Volume 20 Friday, March 21, 1997 Number 6

A profile of the Fermilab user community

At Home and Loved

by Judy Jackson, Fermilab Office of Public Affairs

They come from Texas and from Turkey;from Colombia the country and Columbia theuniversity; from as nearby as Elmhurst, Illinoisand as far away as Beijing, China; fromOxford, England to Oxford, Mississippi; from university groups as large as 50 and assmall as one. Figures recently released by theLaboratory’s Office of Program Planningshow Fermilab’s users as a diverse andgrowing community of physicists and studentsengaged in a range of experiments aimed atdiscovering the fundamental nature of matterat the frontiers of particle physics research.

What is a user?It seems obvious, but defining a labora-

tory user is harder than it looks. Differentnational laboratories use different criteria inestablishing the number of people who usetheir facilities for scientific research. Fermilabis unusual among U.S. national labs in that allof the Laboratory’s users come from universi-ties and other laboratories; Fermilab has noindustrial users.

Years of struggling to find sensible, uniform criteria have finally yielded Fermilab’sdefinition of “Workbook users,” that is scien-tists and students who are members of collab-orations whose experiments are classified asactive in the annually published “FermilabResearch Program Workbook.” Included onthe list, said Assistant Director Roy Rubinsteinof Fermilab’s Program Planning Office, areexperiments approved by the Laboratory that are in one of the following stages:

…to large.Fermilab university groupsalso include those withmany members, such as theUniversity of Chicago’s 30,many of whom are shownin these two photos.continued on page 6

From small…Physics professors MerrillJenkins and Kent Clark(right) constitute theUniversity of SouthAlabama’s entire physicsdelegation at Fermilab.

by Judy Jackson, Office of Public Affairs“God bless ‘em!” said Associated Press sci-

ence editor Matt Crenson when he heard whatDZero was up to. The 450-member DZerocollider detector collaboration at Fermilab hasbegun publishing brief “plain-English” sum-maries of the physics research papers that thecollaboration submits for publication. As partof the publication process, collaborators explainresults and make clear how they fit into the picture of current particle physics research, inlanguage understandable to nonphysicists.

Science reporters are enthusiastic.“I love the idea,” Crenson said. “It doesn’t

have to be at the third-grade level necessarily,but it will really help, especially if it puts theresults in context.”

Other science reporters shared Crenson’sview. “That sounds fantastic,” said Science magazine’s Chicago Bureau Chief James Glanz.“It’s pretty cool. It will be an interesting exper-iment to see how effective it is. I personally gettired of going on the preprint server and tryingto figure out what is important. I know I canunderstand the papers if I take the time, butthis approach sounds very interesting to me.”

“Sure!” said The New York Times sciencewriter Malcolm Browne, when asked if hewould make use of plain-English explanations

of particle physics papers. He added thatDZero’s project is in keeping with editorialdirection in such publications as PhysicalReview Letters. Browne said he thought theexplanations would be particularly useful in thefuture when “CP violation will be more andmore in the news.”

The DZero collaboration makes the summaries available on the World Wide Web(http://d0sgi0.fnal.gov/public/pubs/d0_physics_summaries.html) and is considering othermethods of getting out the word. Crensonrequested email copies of the summaries.

DZero spokesperson Harry Weerts said thegroup began writing brief summaries ofresearch results for nonphysicists in response tothe collaboration’s perception of “a generalneed for high-energy physicists to communicatewhat we do.”

The Fermilab scientists are not alone intheir belief that science communication needsimprovement. In an editorial earlier this year,the editors of the science journal Naturedecried the “withering exclusiveness” they sawin scientific papers that “expresses itself in pri-vate language and with private rules.” And, asBrowne noted, in 1992 the editors of PhysicalReview Letters, the leading journal for the

Plain-English Physics

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DZero

spokesperson

Harry Weerts said

the group began

writing brief

summaries of

research results

for nonphysicists

in response to the

collaboration’s

perception of

“a general need

for high-energy

physicists to

communicate

what we do.”

The DZero collaboration.

to collide in the world’s highestenergy particle accelerator. TheD0 detector uses a calorimeterconsisting of uranium and liquidargon to measure the energy of allthe interacting particles producedin the proton-antiproton colli-sions. This detector techniqueaffords an excellent measurementof missing transverse energy. TheD0 physicists searched for eventswith two photons and missingtransverse energy, which couldsignal pair production of SUSYparticles. From over 100 millioninteractions recorded in the 1992-95 data-taking run, 842 eventscontained two good-quality pho-tons. However, none of theseevents is found to have unexpect-edly large missing transverseenergy. They therefore fail to con-firm the kind of SUSY modelinspired by the CDF event, and infact rule out a significant fractionof them.

There are still good reasons tobelieve that SUSY may exist; itcould well be that the superpart-ners are produced too rarely to beseen in the current data sample.For this reason, the Fermilabaccelerator and detectors are in themidst of a major upgrade that willincrease the collision rate by afactor of twenty in the next data-taking run, scheduled for 1999.

