D0 Experiment

In 1995, the top quark was discovered by the DØ and CDF experiments in a sample of about 100 events collected during the Run I data taking at Fermilab's Tevatron collider. The top quark immediately stood out from the other fundamental particles due to the fact that it is much more massive than any of the others. Now DØ is in the midst of Run II, during which the experiment will record thousands of top events. From this data set, many properties of the top quark can be measured which could yield insight to the origins and nature of mass.

DØ is a collaboration of almost 700 physicists from more than 80 institutions in 19 countries. The experiment uses a 5000 ton detector to observe millions of interactions each second at the world's most powerful particle accelerator. In addition to top quark events, scientists will search through this copious data for many other things such as signs of extra dimensions and the Higgs particle, which could be responsible for mass generation. The University of Mississippi group has been heavily involved in the installation, commissioning, and operation of the Silicon Microstrip Tracker which is used to precisely measure the location of particle interactions and decays. This information is crucial for identifying the secondary decays of b quarks which are characteristic features of top quark events.