Fermilab

hello! my name is Grace. I noticed your forum avatar (profile picture?) it's an interesting symbol and i don't think i've seen it before. what does the symbol mean. what does it represent?

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Hi Grace!

The avatar is actually the official logo of the laboratory where I work -- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. It actually does have a story. The laboratory houses the world's most powerful particle accelerator, or "atom smasher." This machine guides charged particles (protons and antiprotons) around in a circular path, and eventually smashes them into each other to see what happens. The accelerator has about 1000 very powerful electromagnets in it. Some of the electromagnets (about 780 of them) are used simply to steer the beam in its circular path. The other large magnets (about 220 of them) are used to keep the beam of particles "focused" around this path.

I've attached a figure to look at now. The picture shows three different kinds of electromagnets used in accelerators. The first one on the left has four "poles", and is represented by the four curved lines in the avatar. The second one has two poles (up and down) -- the magnetic field lines go from bottom (North pole) to top (South pole) inside the hole in the center. The two horizontal lines in the avatar represent this "dipole" design.



Anyway, Fermilab was the first lab whose accelerator was made out of a combination of dipole-style magnets and quadrupole-style magnets. So that is why it this logo was chosen for the laboratory.

You can visit the Fermilab web site at: http://www.fnal.gov where the logo is used quite a lot!

Thanks,

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I just picked you for my physicist for our project and I was interested to hear how you liked working at Fermilab

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Hi,
I enjoy working there very much. It is a very exciting place to be, with people from all over the world coming together to study the physical world. You can get a lot of information about the lab at our web page: http://www.fnal.gov . As you might notice, it has a lot of interesting architecture, wildlife, cool "toys" to play with, and great people. It's really a nice life, I'd have to say.

Thanks for your question!

Career Choices...

Hello Dr. Syphers,
Was there a time when you didn't want to be a physicist as your career or have you always had that being your primary interest?

~Amanda


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Hi Amanda,

I think I became interested in science at a very young age -- probably around 6 or 7 years old. It was during the 1960's, and the "space race" was on. I became very interested in the stars and planets, and started learning to recognize constellations, etc., and looking at Jupiter's moons through binoculars, and stuff like that. I didn't even know what physics was until I was a Junior in high school -- but when I saw the book I saw the chapter on "Gravity" and I was hooked!! And I've been studying, practicing, and teaching physics ever since.

Other things I was interested in during my teens, and briefly considered studying for a career, were drafting, architecture, and journalism. But science was always there, calling me back...

Thanks for your question!

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Right now we are learning about wavelengths and frequencies for light and sound. We are applying it to mirrors and reflection and refraction.

We understand that you work for Fermilab. What does your job entail?

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Hi,

I'm an accelerator scientist at the lab. I work on the design, operation, and troubleshooting of large particle accelerators. I've been in the business for a while now, so I do quite a bit of administrative work (meetings, writing reports, etc.), but I'm still able to work on real science once in a while, too! I probably do more calculations and computer work than hands-on experimentation, but I always try to do a little of each.

Are there more specific things you'd like to know about my job?

Thanks for your question,
-Mike

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Dear Dr. Syphers,

Hello, my name is Myles F. Thank you for participating in the adopt a physicist program. My group looks forward to talking with you and researching you for furhter information. I guess the best question to start off with is, how and when did you fall in love with physics?

Thank You,

Myles F.


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Hi Myles, et al.:

I became very interested in science at a young age -- probably around 6 or 7. I was fascinated by the stars and planets (the Apollo space program was going on around then) and read everything I could about them. My parents bought me a small (and cheap!) telescope back then, and I used it all the time to look at the moon, jupiter, etc. I learned all the constellations visible to me, and the names of the brightest stars, and so forth. So, that's really when it all started.

I took biology as a freshman in high school, and chemistry as a sophomore. The next science class to take was something called "physics," though I didn't know what that was. When I saw the book and saw that one of the chapters was called "Gravity and Planetary Motion," then I REALLY got interested in physics. I took two years of physics in high school and never looked back.

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Hello,
Our group is making a powerpoint on you. I was wondering if you have anything in particular you think we should add into our powerpoint. So far we are putting in backround information about your life and education. We also have slides about the SSC and the Fermilab. Do you suggest we talk about the Higgs particle? (missing link)
Thanks,
Ryan

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Thanks for all of the help. We really appreciate it. It sounds like you have a fun job and you enjoy what you are doing. Also we are celtics fans so we are quite jealous you got to go to that game!

