News at work

Matter and antimatter particles can behave differently, but where these differences show up is still a puzzle. Scientists on the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider study much more subtle differences between matter particles and their antimatter equivalents. A recent analysis allowed them to revisit an old mystery — an asymmetry between asymmetries.

For all antiquity nobody knew what stars were. When Copernicus realized that the sun, not Earth, is the center of the universe, the stars were placed on a far distant giant sphere. Some thought they might be holes through which shone the light of heaven. Copernicus, who was nineteen when Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic, started the Scientific Revolution, followed by Galileo and Newton, and the Age of Discovery began.

We’re taking a break from publishing news articles starting Monday, Dec. 21. We’ll resume publication on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. Announcements and classified ads will continue to be posted as usual between now and the new year. Happy holidays!

The MicroBooNE neutrino experiment at Fermilab has published a new measurement that helps paint a more detailed portrait of the neutrino. This measurement more precisely targets one of the processes arising from the interaction of a neutrino with an atomic nucleus, one with a fancy name: charged-current quasielastic scattering.

The U.S. Department of Energy has formally approved the scope, schedule and cost of the PIP-II project at Fermilab. The PIP-II accelerator will become the heart of Fermilab’s upgraded accelerator complex, delivering more powerful proton beams to the lab’s experiments and enabling deeper probes of the fundamental constituents of the universe.

Until recently, scientists had never detected black holes in the “mass gap.” Now, particle physicists are exploring ideas beyond the Standard Model that could explain them.

A joint team of researchers at Fermilab and partner institutions have achieved quantum teleportation, teleporting information over a distance of 44 kilometers. The remarkable achievement supports the premise that scientists and engineers can build a workable and high-fidelity quantum network using practical devices.

The Fermilab Office of Education and Public Engagement advances the Fermilab mission by engaging the community in Fermilab science and inspiring the next generation of STEM professionals. To best achieve this goal, the EPE office has gone through a strategic planning process to guide us in the coming years.

From working at the CIA to designing science facilities at Fermilab, Kate Sienkiewicz enjoys tackling complex problems. Currently, she oversees the team tasked with designing and building conventional facilities at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility near site for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment — all with the overarching goal of understanding the universe.

The PIP-II Project, the first DOE particle accelerator project receiving substantial international in-kind contributions, held its first all-partner technical workshop from Dec. 1-4. The remote workshop included over 300 registered participants from seven countries spanning 11.5 time zones. The primary goal was to facilitate communication between the broader technical teams responsible for delivering hardware to PIP-II.

On Dec. 18, Victor Martinez, a senior technician at the lab, will retire after more than 47 years of service. Martinez is one of the last remaining employees who was part of the TAT program from the lab’s early years. He made all the wire chambers for the Loma Linda Proton Treatment and Research Center.

Grassellino was selected from a list of 50 Italian women who have excelled in their fields, and who left their mark on 2020. She heads Fermilab’s new quantum national center, the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center.