M I L E S T O N E SBORN■ Martha (FESS/Admin) & Cleofas Garcia,

HONORED■ Don Petravick, of the Computing Division, on June 29, 1998, with a Fermilab Employee Recognition Award. Petravick led the group creating the data “pipeline” systems for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

RETIRING■ Joseph Davids, I.D. #1812 on August 28, from PPD/Engineering & Tech Teams. His last work day was June 30.■ Alan Guthke, I.D. #405 on September 30, from PPD/Engineering & Tech Teams. His lastwork day will be July 31.

JULY 10Potluck Supper at Kuhn (Village) Barn. This timeplease bring meat to barbecue as well as a salad,dessert or side dish to share. For kids, we havehamburgers & hot dogs, for everyone soft drinks, for adults wine & beer. We will start at 6:00 p.m.,the grill will be hot at 6:30 PM. Babysitting is notprovided for the summer potlucks. Call MartinaErdmann (630) 983-7021 or Sherry Nicklaus (630) 761-3139.

JULY 24Golf Outing at Wedgewood Golf Course inPlainfield. Tee times start at noon. Lab employeesare required to have approved vacation. Format willbe Best Ball. Cost is $40. It includes golf, cart rental(mandatory) and contests. To register or for moreinformation, please call Gary Golinski x4055 orMichelle Gleason x8062. This event is sponsored by the Fermilab Golf League.

Fermilab International Film Society presents: Brassed Off Dir: Mark Herman, (UK). Film beginsat 8 p.m., Ramsey Auditorium, Wilson Hall.Admission $4. (630) 840-8000.

JULY 25Fermilab Art Series presents: Muzsikas with MartaSebastyen, $16. Performance begins at 8 p.m.,Ramsey Auditorium, Wilson Hall. For reservationsor more information, call (630) 840-ARTS.

ONGOINGNALWO coffee mornings, Thursdays, 10 a.m. in the Users’ Center. Call Selitha Raja, (630) 305–7769. In the Village Barn, internationalfolk dancing, Thursdays, 7:30–10 p.m. Call Mady,(630) 584–0825; Scottish country dancingTuesdays, 7–9:30 p.m. Call Doug, x8194.

Web site for Fermilab events: http://www.fnal.gov/faw/events.html

CALENDARFOR SALE■ ’91 Subaru silver Justy, excellent condition, 28K miles, 5-speed, A/C, $3,600 obo. Erik Gottschalk, x6416, erik@fnal.gov.■ ’90 Mazda Protege, 1.8L, 5 speed manual, 150K miles. One owner, one service station, wellmaintained. Good tires, new clutch, no rust. $1,250.Roy, x4108 (30) 858-9443, royr@fnal.gov.■ ’90 Plymouth Voyager minivan, V6, AC,AM/FM cassette, cruise, tilt, 1 owner, wellmaintained, garage kept, exceptional condition, 70K miles, tan, all records, $4,500 obo;hathaway@fnal.gov, x3649 or (630) 879-2387.■ ’84 Corvette, black, glass top, 60K miles, new paint & tires. Very good running order. Best offer, (630) 852-2475.■ Nordic Track ‘Walk-Fit’ non-motorizedtreadmill. Barely used, $100. Call Howie, x4425.■ Queen size sleeper sofa with Serta spring bed.Excellent condition. Rarely used, $350. Call (630) 717-5181.■ Golf clubs, Callaway War Bird 1, 3, & 5,Memphis 10 steel shafts, $240. Callaway X12 Lob Wedge Memphis 10 steel shaft, $60. Call Ron,x3850 or (630) 906-0237.■ Aquarium, 15 gal, clean, like new (1 yr old) $50.Includes everything, ready to set up and use. CallKaren (630) 897-8125.■ Creme colored Schweiger sofa & oversizedottoman. Less than 1 year old, $400. Mixed floralpattern (mostly burgundy) Rowe sleeper-sofaw/innerspring mattress, 3 years old, $350. Nordictrack ski machine, $250. White ’87 Ford Mustang,110K miles, runs good, $1,400. John x2237 or scifers@fnal.gov.

RENT■ 2-flat house in Holy Angels area, Aurora. Both units have 2 bedrooms, ready for cable, 4 phone lines, and individual laundries. Tenants payown gas & electric and control their own climates.Non-smokers. Share 1/4 acre, garage & basement.Security deposit & pet deposit required. 1st floor$875/mo; 2nd floor $775/mo.

WANTED■ Day Care for 18 month old boy, mornings twoor three times a week. Russian or English nativelanguage. Adults only. Please contact Julia Yarba,(630) 859–3463, or x8366, or e-mailyarba_j@fnal.gov.

