{"id":329,"date":"2007-10-09T11:09:13","date_gmt":"2007-10-09T16:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=329"},"modified":"2014-09-23T09:25:29","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T14:25:29","slug":"physicists-get-nsf-grant-to-develop-equipment-to-search-for-new-subatomic-particles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/physicists-get-nsf-grant-to-develop-equipment-to-search-for-new-subatomic-particles\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicists Get NSF Grant to Develop Equipment to Search for New Subatomic Particles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"physicists?get?nsf?grant.jpg\"<\/p>\n
\nThis Radio Frequency Cavity is to be used to accelerate muons until they collide head-on, creating new kinds of subatomic particles.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi physicists
\nhave been awarded a competitive grant to build equipment to
\nbe used in the ongoing search for new subatomic particles.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe National Science Foundation major research
\ninstrumentation award for $798,819 is for development of a
\nsuperconducting magnet coil and radio frequency cavity,
\nwhich researchers hope to use to accelerate tiny particles
\ncalled muons until they collide head-on, creating new kinds
\nof subatomic particles. Muons are similar to electrons, but
\n200 times more massive.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe project is part of a worldwide effort to study the mass
\nof neutrinos, tiny particles with no electrical charge, and
\nto detect the elusive Higgs boson, the particle thought to
\nhold the key to the relative masses of all other subatomic
\nparticles.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nDonald Summers and Lucien Cremaldi, UM professors of
\nphysics and astronomy, are co-principal investigators for
\nthe two-year project. Both are longtime members of the
\nuniversity’s High Energy Physics Group, which is involved
\nin several international projects to understand the
\nfundamental forces of nature.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“The university, along with the Lawrence Berkley National
\nLaboratory in California and the Thomas Jefferson National
\nAccelerator Facility in Virginia, is making these cavities,
\nwhich resemble very large and powerful microwave ovens,”
\nSummers said. The radio frequency, or RF, cavities, made of
\ncopper, are about 5 feet in diameter and look like giant
\npill boxes. But instead of pills, these devices store
\nhigh-power radio waves.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nRadio waves consist of oscillating electric and magnetic
\nfields, and the team plans to use the electric fields to
\naccelerate electrically charged particles, such as muons.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“The muons ride an electric wave just like a surfer rides
\nan ocean wave,” Summers explained. “Similarly, low-power
\nradio waves from cell phone towers accelerate electrons in
\ncell phone antennas to transmit phone calls.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe muons, which are unstable and decay into other
\nparticles in just a fraction of a second, are made by
\ncolliding a beam of protons with a metal target, he said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“This produces muons with a high temperature 50 million
\ndegrees Fahrenheit. We plan to cool them to 5,000 degrees
\nFahrenheit.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe relatively cool muons are easier to handle, Cremaldi
\nsaid.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“As the muons are cooled, they form compact swarms such
\nthat their collisions should generate the new matter,” he
\nsaid.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nTo focus the muons as they are accelerated, the team uses a
\nsuperconducting magnet coil. Each RF cavity is surrounded
\nby a 6-foot-diameter-by-1-foot long wire coil.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“Three million amps of electricity will run through each
\ncoil, creating a magnetic field 100,000 times stronger than
\nthe field of the Earth,” Cremaldi said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nInstead of copper, the wire coils are made of nobium and
\ntitanium metals and cooled to minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit.
\nThis reduces the electrical resistance of the coil to zero,
\nmaking it a “superconductor,” Summers said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“If we used a copper coil to generate the magnetic field
\nrather than a superconducting coil, it would consume 26
\nmegawatts,” he said. “The UM campus consumes 18 megawatts.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe ultimate goal is to get the RF cavities to accelerate
\nmuons until they can collide, Summers said. “That’s going
\nto take a little bit of practice,” he said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe project promises to help physicists better understand
\nthe fundamental principles of physics that hold the
\nuniverse together, Cremaldi said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“If successful, this acceleration experiment could be the
\nnext step toward the discovery of dark matter, the
\nsubatomic particles some astronomers have said comprise 90
\npercent of the mass of our Milky Way galaxy,” he said.
\n“Dark matter holds the Milky Way galaxy together, but so
\nfar only its gravitational influence has been observed.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nAlong with its collaborators, the UM team is to operate the
\nRF cavities at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
\nnear Chicago. FermiLab has agreed to supply the radio
\nfrequency power to the cavities and to supply beams of
\nsubatomic particles for the RF cavities to accelerate,
\nSummers said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nBesides Cremaldi and Summers, the team includes several UM
\nundergraduate and graduate physics students who will help
\ngather data.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe team’s application for the grant was peer-reviewed and
\nwas among only a few chosen for funding, Summers said. The
\nresults of this project are eagerly awaited by researchers
\nworldwide.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“One of the most critical components of accelerator
\nresearch today is to investigate the performance
\nlimitations of very high-gradient radio frequency cavities
\noperating in the presence of strong magnetic fields,” said
\nHarold Kirk of Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
\n“Mississippi’s work will be of great benefit to us at
\nBrookhaven, and we wish UM the best of success with this
\nproject.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nFor more information about the Department of Physics and
\nAstronomy, visit
\nhttp:\/\/www.olemiss.edu\/depts\/physics?and?astronomy
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Radio Frequency Cavity is to be used to accelerate muons until they collide head-on, creating new kinds of subatomic particles. OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi physicists have been awarded a competitive grant to build equipment to be used in the ongoing search for new subatomic particles. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhysicists Get NSF Grant to Develop Equipment to Search for New Subatomic Particles - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/physicists-get-nsf-grant-to-develop-equipment-to-search-for-new-subatomic-particles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Physicists Get NSF Grant to Develop Equipment to Search for New Subatomic Particles - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This Radio Frequency Cavity is to be used to accelerate muons until they collide head-on, creating new kinds of subatomic particles. 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