2008 CSL Undergraduate Summer Research Stipends
Kok Ann "Sam" Gan | Scott Justus | Susan Mallgrave | Emily Mick | Christos Mitillos | Yacin Nadji | Angela Pak | Yaofu Zhou
Yaofu ZhouFirst-year undergraduate, Physics Dan KaplanProfessor of Physics Measure antimatter gravitational force |  | |
| Yaofu at Fermilab |
According to the theory of general relativity, antimatter should have the same gravitational acceleration as matter. But no one has proved this experimentally. Professor Kaplan is leading an initiative to explore using Fermilab's antiprotons—the world's most intense source—for new matter and antimatter research, including research in antimatter gravitational acceleration.
"Antiprotons don't occur in nature," said Kaplan. "You have to make them. Fermilab is the world's leading antiproton factory"—it produces four trillion per day. By adding a decelerator and detectors, researchers might be able to use these antiprotons in exciting new ways. What is the gravitational force on antimatter? Do antiatoms emit light in the same way as atoms? Do evanescent particles containing "charm" quarks "know" whether they're matter or antimatter? Ultimately, scientists could learn more about matter, the universe and how it began.
Kaplan has led IIT's efforts on the HyperCP experiment at Fermilab, helped to form the Illinois Consortium for Accelerator research, is leading U.S. collaborators in the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment, and is working on the international Double Chooz reactor-neutrino experiment. He chose Yaofu, a student from China who would like to be a theoretical physicist, to help with the antimatter research because of Yaofu's excellent work as a freshman and desire to be a theoretical physicist.
Working at Fermilab five days a week, Yaofu developed tools for measuring the gravitational acceleration of hydrogen (to prototype the experiment with matter first) in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. He will continue the work during the school year.
"I could see very clearly [how] physics looks in the world—how to build a collaboration, how to get funding," said Yaofu of his experience. "It also was a good opportunity to be with some very smart, great scientists."
Photographer: Mindy Sherman, IIT Communications & Marketing
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