We were wondering if you knew that you wanted to work with physics when you were a senior in High School like us? And what traits are required in a person that wants to go into your field?

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Hi,

Yes, I pretty much knew. I was interested mostly in astrophysics, and started out in college pursuing that area, which combined my early childhood interests in astronomy with what I had learned in my physics classes in high school. I later switched to a straight physics major because at that time there weren't that many jobs in astronomy/astrophysics; there are many more these days. (And, there are astronomers and astrophysicists at Fermilab, so I get to study that stuff after all, whenever I want! Sweet!)

I think the main traits are inquisitiveness, persistence, and some natural talent in logic and mathematics is certainly VERY helpful! I also think that the best scientists are people who are very well rounded -- they play sports, play instruments, sing, dance, travel, read novels, write blogs, climb mountains, etc. (OK, maybe not ALL of that stuff, but you get the drift). The more things you do and experience, the better you can think about the details of the world. My best advice, I think, for young students is just to find yourself, have fun and do meaningful things that make you happy. The rest will follow...

-Mike

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Hello Mr. Michael Syphers

I am excited to find out about your life and more about physics. Thank you for allowing us to adopt you.

Dan T.

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Hello,
I was reading on the internet about the particle accelerator called Cern. How does that compare to the fermilab you work at? And also, what type of results are you hoping for when you have a full on collision between particles?
Thanks,
Ryan D

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I look forward to learning all about your career as a physicist and I hope you will be able to help us with our physics project. Thank you for participating and letting us adopt you as our physicist.

Chris Z

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How long have you specialized in "accelerator physics"?

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Hi,

I've been working in the accerator field for 29 years. I got my PhD (some may say, that's when you become a "real" scientist) 22 years ago.

Thanks for your question,
-Mike
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Hi Dan,

Fermilab may not be the highest energy accelerator lab when the LHC turns on, but it will still have a very important role in high energy physics for many years to come. We are constantly looking at new ways to improve our operation here, and studying new accelerators that we could build that could be complementary to the LHC, using different particles (electrons for instance, rather than protons), and performing studies with more intense beams, not just more energetic beams. So there will be lots to do for a long time.

Cheers,
-Mike

CERN and the LHC

hello sir, i am a junior and I was wondering if you have ever visited the particle accelerator at CERN, and if you have how does it compare to any other particle accelerator you've seen. Also do you know if Fremi-Lab have any anti-matter? From what I know anti-matter is a result of a particle accelerator experiment.

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Hi,

Yes, I have visited CERN and seen their particle accelerators. The LHC at CERN is about 5 times bigger than our biggest accelerator here in the U.S., at Fermilab where I work. It is the largest machine in the world, and when it turns on and runs full steam, it will become the highest energy accelerator. Right now, that honor belongs to the Tevatron at my lab. The LHC is indeed a very impressive sight.

As for your second question, yes Fermilab has lots of antimatter, though "lots" is a relative word. The LHC at CERN will collide protons heading one direction with protons heading in the other direction. These protons travel in side-by-side pipes, and then are brought together at "collision points." In the Tevatron, we collide protons with "antiprotons" going in opposite directions within a single pipe. So for this to work, we need to constantly be making antiprotons every day, all day long. We have the biggest anti-matter factory in the world!

We can make about 300 billion antiprotons every hour of operation. We accelerate protons to a high energy, and then steer them into a target. A lot of debris gets generated from the energy of the collision. For every million protons that hit our target, about 20 antiprotons come out and get collected. We repeat this process over and over until we get enough to collide with the protons in our big accelerator.

But like I said, even though we make lots of anti-matter, it's really not that much. Suppose we run our machines 150 hours a week, and 40 weeks during the year. Then, we'd make 1.8 x 10^15 antiprotons each year. A big number, eh? But an antiproton weighs the same as a proton, which is only 1.7x10^-27 kg. So, in a year we only make a couple of nanograms of antimatter at most; in a good year! In one billion years of constant running we'd make two grams of antimatter...

Fun to think about though!

Thanks for your questions!
-Mike

The Higgs!

What is the Higgs Boson and why is it so important?

