Fermilab Tevatron Atom Smasher Shuts after more than 25 Years

Well I guess it was inevitable given the financial crisis and the existence of the LHC .

One of the world's most powerful "atom smashers", at the leading edge of scientific discovery for a quarter of a century, is about to shut down.
The Tevatron facility near Chicago will fire its last particle beams on Friday after federal funding ran out.

A bid to extend the Tevatron's lifetime by three years was denied in January 2011 because the US Department of Energy could not come up with the extra $35m per year required to keep the machine running. An expert panel recommended the extension but its advice was not followed, turning the quest for the Higgs into a one-horse race.

Shortly after 1400 local time on Friday, the Tevatron's designer Dr Helen Edwards will push a button in the control room that diverts the last beam of particles into a solid metal block, closing the book on an era in American big physics.
www.bbc.co.uk...

The LHC wouldn't have had anything to do with it. You realise that the function of places like the one you mentioned is not just to find Higgs, right? It serves alsorts of purposes in science, particularly in physical and polymer chemistry. We have one here in Australia called the Synchotron that gets used all the time. The LHC being in Sweden is rather an inconvenient place to have to run samples if you're in or around the Chicago area.

It is sad that so much funding has been cut for the sciences over in the US - getting grants is hard enough as it is.

Thats sad to hear. Ive been to Fermi quite a bit my uncle use to work there its an amazing place from the top of the main building you can see the circle in in the ground well at least you could when I was younger havent been there in a while also they have a huge metal ball in the lobby thats connected to the very top of the tower that sways its really cool has something to do with the rotation of the earth I think

reply to post by hypervalentiodine

post by hypervalentiodine
You realise that the function of places like the one you mentioned is not just to find Higgs, right?

Yes I do realize that .

The LHC being in Sweden is rather an inconvenient place to have to run samples

Very inconvenient given that its in Geneva, Switzerland , did you realize that

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by hypervalentiodine

 

post by hypervalentiodine
You realise that the function of places like the one you mentioned is not just to find Higgs, right?

Yes I do realize that .

The LHC being in Sweden is rather an inconvenient place to have to run samples

Very inconvenient given that its in Geneva, Switzerland , did you realize that

You know, I can name every country in the world in under 10 minutes, but I'll be damned if I can separate those two countries in my head. Anyway, you get my point. The LHC has much of nothing to do with this, it's just a lack of funding.

reply to post by hypervalentiodine

post by hypervalentiodine
The LHC has much of nothing to do with this, it's just a lack of funding.

I wouldn't be so sure , yeah funding is an issue but in the grand scale of things $35 ml a year is peanuts .

LHC’s Mike Lamont interview from 2010

"It's clear that the LHC is the new boy in town, but in two years running we're going to put Fermilab out of business," operation group leader Mike Lamont told BBC News.
www.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by gortex
I wouldn't be so sure , yeah funding is an issue but in the grand scale of things $35 ml a year is peanuts .

LHC’s Mike Lamont interview from 2010

"It's clear that the LHC is the new boy in town, but in two years running we're going to put Fermilab out of business," operation group leader Mike Lamont told BBC News.
www.bbc.co.uk...

I don't usually trust media interviews on principle, but I see your point. I suppose the fact that it was built as the largest particle accelerator in the world doesn't help its case since it puts it in direct contention with the LHC. That being said, it has so many other uses outside of experimental physics that it's hard for me to fathom how it doesn't get a decent amount of use. Even then, just because it's not the biggest of the particle accelerators doesn't mean it can't still perform similar experiments.

35 million a year IS peanuts, you're right. And when you consider how much a place like that takes to construct (in today's value, tevatron cost $265 million USD), it just seems silly to not try and keep it up and running. That being said, I'm not sure how many particle accelerators you have in the US, so it may well be that it is redundant.

They must have made their last use of Fermilab on the "HIGH" setting. Anyone notice the crazy swirly weather pattern over Chicago and temperatures were -20 from surrounding areas?

Wohhh....turn that sucker off...

