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Physics Glossary
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<h1>Physics-Related Acronyms and Such</h1>
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<a href="#a">A</a>|
<a href="#b">B</a>|
<a href="#c">C</a>|
<a href="#d">D</a>|
<a href="#e">E</a>|
<a href="#f">F</a>|
<a href="#g">G</a>|
<a href="#h">H</a>|
<a href="#i">I</a>|
<a href="#j">J</a>|
<a href="#k">K</a>|
<a href="#l">L</a>|
<a href="#m">M</a>|
<a href="#n">N</a>|
<a href="#o">O</a>|
<a href="#p">P</a>|
<a href="#q">Q</a>|
<a href="#r">R</a>|
<a href="#s">S</a>|
<a href="#t">T</a>|
<a href="#u">U</a>|
<a href="#v">V</a>|
<a href="#w">W</a>|
<a href="#x">X</a>|
<a href="#y">Y</a>|
<a href="#z">Z</a>
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5K - 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) race<p>

10K - 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) race<p>

<a name="a"><h1>A</h1></a>

ACC - Aerogel Cherenkov Counter, PID system first used by the Belle 
Collaboration<p>

ADC - Analog to Digital Conversion chip<p>

ALH - Alarm Handler, a program to help process problems with complex experiments<p>

ALICE - detector at the LHC<p>

<a name="b"><h1>B</h1></a>

<a href="www.slac.stanford.edu/BFROOT">BaBar</a> - B-meson factory collaboration at SLAC of which I am a member<p>

barn - kiddo, or extremely small unit of area<p>

Belle - B-meson factory collaboration at KEK<p>

blog - a shortening of weblog<p>

Boodle - an affectionate nickname for Zara<p>

<a name="c"><h1>C</h1></a>

<a href="http://public.web.cern.ch" target=cern>CERN</a> - Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, the main European experimental HEP facility located in Geneva, Switzerland<p>

CMS - Compact Muon Solenoid, one of the detectors at the LHC<p>

CNS - Central Nervous System<p>

CRID - Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector, PID system at the SLD<p>

<a name="d"><h1>D</h1></a>

DELPHI - one of the LEP detectors<p>

DIRC - <font color=red>D</font>etector of <font color=red>I</font>nternally <font color=red>R</font>eflected <font color=red>C</font>herenkov light, first used by the BaBar detector for PID (where I am currently a commissioner of it)<p>

DNA - Deoxyribnucleic acid, the chemical that encoded genetic information for most non-viral life on Earth<p>

doe - a deer, a female deer<p>

DOE - The US Department of Energy, a major funding source for High Energy Physics in general and me in particular<p>

<a name="e"><h1>E</h1></a>

<a href="www.aps.anl.gov/epics">EPICS</a> - Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System developed open source at Argonne National Laboratory<p>

<a name="f"><h1>F</h1></a>

fa - a long, long way to run<p>

FIFO - First In First Out<p>

<a name="g"><h1>G</h1></a>

<a name="h"><h1>H</h1></a>

HPD - Hybrid Photon Detector<p>

<a name="i"><h1>I</h1></a>

<a href="http://www.linearcollider.org">ILC</a> - the International Linear Collider, still in the planning stages<p>

<a name="j"><h1>J</h1></a>

<a name="k"><h1>K</h1></a>

<a href="http://kedr.inp.nsk.su">KEDR</a> - a detector (russian acronym) at the e+e- collider VEPP-4M in the Budker institute of nuclear physics in Novosibirsk<p>

<a name="l"><h1>L</h1></a>

la - a note to follow so<p>

<a href="http://www.lal.in2p3.fr/">LAL</a> - The French <i>Laboratoire de l Accélérateur Linéaire</I> located in Orsay<p> 

<a href="http://www.lbl.gov/">LBL</a> - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory<p>

LED - Light Emitting Diode<p>

LEP - Large Electron Positron Collider, the previous ginormous experiment at CERN (1989-2000)<p>

