Every day, scientists, engineers and technicians at Fermilab push
the boundaries of knowledge in fields like particle physics,
accelerator technology, quantum information science and
astrophysics. Read about 10 ways the laboratory has advanced
science and technology in 2024. Additionally, a video highlighting
the laboratory’s accomplishments may be viewed here.
1. Achieved important progress with DUNEFermilab is the
host laboratory for the Deep Underground Neutrino
Experiment. This international collaboration will explore the
mysteries of elusive particles called neutrinos. More than 1,400
scientists from over 35 countries and CERN are part of the
collaboration that is seeking to answer some of the biggest
questions around our understanding of the universe. DUNE will be
installed in the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, currently under
construction in Lead, South Dakota at the Sanford Underground
Research Facility, and at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois.
Crews completed excavation of DUNE’s caverns in February,
removing close to 800,000 tons of rock from a former mine
in South Dakota for the future subterranean home of the
experiment’s far detector. A ribbon-cutting
event was held in August with officials from around the globe
commemorating this historic milestone. In
September, a test for lowering steel beams was
successfully completed in preparation for the next phase of the
project.Meanwhile, in Illinois, the Fermilab accelerator complex
achieved a critical milestone towards high intensity running for
DUNE, reaching 1 MW beam intensity from its Main Injector.
Additionally, workers prepared the eight acres at
Fermilab where the future DUNE near site will be built. And a
prototype for the near detector — the 2×2 demonstrator
— saw its first accelerator-made neutrinos. Across the pond at
CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, prototypes for the far detector —
ProtoDUNE — were filled with liquid argon to ready them
for operation.This year, Jim Kerby was appointed the
new LBNF/DUNE-US project director. Kerby brings over
30 years of engineering and technical management experience to the
table. He will be responsible for managing all
2. Made major advancements with the Proton Improvement
Plan-II projectProton Improvement Plan-II is providing a
major upgrade to the Fermilab particle accelerator complex,
including a state-of-the-art superconducting radio frequency linear
accelerator. The PIP-II project started off the year by welcoming a
new director, Pantaleo Raimondi, a world-renowned physicist
with extensive experience in accelerator physics and project
management at labs around the world.The PIP-II team also made
progress with one of the five types of cryomodules that will make
up the linear accelerator. Fermilab successfully
shipped a prototype high-beta 650-megahertz cryomodule — the
largest needed for the PIP-II linac — to the United Kingdom and
back again. This was an important step in testing the cryomodule
transportation system and a final test before shipping the first
actual cryomodule built in the U.K. to the United States.PIP-II is
the first particle accelerator in the U.S. to be built
with significant contributions from international
partners. Institutions in France, India, Italy, Poland and the
U.K. are contributing technologies, instrumentation and expertise
to build the accelerator. Early in 2024, India’s Department of
Atomic Energy informed the U.S. Department of Energy that India is
officially moving from the research and development phase to
the construction phase for its contributions to the
PIP-II project. Pieces of India’s largest in-kind contribution to
PIP-II, the cryogenic plant, are scheduled to arrive at Fermilab in
the next month after a two-month journey over sea and
land. In addition, PIP-II partners at UK Research and Innovation
received the first production HB650 cavity, which was tested and
met specifications. And PIP-II partners at INFN, the National
Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy, placed the contract to
produce all low-beta 650-megahertz cryomodule cavities.In November,
the project completed the Early Conventional Facilities
subproject, marking the subproject’s readiness for the final stage
of approval, known as CD-4, planned for January 2025.
3. Continued our involvement in the CMS experiment at
CERNFor decades, Fermilab has been the host institution for
U.S. CMS. The CMS experiment at CERN records data from high-energy
particle collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider, the
world’s biggest particle accelerator. Earlier this year, Fermilab
scientists working on CMS helped create a tool that
expands the search for new particles at the LHC. The search could
either uncover physics beyond the Standard Model or set the most
stringent limits in the search for a class of theoretical particles
called long-lived particles. In September, the CMS
collaboration announced a new mass measurement of
the W boson, one of nature’s force-carrying particles, that is
consistent with predictions. This new measurement, which followed
the 2022 measurement by the Collider Detector at Fermilab
experiment that differed from the Standard Model prediction,
is the most elaborate investigation of the W boson’s mass to date
and took nearly a decade of analysis.The Department of Energy
also approved the start of full production for the $200
million DOE-funded contributions to the upgrade of the CMS
experiment. With the high-luminosity upgrade to the Large Hadron
Collider planned for 2029, CMS collaborators need to upgrade the
detector to keep up with the forthcoming more-intense particle
beams.Fermilab connections continue to be strong at the highest
levels of the CMS collaboration. Patty McBride, a Fermilab
distinguished scientist, completed her two-year term as the CMS
spokesperson in September. She passed the torch to a new
management team that includes Fermilab senior scientist Anadi
Canepa, now a deputy spokesperson for CMS until 2026.