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Hi,

There is a description of the world -- the "Standard Model" -- which says that the universe is composed of a variety of particles. Objects are made of molecules, molecules of atoms, atoms of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are made of quarks. There are other particles much like electrons, too -- muons and "tau" particles, and there are tiny little neutral particles -- "neutrinos" -- which we are still learning a lot about these days. When the Standard Model was put together a few decades ago, not all of these particles were known about, but since that time all of the particles mentioned above have been detected, measured, documented, etc. However, the Standard Model has one more particle -- named after Prof. Higgs who proposed that it exists -- which has not been observed yet. It is a particle that would tie the model together in such a way that it would explain why all the other particles have the masses that they do.

If Prof. Higgs is correct and this particle exists, it should be very rare to see. It has to be "made" in the laboratory, and the LHC accelerator being constructed in Europe should be able to make it easily. It might also be being made in our Tevatron accelerator here in Illinois -- we keep sifting through all of our data to see if there are any signs of it. So far, we know where it isn't -- but there's still a chance we'll find it here before the accelerator in Europe turns on.

Thanks for your question!
-Mike


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What work have you been doing in the attempt to find the Higgs Boson? What hobbies do you like to do when your not in work? Also, what do like most about your job?

Thanks,
NHS

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Hi,

I see three questions here...

(A)
The creation of a Higgs Boson is a very rare event in our accelerators (if it exists at all). To find it, we need to generate trillions of particle collisions and sift through the data. The work that I do on this front is to help to improve the operation of the accelerators in order to provide more collisions per week. In this way we can have some hope of finding the Higgs in a shorter period of time, hopefully before the LHC accelerator comes on line in Europe next year.

Imagine a group of particles (protons) moving in one direction and another group of particles (antiprotons) moving toward them in the other direction. Each group of particles can be rather "diffuse" (remember, these are REALLY SMALL objects!), and so mostly the two groups pass right through each other without anything happen. In our case, each group has about 3-10 Trillion particles. BUT, only about 2-3 of them will actually collide! Since they go around in a circle, they'll all get another chance to collide the next time around. The particles just circulate and the groups pass through each other and eventually many of them end up colliding.

The point is, to increase the chances of collisions we can (1) increase the number of particles going in each direction within the ring, and (2) make the size of the particle groups smaller -- squeeze them together more tightly so that they occupy less space and have more probability of hitting the oncoming particles. These are the kind of things that I work on. I also work on optimizing the entire accelerator complex in order to make more antimatter (antiprotons) for the collisions and use them efficiently.


(B)
I enjoy bicycling, photography, tennis, hiking, and basketball (I was at the double-overtime game yesterday where the Bulls beat the Celtics!).


(C)
I think what I like most about my job is the freedom I have to work on very interesting projects, with the most sophisticated of equipment located within a park-like setting, and with some of the smartest people in the world. (Look around our lab's web site: http://www.fnal.gov .) It is so interesting and so much fun -- and they pay me to do it!!

Cheers,
-Mike


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Thank you,
I have been looking through others' posts and have noticed the Higgs Boson come up many times. Could you please explain what this is and how you are involved with it?
-Dan T

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Hi Dan,

The "Standard Model" of particle physics says that matter is made up mostly of quarks and leptons. Combinations of quarks make protons and neutrons, for example. Gluons are particles that interact with quarks to hold everything together. Other particles, like W and Z bosons (sorry about the funny names; most of this came about in the 60's...) interact with the protons and neutrons to make atomic nuclei. Leptons are light-weight particles, like electrons, though there are others, like muons, taus, and neutrinos. Electrons are bound to nuclei by their mutual interactions with photons (light particles, or electromagnetic field particles). While this can explain how everyday matter is composed, there are many combinations of particle interactions that can be generated, measured, etc., which maybe don't happen every day, but they can be created in the lab -- through particle collisions. The particles we accelerate to near the speed of light have enormous energies (for small particles) and when they collide that energy can be converted into mass (E=mc^2), and that's how all these other particles get formed. They may have been around early in the universe, but not so common now. But, we can make them in our collisions.

Anyway, this "Standard Model" has one last element -- predicted by a Prof. Higgs -- which is a particle that interacts with all particles, and is responsible for giving them the mass that they have. That is, the Higgs boson is required to explain why the different quarks and leptons have the masses that they have. It is the last particle of the model that hasn't been observed yet. And who knows, maybe it doesn't exist! Maybe our "model" is wrong! That's what science is all about, and why it's so exciting. Maybe there's something else to discover, which could take us in a whole new direction in our basic understanding, and which could lead to all new discoveries, adventures, and perhaps new innovations. (My iPod is getting kinda old...)