The paper describing the D0Collaboration’s finding “Searchfor Diphoton Events with LargeMissing Transverse Energy inProton-Antiproton Collisions”was submitted to Physical ReviewLetters on Dec. 12 1996. ■

Once again, extending theStandard Model will take longerthan recently had been hoped.This theory provides an excellentdescription of the observed inter-actions of the most fundamentalconstituents of matter (the quarksand leptons). However there aregood theoretical reasons toassume that it is just an approxi-mation to, or part of, a larger andmore general theory. One of themost popular suggestions for thislarger theory is Supersymmetry(SUSY), which introduces a newsymmetry between fundamentalparticles and predicts that thereshould be a supersymmetricpartner for each of the presentlyobserved particles. None of thesuperpartners has yet beenobserved, but over the past yearthere has been considerable theo-retical speculation that a singleevent observed by the CDFdetector at Fermilab, and reportedat a conferences this last summer,might be indicative of SUSY. Thisevent contained two electrons,two photons and unbalanced(missing) transverse energy.Missing transverse energy is oftenused as a pointer to possible SUSYsignals because it could indicatethe escape of a non-interactingSUSY particle (like the lightestsuperpartner) from the detector.

Physicists in the D0(“DZero”) Collaboration haverecently submitted a paper toPhysical Review Letters describinga similar search for SUSY particles.They used the D0 detector at theFermilab Tevatron Collider, whereprotons and antiprotons are made

Search for Diphoton Events with Large Missing Transverse Energy

~ The D0 Collaboration

publication of particle physics papers, ruled thatthe first paragraph of every article the journalpublishes must at least be understandable toother physicists.

“We asked ourselves what was a good wayof making the information about our workmore available,” Weerts said. He and MichiganState University colleague Raymond Brockconceived the summaries not only to explainthe results in each paper, but also to answer thequestion “So what?”

“We want the person who reads them tounderstand what it means if we are publishingresults about the top quark or the W boson,”said Weerts. Collaborators John Womersley,John Ellison and Herb Greenlee wrote the firstof the summaries, which the group plans toproduce regularly. DZero physicist HarryMelanson created the World Wide Web page.

NSF and DOE: “We like it.”National Science Foundation director and

physicist Neal Lane welcomed the develop-ment. “This is exactly the kind of public out-reach that needs to happen to make sciencemore accessible to the public,” Lane said. “It isalso an instructive exercise for scientists whoneed to think increasingly about how theirwork is perceived by the general electorate. Inthe long run, I am confident that such effortswill pay off in terms of both improved science literacy for the public, and broadened aware-ness on the part of scientists. And that’s goodfor the country.”

Department of Energy officials also sup-ported the initiative. “I am very glad to hearthat Fermilab physicists are doing this,” saidPeter Rosen, Director of the Office of HighEnergy and Nuclear Physics. “One of our greatneeds is to explain to ordinary people what weare trying to do. Anything that helps with thatcommunication is a great contribution.”

Spokesmen for other Fermilab experimentsindicated enthusiasm for the practice. “It’s awonderful idea!” said University of Chicagophysicist and KTeV experiment spokesmanBruce Winstein. “It’s a necessity—let’s do it!”

“I think it’s a terrific idea,” said BobBernstein, spokesman for Fermilab’s NuTeVexperiment. “We’re going to do it.” CDFspokesman-elect Al Goshaw of Duke Universityalso expressed strong support for the conceptand said that he would discuss it with his col-laborators. AP editor Crenshaw will be pleased.

“Can you get CDF to do it?” he asked. ■

An example of the plain-English summaries thatFermilab’s DZero collaboration has begun publishing.

to aggravate the problem by proposing thelargest possible quantities of unseen matter thatthe data can support. Their theories work bestwhen there is just enough mass in the universeto balance it on the brink between collapse andendless expansion. There is no lack, either, ofideas among particle theorists as to the possiblenature of the dark matter. Conjectures rangefrom ordinary matter that takes the form ofhuge Jupiter-like objects that give off too littlelight to be observed, to small black holes, tofundamental particles such as common neu-trinos, or more speculative wisps of the funda-mental fabric, each having some mass andoccurring with sufficient abundance to provideenough mass to make the equations work. Thetruth may involve a mixture of all or some ofthe above.

A hot time in the old universeAmong the theorists’ favorite candidates is

the class of weakly interacting massive particles,or WIMPs, also known as cold dark matter.Such particles would have been created in theearly universe when the temperature was muchhotter than it is now. They would have “frozenout” or stopped annihilating one another, asthe universe cooled and their energy decreased.According to this scheme, a large number ofWIMPs could be left in the present universe—enough to make up 80 or 90 percent of every-thing. In fact, theorists like to calculate howmany WIMPs would have to exist in order tosatisfy their cosmological theories. Using theresult, they can deduce an interaction strengthbetween the WIMPs that would have sparedenough of them to give the density theoriesrequire. Surprisingly, when theorists do the calculation they find that the required strengthof the interaction matches the strength of thewell-known weak interaction. Coincidence? The theorists don’t think so.

