DETROIT — After more than 10 years of gathering and analyzing data produced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Tevatron collider, scientists from the CDF and DZero collaborations have found their strongest indication to date for the long-sought Higgs particle. Squeezing the last bit of information out of 500 trillion collisions produced by the Tevatron for each experiment since March 2001, the final analysis of the data does not settle the question of whether the Higgs particle exists, but gets closer to an answer. The Tevatron scientists unveiled their latest results on July 2, two days before the highly anticipated announcement of the latest Higgs-search results from the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.
CDF is an international experiment of 700 physicists from 61 institutions and 13 countries. A group from Wayne State University joined the CDF experiment in 2001 and has played a leading role in the operation of the CDF experiment and analysis of the data.
Paul Karchin, Ph.D. and Robert Harr, Ph.D., both professors in Wayne State University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, along with Mark Mattson, research scientist in Physics, Alfredo Gutierrez, research engineer in Physics and Christopher Clarke, physics graduate student, are members of the CDF experiment. WSU’s group maintains the precise calibration of the calorimeter electronics, a crucial component of the measurement, and is deeply involved in the operation of the experiment, with Harr and Mattson providing crucial operations leadership. Shalhout Shalhout, Ph.D. of University of California, Davis earned his Ph.D. at Wayne State and now leads part of the Higgs analysis effort.
“This result wrings everything possible out of the data taken over the last ten years,” said Harr. “It's an incredible accomplishment and complements the work being done at the Large Hadron Collider. The low mass range is the most difficult place to search for the Higgs boson."
According to Harr, this is an important signpost for future discoveries.
“It tells us that the odds favor a light Higgs boson, and supersymmetry is a good bet. The first measurement of a light Higgs or supersymmetric particle could come from the experiments at Fermilab or almost certainly from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.”
To see the full press release from Fermilab, visit http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/2012/Higgs-Tevatron-20120702.html.
July 4 announcement at CERN
A team of physicists from Wayne State University have played key roles in the search for the Higgs boson. Robert Harr and Paul Karchin will be available on July 4 to comment on the CERN’s forthcoming announcement.
On July 4, beginning at 3 a.m. EDT (9 a.m. Central European Time) scientists from ATLAS and CMS, the other detector involved in the search, will give statements at CERN in Switzerland. Harr and Karchin from Wayne State University are available beginning at 7 a.m. on July 4th.
Dr. Harr can be reached at 313-702-1804.
Dr. Karchin can be reached at 313-671-7871.
For additional assistance on July 4th, contact Julie O’Connor, director of Research Communications at Wayne State University at 734-748-4207.
Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research institutions in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu.