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 Closeup of a CDMS detector, made of crystal germanium.Credit: Fermilab. Larger Image |
Crystal bells stay silent as physicists look for dark matter U.S. experiment retakes the lead in competitive race Batavia, Ill.--Scientists of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment today announced that they have regained the lead in the worldwide race to find the particles that make up dark matter. The CDMS experiment, conducted a half-mile underground in a mine in Soudan, Minn., again sets the world’s best constraints on the properties of dark matter candidates. “With our new result we are leapfrogging the competition,” said Blas Cabrera of Stanford University, co-spokesperson of the CDMS experiment, for which the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory hosts the project management. “We have achieved the world’s most stringent limits on how often dark matter particles interact with ordinary matter and how heavy they are, in particular in the theoretically favored mass range of more than 40 times the proton mass. Our experiment is now sensitive enough to hear WIMPs even if they ring the ‘bells’ of our crystal germanium detector only twice a year. So far, we have heard nothing.”
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See Karolyn Zeng's exhibition “Celestial Journeys: In the Language of Art” through March 31, 2008 in the Physics and Astrophysics Building, 8am-5pm M-F. The artist reflects on astrophysics, quantum physics, human genetics and the I Ching in nineteen Oil on Canvas paintings, which range from the use of ancient Chinese calligraphy to large, multi-canvas works fusing human genetics and cosmology. A wine and cheese reception for the artist will be held Mar 12, 2008 5.00pm-6.30pm. |
| HEPL Directors Past and Present | |
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HEPL directors past and present attended the pre-demolition celebration. They are, from left, Sandy Fetter (1996-1997), Blas Cabrera (2006-present), Mason Yearian (1973-1996) and Robert Byer (1997-2006).
Photo courtesy L.A. Cicero |
January 30, 2008, Stanford Report
On the frontiers of science for decades, a storied building is soon to be razed
BY DAN STOBER
Crews on Tuesday worked on demolishing the HEPL building. L.A. Cicero Alan J. Keith played and marched through the gutted laboratories during a pre-demolition party held at the HEPL building that brought together many former and current researchers for an afternoon of reminiscing. From the obituary desk: The HEPL building, 58 years old, a Stanford baby boomer born in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II, a child prodigy that produced the world's first full-scale linear accelerator when only a year old and won the Nobel Prize for physics at age 12, has passed on. Despite a certain gangly appearance, it was loved by its extended family of researchers for its utilitarian qualities. There were several causes for its passing (old and in the way, in essence), but the final blow was delivered by heavy-duty construction equipment. more
November 5, 2007
Gala event held in honor of sixty years of research in historic Building 04-250, aka “HEPL North.”
History of Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory (pdf)
October 31, 2007 - Stanford Report
Physicists chase Einstein’s equivalence principle down a hole
Physicist Mark Kasevich works in a 25-foot pit beneath the Varian Building in search of Albert Einstein. Or more specifically, Kasevich is searching for proof that Einstein got it right in 1907 when he formulated his equivalence principle, declaring in effect that the tug of gravity is indistinguishable from the force that pushes you back into your seat in a rapidly accelerating Porsche.
If Einstein was right, the equivalence principle also requires that "objects should fall at the same rate under gravity, regardless of their composition, regardless of their mass," said Jason Hogan, one of Kasevich's graduate students. Their team is now installing the esoteric equipment designed to test that prediction by tossing up a handful of rubidium atoms—some slightly heavier than others—and watching them fall to the bottom of the pit. more
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The development and application of advanced technology to science is a central element of HEPL and the source of its uniqueness. Over the last three decades, HEPL has developed a base of advanced technology in cryogenics and metrology. The technical investment has positioned scientists in HEPL to be at the forefront of important areas in science which could not even be considered at other institutions lacking the technical base. Stanford is fortunate in having a group of scientists associated with vision to apply it to leading scientific problems.
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