The top quark is the only one of the six that still has not been observed. Researchers are using the Tevatron to search for an elusive subatomic particle called the ''top quark,'' one of six particles thought to make up the nuclei of atoms. This is where the action will be for a long time.'' ''Fermilab is just reaching its prime and it will be in its prime for at least the next 10 years. We could have built it here faster than anywhere else, and done it without stopping research on the Tevatron. ''Clearly, we`re disappointed,'' he said. Lederman, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for physics, disputed that, saying experiments using the Tevatron could have continued even as the new machine was being built nearby. Also, a startup of the supercollider at Fermilab could have diverted staff time and attention from getting the best work out of the Tevatron. ''If so, it`s certainly an acceptable decision,'' Friedman said.įermilab scientists had assumed that their lab`s existing facilities and staff-estimated to be worth $300 million or more toward the $4.4 billion cost of a supercollider-would persuade Washington to choose Illinois.īut other physicists across the country had suggested that Fermilab has some drawbacks as well.Ī new site will mean an altogether fresh management team, physicists have pointed out, and that could be a plus. Jerome Friedman, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he assumed the Texas decision was made on technical grounds. It doesn`t have any major high-energy physics laboratory, while many other states across the country do.'' (Texas) is a big state with a lot of real estate and is readily accessible by airplane. ''I`m not surprised,'' said Hans Bethe, a Cornell University Nobel laureate.
While Illinois physicists tended to react with surprise and gloom to the Texas choice, many outside the state said their main concern is not where the new collider is located, but that the giant, costly machine be funded and built.
Having Fermilab in Illinois has been a significant advantage to physicists at nearby universities, because the short commute to do research there took a minimum of time away from teaching duties, said Ansel Anderson, chairman of physics at the University of Illinois in Urbana.īut many area researchers already commute to physics labs in California, New York and Switzerland, as well as to Batavia, and they can commute to Texas, too, Anderson said.
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