Published by the Fermilab Office of Public AffairsMS 206 P.O. Box 500 Batavia, IL 60510630-840-3351ferminews@ fnal.gov

Fermilab is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc.,under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.

✩ U.S. GOVERNMENTPRINTING OFFICE: 1998--646-054/81008

50% TOTAL RECOVERED FIBER

10% POST-CONSUMER FIBER

FermiNews July 17, 199812

C L A S S I F I E D S

The deadline for the Friday, July 31, 1998, issue of FermiNews is Tuesday, July 21.

Please send your articlesubmissions, classifiedadvertisements and ideasto the Public AffairsOffice, MS 206 or e-mail ferminews@fnal.gov.

FermiNews welcomes letters from readers. Please include yourname and daytimephone number.

CORRECTIONS■ In a photo with the article “Answering the Call of the Sky” (Vol. 21, No. 13, July 3, 1998), the person rolling the cart under the telescope isSteve Bastian of PPD-Technical Centers, not Carl Lindenmeyer.

■ Dick who? Many readers wrote to fill in theinadvertent blank in a letter to the editor in the July 3, 1998 FermiNews from physicist Tim Toohig.The sentence should read: “[Wilson] also had tochoose his engineers, like Hank Hinterberger, Dick CASSEL, Wayne Nestander.”

Volume 21 Friday, July 17, 1998 Number 14

fINSIDE

5 New Computing Head

6 Quigg on Feynman

8 Profiles in Particle Physics:Tom Fields

9 Hard Hats

10 Cold Factson Helium

All Roads Lead to FZero

The FZero project is paving a newproton-antiprotonroute between theTevatron and theMain Injector.Temporary wallsinstalled betweenthe tunnels arecoming down.

There are no historic cathedrals, fountains, statues or paintings in evidence, but FZero is the Rome of Collider Run II at the Tevatron: all proton roads lead to it.Story on page 2.

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

FZero

• temporarily walling off the constructionsite from the remainder of the Tevatronand Main Injector tunnels, to preventflooding;

• adding the transfer lines, which carryprotons and antiprotons from one ringto another;

• demolishing part of the Tevatron RFservice building, relocating formerMain Ring RF instruments into thenew Main Injector service building,and moving Tevatron RF instrumentsinto the remaining part of the building;

• installing 4,000 tons of steel shielding;• adding earthen berms to complete the

shielding; • re-installing the Tevatron’s eight

RF cavities; • installing the magnets for the Tevatron,

Main Injector and Main Ring Remnant(which come in a variety of lengths upto 20 feet) with as little as 3/4 inch ofclearance between them;

• engineering a system of carriers that will hang the magnets of the Remnant Main Ring from the ceiling, with magnets for the Tevatron and transfer lines supported from the floor;

• installing the countless cables that will run along ceiling-hung

by Mike Perricone, Office of Public AffairsWhen Fermilab’s Tevatron begins

its next campaign in the realm of thesubatomic, legions of particles, movingjust below the speed of light, will engagein complex maneuvers through FZero on their way to the Tevatron and thecollider detectors. FZero, named for itsgeographic location in the Tevatrontunnel, is the junction for protonsmoving along the acceleration process or heading off for the collisions that willproduce antiprotons, as Fermilab takesthe exploration of matter into the 21stcentury.

FZero used to be a “straightaway”where radiofrequency (RF) cavitiesaccelerated the particle beam on its transitaround the Tevatron and the Main Ring,which formerly sat atop the Tevatron buthas been deposed by the Main Injector.There was no crossover point, becausethere was no Main Injector.

Run II makes FZero the busy mainswitchyard for protons zipping from one piece of the accelerator complex to another. The FZero rehab projectextends to an $8 million civil construc-tion contract for digging out andreconfiguring 600 feet of the Tevatrontunnel segment, as well as theserenovations:

trays, carrying power and informationto and from the site, and making surethere’s no interference with the magnethangers;

• aligning the Lambertson magnets,which provide the crucial beamswitching between the 150 GeVtransfer lines, the Main Ring Remnantand the Tevatron, to about 5/1000 of an inch;

• …in a tunnel whose precise geometrywon’t be known until it’s surveyedafter the construction is completed, atunnel that is likely to settle as much asan inch once the earth is backfilledabove it, and that might not settleidentically in all areas.

“It’s a lot more complicated than weenvisioned two years ago,” said LarrySauer of Mechanical Support, who isresponsible for installing and aligning allthe tunnel components. “We’re puttingmore stuff back in than we took out.”

