Picture this: a photo walk through particle physics

The first Global Particle Physics Photowalk brought more than 200 photographers together at five particle physics laboratories: CERN in Switzerland; DESY in Germany; Fermilab in the US; KEK in Japan; and TRIUMF in Canada. They glimpsed the state of the art in particle and nuclear physics via visits to accelerators, detectors, computing centres and isotope facilities; witnessed scientists at work in control rooms; and saw test facilities for future projects.

Following the event on 7 August, which was organized by the InterAction collaboration of particle-physics laboratories, participants submitted thousands of photographs for local and global competitions. Each laboratory selected the top photographs by jury or by staff vote; the local winners will be exhibited at the laboratories in 2011. The photographs shown here were the finalists for two global competitions: a “people’s choice” online vote and a selection chosen by international jury.

8Pi experiment Photographer: Mikey Enriquez. Laboratory: TRIUMF. This image of the 8Pi nuclear-physics experiment won third place in TRIUMF’s local competition. The muted black and white image of the 8Pi experiment’s inner detectors captures the beauty and symmetry of physics.
☆ 1st International jury.

DESY wire chamber Photographer: Hans-Peter Hildebrandt. Laboratory: DESY. This portrait of a wire chamber won first place in DESY’s local competition. This highly symmetrical image of a particle detector fascinated every member of the local DESY jury immediately. The rays leading from the centre, ending in a dark rim, separating the chamber’s sectors, and large hole in the middle that allows a blurry view of the things behind, evoke the image of a large eye. The local jury called it “technically flawless and simply fascinating”.
☆ 1st People’s choice, ☆ 2nd International jury.

The accelerator operator Photographer: Tony Reynes. Laboratory: Fermilab. This image of an accelerator operator on shift in Fermilab’s Main Control Room captured third place in Fermilab’s local competition. The Main Control Room is a mission control centre where scientists monitor the laboratory’s accelerator complex 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
☆ 2nd People’s choice

Quadrupole magnets Photographer: Heiko Roemisch. Laboratory: DESY. This image of two quadrupole magnets won second place in DESY’s local competition. The global jury noted the photo’s sense of humour and the DESY jury’s association with this image was “monstrous force”.
☆ 3rd International jury.

Electric cable at CERN Photographer: Christian Stephani. Laboratory: CERN. This image, placed third in CERN’s local competition, shows an electric cable connected to a valve that is designed to avoid pressure damage in a magnet.

KEK’s Accelerator Test Facility Photographer: Yuki Hayashi. Laboratory: KEK. This photograph of researchers working through the weekend in the Accelerator Test Facility won first place in KEK’s local jury and web competition.

Paperclips atop the world’s largest cyclotron Photographer: Ali Lambert. Laboratory: TRIUMF. This image won first place in TRIUMF’s local competition. Above the world’s largest cyclotron at TRIUMF, paperclips experience some fringe magnetic field and stand upright, appearing to dance on the table’s surface. High-school student Ali Lambert artfully captured this iconic experience of all visitors to TRIUMF.

Broken Symmetry Photographer: Ken Duszynski. Laboratory: Fermilab. This photograph of the Broken Symmetry sculpture at Fermilab’s main entrance won first place in the laboratory’s local competition. The arch straddles the road and appears perfectly symmetric when viewed directly from below, but has carefully calculated asymmetry from its other views.

Test beamline for CERN’s Linac4 project Photographer: Diego Giol. Laboratory: CERN. This won first place in CERN’s local competition. Linac4, when completed, will be CERN’s newest linear accelerator and the first link in the proton acceleration chain for the LHC.

HERA accelerator tunnel Photographer: Matthias Teschke. Laboratory: DESY. This classic image of HERA’s accelerator tunnel captured third place in DESY’s local competition. The photographer manages to guide the view around the corner and make the viewer curious about what’s behind the bend. The image plays with light and shadow, conveys a sense of space, almost infinity, while at the same time incorporating technicality.
☆ 3rd People’s choice.

Roof of the Meson Laboratory Photographer: Charles Peterson. Laboratory: Fermilab. This view of the roof inside the Meson Laboratory, one of the buildings in Fermilab’s fixed target experimental area, won second place in Fermilab’s local competition. Each scalloped section of the roof was intentionally built to be approximately the same size as the tunnel inside the Tevatron.

TRIUMF’s material-science facility Photographer: Mikey Enriquez. Laboratory: TRIUMF. This photograph of TRIUMF’s material-science facility won second place in TRIUMF’s local competition. The seemingly industrial and technical landscape of the facility is softened here by a digitally applied texturing technique.

Connection pipe for LHC magnet Photographer: Diego Giol. Laboratory: CERN. This photograph of a connection pipe from a spare quadrupole magnet for the LHC at CERN won second place in the laboratory’s local competition.

KEK collage Photographer: Akira Ominato. Laboratory: KEK. This collage of the KEK particle physics laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, won second place in KEK’s local competition.

Belle Detector Photographer: Keisuke Mori. Laboratory: KEK. This photograph of the Belle Detector won second place in KEK’s local jury and web competition.