4. Detected first neutrinos at the Short-Baseline Neutrino
DetectorThe international Short-Baseline Neutrino
Program at Fermilab is devoted to examining the properties of
neutrinos and the nature of neutrino oscillations in more detail
than ever before. The Short-Baseline Near Detector is the near
detector for the SBN Program while ICARUS, which started collecting
data in 2021, is the far detector. A third detector called
MicroBooNE finished recording particle interactions with the same
neutrino beamline that same year.After nearly a decade of planning,
prototyping and constructing the near detector, SBND made major
progress in 2024. In February, SBND was filled with liquid
argon, which it uses to see tracks left by charged particles. A few
months later, the detector saw its first neutrino interactions. But
it’s only the beginning for SBND: the collaboration will operate
the detector, analyzing many millions of neutrino interactions, for
the next several years. SBND will see more neutrinos than any other
detector of its kind, and the large data sample will allow
researchers to study neutrino interactions with unprecedented
precision, helping to inform future experiments that will also use
liquid argon to detect neutrinos, including DUNE.
5. Moved massive magnetsIn February, crews very
carefully moved a superconducting solenoid magnet 1.5
miles across the Fermilab campus. The 65,700-pound magnet was built
for the Mu2e experiment, which is looking for evidence that a
muon can transform into an electron. If observed, this
muon-to-electron conversion would point to new physics. The team
moved the first Mu2e magnet in December 2023. Once assembled
into the Mu2e detector, the magnets will create a low-energy muon
beam that will be directed at an aluminum target. The magnets will
also provide a constant magnetic field in the detector region that
allows scientists to accurately determine the momentum of the
resulting electrons.Over the summer, a different kind of magnet
weighing over 100,000 pounds was moved from the
University of Illinois Chicago to Fermilab. The repurposed
superconducting magnet will be used in a future experiment.In late
fall, Fermilab shipped its second quadrupole magnet cryoassembly to
CERN. This magnet is part of Fermilab’s contribution to the high
luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider. It uses advanced
niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) magnets to strongly focus the proton beams and
increase the number of collisions. Fermilab innovations were
crucial to making these high-field magnets possible.
6. Strengthened our leadership in quantum information
scienceFermilab is the proud host of the Superconducting
Quantum Materials and Systems Center, one of the five DOE
National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. The SQMS
Center brings together more than 30 partner institutions
representing national labs, industry and academia, all dedicated
to advancing critical quantum technologies with a focus
on superconducting quantum systems.During 2024, SQMS
scientists and engineers achieved reproducible
improvements in superconducting transmon qubit lifetimes with
record values in excess of 1 millisecond. The results were achieved
through innovative materials and design techniques that eliminated
major loss sources in the devices. SQMS has also advanced
quantum computing platforms based on high-coherence
superconducting cavities.Over the summer the Department of
Energy approved IBM as a new partner in SQMS. This
collaboration intends to leverage the strengths of these two
organizations to address key hurdles in quantum computing,
communication and large-scale deployment of superconducting quantum
platforms.This year, SQMS led the NQISRC’s executive council,
coordinating joint activities across the five centers, which have
strengthened the national quantum information science
ecosystem, achieving scientific and technological
breakthroughs as well as training the next-generation quantum
workforce.Quantum technology can also be used to probe the
fundamental theory of quantum mechanics. Fermilab theorists and
experimentalists used qubits to constrain alternatives to
the standard laws of quantum mechanics in which systems evolve
linearly in time.
7. Got very QUIETIn June, a new quantum sensor and
computing research center named the Quantum Underground
Instrumentation Experimental Testbed became operational. QUIET
sits one hundred meters underground at Fermilab in an area that
previously housed a neutrino experiment. Its companion surface lab,
LOUD, had been operating for over a year prior to QUIET’s opening.
Together, QUIET and LOUD enable controlled experiments that use
quantum sensors to directly compare an environment that is
significantly shielded from cosmic rays and other energy effects
with the environment on the earth’s surface.In October,
superconducting qubits were successfully deployed at QUIET for the
first time, marking the transition from infrastructure development
to unique scientific studies at the lab. Scientists are using QUIET
to understand how these superconducting qubits are
impacted by cosmic rays and other high-energy particles. This
knowledge could help researchers construct new types of qubits that
could be shielded from interference or design ones that are
insensitive to it. In addition, QUIET can contribute to a range of
applications that require ultra-sensitivity to their environment,
including dark matter detection. QUIET and LOUD are
funded by the Quantum Science Center, of which Fermilab is a
primary founding member.