If most of the universe consists mostly ofWIMPs, why haven’t scientists seen them intheir laboratories? The reason lies in thestrength of the gravitational and weak forces,the only two means by which the hypothesizedWIMPs can interact with other particles. It isnot possible to observe fundamental particlesinteracting gravitationally on a particle-by-par-ticle basis, although it is the gravitational inter-action that leads to the observed disparities ingalactic rotation curves. On the other hand,physicists at Fermilab and elsewhere routinely

The Search for Cold Dark Matterby Roger Dixon, Particle Physics Division

Particle physicists tend to think of them-selves as clever. They have, after all, discoveredmost of the universe’s fundamental buildingblocks, tiny as they are, some with such shortlifetimes that they expand the very definition ofexistence. Nonetheless, there are indicationsthat particle physicists may not be as clever as

they seem. For example, the stuff thatmakes up most of the universe

remains a complete mystery tothem. Neither particle physi-

cists nor astronomers knowthe nature of 80 to 90 per-cent of the matter in the

universe.The knowledge that there is a

mysterious, unseen “something”out there is not new. For decades

astronomers and physicistshave recognized that therotation curves of ourgalaxy—or any observedgalaxy—do not match pre-

dicted behavior. The problemis simple: when astronomers

look at light arriving in tele-scopes, they can ascribe a mass

to the object producing thelight, based on the relationshipbetween a star’s mass and the

light it emits. But adding upthe masses of the stars, cal-culated by this method,

yields a total quantity of massthat is much smaller than themass deduced from theobserved galactic rotationcurves using Newton’s laws

of motion and gravitation. Thebooks don’t balance. Somehow, a lot of mass is missing.

Still stronger evidence forunseen mass comes from studying

the motion of clusters of galaxies andfrom examining the large-scale struc-ture of the universe. Combined with

our best theories of gravitation and cosmology, these data indicate that light

arriving in telescopes reveals only about 10 to20 percent of the matter in the universe. Theremaining missing mass has come to be knownas dark matter.

Such discrepancies do not daunt the cos-mological theorists. In fact, cosmologists tendPhoto by Jenny Mullins

observe the weak interaction on a particle-by-particle level. For example, Fermilab’s NuTevexperiment now sits at the end of a neutrinobeam observing neutrino scattering events inwhich neutrinos interact in the experiment’sdetector by means of the weak force. Thatexperiment directs a high-intensity neutrinobeam at the detector. Unfortunately, we do notknow how to make a beam of WIMPs.

Nevertheless, it is the weak force that pro-vides the only means of detecting the myste-rious particles of cold dark matter. The onlyhope of seeing them is to design a detector sen-sitive enough to detect the few WIMP scat-tering events expected to occur as the earth andsun move in their galactic orbit through thehypothesized sea of WIMPs. Detecting themmay be possible, but it will be no mean feat.

Physicists take on WIMPsUndaunted, a small group of Fermilab

physicists has recently joined the CryogenicDark Matter Search, an experiment to searchfor cold dark matter in the form of WIMPs.The experiment is a collaboration of scientistsfrom Case Western Reserve University,Fermilab, INR (Baksan in Russia), LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory, Santa ClaraUniversity, San Francisco State University,Stanford University, the University of Californiaat Berkeley, and the University of California atSanta Barbara.

To detect dark matter, the experiment usessmall, ultrapure crystals of germanium or sil-icon. Each crystal is about a centimeter thick,seven centimeters in diameter and weighs either100 grams or 240 grams, depending on thematerial. The detector operates at a tempera-ture of .015 degrees Kelvin, or about 4.5degrees colder than the Tevatron. If all goes asplanned, experimenters will detect dark matterparticles when they scatter, by means of theweak interaction, off a nucleus in one of thecrystals, causing the nucleus to recoil. Therecoiling nucleus will collide with some of theother nuclei in the crystal, knocking some elec-trons loose and creating ionization.

The bouncing and jiggling of the recoilingnucleus will also cause other atoms in thecrystal to oscillate, making vibrations known asphonons. Extremely sensitive sensors mountedon the surface of each crystal will collect theenergy deposited in the form of ionization andphonons. The information from the sensors isrecorded, and scientists study the characteris-tics of the event to determine whether it islikely that a WIMP caused it.

An initial detector using three crystals, twoof germanium and one of silicon, is presentlytaking data beneath the campus at Stanford

University. That experiment is already settinglimits on the existence of WIMPs comparable tothe best limits achieved by other experimentsaround the world.

