Map of Fermilab's accelerator complex. Image: Fermilab
The only laboratory in the United States dedicated entirely to particle physics recently released its plan for the next two decades.
According to the document:
The keys to Fermilab's long-term future are two facilities that could be operating in the 2020s: the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment and Project X.
LBNE will take the next major step in the quest to measure and understand the properties of neutrinos and determine their connection to the observed excess of matter over antimatter in the universe.
The Project X accelerator complex will be unique in the world in its ability to simultaneously deliver high-intensity proton beams in different formats to multiple experimental areas. Project X experiments using neutrinos, muons, kaons and nuclei will provide new windows on phenomena not accessible at particle colliders, and will be essential to break through to a deeper understanding of nature and the origins of matter.
Fermilab has proposed building detectors for LBNE at Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. The laboratory hopes to construct Project X on its campus.
In the near future, Fermilab will upgrade its accelerator complex to double the intensity of its proton beams, which scientists use to create beams of other particles such as neutrinos.
Read the full document, "A Plan for Discovery."