All Roads Lead to FZeroSwitching area is on the Critical Path for success of the Tevatron in Run II.

EQUIPMENTACCESSLABYRINTH

DROPHATCH

EXIT STAIRS

MAIN INJECT

F-0

EQUIPMENTACCESSLABYRINTH

P150 TRANSFER LINE

FermiNews July 17, 19982

In Run II, protons will come fromthe Main Injector and enter the Tevatronthrough the transfer line at the south ofFZero; antiprotons will enter through thetransfer line at the north. But first theantiprotons have to be manufactured.That means protons will come from theMain Injector and transfer to the MainRing Remnant, exit at F 17 and head tothe Antiproton Source; their numbersstack up in the Accumulator before theyreturn to the Tevatron via the Main RingRemnant and FZero.

“We can’t get beam into theTevatron without FZero,” Sauerexplained. “So it’s all got to work.”

The heart of the Tevatron, and thusthe heart of Run II, resides in the eightRF cavities that were removed from theaccelerator and have been sitting in adusty service building that is itselfawaiting renovation. The RF cavitiesaccelerate particles by generating a180,000-volt electric field across a gap oftwo inches, changing polarity at a rate of53 MHz—53 million cycles per second.

“The cavities are resonators, like big organ pipes, except they resonate at53 MHz,” said Dave Wildman, head ofRF and Instrumentation. “They storeenergy from a power amplifier upstairs,which is like a big TV transmitter. There’sa gap at each end of the cavity. The beamgets accelerated when it goes through thefirst gap. Then it goes through a drift

EXIT STAIRS

MI-80

TRANSFER LINE

TEVATRON-0 ENCLOSURE

continued on page 4

FermiNews July 17, 1998 3

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

The reconfigured FZero tunnel segment uses about 4,000 tons of steel forradiation shielding. “If we put all 4,000 tons together, the steel would forma cube 25 feet on a side,” said Dixon Bogert.

FermiNews July 17, 19984

tube, about nine feet long. While it’s inthat tube, it doesn’t see any field at all.Meanwhile, the field in the cavity hasreversed, so as it goes out the other sideit gets another kick. The two kicks aretimed exactly to the resonant frequencyof the cavity.”

The Tevatron RF system, which costabout $10 million in 1980, had to beremoved from the FZero tunnel segmentbecause it obstructed the construction.

“It took 40 people—the entiredepartment—three weeks to tear (the RF system) apart,” Wildman said. “It willprobably take us at least three months toput it back together again, and it’s goingto take 40 people to get it done on time.”

The tunnel work is proceeding fromnorth to south under the watchful eye ofDixon Bogert, deputy head of the BeamsDivision, who was recently cited with

Bogert, Pawlak Cited For Main InjectorConstruction

Bringing the FZeroconstruction to a finish will meanclosing a critical loop for the MainInjector, Fermilab’s largest civilconstruction project since the Labitself was built.

The Main Injector tunnel wascompleted in June 1996, the majorcomponent of the $102-millionconstruction project whose earliestdesign concepts date back morethan 10 years. In its earliest stages,the Main Injector tunnel competedfor funds with the Super-conducting Super Collider. Butground was broken for the tunnelin March 1993, and the MainInjector took on added significancewhen Congress cut off SSCfunding later that year.

“That changed the equation,”said Beams Division head SteveHolmes, an original member of theMain Injector design team. “Theproject had good support, andwe’ve been building since then.”

Even with good support,Holmes described funds as“dribbling in slowly;” constructionestimated at three years will takearound six years to complete.Managing the civil constructionwas almost a “piecemeal” projectfor Dixon Bogert and TomPawlak, who were recently citedwith Employee RecognitionAwards for their work over the life of the Main Injector.

“If you have a lot of moneyup front, you can award big jobsto a single general contractor,”Holmes said. “But they weredoing phased funding, options,splitting big jobs into smaller jobs,to make do with the money wehad available. That made their lifemuch more difficult, but they did a great job.”

Holmes expects the MainInjector to be ready for beam at the end of August, withcommissioning beginning in mid-September. ■

Project Support’s Tom Pawlak for anEmployee Recognition Award (seeaccompanying story). When the tunnel is completed to the point of full access, orbeneficial occupancy, Lab personnel willinstall equipment, working side-by-sidewith construction crews.

The Main Injector can begincommissioning before the FZero projectis completed, though it can’t be run withbeam until the construction area issecured. And because of the radiationhazard, other installation projects can’ttake place in the Tevatron tunnel whilebeam is running through the MainInjector, meaning shifts will have to be staggered.

