 | Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - The 15-foot Bubble Chamber A little-known relic of the early days of high energy particle physics, this massive stainless steel structure sits resplendent on the prairie at Batavia, Illinois. Insects and Spiders | Spider Pictures | Beetles Index | Butterflies | Tree Encyclopedia |
On June 8, 2004, the bubble chamber was moved from its experimental
home inside a nearby building to this public viewing area. Video
The 15 foot diameter bubble chamber used at Fermilab during the 1970's was filled with a mixture of superheated liquid neon and hydrogen, wrapped in a huge supercooled, superconducting magnet. A beam of high energy neutrinos or anti-neutneutrinos was directed through the fluid, producing an electromagnetic shower of particle tracks consisting of microscopic bubbles in arcing tracks. The cylinder underneath the chamber contained a huge plastic (fiberglass) piston which was used to suddenly increase the volume of the vessel; it was this sudden decrease in pressure with a simultaneous injection of the neutrino burst that allowed such tiny particles at very high energy to cause localized boiling manifested in the bubble-track/wake. The cyclinder could be pulsed as quickly as .333 millisecond intervals. --C. Baltay, Columbia Universit, W.B. Fowler and D. Theriot, Fermi Nationa l Accelerator Laboratory |