NIU physics professor Gerald Blazey recently was appointed co-spokesman for one of the world’s leading particle physics experiments. He and physicist John Womersley are spokesmen for the DZero collaboration at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) near Batavia.

DZero is a proton/antiproton collider experiment that uses a powerful particle accelerator called the Tevatron. A beam of protons and a beam of antiprotons are brought up to nearly one trillion volts each by the Tevatron and made to collide. The collision then is detected and reconstructed by the DZero detector.

“A lot of people liken it to smashing two watches together,” Blazey said. “And from what flies out, you can tell how it ticks.”

DZero has about 600 physicists and engineers participating in the experiment from about 80 institutions.

Blazey has worked on the project for about 16 years. Over the past five years, Blazey directed an upgrade of the DZero detector trigger. With his appointment to spokesman, he and Womersley now speak for the entire collaboration and provide leadership for operation, upgrades and for analysis and publication of the data obtained in the experiment.

Blazey anticipates finding significant discoveries in the next few years, which will answer several big questions about particle physics.

“Right now there are two very hot topics in physics,” Blazey said.

The first is a theory called Super Symmetry, which explains why there are so many particles in the universe. The second is the search for the Higgs boson, a mysterious particle that would explain how all other particles acquire mass – or rather, how it is that anything exists at all.

According to the American Institute of Physics Web site, the Higgs particle may be the most sought-after particle in high-energy physics.

Blazey said it is possible that both Super Symmetry and the Higgs particle can be detected at Fermilab.

“The mass of this particle is very slow,” he said, “which means the Tevatron may be able to detect it.”

Blazey also is co-director of the Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development, which develops equipment for Fermilab. Blazey said if the Higgs particle is discovered at Fermilab, precision studies of the particle would have to be done on a linear electron/positron collider. NICADD is undertaking to develop one.

“We’re just a small piece of a big effort,” Blazey said.

Blazey is on leave from teaching at NIU during his two-year appointment at Fermilab. However John Shaffer, chairman of the physics department, said that Blazey is working full-time for NIU in other capacities.

“He’s brought us a great deal of external funding and brought us NICAAD,” Shaffer said.

The physics department will ask Blazey to continue teaching when his term as DZero spokesman is complete.

Shaffer said that NICADD and its connections with Fermilab also are beneficial to students.

“It gives us visibility in the national picture of physics,” he said. “That’s good for our students.”