I'm involved in increasing the number of collisions we make in our accelerator so that we have a better chance of finding the Higgs (if it exists) in a shorter amount of time. If things go very well, we should have enough data in the 2-3 years to say whether there is a Higgs particle or not. By that time, CERN's LHC machine should be operating and then THEY'll be able to say for certain very quickly. The race is on!


Cheers,
-Mike

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Dr. Syphers,
You were saying that you are involved in increasing the chances of creating a Higgs particle. How do you do this? Hopefully you will be able to beat CERN in proving the exsistence of the Higgs Particle!
From,
Ryan D

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Hi Ryan,

Imagine a group of particles (protons) moving in one direction and another group of particles (antiprotons) moving toward them in the other direction. Each group of particles can be rather "diffuse" (remember, these are REALLY SMALL objects!), and so mostly the two groups pass right through each other without anything happen. In our case, each group has about 3-10 Trillion particles. BUT, only about 2-3 of them will actually collide! Since they go around in a circle, they'll all get another chance to collide the next time around. The particles just circulate and the groups pass through each other and eventually many of them end up colliding.

The point is, to increase the chances of collisions we can (1) increase the number of particles going in each direction within the ring, and (2) make the size of the particle groups smaller -- squeeze them together more tightly so that they occupy less space and have more probability of hitting the oncoming particles. These are the kind of things that I work on. I also work on optimizing the entire accelerator complex in order to make more antimatter (antiprotons) for the collisions and use them efficiently.

The more collisions we can make per day (per year, etc.), then the more data we'll have to look through to try to find evidence of the Higgs particle.

Thanks for your question,
-Mike

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Dr. Syphers,
Thats really intersting. So your saying that there are groups of protons and anitprotons that are always traveling in the Tevatron? I was looking at pictures of the fermilab and the tevatron and it appeared to have 2 circles. Are there two particle accelerators, or is one circle something else?
Thanks,
Ryan D

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Hi Ryan,
There are indeed two circles. It might be hard to see in the photograph, but one circle is actually twice as large as the other. The smaller circle is an "injector" accelerator that pre-boosts the energy of the particles before they are sent into the largest accelerator (the Tevatron).
-Mike

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Dr. Syphers,
In our powerpoint we had a couple slides about the Higgs boson. I was looking online and it seems to me that if the higgs particle exsists it would explain the mass of the W and Z bosons. Is this true? or does the higgs particle explain something else?
thanks,
Ryan D

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Yes, the Higgs particle is part of the puzzle that could explain the masses of all the particles in the model -- quarks, leptons, and particularly the W and Z bosons.
-Mike

SSC

hello, my name is denisse. im a senior ... and i have a question for you, how did you feel about the cancellation of the ssc project?


Hi Denisse,

It was a very hard thing to go through. It was going to be the largest machine built by mankind, and it was a very exciting project to work on. The government had spent over $2 Billion when it came to a close. (It was going to cost about $9B total.) My family and I moved from Chicago to Texas to work on it, and we lived there for almost 5 years. So, it was hard for us to suddenly be out of a job and looking for work again. It also meant to me that the U.S. wasn't as interested in science as it once was, which was sad, too. Luckily, I think this has all been changing the other way in recent years...

Thanks for your question!

-Mike


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so what exactly was the SSC project? was it a way to conserve energy or what? and who came up with the idea of that project?

-Denisse


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Hi Denisse,

The SSC was the "Superconducting Super Collider." It was going to be a very large particle accelerator, or "atom smasher." It was to be a circular machine, about 53 miles in circumference(!), in which protons would be accelerated to very high energies in opposite directions, and then collided head-on into each other. The energy of these collisions would be converted into new particles -- particles that had not been created like this since the time of the Big Bang -- and then we could study them. This accelerator would have been more than 20 times as powerful as the Tevatron accelerator that we run at Fermilab today.

We build these machines so that we can study the most fundamental questions, like: What is the universe made of? What forces are involved, and how do they work? Scientists first made particle accelerators back in the 1920's, and they have been getting more and more powerful ever since. The Tevatron at Fermilab was built in 1983, and the SSC was thought up by a group of U.S. scientists back in the early 1980's, soon after that. We finally began to build the SSC in 1988. However, it was canceled in 1993.

-Mike