Investigators hope that during the next yearthe Department of Energy and the NationalScience Foundation will approve a second,upgraded experiment. Such approval would allowconstruction of a second detector in the Soudanmine in Minnesota, the same mine whereFermilab’s NuMI project plans to place a neu-trino detector. The Soudan detector for cold darkmatter would make use of 35 germanium andseven silicon detectors with a total massapproaching 10 kilograms. Low cosmic ray back-ground levels in the mine will give increased sen-sitivity to dark matter and allow the explorationof much of the theoretically interesting region forWIMPs. If WIMPs exist, the discovery potentialis great.

Data taking could begin with a few detectorsin the Minnesota mine in early 1999 at about thetime when backgrounds would begin to limit theexperiment at Stanford, which would then devoteits efforts to detector development and testing.The number of crystals installed at Soudan wouldincrease as production and testing of new detec-tors continued. Experimenters propose to takedata with a full complement of detectors over aperiod of approximately three years.

Fermilab expects the Laboratory’s contribu-tion to the CDMS experiment would includeelectronics for the Stanford and Soudan experi-ments, calculations and measurement of back-grounds for Soudan, shielding for Soudan, andassembly of the cryostat for the Soudan detectors.In addition, Fermilab expects to make substantialcontributions to clean rooms, infrastructure andthe installation at Soudan.

Deep underground, the clever physicists willtry to outsmart the elusive WIMPs in the searchfor cold dark matter. ■

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A crystal for detectionof WIMPs. Grid on the surface senses vibrations known asphonons.

A small group

of Fermilab

physicists has

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the Cryogenic

Dark Matter

Search, an

experiment to

search for cold

dark matter in

the form of

WIMPs.

User Profilecontinued from page 1

detailed design, construction, data taking, ordata analysis; most or all of these activities takeplace at Fermilab.

Rubinstein said that experiment spokesper-sons supply the list of experiment personnel,identified as either physicists or graduate stu-dents. The total number of users also includesFermilab physicists who take part in significantexperimental physics activities that are notFermilab particle physics experiments. Thisgroup includes, for example, collaborators onastrophysics experiments such as the SloanDigital Sky Survey and scientists at work on thedesign of the Compact Muon Solenoid experi-ment for the European Particle PhysicsLaboratory’s (CERN’s) planned Large HadronCollider.

Although individual users or institutionsare sometimes involved in more than oneexperiment, each is counted only once in compiling totals, Rubinstein said.

Doing the NumbersThe data for 1997 show a total of 2,309

Fermilab users, up from 2,239 in 1996. Of the1997 total, 1,496 come from 98 U.S. institu-tions in 36 states; 813 come from 90 foreigninstitutions in 20 countries. Users include 1,693physicists and 616 graduate students. Of thetotal, about half work on fixed-target experi-ments, 45 percent belong to collider detectorcollaborations, and the rest are engaged in otherresearch activities.

States with Fermilab users are Alabama (2),Arizona (17), California (151), Colorado (13),Connecticut (20), Florida (23), Georgia (3),Hawaii (8), Illinois (464), Indiana (64), Iowa(19), Kansas (12), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (3),Maryland (28), Massachusetts (97), Michigan(73), Minnesota (17), Mississippi (13),Nebraska (4), New Jersey (25), New Mexico(37), New York (139), North Carolina (17),Ohio (13), Oklahoma (11), Oregon (3),Pennsylvania (51), Puerto Rico (6), RhodeIsland (8), South Carolina (10), Tennessee (14),Texas (73), Virginia (24), Washington (11), andWisconsin (22).

Foreign users come from Argentina (2),Brazil (36), Canada (21), Colombia (8),England (18), France (16), Germany (26),Greece (9), India (28), Israel (12), Italy (220),Japan (116), Mexico (25), Peoples Republic ofChina (24), Poland (5), Russia (210), SouthKorea (16), Switzerland (2), Taiwan (18), andTurkey (1).

Not surprisingly, Fermilab physicists represent the largest single group of users at theLaboratory at 289. After Fermilab, the top 10U.S. institutions are:University of Rochester. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Berkeley Lab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46University of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Argonne National Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Northwestern University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33SUNY at Stony Brook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31University of Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 University of Illinois, Champaign . . . . . . . 29Michigan State University . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28UCLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

DZero and CDF, the collider detector col-laborations, have the most members—about500 each. The smallest Fermilab collaboration,with seven members, is the one for E862, theexperiment to detect antihydrogen.

TLC at a TNLFermilab was founded to be nice to users.

Although earlier high-energy facilities werecalled national laboratories, they tended to givefirst priority to universities in their immediateareas. Fermilab’s founders envisioned somethingdifferent. In an influential 1963 paper, physicistLeon Lederman, then a member of an Atomic

From near...Experimenters cometo Fermilab fromnearby institutions,such as NorthernIllinois University inDeKalb, Illinois, homeof this group ofexperimenters.

