MicroBooNE receives CD-0

The MicroBooNE experiment will use a time-projection chamber filled with about 100 tons of liquid argon to look for anomalies in low-energy neutrino interactions.

Fermilab has moved a step closer to constructing a new neutrino experiment. The Department of Energy has given Critical Decision-0 approval to a new booster neutrino experiment called MicroBooNE.

The experiment will look for potential anomalies in low-energy neutrino interactions, which were first reported by the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab in 2007. MicroBooNE will use the same neutrino beam that traverses the MiniBooNE detector and explore the behavior of muon neutrinos made by a proton beam from the Booster accelerator at Fermilab.

The CD-0 approval establishes DOE mission need for the MicroBooNE experiment. The MicroBooNE collaboration now will develop detailed engineering plans for further DOE review and determine the final cost of the experiment, which will be less than $20 million. Scientists hope to receive CD-1, 2 and 3 approvals before the end of 2010 to begin the construction of the experiment as soon as possible. About 60 scientists from 13 institutions work on the experiment.

The MiniBooNE experiment, which still takes data, uses light-sensitive sensors and a tank filled with more than 800 tons of highly transparent mineral oil to catch neutrinos. In contrast, MicroBooNE will feature the largest liquid-argon time projection chamber ever built in the United States. A time projection chamber is a particle detector that recreates with beautiful precision the three dimensional trajectory of a charged particle produced in a particle collision. MicroBooNE's TPC will hold about 100 tons of liquid argon cooled to minus 187 degrees Celsius. The TPC will be 12 meters long and have a width and height of 2.5 meters, making it more than 300 times larger than the largest chamber in the United States, which is located inside the Argon Neutrino Test detector at Fermilab.

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— Kurt Riesselmann

Fire drill set for Thursday

Fire drills will take place from 8:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. Thursday in Wilson Hall. During the drill those evacuating the building should go to the assembly areas behind Ramsey Auditorium.

Floor Wardens need to report evacuation status to FESS management. Employees excused from the drill for medical reasons need to contact the Medical Office and inform their emergency warden.

The fire drill schedule is posted below:

• Floors 15, 14, 13 - 8:30 a.m.
• Floors 12, 11, 10 - 9 a.m.
• Floors 9, 8, 7 - 9:30 a.m.
• Floors 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, atrium, mezzanine, and ground floor - 10:30 a.m.

In the event of rain, the fire drill will be rescheduled for Friday.

Three Americans share 2009 Nobel Prize in physics

From The Associated Press, Oct. 6, 2009

Three scientists who created the technology behind digital photography and helped link the world through fiber-optic networks shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday.

Charles K. Kao was cited for his breakthrough involving the transmission of light in fiber optics while Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were honored for inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit known as the CCD sensor.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said all three have American citizenship. Kao also holds British citizenship while Boyle is also Canadian.

The award's 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) purse will be split between the three with Kao taking half and Boyle and Smith each getting a fourth. The three also receive a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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Name that atom smasher

From The New York Times, Oct. 7, 2009

How often do you get to name a new atom-smasher, or even part of one?

New York Times readers now have the once-in-a-generation chance to help do just that. Partly buoyed by $53 million from the economic stimulus package, aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, aka Fermilab, has embarked on a plan to build a new machine for accelerating protons.

For now, it goes by the name of Project X, but Fermilab would like to come up with a zippier, more descriptive name before this one gets cemented into place by the press. The new machine would replace an aging linear accelerator that now feeds the Tevatron, the world's biggest particle collider for at least another two months, before the giant Large Hadron Collider in Europe takes over. The Tevatron is due to be shut down in 2011; Project X, or whatever name it eventually gets, is a step toward insuring that Fermilab has a future in high energy physics.

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