Take That LHC: Fermi Scores Again In Discovering Rare Single Top Quark

scientific blogging news ^ | March 9th 2009 01:00 AM | News Staff

[xcamel]

There's no question that employees at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have watched with some concern as the LHC got all the press about being the future of physics despite the fact it hadn't actually produced anything. They have also quietly continued setting world records and are once again reminding people that Fermilab's Tevatron, currently the world's most powerful operating particle accelerator, is actually ahead, even in the race to find the as-yet undefined "Higgs particle."

Now scientists of the CDF and DZero collaborations have observed particle collisions that produce single top quarks. The discovery of the single top confirms important parameters of particle physics, including the total number of quarks, and has significance for the ongoing search for the Higgs particle.

Previously, top quarks had only been observed when produced by the strong nuclear force. That interaction leads to the production of pairs of top quarks. The production of single top quarks, which involves the weak nuclear force and is harder to identify experimentally, has now been observed, almost 14 years to the day of the top quark discovery in 1995.

[xcamel]

Bleeding edge physics news.

[xcamel]

btw.. the article is an excerpt..

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Bleeding edge physics news.

Interestingly, the two particle-accelerator facilities mentioned in this excerpt, FermiLab and the LHC, are both based in Europe. It's a pity the US doesn't have a facility to compete with them - we should be leading the way.

[MtnClimber]

Interesting! Gave me an idea for a new sig line!

[newguy357]

Interestingly, the two particle-accelerator facilities mentioned in this excerpt, FermiLab and the LHC, are both based in Europe. It's a pity the US doesn't have a facility to compete with them - we should be leading the way.

Huh?

Fermilab is in Chicago.

We are leading the way.

[no-s]

dude! FermiLab is in Illinois

[kralcmot]

FermiLab is in a suburb of Chicago

I have been there

really....they give tours and its really an interesting place

[RonF]

the two particle-accelerator facilities mentioned in this excerpt, FermiLab and the LHC, are both based in Europe.

Fermilab is in Batavia, Illinois, about 15 miles from my house.

[ChicagahAl]

"It's a pity the US doesn't have a facility to compete with them"

Not to worry.

We have the top global warming scientists.

There. Doesn't that make you feel better?

By the way; when exactly did the US become a second-rate nation? I don't remember CNN saying anything about it.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Fermilab is in Chicago.

We are leading the way.

LOL - boy did I screw up. I honestly did know that FermiLab is in Batavia - massive brain fart. Sorry all - and glad to be shown I'm wrong in this case =).

[SuziQ]

We flew over FermiLab when flying in to Chicago in 1977. I pointed it out to my hubby, because we’d seen something on the news about it, and I could see the circular shape from the air!

[xcamel]

The Higgs BrainFarton!

Brilliant!!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

[xcamel]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=FermiLab&sll=41.833502,-88.245277&sspn=0.09145,0.175438&ie=UTF8&ll=41.833502,-88.245277&spn=0.044126,0.087719&t=h&z=14

[allmendream]

A conspiracy theory is so much easier to understand than cutting edge physics, so I suppose such is attractive to those of second rate intellect.

[Diogenesis]

Dude!!! It seems the experiment created a second time-line.

[Cyman]

“Fermilab is in Chicago”

I think he confused it with the world famous Ferme ta Bouche Lab in France

[ari-freedom]

“It’s a pity the US doesn’t have a facility to compete with them - we should be leading the way.”

well at least we have American Idol and our high class public school educational system

[Thunder90]

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