CDF logo

Professor Carlsmith pictureWelcome from the U.WI.-Madison CDF groupU W Logo

Professors Duncan Carlsmith, Matthew Herndon, Lee Pondrom
Scientists  James Bellinger, Woo-Hyun Chung ,Robert Handler
Engineers George Ott
Research Assistants Daniel Cyr, Laura Bodine, Shan-Huei Chuang, Yongdae Shon , Varsha Ramakrishnan

Picture of central detector

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.


View from the air of main injector ring

About Fermilab

Fermilab is located in Batavia, IL, about 2.5 hours south of Madison. Orginally 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.


B M U detectorNew plug detectorAnother view of the plug detector

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.

Wisconsin has recently constructed and installed new barrel shaped muon detectors (see BMU) and provided a cosmic ray test stand calibration of the new electromagnetic scintillating tile/fiber endplug calorimeters. The parity violating asymmetry in W<=>muon, neutrino observed with the toroids appears in

    Measurement of the Lepton Charge Asymmetry in W-boson Decays Produced in p anti-p Collisions
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett.81:5754-5759,1998.


Dan Cyr, grad student

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 Professor Carlsmith or Professor Pondrom. Recent WI theses include

Measurement of b  anti-b rapidity correlations in p anti-p collisions at s1/2= 1.8 TeV.
By CDF Collaboration (F. Abe et al.). FERMILAB-PUB-98-392-E, Dec 1998. 34pp. Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.D

Observation of W+ W- production in anti-p p collisions at s1/2 = 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:

Physics at CDF

CDF publications describe


Links to recent results appear below. Click the image for a sample plot. Click the name to go to the public home page of the corresponding analysis group.

details of pictures of the reconstruction of a top quark event: 
link to bigger picture
Top quark
plot of C D F measurement of W mass versus top mass:  
link to bigger picture
Electroweak Interactions
two jet cross section:llink to bigger picture Quantum Chromodynamics Bottom quark mass peaks reconstructed from psi K events: 
link to bigger picture Bottom quark
Exotic logo: link to histograms for work in progress Exotic phenomena