Experimental Particle Physics and Astrophysics
- Steve Ahlen,
- John Butler,
- Robert Carey,
- Ulrich Heintz,
- Ed Kearns,
- James Miller,
- Lee Roberts,
- James Rohlf,
- James Shank,
- James Stone,
- Lawrence Sulak,
- Scott Whitaker
Experimentalists in high-energy physics are probing at the smallest scales of length to learn about the fundamental nature of elementary particles and the interactions between them. In addition they are performing precision tests of the standard model and searching for new physics beyond it. The goal of experimental astrophysics is to determine the nature of the universe through observations of radiation reaching the Earth from space.
Intermediate-energy physics fills the gap between high-energy physics and nuclear physics. The faculty are involved in precision experiments at low energies which are complimentary to high-energy experiments at colliders and fixed target accelerators. Projects are being conducted at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), a 30 GeV proton accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory; the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) at CERN in Geneva; the MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator (1-GeV electron machine); and TRIUMF, a medium-energy proton cyclotron in Vancouver, British Columbia, and at the 300 MeV electron accelerator in Saskatoon, Canada.