What is dark matter? Can we create it in the laboratory?.

Why are there so many kinds of particles?.

Are there undiscovered principles of nature: new symmetries, new physical laws?.

The final layer of the detector is made up of muon detectors, which catch the signals of the muons that pass through the calorimeters, giving up only a fraction of their energy. CDF’s calorimeter for measuring the energies of particles that interact electromagnetically, such as electrons and photons, is made of 23 layers of lead and light-emitting plastic, and its calorimeter for particles that interact via the strong force, hadrons such as protons, neutrons, pions and kaons, is made of 23 layers of steel and plastic. The second layers of the detectors consist of calorimeters, which measure the energy of showers of particles by absorbing them. By connecting the dots, the CDF scientists are able to very precisely determine the particle’s momentum, where it came from and where it was headed. CDF excels at tracking particle paths, using 7 layers of silicon positioned closely around the beam pipe, and a large “wire” chamber around the silicon that records up to 96 position measurements for each particle produced in the collision. As particles pass through the innermost layers, made up of tracking detectors, they leave traces of energy that allow researchers to map their flight paths. For interesting events, the detectors record information necessary to evaluate the energy, momentum and electric charge of the emerging particles.ĬDF measures particles with three layers of detectors. Because mass is energy in a different form, the kinetic energy from the collision can convert briefly into massive particles heavier than the protons and antiprotons involved in the collision. When they cross, one or many pairs of protons and antiprotons can collide. The beams cross paths in the detector an average of 1.7 million times per second. This volatile process replicates the conditions just after the big bang. The 4,500-ton detector sits more than four stories tall and is composed of more than 1 million individual detector elements.īeams of protons and antiprotons collide at the center of CDF at nearly the speed of light, creating flashes of energy that condense into particles that in turn decay into more stable particles.

Physicists use the detector to study the array of particles and forces within the atom by recording data about collisions of protons and anti-protons in the machine. Science of matter, energy, space and timeĬDF is one of two detectors positioned along the four-mile Tevatron accelerator ring.Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology Facility.

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