States and countries in blackhave users at Fermilab.

...and farFlags of many nationsfly before Fermilab’sWilson Hall to representthe nations whosephysicists carry outresearch at theLaboratory.

Fermilab users comefrom universities andaboratories in 36states and 20 foreigncountries.

The UEC serves as an advisory group toFermilab’s management. McBride, who has pre-viously worked on experiments at CERN and atGermany’s Deutches Elektronen-Synchrotron(DESY), says she finds the user community atFermilab relatively active compared to those atother laboratories.

“I think Fermilab users are more optimisticthan they were a couple of years ago,” McBridesaid. “The loss of the SSC was hard on users andhard on the Lab. The prospect of shrinking bud-gets in future years made things extremely diffi-cult for many university groups. Now we may beseeing the beginning of a bit more appreciationin Washington for basic research. There is afeeling that things might be improving, or atleast not getting worse.”

McBride also cited a new awareness amongFermilab users of the obligation to explain theirwork to nonscientists, and a recognition that theyneed help in doing so. “What we do is gobbledy-gook to the average person,” she said. “We needto find a way to incorporate communication skillsinto graduate physics education.”

Asked what Fermilab users want most,McBride replied: “Beam, beam and more beam.Users want to have as much beam and com-puting power as they can get.” Regular attendeesat Fermilab’s weekly Monday All Experimenters’Meeting can vouch for the accuracy of McBride’sassessment.

“They also want an infrastructure at the Labthat supports their research,” McBride added,“and they want to be involved in the design andengineering of their experiments, not simply inoperating them after they are built.”

The majority of active U.S. experimental par-ticle physicists use Fermilab’s Tevatron for theirresearch. Smaller numbers work at CERN andDESY, in Europe, as well as at SLAC, Cornell,and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S.

“The fact that Fermilab collaborations keepgrowing is one way to tell how well we are takingcare of our users,” said Director John Peoples.“If physicists thought they would find betterresources elsewhere, they would not come toFermilab. Physicists tend to vote with their feet.” ■

Energy Commission panel to evaluate proposalsfor a new U.S. accelerator laboratory, definedthe concept of a “TNL, or Truly NationalLaboratory” at which users from every part ofthe country would be “at home and loved.”

Lederman argued that not only shouldusers have access to the facility’s accelerator,ancillary equipment and specialized services, butthat they should also receive laboratory andoffice space on the site, a support budget tosupplement their own grants, representation onthe Laboratory’s scheduling committee, and anactive users’ advisory group.

Lederman, who became Fermilab’s seconddirector in 1978, proposed that the AECchoose the new laboratory site with a eyetoward “ease in airport-to-site transportation,housing, and general pleasantness.” Four yearslater, Fermilab’s designers did their best toincorporate those considerations.

What do users want?Three decades after Fermilab’s founding,

do the Laboratory’s users still feel at home andloved? Mostly, says Users’ Executive CommitteeChair Patricia McBride, the first woman andfirst Fermilab physicist to be elected to the post.

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by Donald Sena, Office of Public AffairsRecords were shattering at a feverish

pace recently in the Fox Valley, and,although there wasn’t a racetrack insight, Fermi National AcceleratorLaboratory’s own version of a speedwaywent into the books.

Fermilab’s particle accelerator,anchored by the superconductingTevatron, set new marks in several criticalcategories of accelerator performancefrom March 3 to March 10. Themachine, which switched from collidermode to fixed–target mode in latesummer of 1996, set four new records:

■ Number of hours of high–energyphysics delivered in a week at 154.3hours out of a possible 168 hours. Thatfigure snapped the old record of 152.85hours set in 1990.

■ Intensity for a single pulse at 2.81x 1013 on March 10 at 4:05 a.m. Thehighest intensity pulse during the lastfixed–target run was 1.8 x 1013.

■ Average intensity per pulse for oneweek at 2.32 x 1013.

■ Total number of protons acceler-ated in one week at 2.13 x 1017.

Many of the fixed–target researcherscommended the people who have deliv-ered the beam to their experiments in areliable fashion. John Cumalat,spokesman for E831, said in a recentemail that he has seen steady improve-ment in the machine’s performancethrough the fixed–target run.

“Overall, the FOCUS collaborationis enthusiastic about the recent perfor-mance of the accelerator and hopes itcontinues in a similar fashion throughthe end of the run in September,” saidCumalat.

The peak of commendation came at the All–Experimenters Meeting onMarch 10, when the Beams Divisionbroke the news of the records.

“One of the few times that I have ever heard applause in an All–Experimenters Meeting was on Mondaywhen Bob Mau (head of acceleratoroperations) gave these numbers,” said

Craig Moore, associate division head forsystems in the Beams Division. “Thatwas very gratifying, as a lot of peoplehave worked long and hard to do this.”