“The only thing making it possible is that we can schedule many differentactivities simultaneously in differentareas,” said Phil Martin of the MainInjector Department, who has overallresponsibility for the FZero project. “It’s going to be tight, especially if wewant to stop construction to docommissioning.”

The other Rome wasn’t built in aday, either. ■

Inside the accelerator enclosure, the Tevatron will be re-installed in the higher sectionon the left, while the Main Injector will reside in the lower section on the right. The temporary wall in the background is being removed.

FZerocontinued from page 3

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

FermiNews July 17, 1998 5

Before joining DESY in the early1990s, Kasemann spent several years atCERN, where he did his thesis researchand joined the ALEPH collaboration atCERN’s LEP collider. One of the greatstrengths of computing at Fermilab, asKasemann sees it, is the number ofscientists working in the ComputingDivision, and the resulting close ties toexperiments.

“Compared to CERN and DESY,”he said, “there is much more interactionbetween the Computing Division andthe experiments. I think this is a goodthing, because it helps to get efficientsolutions to the challenges that theexperiments face.”

Fermilab officials were pleased tohave recruited Kasemann, whoseappointment resulted from the work of a search committee led by Fermilabtheorist Estia Eichten.

“Matthias is very knowledgeabletechnically,” said Associate Director TomNash, “and he is a careful, thoughtfuldecision-maker. He takes the time to findthe best solution to both technical andhuman problems—and it’s not alwaysthe most obvious solution, at firstglance.”

As a high-energy physicist, willKasemann join a Fermilab experimenthimself? Not right away, he says.

“For the first year or so, I haveenough to do to try to step into Joel’sfootsteps. He was a good leader and he has an expert knowledge of theLaboratory, which I have to learn. So forthe first year at least I will concentratecompletely on the job of beingComputing Division head. Afterwards, I am looking forward to participating in experiments. Because, in the end, I am a scientist and I want to work as ascientist.”

Any thoughts about where he mightfind an experimental home?

“No,” said Kasemann. “But I’vealready had some suggestions.” ■

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

by Judy Jackson, Office of Public AffairsWhen the new head of Fermilab’s

Computing Division takes up his job onOctober 1, his first priority, he says is “to get experiments working.”

But, says Matthias Kasemann, “this includes the role of Computing ingiving service to all the areas of the lab.Computing is critical for data-taking anddata analysis, for sure. But services foradministration and engineering and allthe other parts of the laboratory alsobelong to the effort, because they are allpart of the work that contributes in theend to get science done.”

In meeting the challenges comingup in Run II, with its huge amount ofdata, Kasemann said, it’s important not to neglect the other computing needs of the laboratory, which he views as “at least as important” in achievingFermilab’s science goals.

Kasemann, 41, a high-energyphysicist born in Dortmund, Germany, is currently a collaborator on the ZEUSexperiment at Hamburg’s DESYlaboratory, where he has managed offlinecomputing. He’s working to complete aZEUS detector upgrade, a project thatwill keep him in Europe until October.

Kasemann will replace Fermilabphysicist Joel Butler as division head.Butler, who led the division for fouryears, began a new assignment on July 1 as leader of the Particle PhysicsDivision’s BTeV R&D Group, whosemission is to determine the scientificmerit and technical feasibility of aproposed B physics experiment at thenew CZero collision hall.

Fermilab physicist Steve Wolbers will serve as acting head of the ComputingDivision until Kasemann formally joinsthe laboratory in the fall.

“I’ve asked Steve to run the division until I can come to Fermilab, withfrequent discussions with me,”Kasemann said. “He is doing a great job, and I very much enjoy working with him.”

“To Get Science Done”DESY’s Matthias Kasemann will head Fermilab’s Computing Division.

Matthias Kasemann, new ComputingDivision head will arrive at FermilabOctober 1, 1998.

by Chris Quigg, Theoretical Physics GroupRichard Feynman was my teacher long

before we met. Ten years after his death, heremains an inspiration and example to me andto many physicists, an icon of a public scientistto a growing legion of admirers in the world at large.

Feynman was a remarkable presence. He was Feynman, the peerless scientist: theNobel laureate who had constructed the theoryof photons and electrons, invented the littlediagrams that supplanted equations as the wayphysicists think about fundamental processes,and spoken delphically of antiparticles asparticles moving backward through time. He was Feynman the captivating lecturer: theperformance artist, really, who took seriouslyboth his subject and his audience, punctuatinghis performances with wisecracks and homiliesalike. And he was Feynman, the character: thebongo-playing safecracker who defended theFirst-Amendment rights of topless dancers.

When I met Feynman—having heard himlecture on film and in person, having studiedthe classic papers and worked through his twolittle books on Quantum Electrodynamics andThe Theory of Fundamental Processes—I sawyet another face. One evening at a conferenceat Cornell in 1971, he took me off to a quietcorner and acted as if he expected to learnsomething from me. For more than an hour,he kept asking, “What do you know?” and“How do you know that?” and “How do youthink about that?” and “What do you thinkthat means?” I began to feel that he hadcatheterized my skull to siphon out everythought. This was Feynman the comrade, whowanted to learn to think the way Nature does;the man who loved ideas—and not just hisown.

The Meaning of It All is drawn from threelectures Feynman gave in April 1963 at theUniversity of Washington on the theme, “A Scientist Looks at Society.” The world was

still exhaling after the Cuban missile crisis. Two weeks earlier, Pope John XXIII had issuedPacem in Terris. The tyrant Trofim DenisovichLysenko still directed the notorious Institute ofGenetics in the Soviet Union. Feynman himselfwas just completing the two-year introductorycourse now known as the Feynman Lectures in Physics. He would soon give the famousMessenger Lectures at Cornell (which physicsstudents still watch in grainy black-and-whitefilm), and would receive the Nobel Prize in1965 with Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichiroTomonaga.

In the first lecture, “The Uncertainty ofScience,” Feynman is the jubilant tour-guide to scientific insights and fervent apostle of“science as a method for finding things out.”Of knowledge gained through science, hewrites: “This is the gold. This is the excitement,the pay you get for all the disciplined thinking

FermiNews July 17, 19986

Co

urt

esy

of

the

Arc

hiv

es, C

alif

orn

ia In

stit

ute

of

Tech

no

log

y

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

Richard Feynman reveling in the company of one of the “new generations”at Caltech’s Freshman Camp in 1978.

Chris Quigg, ofFermilab’s TheoreticalPhysics Group, regardsRichard Feynman as an inspiration and an example.

The Man WhoLoved IdeasThe Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist.

By Richard P. Feynman. 133 pp. Reading, Mass.: Helix Books / Addison-Wesley. $22.

B O O K R E V I E W

Whether you find Feynman’s politicalscience insightful or naïve, the link betweenscience and freedom has not lost its importance.Czech President Vaclav Havel, who saw throughevery Stalinist lie except the specious claim thatthe Soviet system was “scientific,” now deliverspostmodern indictments of the scientific world-view he links with totalitarian régimes. ButFeynman counters: “Where did we ever get the idea that the Russians were, in some sense,scientific? ... [I]t is not scientific ... to be blind in order to maintain ignorance.”

The final lecture in this collection, “ThisUnscientific Age,” is a grab-bag of opinions andideas, as long in print as the first two lecturescombined. Here we find an early indication ofhis impatience with NASA: “It’s not necessarythat we have so many failures, as far as I can tell. There’s something the matter in theorganization, in the administration, in theengineering, or in the making of theseinstruments.”

Most provocative is Feynman’s view ofreligion as an impetus toward ethical behavior.In scientific matters, we require not only thecorrect conclusion, but also a correct chain ofreasoning. What matters to Feynman in humanaffairs is not the motivation, but the behavior.He receives John XXIII’s encyclical withoptimism “as the beginning, possibly, of a new

future where we forget, perhaps, aboutthe theories of why we believethings as long as we ultimately,as far as action is concerned,believe the same thing.”

The Meaning of It All is the chance to spend a few hours

in Feynman’s company, toponder and debate his

ideas. It is also anunspoken challengeto physicists to thinkabout the culturaland spiritual valueof science and,following RichardFeynman’sexample, dare tothink aloud and

in public. ■

and hard work. The work is not done for thesake of an application. It is done for theexcitement of what is found out. ... [W]ithoutunderstanding that, you miss the whole point.... You do not live in your time unless youunderstand that this is a tremendous adventureand a wild and exciting thing.”

Science lives by its disdain for authority and its reliance on experimentation. Theseventeenth-century gentlemen who foundedthe Royal Society of London took as theirmotto Nullius in verba—“Don’t take anyone’sword for it!” For Feynman, science “is based onthe principle that observation is the judge ofwhether something is so or not.”

“Why repeat all this?” he asks rhetorically.“Because there are new generations born everyday. Because there are great ideas developed inthe history of man, and these ideas do not lastunless they are passed purposely and clearlyfrom generation to generation.” But Feynmandoes not merely “repeat all this.” He shows thatthe strength of science lies in its provisionalnature, its open-mindedness, its capacity fordoubt and uncertainty. Perhaps, he suggests,science’s experience with doubt and uncertaintyis its great lesson for humanity.

