To whom neutrinos may concern

Dave Schmitz, Fermilab physicist and Quantum Diaries blogger

Hi everyone. This post is inspired by a letter I received recently written by a remarkable sixth grader who is working on a project about neutrinos. He mailed his letter to the Office of Communication here at Fermilab and I was asked if I could put together a response. In his letter he asks three great questions about neutrinos and the Fermilab neutrino experiments, so I thought I would share my reply here on QD, as others might be interested.

1. How does Fermilab send beams of neutrinos up to the neutrino research lab in Minnesota?
2. How are neutrinos formed?
3. Why are neutrinos not classified as dark matter?

See, great questions, right? Here were my thoughts.

Thank you for your letter with your three questions about the neutrino experiments being done here at Fermilab. Indeed we do send a beam of neutrinos created here at the Laboratory in Illinois to a research laboratory about 450 miles away in northern Minnesota!

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Asian dance performance event at 12:15 p.m. Friday

At 12:15 p.m. on Friday, May 15, in Ramsey Auditorium, Fermilab will present a series of cultural dances as part of Fermilab’s celebration of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. Five professionally trained dancers of the Xilin Chinese Academy in Naperville will perform a Chinese classical dance. Dancer Archana Bokka will perform “Ragamalika,” a traditional South Indian classical dance and a Bollywood-styled piece.

Fermilab Deputy Director Young-Kee Kim will perform a traditional Korean Dance during an Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month celebration on Friday, May 15 in Ramsey Auditorium.

During the same event, Fermilab Deputy Director Young-Kee Kim will perform a traditional Korean folk dance.

Fermilab’s Diversity Council will recognize Asian/Pacific American Heritage month through the rest of May. Check out the display items in the atrium, watch video clips on the ROC screen on Fridays, participate in the weekly trivia quiz set up near the cafeteria and plan to attend the Asian Tea Festival and Art Display in Wilson Hall from 3-5 p.m. on Friday, May 29. Pat Read will also give a Brown Bag program from noon-1 p.m. on May 26 in One North titled “Chinese Ceramics from 4800 to 1368 AD.”

Duck in a tree

Technical Division's Paul Olderr spotted a duck nesting in tree near the CDF trailers.

Tracking the elusive ghost particle

From The College of William & Mary,
May 1, 2009

The neutrino is an abundant, interesting and mysterious subatomic particle. It has no charge and until recently was believed to have no mass. Because neutrinos have no charge, these "ghost particles" can go pretty much anywhere and through anything.

"Imagine if you shot a stream of neutrinos through a brick of lead one light year thick," Patricia Vahle said. "More than half of them would come out of the other side."

Vahle is an assistant professor in the physics department at William & Mary. She is one of a group of researchers participating in NOvA, an experiment that will bring about a greater understanding of the neutrino-and of the universe itself.

Neutrinos are important to physicists because their properties hold the key to understanding a number of questions, such as a fuller understanding of nuclear fusion and fission mechanics and the mystery of why antimatter is so rare in the universe.

"If you want to understand how the universe began and how it evolved and how it is working today, you need to understand as much as you can about the neutrino," she said.

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