It's not like they've made any technological advances with it from consuming alll that money and energy over the years. We ain't driving no George Jetson mobiles.

What makes me REALLY LAUGH OUT LOUD is the repeated and VERY sad excuses of the American member of ATS who have tried to "justify" the closure of the # Tevatrone here on ATS.

It is generally accepted that the # tevatron is WAY behind what the EURO CERN project has done over MANY years.

CERN RULES - TEVATRON IS CRAP.

EUROPE RULES - AMERICA IS CRAP.

I remember about a year ago that on the eve of the funding cycle, the Tevatron Staff made an EMBARRASSINGLY overt comment that they had 'captured and recorded' a Higgs Bosun Particle. That was subsequently dismissed, MOST cringlingly by CERN as a "Mistake " (I think they were being SOFT on you Americans Yanks - LMFAO!!)

The Fact is that the EUROPEAN CERN Experiment was and IS far better equipped to search for the Higs-Bosun Particle. The Tevatron was nothing more than (as usual) Yank, STEALING of the concept from the Europeans. This THEFT, stems back right to the Nuclear age when the Americans STOLE UK secrets from THEIR GREATEST ALLIE (the UK) to manufacture the first Atomic Bomb and therefore seal the US of HATES destiny as the GREATEST murderer of Human life in current History (forget the Nazi's - the USA killed as many people in a Month in Japan!)

So, to recap for you YANK WANKERS - Europe will eventually discover the HB Particle and you will be left standing back in the Fission era!

EXCELLANT!!

reply to post by crichton13


What are you talking about? Other than jingoism of course. First, off science is a global community. Any discovery made by CERN benefits the whole world. Not to mention there are American scientists that work at CERN and work with the LHC. Second to claim that the Tevatron was worthless is sheer ignorance. It discovered a number of new particles including the top quark. Third, I don't know what you're on about the US stealing from Europe. The precursor to particle accelerators, the Van de Graaf generator was developed at Princeton. The first cyclotron was developed by Ernest O. Lawrence at Berkeley. The first synchrotron was developed at Brookehaven National Laboratory. The first fixed-target accelerator was developed at Stanford. And the first Ion collider was developed at Brookehaven. Lawrence had completed his first particle accelerator by 1931, whereas Europe didn't have their first major accelerator until 1959 with CERN's Proton Synchrotron. So, before you start with your Hitler-esque claims of superiority maybe you should do some actual research to see if your claims are actually backed up with facts.

reply to post by crichton13


That's fantastic, and you certainly are entitled to your opinion, however you are somewhat mistaken and ignorant on the purpose of particle colliders such as the tevatron.

Firstly, when they did notice the anomoly in their data and suspected it may be a new particle, the only ones claiming it was a Higgs boson were journalists. In fact, the scientists at Fermilab knew that it definitely was not the Higgs boson at all, but potentially something new not predicted by the standard model. Additionally, it wasn't the people at the LHC who refuted and disproved their claim. As a part of the natural course of science, they went abotu validating the results themseles. Fermilab used their other detector, DZero, to repeat the experiment, but had no luck. Independent data analysis then confirmed that it was most likely just an anomaly. Even despite the fact that they didn't really find anything, I don't see how that makes them so sub par. This quote from a Fermilab press conference sums it up nicely:

This is exactly how science works. Independent verification of any new observation is the key principle of scientific research.

Secondly, if you'd read the thread, you'd know that particle accelerators are not used simply to find the Higgs boson. They have a very wide application in a number of disciplines.

I suspect that your real purpose in this thread is simply to bad-mouth the US and tout on about the wonders of Europe. News flash: you're not as great as you think you are. Lastly, if you have such a problem with the US or you really need to inflate that ego of yours some more, how about you do it in a way that doesn't ruin someone else's thread?

Now that it has finished smashing particles... load up one of it's accelerator rings with super-conductive mercury plasma, and accelerate that as high as possible. See if there is a detectable reduction of test mass in the ring's open-area center.

Tevatron being dismantled and parts given away for museums, other experiments.

Tevatron tunnel to be opened to as museum