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About CDF CDF is a multinational experiment that studies collisions of protons and antiprotons at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory . The CDF detector is sensitive to fundamental interactions of quarks and leptons and to a variety of possible new phenomena. CDF began operation in 1985. The detector has recently been substantially revitalized to take advantage of increased luminosity in 2000.

About Fermilab

Fermilab is located in Batavia, IL, about 2.5 hours south of Madison. Originally constructed around a 400 GeV proton accelerator for experiments with fixed targets, the lab now accelerates protons and antiprotons to 1 TeV in a 4 mile circumference superconducting synchrotron and operates primarily in colliding beam mode. The collisions have the highest center-of-mass energy available at any laboratory in the world at present and produce a large number of heavy and unstable elementary particles. A new antiproton production and injection system has recently been added to substantially increase the interaction rate and improve studies of rare processes. Visit  Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  to take a virtual tour.

WI group activities The Wisconsin CDF group has been active in the experiment since its inception. The group built and operated two forward and backward toroidal muon spectrometers to study b-quark and intermediate vector boson (W, Z) production and decay during the first Tevatron run.

Wisconsin also constructed and installed the barrel shaped muon detectors (see BMU) for the second Tevatron run which provides forward muon identification is important analyses such as the observation of B_s - B_s oscillations, the observation of single top production, and Standard Model Higgs boson searches.

Also for the second Tevatron run Wisconsin provided a cosmic ray test stand calibration of the new electromagnetic scintillating tile/fiber endplug calorimeters.

Notable WI group publications

Measurement of the Lepton Charge Asymmetry in W-boson Decays Produced in p anti-p Collisions (using the toroid muon system)
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett.81, 5754-5759, 1998.

Observation of B_s - B_s oscillations (using the BMU system)
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 97. 242003, 2006.

Search for a Higgs Boson Decaying to Two W Bosons at CDF
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 102. 021802, 2009.

Information for graduate students

The CDF group provides research appointments to students of particle physics who participate in detector operation and data analysis. Interested students should contact either Professors Carlsmith, Herndon, or Pondrom. CDF WI thesis's include:

Search for a Neutral Higgs Boson Decaying to a W Boson Pair in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 97, 081802, 2006.

Measurement of b  anti-b rapidity correlations in p anti-p collisions at s^1/2=1.8 TeV.
Published in Phys. Rev. D. 61, 032001, 2001.

Observation of W+ W- production in anti-p p collisions at s^1/2 = 1.8-TeV.
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 78, 4536-4540, 1997.

A database of CDF theses is available. General information about graduate study in particle physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may be found at the following links:

• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School
• Physics Department Home Page
• High Energy Physics Page

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Physics at CDF

CDF publications describe:

• the discovery of the top quark and studies of its mass, weak decay mode branching ratios, production, and decay angular distributions (Top physics)
• precise measurements of the properties of weak interaction intermediate vector bosons and their gauge interactions (Electroweak physics)
• studies of the production and decays of hadrons containing heavy quarks (b,c) including the observation of particle anti-particle oscillation in the Bs meson system (B physics).
• studies of processes governed by quantum chromodynamics (QCD) including quark and gluon jet production, the distribution of quarks and gluons within the proton, and particle jet formation, as well as more complex diffractive phenomena (QCD physics)
• searches for new phenomena including quark and intermediate boson substructure, particles predicted by supersymmetry and technicolor models (Exotic physics)
• and searches for particles particles associated with mass generation (Higgs physics).

Latest CDF Physics News! Mar 13 2009: Fermilab experiments constrain Higgs mass. Press Release. Preprint.