8. Learned more about dark energy and our universeWe’re
not just about particle physics! Astrophysics is an important piece
of Fermilab’s portfolio. In 2024, Fermilab researchers continued to
shed light on some of the greatest mysteries in the cosmos — such
as dark energy, the enigmatic entity that makes up about
70% of our universe. Fermilab scientists lead the Dark Energy
Survey, an international collaboration of over 400
astrophysicists, astronomers and cosmologists, which shared two
results in 2024. In January, they announced the strongest
constraints on the expansion of the universe ever obtained
with the DES supernova survey. A month later, the
collaboration released a new measurement of cosmic
distances that supports the standard model of the accelerated
expansion of the universe.This year, researchers released the first
results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which
is gathering light from some 30 million galaxies at a
telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The DESI collaboration
used the first year of data to make the most extensive 3D map
of our universe and world-leading measurements of dark energy.
They also charted how nearly 6 million galaxies
cluster across 11 billion years of cosmic history, lining up
with predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Fermilab contributed key elements to DESI, including the online
databases for data acquisition, software to control
the robotic positioners, the corrector barrel, hexapod and
cage.
9. Advanced emerging technologies to benefit physics and
beyondFermilab’s contributions to research and technology
development reach well beyond physics. In collaboration with 3M,
Fermilab scientists successfully demonstrated that an electron
beam can destroy PFAS, a suite of useful chemicals that don’t
easily break down and accumulate in the environment and human body.
Fermilab researchers are also building a prototype electron
beam accelerator to make X-rays for sterilizing medical
equipment — a potentially game-changing development for the growing
medical equipment sterilization industry, which is looking for
alternatives to current technologies that use substances that
can present safety issues.This year, Fermilab researchers also
received funding from the Department of Energy as part of
its Accelerate Innovations program to develop three
different emerging technologies: superconducting nanowire
single-photon detectors, 3D integrated sensing solutions, and
compact superconducting radio frequency electron-beam accelerator
technology. An additional federal grant enabled a
collaborative project between Fermilab and
California-based RadiaBeam Technologies. Fermilab engineers used
their expertise in cryomodule design and conduction cooling to help
RadiaBeam design and assemble a conduction-cooled cryomodule and
break into the superconducting industrial accelerator market.In
another quantum experiment, Fermilab
scientists demonstrated the ability to use specialized
quantum techniques to stimulate the creation of photons, increase
sensitivity and minimize noise. This research can significantly
enhance the ability to detect faint signals such as those emitted
from dark matter.Lastly, this month, Fermilab
engineers announced they are ready to bring to market a
new companion to the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit, an
open-source control and readout system supported by
the Quantum Science Center. The new product, QICK box, builds
on QICK’s ability to enable researchers to improve quantum system
performance by manipulating signals in ways that optimize their
ability to read information stored in quantum bits. In September,
the team also rolled out QICK version 2.0, which features updated
software and firmware.
10. Improved the campus and access to itThe year 2024 was
a standout for the Fermilab campus as the new Integrated
Engineering Research Center, with its environmentally sustainable
design, received multiple awards, including the Department of
Energy’s 2024 Outstanding Net-Zero Building Program/Project Award
and the High Performance Sustainable Building Award. The
80,000-square-foot multi-story laboratory and office building,
located next to Wilson Hall, provides workspace for around 100
engineers and technicians and has been bustling with activity since
its completion in 2023.Last year, the Fermilab campus reopened to
the public after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January
2024, Director Lia Merminga announced updates to
Fermilab’s site access, including the exciting news that our iconic
Wilson Hall had reopened to the public. Since then, thousands
of visitors have attended public tours, Saturday Morning
Physics lectures, teacher workshops, field
trips and other events. Additionally, Lederman
Science Center welcomed nearly 6,000 guests. Learn more about
visiting the lab here.In 2024, crews continued improvements on
many areas of the Fermilab site, including starting construction on
Fermilab’s new welcome center, which is expected to open in
fall 2025. Located near Fermilab’s main entrance on Pine
Street, the Fermilab Welcome and Access Center
will host both informational and administrative
functions for smoother processing and access to
the site. The construction project also includes a new
guardhouse and the reconfiguration of traffic routes for cars,
bicyclists and pedestrians to provide easy and secure access to the
campus.
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office
of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science
is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical
sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the
most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please
visit science.energy.gov.
- LBNF/DUNE cavern
- PIP-II at Fermilab
Tracy Marc
Fermilab
2242907803
TRACYM@FNAL.GOV