Particle Hunters

Audio

03/13/2009

Mar. 13, 2009

Particle Hunters

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Researchers announced this week that they've detected the production of single top quarks at Fermilab. The production of single top quarks has been predicted by the Standard Model of physics, but such events hadn't been definitely seen before. Now, two groups using different detectors at Fermilab have spotted the production of the single particles, which is governed by the weak interaction. Observing a single top quark gives physicists more information about the top quarks and the other particles that pair with them.

The lab also announced this week that they've refined their measurement for the mass of the W-boson, a value that helps define the window for the search for the Higgs boson. We'll talk about the work and the search for other, still more exotic particles such as the Higgs.

Produced by Charles Bergquist, Director and Contributing Producer

Guests

Heidi Schellman
Professor of Physics, Northwestern University

Member of the W-mass team on the DZero Collaboration

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Batavia, Illinois

Discussion

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