The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experimental collaboration is committed to studying high energy particle collisions at the world’s highest energy particle accelerator. The goal is to discover the identity and properties of the particles that make up the universe and to understand the forces and interactions between those particles.
Detector
A key element to this physics program is the precise measurement of charged particle position. The CDF experiment has installed in 2001 a 8 square meter silicon detector, the largest silicon system ever operated. The Purdue group (Bortoletto and Garfinkel) has worked for eight years toward the completion of this detector. The silicon detector for CDF will have about 1 million electronic channels. The first layer is located between a radius of 1.35 cm and 1.62 cm from the beam line. The longest part of the silicon system covers a length of almost 2 m.
Purdue has played a crucial role in the development and characterization of the silicon sensors. Over the last 9 years we have put in place a forefront research center for silicon sensor R&D. This laboratory was the primary research center for the development and testing of the silicon sensors for the SVX II. Six graduate students and over ten undergraduate students have participated in this effort. Members of our research team (G. Bolla and Juan Pablo Fendandez) had a key role in the commissioning of this detector.
Purdue ( Barnes) is also responsible for the primary calibration of the Endplug UpgradeEM and Hadron Calorimeters, using radioactive sources to transfer calibrations from small testbeam modules to the main detector.