Division of Particles and Fields meeting 2011
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Fermilab Director Pier Oddone |
It is a special time in particle physics with many results from all areas of our field. There are many results from Fermilab, and we’re beginning to see the early data from the LHC. Hints on the Higgs that come from the LHC will be checked quickly, since the doubling time for the LHC data is only a couple of months - if that much. Many new results from the LHC were presented at the European Physical Society meeting three weeks ago. Those same results, with a few important updates, were presented this past week at the 2011 meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Particles and Fields (DPF).
About 500 registered participants attended DPF 2011, which was organized together with Brown University and took place in Providence, RI. It was the major particle physics conference in the United States this year, and included two important fora: Project X and Underground Physics.
The Forum on Project X was well attended. We reported on the project’s overall strategy, the accelerator design and the potential physics program, followed by a discussion with the participants. Project X and its program will be extensively discussed at the Physics at the Intensity Frontier Workshop, sponsored by the DOE, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 in Washington, D.C.
The director of the Office of Science, Bill Brinkman, participated in the Forum on Underground Physics. The participants spoke about the National Research Council report, the Marx/Reichanachder report and the DOE’s plans for decisions from Brinkman.
For the moment, Fermilab and the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment continue on the path we’ve laid. We need to determine the cost of the potential paths accurately, select the technology for LBNE and complete an integrated design. There is great expertise on the development of facilities at Homestake, as validated by the recent review carried out by NSF. The review committee was extremely complementary of the DUSEL Preliminary Design Report. This experience will be invaluable in quickly reaching a streamlined path that DOE can support.
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Sunny
