Physics Highlights from the DØ Experiment (1992--1999)
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, U.S.A.

1. INTRODUCTION

The DØ experiment was proposed for the Fermilab antiproton-proton Tevatron Collider in 1983 and approved in 1984. After 8 years of design, testing, and construction of its hardware and software components, the experiment recorded its first antiproton-proton interaction on May 12, 1992. The data-taking period referred to as "Run 1" lasted through the beginning of 1996. Collisions were studied mainly at an energy of 1800 GeV in the center of mass (the world's highest energy), with a brief run taken at 630 GeV. The total luminosity collected during Run 1 was equivalent to 125 events/pb of cross section. All results summarized below are based on these data, and on the dedicated and imaginative efforts of the undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and senior scientists involved in the program. Currently, the DØ Collaboration consists of more than 500 scientists and engineers from 60 institutions in 15 countries (see some of them in Fig. 1). Over 110 Ph.D. dissertations have been written so far on various aspects of DØ, and more are anticipated over the next two years, as the analyses of data from Run 1 wind down, and the next run, with both an upgraded detector and improved accelerator, commences.

Fig. 1: Members of the DØ collaboration gathered near the detector in early 1996.

Among the highlights from Run 1 described in the following sections are the discovery of the top quark and measurements of its mass and production cross section; the precise determination of the mass of the W boson and the couplings of the electroweak bosons (photon, W and Z); numerous searches for new physics; measurements of bottom quark production; and extensive studies of the strong "color" force, quantum-chromodynamics (QCD). We have already published most of our results from the past six years; to date, over 80 papers have appeared in refereed journals. In addition, our publications are reprinted in annual collections that are available from the library at Fermilab. The published papers, as well as work presented in conferences, can be accessed from our web pages (see https://d0.fnal.gov). In this summary, we only discuss some of the highlights of the results of Run 1. We have also prepared "plain English" summaries, intended for a more general audience, that can be found on the web at https://d0.fnal.gov/Run2Physics/WWW/results/summary.htm.

Much of our research benefited from insights and friendly competition within our scientific community. In particular, interactions with our colleagues at CDF (the other major Fermilab Collider experiment), as well as SLD (at SLAC), the LEP experiments (at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland), the HERA experiments (in Hamburg, Germany), and theorists around the world have been both intellectually stimulating and productive.

This summary of the highlights from Run 1 can only provide a flavor of some of the most interesting results. To gain a better understanding of their significance, and for greater detail, we invite the reader to consult our public web pages, as well as the members of the DØ collaboration.

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