A group of 15 particle physicist voted last week to extend the Tevatron’s run for three more years. This extension would involve securing additional funding for Fermilab‘s particle collider in the amount of $105 million. This recommendation will start at the DOE and eventually end up in the hands of the Obama administration, who will release a new budget in February 2011.
Enabling the Tevatron to run through 2014 would further its mission to discover the Higgs boson, a task that could be a reality given the delays that the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva has experienced. With extra time, scientist are hopeful that the Tevatron could claim the Higgs during LHC’s slow move toward full power and it’s upcoming 16-month shutdown. The LHC is on track to start up in 2013 at 14 TeV, seven times the power of the Tevatron.
“Right now we have a track record of success,” said Robert Roser, and experimental physicist at Fermilab. “Only in the last year has the Tevatron been in the Higgs game, where we’re able to make statements about the Higgs particle. It would be a shame to be in that regime and just turn it off.”
Fermilab has agreed to come up with $15 million of the necessary funds annually, though this will be diverted from other science projects.
