The primary activity of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) experimental elementary particle physics research program is the exploration of the sub-microscopic world with the DZERO detector. The detector, constructed and operated by a 500-member international collaboration and located at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, is a large, general-purpose device designed to observe and study proton-antiproton collisions produced at the Tevatron. The Tevatron is the world's highest energy accelerator. Presently the group is involved in preparation for the second 5-year data collection period of DZERO, and has responsibility for the construction and operation of a muon particle detector, muon triggering, and muon reconstruction software. The group also has overall responsibility for the full DZERO triggering and data acquisition systems. The NIU group will focus on continued searches for new forms of matter, such as the Higgs particle, which is thought to give mass to all other particles, and supersymmetry, which postulates heavy partners to all already discovered particles.
Over the past decades advances in particle physics have resulted in the construction and confirmation of the Standard Model which describes in great detail and accuracy the interactions of the fundamental particles. The theory is incomplete and there are hints that new forces and particles are required to fully describe the microscopic world. In particular the numbers of particles and the origins of their mass are great mysteries. The second run of the DZERO detector will offer an opportunity to discover the mechanism that lends mass to particles and an over-arching theory that unifies the description of the microscopic world. This run will exploit the improvements to Fermilab's accelerator complex which have recently been completed, allowing significantly more sensitive searches to be made. At a more immediate level, over the past decade the ongoing NIU particle physics program has offered research experiences to more than 100 undergraduates and Master's students. These graduates have accepted employment with technological firms, the financial industry, governmental agencies, and academic institutions. A great number of the students have become high school physics instructors. The NSF sponsored program will continue to offer opportunities and support to these students as well as PhD students admitted into the new NIU physics doctoral program.