Moore said many people and mul-tiple factors contributed to the successfulweek of operations, as well as to theentire run. He said the work of the oper-ations and systems crews was a large partof the success. He also noted innovativemachine developments, such as thechange in step size by Mike Martins andhis team and the damper work for the

What a WeekFermilab’s synchrotron hits new highs in several measures of accelerator performance

The screen from Channel 13 at themoment the machine set a newrecord for single pulse intensity.

2.50E+13

2.00E+13

1.50E+13

1.00E+13

5.00E+12

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Week #

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1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43

Dean Still (foreground) and Todd Johnson, operations specialists, in the Main ControlRoom. Both noted the teamwork required to achieve the record–setting performance of the accelerator.

Intensity of Fixed–Target Operation at 800 GeVIn average intensity by week.

with the target lead shield. Final shakedown of the spectrometer is inprogress,” said Vittorio Paolone fromthe University of Pittsburgh.E781 SELEX“The search for charm in E781 con-tinues to be our main preoccupation.Data collection is going well, with occa-sional electronic hiccups to keep us wary.The major emphasis is on understandingthe data that we are taking. We’remaking progress on that front, but we’renot done by any means. The acceleratorhas been performing very stably andbeam is generally good,” said Jim Russfrom Carnegie-Mellon University.831 FOCUS“Recent increases in the beam energyand beam intensity on our primary targethave allowed us to improve our charmyield relative to both the number of trig-gers written to tape and the number ofprotons on target. We are able to mon-itor our charm yields almost in ‘realtime’ using the so-called ‘Golden Modes’of charm (D decays to K pi, K 2pi, andK 3pi) reconstructed by our offlineexpress line processors. By this measure,we have just passed the halfway marktoward our goal of ten times E687, orone million reconstructed charm decays,with a signal to background ratio of oneto one,” said Marleigh Sheaff of theUniversity of Wisconsin and CINVESTAV.E871 HyperCP“Last week we completed a series oftrigger studies with all components ofthe spectrometer working wonderfully.Targets, beam intensity and magnetpolarities were varied to optimize run-ning conditions. (Thanks to the opera-tors for bearing with us as we made con-tinual requests for different beam intensi-ties.) The spectrometer works well atvery high beam intensities with the trackfinding showing high chamber efficien-cies at these rates, and the data acquisi-tion writing about 50,000 events persecond onto tape. We are finally begin-ning to settle down to ‘normal’ datataking, as we continue to track down arapidly diminishing number of bugs inthe apparatus,” said Craig Dukes fromthe University of Virginia.

Updates March 4— March 14

FIXED–TARGET UPDATECollaborators provided the followingupdates on their fixed–target experiments.E799/E832 KTeV“The rare–decay part of the KTeV kaonphysics program (E799) is inprogress and going very well. We willcontinue running the rare–decay pro-gram up to the beginning of the one-week shutdown on March 24th. Duringthe shutdown, we will make smallimprovements and will come up in aconfiguration that will continue the pre-cision measurements of kaon decays(E832), which we started last fall,” saidBob Tschirhart of Fermilab.E866 NuSea“E866 had the best week ever last week;we will now definitely complete ourmeasurement of the asymmetry of theantiquark sea in the nucleon by theMarch shutdown,” said Chuck Brown ofFermilab.E835 Charmonium“After four days of pbar source studies,E835 is running again and taking data toscan the chi_2 resonance and determinethe energy scale of the antiproton beam.Precise knowledge of the pbarmomentum is very important when wescan narrow states to measure their reso-nance parameters. Before the shutdownwe plan to take data at the h_c and eta_cstates,” said George Zioulas, from theUniversity of California at Irvine.E862 Antihydrogen“We continue to accumulate data; noreal new news” to report, said DavidChristian of Fermilab.E815 NuTeV“E815 continues rolling along. We haveinstalled an upgrade to our Cerenkovparticle identification. Our analysis of testbeam data indicates that we are doing aswell halfway through the run as we everdid before, with lots of obvious room forimprovement,” said Bob Bernstein ofFermilab.E872 Donut“The collaboration is satisfied with thelevel of background muons and photonsat the target region. We will install prototype emulsion modules (calledECC’s) after the March shutdown, along

Booster, Main Ring and Tevatron byDave McGinnis and his crew.

Many accelerator operators tookpride of the work in the MainControl Room and beyond. ToddJohnson and Dean Still, operationsspecialists in the Beams Division,mentioned the damper developmentand the tuning skills by the machine’soperators, and both also stressed theteam approach to running the accel-erator.

“The recent bout of smoothrunning is an indication of how wellthe department functions as a team.It’s really due to a lot of work by alot of different people,” said Johnson,a veteran of past fixed-target and collider runs.

A little luck never hurts either. Johnson crossed his fingers andsmiled as he finished a recent accountof the accelerator’s performance.