In “The Uncertainty of Values,” Feynmanargues that by admitting ignorance anduncertainty we may find hope for humaninstitutions. He steps outside the safe terrain ofscientific discourse because he acknowledges thelimitations of science, and because “[w]esterncivilization, it seems to me, stands by twogreat heritages. One is the scientific spirit ofadventure—the adventure into the unknown,an unknown that must be recognized asunknown in order to be explored ...To summarize it: humility of theintellect. The other great heritageis Christian ethics—the basis ofaction on love, the brotherhoodof all men, the value of theindividual, the humility of the spirit.”

The ideological struggleof the 1960s between eastand west was not “betweensocialism and capitalism,but rather betweensuppression of ideas andfree ideas.” He believesthat the “writers of theConstitution knew thevalue of doubt. ... The United Statesgovernment, in thatrespect, is new, it’smodern, and it is scientific.”

FermiNews July 17, 1998 7

Feynman, the bongo aficionado.

“ [Knowledge]

is the gold.

This is the

excitement, the

pay you get for

all the disciplined

thinking and

hard work.

The work is not

done for the sake

of an application.

It is done for

the excitement

of what is

found out.”

~ Richard Feynman

Courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology

Fields is skeptical of the oft-quoted ideathat “all I really need to know about physics I had to dig up myself,” insisting that the“help, advice and forbearance” of kindredcollaborating souls got him through each newphysics adventure. After earning his doctorateat Carnegie-Mellon University in 1955, hisadvisor suggested he study the new bubblechambers—and build one if it seemed to be apromising tool. Having spent his graduate daysengaged in accelerators and counters, pions,muons and protons, he had barely heard ofbubble chambers. But he built one anyway,with, of course, the help of others.

“Scrambling very hard on the steep part of the learning curve,” as Fields puts it, didn’tend there. With colleagues, he later built a 10-inch superconducting magnet, the first of its kind for use in bubble chambers. Themagnet is now in the Smithsonian Institution’scollection of particle-physics artifacts. Takingon administrative responsibilities as director ofArgonne’s High-Energy Physics Division in the1960s was yet another novel experience.

Neutrinos are nothing new, though. Thirtyyears ago, Fields and colleagues published alimit on the neutrino mass from their bubble-chamber experiments.

Friends at Argonne believe Fields was eagerto get back into the thick of things. And that’sexactly where he is.

The NuMI project is well under way.Fields’s predecessor, Gina Rameika, nursed thecollaboration through difficult early years, saysMINOS spokesperson Stanley Wojcicki, when the project was starved of funding because of Fermilab’s other priorities. Wojcicki saidRameika will continue to be a crucial memberof the NuMI collaboration. She is also doingimportant new work analyzing data from theDONUT experiment, looking for the tauneutrino, the only fundamental particle of the Standard Model not yet observed.

As Fields describes it, his task is to “get theNuMI project well enough defined so that wecan move to the construction phase.” A mile-long beamline needs to be built underground,and two huge multi-ton detectors.

Adding impetus to the NuMI project arethe recent results from the Super-Kamiokandeexperiment suggesting that neutrinos havemass. Many physicists are now saying that thenext new thrust in particle physics will be adeeper study of the lepton sector.

Fields reacts with a grin that spreads fromear to ear like a sinusoidal wave: “That’s whatwe [in the MINOS experiment] have beensaying all along.” ■

by Sharon Butler, Office of Public AffairsNeutrinos may oscillate from one flavor

to another and back again, but the four-decadecareer of Tom Fields has been as steady andsolid as steel. Even as a teenager, he had alreadydecided that, if there was such a thing as aphysicist, that’s what he wanted to be.

Fermilab has just coaxed Fields out of half-time retirement/half-time proton decaysleuthing at Argonne National Laboratory to serve as project manager for the NuMIexperiment, designed to determine whetherneutrinos have mass. Fields’s declaration at his 65th birthday party in 1995 that he was“out of the administrative business for good”was apparently premature. Immersed now intechnical design reports, budgets, reviews andWBSs, he has barely had time to settle into his sparsely appointed office space—which,appropriately, overlooks the site for the NuMI beamline.

