About the Center

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory advances the understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership and resources for qualified researchers to conduct basic research at the frontiers of high energy physics and related disciplines. — Fermilab Mission Statement

The fundamental nature of matter and energy can be probed with powerful accelerators and by looking deep into space. Basic research at the frontier must use both of these complementary techniques.

A number of phenomena in fundamental physics illustrate how powerful these two probes can be when used together. Both for example have contributed to our knowledge of neutrino masses and mixing. In the near future, both high luminosity collider runs and direct searches for dark matter are expected to yield information about supersymmetry, a theory which has broad implications ranging from electroweak symmetry breaking to string theory. There are aspects of fundamental physics that can be explored with only one of these probes but nonetheless rely indirectly on the other. Although lepto- and baryogenesis provide motivation for studying CP violation, most of the gains in this field will come from accelerators. Conversely, while particle physicists initially provided the framework for dark energy and inflation, progress on these fronts in the ensuing decades will likely come from cosmological observations.

Therefore, to make progress in our quest to understand the fundamental nature of matter and energy, we must use as our sources both particles produced in powerful accelerators and those which have traveled billions of light years before reaching our detectors.

Fermilab long ago realized the power of combining cosmology and particle physics. Astrophysics at Fermilab goes back to 1983, and efforts have increased over the past decade with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Cyrogenic Dark Matter Search, Pierre Auger, Dark Energy Survey, and other projects. It is not surprising that large astronomy projects have followed accelerator-based experiments and turned to Fermilab for its resources and leadership.

This distinguished past and promising future motivate the inauguration of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. The aims of the Center will be:

• To unify the astrophysics program at Fermilab, thereby enhancing the overall intellectual environment and the recruiting power of the individual projects;
• To provide the framework in which future efforts will germinate and be advocated;
• To become a recognized center where scientists from Fermilab and the User community can come to learn about and participate in the interface of particle physics and cosmology.