Power outage and accelerator shutdown

On Tuesday, March 25, theFermilab site will have a plannedpower outage. All areas of the Lab,except the Main Injector and Village,will be without power starting at 7a.m. Commonwealth Edison said thepower will be off from thirty minutesto an hour; as a result, starting timefor the work day of March 25 will be9 a.m. rather than the standard 8:30a.m. No employees, users or visitorswill be allowed to enter the buildingsaffected by the outage before 9 a.m.or until the building managers autho-rize entry. Commonwealth Edison isswitching the Laboratory from oneprimary transmission line to another,because of work related to the MainInjector.

Taking advantage of this poweroutage, the Beams Division will shutdown the accelerator for one week,beginning Monday, March 24.During the week, crews will performmaintenance and repairs. Workers willchange some dipole magnets in theaccelerator, perform maintenance onthe cryogenics system, continue civilconstruction on the Main Injectorand do a “fair amount” of work inthe antiproton source. ■

Kudos From The CapitalRep. J. Dennis Hastert (R–Ill.) wrote Fermilab Director John Peoples to congratulate

the Laboratory on a recent environmental award, presented by Renew America, a national nonprofit environmental institution. Mike Becker and Bob Lootens, Fermilab’s prairie specialists, traveled to Washington, D.C. to receive the award on February 19.

The awards are given each year to programs throughout the nation that demonstrateleadership and excellence in environmental development and awareness. ■

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

-LunchWednesdayMarch 26Chorizo Strudel

Black-eyed Pea Cakeswith Sour CreamSalad of Cabbage,

Bell Peppers and CarrotsChocolate Cinnamon Tart

DinnerThursdayMarch 27Shrimp Rolls

with Dipping SauceBarbecued Beef

with Lemon Grass and Peanut Sauce

Rice Noodles and VegetablesTropical Fruit

with Mango Sorbet

LunchWednesday

April 2Cheese Fondue

Mixed Green SaladFresh Fruit Plate

DinnerThursdayApril 3Salad Nicoise

Grilled SalmonVegetable of the Season

Fresh Fruit Tart

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SUMMER CAMPChildren ages 7-12 are eligible to participate inthe Fermilab Summer Day Camp. The threesupervised sessions are:

Session I: June 16 – July 3; Session II: July 7 – July 25; Session III: July 28 – Aug. 15

The program is held in the lower level of KuhnBarn, with supervision from 7:30 a.m. until5:30 p.m. Daily programs begin at 8:30. Theprogram consists of arts & crafts, sports, swim-ming, field trips, etc. The cost for each sessionis $225.00 per child. Application forms areavailable in the Recreation Office, WH15W, theUsers Office or the Housing Office. For moreinformation contact the Rec. Office at x2548,5427 or jeanm@fnal.gov. Application deadline:March 28 at 5:00 p.m. Acceptance into camp ismade by lottery drawing on March 31.

SEWS ACTIVATIONOn April 1, 1997 at 10 a.m., the semi–annualtest of the Sitewide Emergency Warning System(SEWS) will be conducted. This is a greatopportunity to test local tornado shelter plans.

SEWS consists of the installation ofEmergency Alert Receivers (EAR) and SafetyAlert Monitors (SAM) units throughout theLaboratory, along with enhancements toexisting equipment in the CommunicationsCenter. In the event of severe weather or othersituations that are either threatening to life orcritical to Laboratory operations, theComCenter will transmit special signals thatwill cause the EAR and SAM units, as well as113 pagers and various Laboratory two-wayvoice radio frequencies, to sound distinctivetones. At the conclusion of the tones, theComCenter will broadcast a voice message pro-viding instructions appropriate for the situation.

Typical events that would cause the activa-tion of SEWS include:■ Tornado Watches.■ Tornado Warnings.■ Significant Release of chemical/hazardousmaterials on-site.■ Significant off-site emergency adverselyaffecting Fermilab.■ Information updates, such as weather warn-ings or chemical releases.

The schedule for the testing of SEWSsystem components:

113 pagers: Daily at 9:30 a.m.Outdoor Warning Siren System: Monthly, 1st Tuesday at 10 a.m.

LAB NOTESDZero, CDF and FCC Horns, EARs, SAMs:April 1 and July 1, Tuesday at 10 a.m.Wilson Hall Horns: April and October on aSunday at 3 a.m.

Questions? Please call Bill James of ES&H,x8901.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS MOVEDOn Wednesday, March 12, the Public AffairsOffice moved slightly further south in theatrium, east side of the first floor of Wilson Hall.

RING ROAD CHANGEAn approximately 400-foot stretch of RingRoad near the FZero service building will beremoved and replaced with a gravel road. The change is due to Main Injector construc-tion, and the long stretch will remain gravel formost of the summer. Also during that time,there will be increased construction trafficbetween AZero and FZero. After that work iscompleted, a smaller stretch of Ring Road inthe same area will remain gravel for about sixmonths more.

APRIL 3Wellness Works, “Changing Habits;” in 1 West,Noon–1 p.m.