It is the no-frills office space of a clear-thinking, nuts-and-bolts man who knows fewdistractions. So intense is Fields about physicsthat when he was on sabbatical at CERN, theEuropean Laboratory for Particle Physics, in1977, he sent back long and frequent lettersdetailing interesting measurements that couldbe taken with the new spectrometer atArgonne’s ZGS accelerator—measurementsthat would have taken a good 10 years tocomplete. Cancellation of the SuperconductingSupercollider was almost a personal affront.

FermiNews July 17, 19988

Tom Fields

NuMI Project Manager

P r o f i l e sI N P A R T I C L E P H Y S I C S

Tom Fields, besidestakes marking thefuture site of the NuMI beamline

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

FermiNews July 17, 1998 9

Pho

to c

red

it: G

old

en G

ate

Bri

dg

e, H

igh

way

an

d T

ran

spo

rtat

ion

Dis

tric

t.

by John Scifers, Office of Public AffairsIt goes by names like “brain bucket,”

“cranial” and “protective head gear,” but theplastic helmet worn by industrial workers ismost commonly called a “hard hat.” The pathtoward appreciating the hard hat and what itdoes has as many turns as the device has names.

Each year, manufacturers sell six millionhard hats to customers who may give littlethought to how the device, often the soleguard against serious personal injury, came intobeing. Its story began over 80 years ago, in thegold and copper mines of California, Nevadaand Arizona. With little more head protectionthan soft, leather-brimmed derby hats, minersoften suffered injuries from falling debris.

In 1915, Edward Bullard, whose father’scompany sold carbide lamps and miningequipment, began designing a protective hatbased on the “doughboy” helmet he’d worn inWorld War I. The device, made from layeredcanvas, glue and black paint, was known as a“hard-boiled hat” because of the steam used inits manufacture. The addition of a suspensiondevice, and a patent in 1919, brought thisforerunner of the modern hard hat into theworld of industry.

Fourteen years later, the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Franciscobrought about America’s first designated “hard hat area.” Falling rivets threatened to injure construction workers, so Bullardreworked his mining head gear into a hard hat for the project.

The need for light, durable materials led to the aluminum hard hat in 1938. Butbecause the metal hat exposed its wearer toelectrical hazards, designs in the next decadeincorporated nonconductive fiberglassmaterials. Cheaper thermoplastics entered the industry in the 1950s. Today’s hard hats use polyethylene plastic, valued for beinglightweight, durable, malleable and electricallynonconductive.

Material choice reflects only one aspect of a hard hat’s design. Today’s hard hats providemore comfort and convenience than previousmodels. Accessories like face shields, hearingprotectors and lamps can now be attached.Adjustable suspension devices inside the hatsprovide a snugger fit for comfort and safety.

Keeping a hard hat safe requires regularinspection and cleaning, which extend a hat’sservice life. Cracked, gouged or dented shells

must be replaced, as should frayed orexcessively worn suspension devices. Thewearer should inspect the hat after any impact,replacing it after a heavy blow. The hat shouldnot be thrown, dropped, or used for cookinglunch. And, Bullard advises, “Do not sit on ahard hat.”

Surprisingly, how to wear a hard hat is lessclear. Some construction workers wear theirhard hats with the brim to the rear. But mostFermilab safety professionals favor a brims-forward approach. Current Fermilab guidancecalls for wearing hard hats brims-forward, butLaboratory safety staff will be reviewing thisadvice in the light of a new design and testingstandard approved by the American NationalStandards Institute in 1997 and adopted by the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration, said Environmental Safety and Health Section Head Bill Griffing.

From obscure beginnings, the hard hat has become an icon for worker safety aroundthe world. In archaeological digs unearthingthe oldest civilizations and in tunnel buildingfor particle physics’s newest accelerator, hardhats crown the heads of the people who get the job done. ■

Do Not Sit on Your Hard HatThe evolution, care, and application of modern safety head gear

The creation ofindustrial hard hatshelped to protectconstruction crews, like these ironworkers,while working at thesite of the Golden Gate Bridge, the first designated “hard hat area.”

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn

10 FermiNews July 17, 1998

Superconductors can handle more than250 times that amount, without heatingup. Zero resistance also allows a relativelysmall voltage to generate massive current flow. In this way, the Tevatron’ssuperconducting magnets operate at highenergies with a lower electrical cost thanconventional electromagnets. Butcooling those magnets to cryogenictemperatures isn’t cheap.

Fermilab spends about $1 millioneach year on helium. When the Labora-tory pioneered the large scale use ofsuperconductors, helium conservationwasn’t a design priority. So “quenches”—in which magnets lose their super-conducting property and helium pressureshoots to a peak in under 250 milli-seconds—add to losses from countlessleaks, stealing a full inventory of heliumeach month, about $80,000 worth.According to Jay Theilacker, head of theCryogenics Department for the BeamsDivision, bubble leak checking andportable helium detectors don’t helpmuch: “[We can] find hundreds of leaksand we’ll fix them and it won’t put adent in our helium loss.”

