US Scientists Prep for Large Hadron Collider's Debut

Fermilab researchers on Thursday showed off the Chicago-area lab's high-tech communications links to the new Switzerland-based Large Hadron Collider, which is set to begin test operations Sept. 10.

The remote operations center, the only one of its kind in the U.S., is a major part of the American lab's strategy to ride an expected wave of discoveries from the European device.

Tevatron Days Numbered

The European collider will be about seven times more powerful than Fermilab's Tevatron, which for 25 years has smashed together subatomic particles in search of clues about the fundamental properties of matter and the laws of the universe.

Officials say the Tevatron likely will be shut down once it is obsolete, in 2010 at the latest.

Despite the natural rivalry between Fermilab and CERN -- the European physics center that runs the new collider -- American scientists say their future depends on the success of their counterparts across the ocean.

They believe hundreds of physicists will flock to Fermilab's unique operations center, where they can monitor the European collider's performance and collect masses of data from it in real time. They've even copied the banks of computer monitors at CERN's operations room in Switzerland.

"When you're here, it's going to feel exactly the same as it would if you were at CERN," said Dan Green, a Fermilab physicist who led American construction of a major component at the European collider.

Particle Pajama Party

Fermilab staffers are so enthused about the new collider that they're holding a pajama party in the remote operations center starting at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday to celebrate its inaugural test.

The first use of the collider will be to check that its particle beams are working correctly, but scientists hope to ramp up the energy and precision of the beam in the months to come.

The remote operations center took about two years to build. Scientists there already have been helping prepare for the startup of the collider by monitoring its detectors for signs of cosmic ray particles that come from the depths of space.

Americans are contributing more than expertise to the new collider; the U.S. has invested about US$531 million for construction of the European device. Much of that money went into assembly of key magnets that focus the beam of particles.

Fermilab scientists also built components in one of the massive detectors that will study the subatomic shards that result from particle collisions.