LHC - the Large Hadron Collider located at CERN<p>

LIFO - Last In First Out<p>

LINAC - Linear Accelerator<p>

<a href="http://www-lpnhep.in2p3.fr/">LPNHE</a> - The French <i>Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies</I><p>

LST - Limited Streamer Tube, a device for detecting muons, many of which form yet another layer of the BaBar detector that I will be installing<p>

<a name="m"><h1>M</h1></a>

me - a name I call myself<p>

MC - Monte Carlo, which is what physicists call computer simulations<p>

MWPC - Multiwire Proportional Counter for detecting high energy particles<p>

<a name="n"><h1>N</h1></a>

<a name="o"><h1>O</h1></a>

<a name="p"><h1>P</h1></a>

pdf - portable document format<p>

PDF - Probability Density Function<p>

<a href="http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/">PHENIX</a> - a detector at RHIC at Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island, NY sonamed because it emerged from the ashes of four other proposals named TALES, SPARC, OASIS, and DIMUON.<p>

PID - particle identification<p>

PMT - Photomultiplier Tube, a dectector for measuring individual photons.<p>

PNS - Peripheral Nervous System<p>

<a name="q"><h1>Q</h1></a>

QCD - Quantum Chromodynamics, the threory of the strong force<p>

QED - Quantum Electrodynamics, the most exact theory of Nature we have today<p>

QFT - Quantum Field Theory<p>

QM - Quantum Mechanics, our basic theory of small stuph<p>

<a name="r"><h1>R</h1></a>

<a href="http://www.cclrc.ac.uk/Activity/RAL">RAL</a> - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, located in England<p>

ray - a drop of golden sun<p>

<a href="www.bnl.gov/RHIC">RHIC</a> - Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island, NY.<P>

RICH - Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector<p>

<a name="s"><h1>S</h1></a>

<a href="http://www.slac.stanford.edu/" target=slac>SLAC</a> - the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, located in Menlo Park, CA and where I am currently working<p>

SLD - SLAC Large Detector, operated in the 1990s at SLAC's e+e- collider<p>

<a href="http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/sluo/">SLUO</a> - SLAC User's organization<p>

SOB - stand-off box which allows the Cherenkov ring to expand in a DIRC<p>

sow - a needle pulling thread<p>

SSC - Superconducting Super Collider, the last new HEP accelerator to be built in the US, but killed by Democrats in 1993<p>

SSI - SLAC Summer Institute<p>

SUSY - supersymmetry, an expansion of the Standard Model of particles in which every particle has heavy partner, heavy fermions matched to light bosons and vise versa. None of the predicted superpartners has ever been observed, and the theory is flexible enough to always be able to push it beyond the reach of current experiments.<p>

<a name="t"><h1>T</h1></a>

tea - a drink with jam and bread<p>

Thermodynamics - the physics of energy<p>

<a name="u"><h1>U</h1></a>

UAV - Unmanned arial vehicle used for covert surveillance by the military and police, and when armed perhaps one day the bane of mankind<p>

<a href="www.usgs.gov">USGS</a> - US Geological Survey<p>

UT - The University of Tennessee, where I am currently a Ph.D. student<p>

<a name="v"><h1>V</h1></a>

<a name="w"><h1>W</h1></a>

WIMP - Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, postulated to be the main component of the postulated Dark Matter but never observed.<P>

wtf - CS jargon which roughly translates to "that makes no sense", but means <font color=lightgreen>what the fuck?</font> literally<p>

<a name="x"><h1>X</h1></a>

<a name="y"><h1>Y</h1></a>

<a name="z"><h1>Z</h1></a>

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<i><a href=#top>Return to the top</a>,
or visit my <a href="http://wogsland.org/physics">homepage</a>.
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Last Modified: 31 Jan 2007 by 
<a href="mailto: bradley@wogsland.org"> Bradley James Wogsland</a>.<br>
Copyright © 2007 Bradley James Wogsland.
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