Particle Physics is a Party

So let’s begin with yesterday. 

The morning of my class was fairly uneventful, we had a short lecture and then worked on our projects. With my project I feel like I keep inching closer to where I actually want it to go with it, but there’s never enough time in the period that I’m working on it to actually reach where I want to. It’s a bit frustrating as I do actually want to figure out most of my project on my own, but of course when you take that route it’s easier to hit walls.

After lunch we saw a presentation by Vikram Dwarkadas, PhD, about supernovae and supernova remnants. He showed us simulations and videos of the actions of various supernovae. We were able to see quite a few interesting images and real processes during the presentation.

Following this, Jahnvi wanted to get pictures with him for our blog, which ended up turning into over an hour long conversation. We talked about photography, places to visit in Chicago, ILC, colleges, and oddly dancing. It was definitely a pretty interesting afternoon. 

I had dinner, went to the gym with Kara and Jahnvi, before taking time to read the pages assigned for Thursday’s homework.

We took a trip to Fermilab today! They are known for neutrino research and neutrinos are tiny and very dificult to detect. 

Wilson Hall

Our entire class met in the lobby of Campus North to meet with Charlotte the RA who was going with us both on this trip, and on our trip to Yerkes next week. Around 9 we walked outside to greet the black bus that would take us to Fermilab. The bus was really nice. The seats were plush and comfortable, and there were outlets by every seat. Of course I took advantage of the comfortable seats to nap all the way to Fermilab.

When I woke up we were seemingly in the middle of nowhere, headed down a dirt road towards a security gate. The bus driver passed over his ID and then we were in. At first it didn’t really look like much, a few buildings, trees, and grass. Then we approached a building that was architecturally interesting but had too much concrete. We grabbed water that the bus driver offered before stepping out into the hot humid air. 

We were greeted by our instructors who were meeting us there as opposed to riding the bus with the class. Soon we met Dee our docent who would be with us for our entire time at Fermilab.

Dee explained roughly what different programs were in place at Fermilab and what programs were coming in the future. She brought us into a control center where someone stayed 24/7 analyzing data from the NOvA experiment. The beam was currently off so the control center was quieter than it would’ve otherwise been. Louise Suter, PhD, and the NOvA Near Detector Operations Manager spoke to us about the NOvA experiment. NOvA is a project in which a beam of neutrinos are sent to both a near and far detector to judge the oscillation of neutrinos from muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos. 

When Louise started talking I was beyond confused. Considering how much I talk you’d figure I learn best by listening, but I ended up trying to convert every word she said into a picture so I could understand. By the time my brain’s art skills had caught up with what she said, I had a lot more questions about neutrinos.

As it turns out more of my questions were answered later when we learned from Peter Shanahan, PhD. He lectured us on how the NuMI neutrino beam worked and how the NOvA project was conducted. That part of the lecture was open to questions so slowly everyone had more and more questions answered, and we moved on to our next adventure at Fermilab.

15th floor view

This adventure took place on the 15th floor of Wilson Hall, which I found a little funny as the 15th floor is the floor of the dorms we aren’t allowed to go to. After all three elevators had reached the 15th floor, we were greeted by a great view and a large map of the entirety of Fermilab. From this view you could easily see where the Tevatron, Fermilab’s no longer in use particle accelerator, sits. 

Dee told us about Felicia the ferret who was used in the tubes of while building the accelerator with a string tied to her in order to have an easier way to get a string through to the other side so a cleaning swab could be pulled through. Eventually they had to stop using Felicia as the pipes were getting too long, but the story was still quite hilarious. 

Our last trip at Fermilab was to MI8 where they put together all of the pieces that make up the neutrino beam. It was really interesting to hear all the precautions they take with the parts they make so they don’t waste money. We got to see a ton of cool prototypes, designs, and how they test for certainty.

On our way back again I slept and woke up to the sounds of screaming from four of my fellow classmates. As it turns out they were playing some group game on their phones, which for some reason involved screaming. So the last 30 minutes of the ride back to the dorms was serenaded by screaming.