Fermilab’s muon shot could make suburban lab home to revolutionary particle collider

The universe’s deepest mysteries can be revealed in a Chicago suburb.

That’s the goal of some of the world’s leading thinkers, who are proposing a vision for the next generation of particle physicists to better understand our cosmological origins.

An influential committee of scientists released a report this month suggesting that the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, known as Fermilab, could play a greater role in this exploration in the coming years than it does today. An even greater role as America’s premier particle physics testing facility.

Researchers with the Particle Physics Project Priority Group (P5) are recommending increased federal support for an underground experiment that sends neutrinos more than 800 miles away from Fermilab to South Dakota in hopes of learning more about these Elusive subatomic particles.

They also called for exploring the possibility of building a revolutionary new particle collider that would be more powerful than any previous groundbreaking device, which they said would be a perfect fit on the Fermilab campus. .

The P5 report also identifies critical computing capabilities at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, reinforcing the Chicago region’s position as a future center for particle physics.

Abigail Vieregg, professor of astrophysics at the University of Chicago and director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmic Physics, said it was no coincidence that “Chicago” performed well in this report. National laboratories allow us to become strong and have a national presence in this area. I’m lucky to have Fermilab and Argonne in our backyard.

Vieger is one of a panel recruited by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation to map out priorities for the next decade under different budget scenarios.

After a series of public meetings to gather ideas, a panel of experts narrowed down the biggest question: What is the nature of the Higgs boson, dark matter or neutrinos? and provides possible ways to answer these questions.

One of their agenda items is to enhance Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), adding a detector to track the particles’ journey through the Midwest.

Experts say neutrinos may be the key missing piece of the puzzle to explain why equal amounts of matter and antimatter did not annihilate each other when the universe was formed in the Big Bang, and why we will exist 13 billion years later.

Vereg said that the study of the largest scale of the universe is inextricably related to the study of the smallest scale of the universe. Measurements made in particle colliders can be directly linked to measurements made looking back in time as we observed the universe.

Work on DUNE is ongoing, but proposals to develop the first particle collider will take decades to come to fruition.

Muon colliders are more efficient than proton and electron colliders, which researchers now use to race particles around tubes at nearly the speed of light and then smash them together to see what happens. What happens and what other new particles might emerge.

But the muons themselves, known as MEW-ons, are quite elusive, so it will take creative physicists to figure out how we can get there, said Vieregg, who estimates that such a device would be the most powerful in the field yet. 10 times the standard bearer: Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider.

The device took more than 10 years and $4 billion to build, with the cost shared among multiple European countries.

The P5 report recommends studying and developing cost estimates and construction timelines for a potential muon collider, which researchers note could be nearly identical in size to the Fermilab campus.

At the end of the road is an unrivaled global facility on U.S. soil, the researchers wrote. This is our muon lens.

Michael Schmidt, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University, said it would be a worthwhile investment because it is a beautiful side of humanity. The desire to understand things is what drives us here. This is not glory or comfort. We just want to know why the universe is the way it is. Could we invest in something better? Maybe health care, general education. But most people also believe that society should do wonderful things besides solving basic human problems.

Vereg said developing an unprecedented testing site could lead to other practical advances.

She says that when you push the boundaries of science and technology, when you work in ways that most people don’t like, you stumble upon things that can change lives.

Geza Gyuk, senior director of astronomy at the Adler Planetarium, likens this pursuit to art.

It delves into something that says something about who we are, Gick said. It understands where we come from. Why do we write poetry? It doesn’t put food on the table, but it speaks to us about our humanity. It makes us human.