High Energy Experimental Physics
The High Energy Experimental physics program at Florida State University has remained extremely active since it was established in the late1950's by Prof. Joseph Lannutti. Our group covers a diverse range of expertise ranging from detector development to the use of advanced analysis methods. We currently are engaged in major programs at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), near Chicago, and at CERN just outside Geneva, Switzerland. At Fermilab we use the world's highest energy (1.8 TeV) proton-antiproton collider to study the fundamental structure of matter. The detector, called DØ, was built by an international team of scientists, of which we are active members. Our principal research interests are the physics of the top quark, whose mass we have measured recently with high precision, as well as study of the physics of directly produced photons and the production of jets. We also have a vigorous interest in the search for, and eventual discovery of, new phenomena &emdash; such as those arising from supersymmetry and the leptoquark hypothesis that are not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.
|
|
End view of D0 calorimeter
at Fermilab |
The DØ detector is now undergoing a major upgrade to allow data acquisition at 100 times the luminosity available for the recently completed Fermilab run. The upgrades will be completed for the next run which is scheduled to begin early in 2000. Our computing facilities within the high energy physics group includes a 30-node Alpha cluster with 1,000 megaflops of computing power. In addition we have an NT cluster of 10 PC's, a Silicon Graphics Indigo computer, and an Alpha running DEC UNIX, all for data analysis and model calculations.
At CERN, several of our scientists are members of the ALEPH experiment which uses e+e- collisions at a center of mass energy of about 150 GeV. The emphasis of this experiment is the study of the W and Z bosons. This experiment should continue to take exciting data through the year 2000. For the future we are part of one of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments which, when it comes fully on line in 2005, will be collecting data at what will then be the world's highest energy accelerator (14 TeV proton-proton collisions). Together with our colleagues we are designing and will build the CMS detector, which is 22 meters long, has a diameter of 15 meters, will weigh 12,000 tons, and operate inside a 4 Tesla magnet. We hope to observe the Higgs particle and the multitude of phenomena predicted by supersymmetric theories.
The HEP group, in collaboration with groups at Wayne State Universty and the College de France, is embarking on a new experimental program to study the physics of the solar core by measuring the solar neutrino energy spectrum using a track projection chamber (HELLAZ). In summary, the Florida State University High Energy experimental group has a diverse and exciting program that promises many opportunities for creative work for years to come. |
