Carlo Rubbia | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa |
Known for | Discovery of W and Z bosons |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Particle physics |
Institutions | |
Member of the Senate of the Republic | |
Life tenure 30 August 2013 | |
Appointed by | Giorgio Napolitano |
Website | Website |
Carlo Rubbia OMRI OMCA (born 31 March 1934) [1] is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN. [2] [3] [4] [1] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Rubbia was born in 1934 in Gorizia,an Italian town on the border with Slovenia. His family moved to Venice then Udine because of wartime disruption. His father was an electrical engineer and encouraged him to study the same,though he stated his wish to study physics. In the local countryside,he collected and experimented with abandoned military communications equipment. After taking an entrance exam for the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa to study physics,he failed to get into the required top ten (coming eleventh),so began an engineering course in Milan in 1953. Soon after,a Pisa student dropped out,presenting Rubbia with his opportunity. He gained a degree and doctorate in a relatively short time with a thesis on cosmic ray experimentation;his adviser was Marcello Conversi. At Pisa,he met his future wife,Marisa,also a Physics student. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Following his degree,he went to the United States to do postdoctoral research, [1] where he spent about one and a half years at Columbia University [14] performing experiments on the decay and the nuclear capture of muons. This was the first of a long series of experiments that Rubbia has performed in the field of weak interactions and which culminated in the Nobel Prize-winning work at CERN.
He moved back to Europe for a placement at the University of Rome before joining the newly founded CERN in 1960,where he worked on experiments on the structure of weak interactions. CERN had just commissioned a new type of accelerator,the Intersecting Storage Rings,using counter-rotating beams of protons colliding against each other. Rubbia and his collaborators conducted experiments there,again studying the weak force. The main results in this field were the observation of the structure in the elastic scattering process and the first observation of the charmed baryons. These experiments were crucial in order to perfect the techniques needed later for the discovery of more exotic particles in a different type of particle collider. [9] [11] [13]
In 1976,he suggested adapting CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) to collide protons and antiprotons in the same ring –the Proton-Antiproton Collider. Using Simon van der Meers technology of stochastic cooling,the Antiproton Accumulator was also built. The collider started running in 1981 and,in early 1983,an international team of more than 100 physicists headed by Rubbia and known as the UA1 Collaboration,detected the intermediate vector bosons,the W and Z bosons,which had become a cornerstone of modern theories of elementary particle physics long before this direct observation. They carry the weak force that causes radioactive decay in the atomic nucleus and controls the combustion of the Sun,just as photons,massless particles of light,carry the electromagnetic force which causes most physical and biochemical reactions. The weak force also plays a fundamental role in the nucleosynthesis of the elements,as studied in theories of stars evolution. These particles have a mass almost 100 times greater than the proton. In 1984 Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer were awarded the Nobel Prize "for their decisive contributions to the large project,which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z,communicators of weak interaction".[ citation needed ]
To achieve energies high enough to create these particles,Rubbia,together with David Cline and Peter McIntyre,proposed a radically new particle accelerator design. They proposed to use a beam of protons and a beam of antiprotons,their antimatter twins,counter rotating in the vacuum pipe of the accelerator and colliding head-on. The idea of creating particles by colliding beams of more "ordinary" particles was not new:electron-positron and proton-proton colliders were already in use. However,by the late 1970s / early 1980s those could not approach the needed energies in the centre of mass to explore the W/Z region predicted by theory. At those energies,protons colliding with anti-protons were the best candidates,but how to obtain sufficiently intense (and well-collimated) beams of anti-protons,which are normally produced impinging a beam of protons on a fixed target? Van den Meer had in the meantime developed the concept of "stochastic cooling",in which particles,like anti-protons could be kept in a circular array,and their beam divergence reduced progressively by sending signals to bending magnets downstream. Since decreasing the divergence of the beam meant to reduce transverse velocity or energy components,the suggestive term "stochastic cooling" was given to the scheme. The scheme could then be used to "cool" (to collimate) the anti-protons,which could thus be forced into a well-focused beam,suitable for acceleration to high energies,without losing too many anti-protons to collisions with the structure. Stochastic expresses the fact that signals to be taken resemble random noise,which was called "Schottky noise" when first encountered in vacuum tubes. Without van der Meer's technique,UA1 would never have had the sufficient high-intensity anti-protons it needed. Without Rubbia's realisation of its usefulness,stochastic cooling would have been the subject of a few publications and nothing else. Simon van de Meer developed and tested the technology in the proton Intersecting Storage Rings at CERN,but it is most effective on rather low intensity beams,such as the anti-protons which were prepared for use in the SPS when configured as a collider.[ citation needed ]
