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Special Colloquium, February 25, 2004The Physics of the Top QuarkEvelyn ThomsonFermi National Accelerator LaboratorySome 400 years after Newton and that apple tree, you might expect physics to have an experimentally proven explanation of what mass is and how fundamental particles acquire mass. However, you would be wrong. International collaborations are now building some of the largest scientific instruments in the world to find the mechanism for mass generation. The top quark is by far the most massive of the 16 fundamental particles known to make up the universe around us. The top quark has a similar mass to a gold nucleus! What does the unexpectedly large mass of the top quark imply about the mechanism for mass generation? The hunting of the top quark lasted from 1977 to 1995, when it was discovered by the CDF and D0 collaborations at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago. Both detectors and the accelerator complex have since been upgraded and are in the middle of a decade-long data collection run to study top quark physics in more detail. I will review the challenges and current progress being made to understand this enigmatic quark and what lies ahead at the new facilities currently under construction. 10:30 a.m., Smith Laboratory, Room 1094Refreshments served in Smith 1094 at 10:00 a.m. |
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