASA and the Office of High Energy Physics at the U.S. Department of Energy. Launch is planned for around 2016.