In 1970,Rubbia was appointed Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard University,where he spent one semester per year for 18 years, [1] while continuing his research activities at CERN. In 1989,he was appointed Director-General of the CERN Laboratory. [15] During his mandate,in 1993,"CERN agreed to allow anybody to use the Web protocol and code free of charge …without any royalty or other constraint". [16]
Rubbia has also been one of the leaders in a collaboration effort deep in the Gran Sasso Laboratory,designed to detect any sign of decay of the proton. The experiment seeks evidence that would disprove the conventional belief that matter is stable. The most widely accepted version of the unified field theories predicts that protons do not last forever,but gradually decay into energy after an average lifetime of at least 1032 years. The same experiment,known as ICARUS and based on a new technique of electronic detection of ionizing events in ultra-pure liquid argon,is aiming at the direct detection of the neutrinos emitted from the Sun,a first rudimentary neutrino telescope to explore neutrino signals of cosmic nature.[ citation needed ]
Rubbia further proposed the concept of an energy amplifier,a novel and safe way of producing nuclear energy exploiting present-day accelerator technologies,which is actively being studied worldwide in order to incinerate high activity waste from nuclear reactors,and produce energy from natural thorium and depleted uranium. In 2013 he proposed building a large number of small-scale thorium power plants. [17]
Rubbia was principal Scientific Adviser of CIEMAT (Spain),a member of the high-level Advisory Group on global warming set up by EU's President Barroso in 2007 and of the board of trustees at the IMDEA Energy Institute. In 2009–2010,he was Special Adviser for Energy to the Secretary General of ECLAC,the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America,based in Santiago (Chile). In June 2010,Rubbia has been appointed Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam (Germany). He is a member of the Italy-USA Foundation. During his term as President of ENEA (1999–2005) he has promoted a novel method for concentrating solar power at high temperatures for energy production,known as the Archimede Project,which is being developed by industry for commercial use.[ citation needed ]
Marisa and Carlo Rubbia have two children. [9]
Rubbia is also an openly believer,as his book shows,published by Rizzoli,The temptation to believe. [18] He is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. [19]
In December 1984,Rubbia was nominated Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI. [20]
On 30 August 2013,Rubbia was appointed to the Senate of Italy as a Senator for Life by President Giorgio Napolitano. [21]
On January 8,2016,he was awarded with the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award by the People's Republic of China. [22]
Asteroid 8398 Rubbia is named in his honor. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1984. [23]
In 1984,Rubbia received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. [24]
The European Organization for Nuclear Research,known as CERN,is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954,it is based in Meyrin,western suburb of Geneva,on the France–Switzerland border. It comprises 24 member states. Israel,admitted in 2013,is the only non-European full member. CERN is an official United Nations General Assembly observer.
The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator in the United States,at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,east of Batavia,Illinois,and was the highest energy particle collider until the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) was built near Geneva,Switzerland. The Tevatron was a synchrotron that accelerated protons and antiprotons in a 6.28 km (3.90 mi) circumference ring to energies of up to 1 TeV,hence its name. The Tevatron was completed in 1983 at a cost of $120 million and significant upgrade investments were made during its active years of 1983–2011.
In particle physics,the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction;the respective symbols are
W+
,
W−
,and
Z0
. The
W±
bosons have either a positive or negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge and are each other's antiparticles. The
Z0
boson is electrically neutral and is its own antiparticle. The three particles each have a spin of 1. The
W±
bosons have a magnetic moment,but the
Z0
has none. All three of these particles are very short-lived,with a half-life of about 3×10−25 s. Their experimental discovery was pivotal in establishing what is now called the Standard Model of particle physics.
The Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) was one of the largest particle accelerators ever constructed. It was built at CERN,a multi-national centre for research in nuclear and particle physics near Geneva,Switzerland.
