Suffolk Reporter

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, a significant event will take place to honor two Nobel Prize-winning discoveries and discuss future physics explorations. The symposium is scheduled for Friday, November 22, from 1 to 6 p.m. EST at Berkner Hall.

The event, titled “Decades of Discovery at Brookhaven National Laboratory: Charge-Parity Violation, J/psi, and Future Endeavors in Physics,” is open to the public free of charge. Visitors aged 16 and older must present valid government-issued photo identification. Digital IDs are not accepted. For those unable to attend in person, a virtual option is available.

JoAnne Hewett, director of Brookhaven Lab and theoretical physicist, emphasized the importance of these discoveries: “Physicists study particles to unlock mysteries of how the universe works.” She highlighted ongoing experiments like the future Electron-Ion Collider that will utilize the J/psi particle for precise measurements within an atom's nucleus.

The symposium will feature discussions on charge-parity (CP) violation and the J/psi particle's discovery impacts on physics research. It will also cover current and upcoming experiments at facilities such as:

- The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven Lab

- The Large Hadron Collider at CERN

- Belle II at SuperKEKB in Japan

- The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment spanning from Fermilab in Illinois to South Dakota

Speakers include Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting, Martin Breidenbach, Nicholas Samios, historian Robert Crease, among others.

Refreshments will be available for attendees present at Berkner Hall. The event concludes with a toast celebrating past and future scientific discoveries.

This year marks 60 years since CP violation was discovered by Val Fitch and James Cronin at Brookhaven Lab in 1964 using the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). They received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980.

Additionally, it has been 50 years since the discovery of the J/psi particle by teams led by Samuel C.C. Ting at Brookhaven Lab and Burton Richter at SLAC in 1974. Both scientists shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1976.

Brookhaven Lab has had seven Nobel-recognized discoveries so far. Meanwhile, SLAC is organizing its own celebration for the J/psi particle discovery on November 8.