Pho

to b

y Je

nn

y M

ulli

ns

By John Scifers, Office of Public AffairsAt 31 degrees Fahrenheit, North

Atlantic waters can freeze a steel hull intobrittle vulnerability, as the story of theTitanic revealed. At 40 degrees belowzero, conventional thermometersbecome useless; the mercury freezessolid. At even colder temperatures, achild’s rubber ball shatters like glass. And at 452 degrees below zero, close to the coldest temperature possible, aneven stranger phenomenon emerges:“superconductivity.”

This change in electrical property,which occurs in certain materials atextremely low temperatures, throws thefloodgates open and allows electrons to flow unimpeded by resistance. It isachieved through the cooling effects ofliquid helium. This element, the onlysubstance that won’t freeze solid attemperatures approaching absolute zero,cools electrical conductors to 4.5 degreesKelvin, about –452 F, where a niobium-titanium wire’s electrical resistance fallsto zero and current flows freely.

Most house or car wiring carriesabout 15 amperes of current.

At the Cold, Cold Heartof the TevatronLiquid helium, superconductivity and getting to 2 TeV.

The cost of cooling helium toextreme temperatures also adds up.Monthly electrical costs for thecryogenics system exceed $350,000.This is due to “Carnot work,” thetheoretical minimum compressor powerneeded to cool a gas, 67 watts ofcompressor power for every cold watt of refrigeration. Ideally. In real life,though, the power required is muchhigher. Fermilab’s compressors consumeabout 400 watts for every watt of 4.5 Krefrigeration.

Those costs will rise in Run II,where additions and improvements tocold compressors and heat exchangerswill allow temperatures as low as 3.5 K,roughly a degree colder than in previousruns. According to Theilacker, everydegree closer to absolute zero at thesetemperatures translates to a 12-percentincrease in the superconductor’s current-carrying capability. This will aid theTevatron in reaching a center-of-massenergy of 2 TeV in Run II. Because ofCarnot work, the electrical cost ofachieving this extra degree of refrig-eration will be almost an additional$50,000 each month.

Theilacker refers to the Tevatron’scooling system as “hybrid.” Its centralhelium liquefier feeds up to 5,000 litersof liquid helium per hour to 24 satelliterefrigerators distributed around theaccelerator ring. Over 50 people operateand maintain the system, which is one of the world’s largest.

Keeping the Tevatron’s magnetscool enough to achieve super-conductivity requires a staggeringnumber of resources. And Run II will call for record levels.

Eighty-six years ago, cold liquidshattered a great endeavor when ithelped break, and then sink, the massive Titanic. But today, the coldestliquid on earth makes it possible for the smallest particles to fly at close to the speed of light. ■

To prevent the ultimate cold shower, Engineer Jay Theilacker checks the tag on a helium dewar, a storage tank used to minimize helium loss from the Tevatron.

Lunch served from11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

$8/personDinner served at 7 p.m.

$20/person

For reservations, call x4512Cakes for Special Occasions

Dietary RestrictionsContact Tita, x3524

http://www.fnal.gov/faw/events/menus.html

-Lunch

WednesdayJuly 22

Thai Chicken PastaCream Puffs with Pineapple

and Caramel Rum Sauce

DinnerThursdayJuly 23

SévicheGrilled Duck Breast

with Orange Bourbon SauceWild Rice with

Green Onions and PecansVegetable of the SeasonCrèpes with Strawberries

and Grand Marnier

LunchWednesday

July 29Beef and Vegetable Salad

with Ginger DressingMango Banana Cake

DinnerThursdayJuly 30

Grilled Vegetable Saladwith Goat Cheese and Pine NutsTuna with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

and Mango Pineapple SalsaLemon Pepper PastaHazelnut Meringue

with Espresso Ice Cream

-

-

-

-

FermiNews July 17, 1998 11

The DZero solenoid magnet, encased in the Central Preshower Detector, movesslowly towards its place in the heart of the DZero Collider Detector. Senior technicianDel Miller (bottom of photo) directs the crane operator in the delicate operation, withample sidewalk superintendence by, among others, Deputy Department Head GeneFisk (far right). The new magnet is a critical part of the detector upgrade that willprepare DZero for the high-luminosity collider physics of Run II at the Tevatron. ■

“A Little to the West…”

Pho

to b

y R

eid

ar H

ahn