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. 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.

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.

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 are

Measurement of b  anti-b rapidity correlations in p anti-p collisions at s^1/2= 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 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 (WiscINFO)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School
• Physics Department Home Page
• High Energy Physics Page

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CDF publications describe

• the discovery of the top quark and studies of its mass, weak decay mode branching ratios, and production and decay angular distributions
• precise measurements of the properties of weak interaction intermediate vector bosons and their gauge interactions
• studies of the production and decays of hadrons containing heavy quarks (b,c) including the discovery of the b anti-c quark B_c meson, and the first evidence for CP-violation in B=>J/psi - K_S observations
• 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
• searches for new phenomena including quark and intermediate boson substructure, particles predicted by supersymmetry and technicolor models, and particles associated with mass generation (Higgs).

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.

Top quark	Electroweak Interactions
Quantum Chromodynamics	Bottom quark
Exotic phenomena