Fermilab

Fermilab Experiments and Projects

Interactions of Matter, Space and Time

Fermilab's mission defines the goal of high-energy physics research: unlocking nature's deepest secrets, and learning how the universe is made and how it works.

Fermilab builds and operates the accelerators, detectors and other facilities that physicists need to carry out forefront research in high-energy physics. Fermilab is the largest high-energy physics laboratory in the United States, and is second in the world only to CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics.

Fermilab's Tevatron is the world's highest-energy particle accelerator and collider. In the Tevatron, counter-rotating beams of protons and antiprotons produce collisions allowing scientists to examine the most basic building blocks of matter, and the forces acting on them. Particle physics research has grown into an international effort, with experiment collaborations numbering in the hundreds. Later this decade, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN will start producing collisions at seven times the energy of the Tevatron. More than 1,200 U.S. scientists are involved in the LHC and its experiments.

Dramatic discoveries in high-energy physics, including those at Fermilab, have revolutionized our understanding of the interactions of the particles and forces that determine the nature of matter in the universe. And there are more discoveries ahead, with Collider Run II of the Tevatron leading the way into the 21st century.

Research at Fermilab will address the grand questions of particle physics today.

• What is the universe made of?
• How does the universe work?
• Why do particles have mass?
• Does neutrino mass come from a different source?
• What is the true nature of quarks and leptons? Why are there three generations of elementary particles?
• What are the truly fundamental forces?
• How do we incorporate quantum gravity into particle physics?
• What are the differences between matter and antimatter?
• What are the dark particles that bind the universe together?
• What is the dark energy that drives the universe apart?
• Are there hidden dimensions beyond the ones we know?
• Are we part of a multidimensional megaverse?

The best chance for a discovery in the next two years that would change the direction of particle physics is at Fermilab experiments.
CDF
DZero
MINOS
MiniBooNE

Astrophysics experiments explore the interactions of quarks and the cosmos.
Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory
Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics (COUPP)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Dark Energy Survey

Fermilab contributes to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
US LHC Accelerator Project
US CMS

Experiments for the future
NOvA
MicroBooNE

The discoveries of the 21st century will require a new generation of accelerators and detectors.
Project X
ILC
Neutrino Factories and Muon Colliders
P5 report
Fermilab Steering Group report

Theory
Theory Group
Theoretical Astrophysics Group