APRIL 10Wellness Works, “Estate Planning;” in 1 West,Noon-1 p.m.

APRIL 12Tornado and Severe Storm Seminar, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Ramsey Auditorium. For moreinformation call (630) 840–2247.

ONGOINGEnglish lessons, Thursdays 10–noon in theUsers Center, call Janet Antonio, (630) 769-6518. NALWO coffee mornings,Thursdays 10 a.m. in the User’s Center, callSelitha Raja, (630) 305-7769. In the VillageBarn, international folk dancing, Thursdays7:30–10 p.m., call Mady, (630) 584-0825;Scottish country dancing Tuesdays 7–9:30p.m., call Doug, x8194.

CALENDAR

FOR SALE■ ’91 Nissan Sentra XE, 4drs, 83k miles, auto,cruise, a/c, AM/FM cass., silver, no rust, newtires, new battery. Must sell. $4,500 obo. CallAlexei, x2785 or email volkov@fnal.gov.

■ ’82 Volvo, two-door turbo. Good shape,great for commuting or student. $1,650. CallTom, (630) 232–8045.

■ Johnson Outboard Motor 9 1/2 HP rebuiltin ’95 $500 obo; 16 ft. Fiberglass DuoMarineBoat needs work, hardware already removedand rough sanding completed $150 obo; Ski’s -Atomic Arc 195 Salomon 547 Sport Bindings,size 12 US or 13 EU Trappeur 2000 boots alsohave ski and boot bag $200 obo. Two DrakeSatellite Receivers (ESR 424 and ESR 24) forCu Band, VideoCipher II and other older satel-lite equipment, make an offer. Call Terry,x4572 or skweres@fnal.gov.

■ Murray Lawn Tractor, 12 hp, Briggs &Stratton I/C, 38” cut, 7 years old, mulchingsetup, $395 or obo; Car ramps $15; Logsplitter, manual pump, 20 ton ram, very goodcondition, $40. Call Tim, x4070.

■ Original “Health Rider” Exercise Machine,like new, $200; Weider “Ab Shaper”, brandnew, $40. Call Cynthia, x4102 orsazama@fnal.gov.

■ Super Nintendo, two controllers, Game Boyadapter, cleaning kits for nintendo and GameBoy, $75; Game Boy games: Monopoly, Wheelof Fortune, Tetris, Centipede/millipede,Wordtris, Super Nintendo SIM ATRY (nodirections). Please call Connie, x3469.

FOR RENT■ One bedroom, upper apartment; for moreinformation call (630) 898–1455.

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. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE:1997--545-057/60012

50% TOTAL RECOVERED FIBER

10% POST-CONSUMER FIBER

The deadline for theFriday, April 4, 1997 issue of FermiNews is Tuesday, March 25.

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.

C L A S S I F I E D SThank you for the well written, balanced articlesunder the heading ‘Particles and Pavement’ inthe March 7th issue. I see first hand traffic con-gestion on 59 every day. It has become a veryheavily used route for semi-trucks and com-muters alike. I am surprised that more accidentsdo not occur. However, I have to question thewisdom of the DuPage County officials whosupport adding more development (proposedrace tracks & convention center, expandingDuPage Airport into a freight terminal) with orwithout additional north-south roads.

Your article helped me to understand thecomplexities of this problem: Opening Eola totraffic would clearly be in conflict withFermilab’s ability to perform its mission. A newroad that skirts the lab to the east would becruel to our Warrenville neighbors. ExpandingKirk Road may be the most viable alternativebut is sure to draw the wrath of the Batavia residents who already live along side it (not tomention the non-trivial fact that it is outside of DuPage County and therefore beyond theircontrol).

Perhaps choosing to not develop the landnorth of the laboratory is the wisest choice. Itwould reduce the rate of traffic volume growthon 59 and provide a little more that rare com-modity, open space.

Thanks Again.

~ Dave PushkaFermilab employee and DuPage resident

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In general, I have enjoyed the FermiNews formany years here, and especially the new direc-tion it has taken of late. But I must say that theMarch 7th issue was by far, the most informa-tive and interesting of any issue I’ve ever seen.Many of the members of our Group were ofthe same opinion.

Congratulations on a job well done!

~ Bill PritchardTD/Material Control QC

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Thanks for providing the “news.” I enjoyedyour treatment of the road expansion issue. The“then and now” pictures and “quarks, catfish,and concertos” provided the necessary balancedviewpoint in a nice, non-threatening fashion.I’ll remember that example in my own workproducts.

~ Kris Forsberg, U.S. Department of Energy

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

M I L E S T O N E SBORN

JoAnn and Lee (Contractor, Public Affairs)

BORN University of

Rochester user Deborah Harris and Fermilabphysicist Rob Harris. Fermilab physicist Jeffrey Appel.

RETIREDElton Anderson, on March 28, from the Beams Division/AS Controls Department.