Gargamelle was a heavy liquid bubble chamber detector in operation at CERN between 1970 and 1979. It was designed to detect neutrinos and antineutrinos,which were produced with a beam from the Proton Synchrotron (PS) between 1970 and 1976,before the detector was moved to the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). In 1979 an irreparable crack was discovered in the bubble chamber,and the detector was decommissioned. It is currently part of the "Microcosm" exhibition at CERN,open to the public.
Simon van der Meer was a Dutch particle accelerator physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Carlo Rubbia for contributions to the CERN project which led to the discovery of the W and Z particles,the two fundamental communicators of the weak interaction.
The Underground Area 2 (UA2) experiment was a high-energy physics experiment at the Proton-Antiproton Collider —a modification of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) —at CERN. The experiment ran from 1981 until 1990,and its main objective was to discover the W and Z bosons. UA2,together with the UA1 experiment,succeeded in discovering these particles in 1983,leading to the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer. The UA2 experiment also observed the first evidence for jet production in hadron collisions in 1981,and was involved in the searches of the top quark and of supersymmetric particles. Pierre Darriulat was the spokesperson of UA2 from 1981 to 1986,followed by Luigi Di Lella from 1986 to 1990.
The UA1 experiment was a high-energy physics experiment that ran at CERN's Proton-Antiproton Collider,a modification of the one-beam Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The data was recorded between 1981 and 1990. The joint discovery of the W and Z bosons by this experiment and the UA2 experiment in 1983 led to the Nobel Prize for physics being awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer in 1984. Peter Kalmus and John Dowell,from the UK groups working on the project,were jointly awarded the 1988 Rutherford Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for their outstanding roles in the discovery of the W and Z particles.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is a particle accelerator of the synchrotron type at CERN. It is housed in a circular tunnel,6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) in circumference,straddling the border of France and Switzerland near Geneva,Switzerland.
Stochastic cooling is a form of particle beam cooling. It is used in some particle accelerators and storage rings to control the emittance of the particle beams in the machine. This process uses the electrical signals that the individual charged particles generate in a feedback loop to reduce the tendency of individual particles to move away from the other particles in the beam.
Alan Astbury (1934–2014) was a Canadian physicist,emeritus professor at the University of Victoria,and director of the Tri-Universities Meson Facility (TRIUMF) laboratory.
The Antiproton Accumulator (AA) was an infrastructure connected to the Proton–Antiproton Collider –a modification of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) –at CERN. The AA was built in 1979 and 1980,for the production and accumulation of antiprotons. In the SppS the antiprotons were made to collide with protons,achieving collisions at a center of mass energy of app. 540 GeV. Several experiments recorded data from the collisions,most notably the UA1 and UA2 experiment,where the W and Z bosons were discovered in 1983.
Peter Ignaz Paul Kalmus,is a British particle physicist,and emeritus professor of physics at Queen Mary,University of London.
Vinod Chandrasinh Chohan was a Tanzanian-born accelerator specialist and engineer. He was a Senior Staff Member at CERN for nearly 40 years.
Luigi Di Lella is an Italian experimental particle physicist. He has been a staff member at CERN for over 40 years,and has played an important role in major experiments at CERN such as CAST and UA2. From 1986 to 1990 he acted as spokesperson for the UA2 Collaboration,which,together with the UA1 Collaboration,discovered the W and Z bosons in 1983.
Pierre Darriulat is a French experimental particle physicist. As staff member at CERN,he contributed in several prestigious experiments. He was the spokesperson of the UA2 collaboration from 1981 to 1986,during which time the UA2 collaboration,together with the UA1 collaboration,discovered the W and Z bosons in 1983.
The Super Proton–Antiproton Synchrotron was a particle accelerator that operated at CERN from 1981 to 1991. To operate as a proton-antiproton collider the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) underwent substantial modifications,altering it from a one beam synchrotron to a two-beam collider. The main experiments at the accelerator were UA1 and UA2,where the W and Z bosons were discovered in 1983. Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to the SppS-project,which led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons. Other experiments conducted at the SppS were UA4,UA5 and UA8.
]
Robert Elie Klapisch was a French engineer and physicist.