Events at Physics |
Events During the Week of March 30th through April 6th, 2008
Monday, March 31st, 2008
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- What about Fusion Reactors?
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: John Sheffield, Retired, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- High Energy Seminar
- Charmed Meson Mixing
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (coffee & cookies at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: Michael Sokoloff, University of Cincinnati
- Medical Physics Seminar
- Prospects for Effective Uterine and Cervical Elastography
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 1345 Health Science Learning Center (refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Maritza Hobson, Research Assistant, student of Dr. Ernest Madsen, Department of Medical Physics, UW-School of Medicine and Public Health
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
- Special Plasma Seminar
- Experimental Investigation of Turbulence at the Transition from Closed to Open Field Lines
- Time: 1:30 am
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Ulrich Stroth, Universitat Stuttgart, Germany
- Special Plasma Seminar
- Title to be announced
- Time: 2:30 am
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Gerhard Bonhomme, Universitat Stuttgart, Germany
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- Title to be announced
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Gabriela Cezar, Animal Science
- Astronomy Colloquium
- A Multiwavelength Study of Luminous Compact Blue Galaxies over 8 Billion Years
- Time: 3:45 pm
- Place: 6515 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: D.J. Pisano, NRAO
- Abstract: The star formation rate in the Universe has dropped by an order of magnitude in the past 8 billion years. Why? Luminous Compact Blue Galaxies (LCBGs) may account for this drop. LCBGs were common 8 billion years ago, representing about 20% of the galaxy population and contributing about 40% of the total star formation rate density at that time, but are a factor of ten rarer by the present day. While we know that LCBGs are rapidly evolving, we do not know what drives their evolution or into what type of galaxy they evolve. I will present results from our current radio studies of nearby LCBGs as part of a larger multiwavelength study of the properties of these galaxies. Our data will constrain the current evolutionary state and future evolutionary path of LCBGs. These data will also serve as a benchmark for future studies of LCBGs at all wavelengths and distances.
- Host: Eric Wilcots
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Set My Vortices Free: Observing the Kosterlitz-Thouless Crossover in an Optical Lattice
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: Nobel Prize Winner Eric Cornell, University of Colorado-JILA
- Abstract: Thermodynamic equilibrium, much like the speaker's own personality, is properly understood as an epic struggle between the forces of Laziness and the forces of Disorganization. This afternoon, the battle will be joined on a two-dimensional array of linked miniature Bose-Einstein condensates. Will it be Minimal Energy or Maximal Entropy that carries the day? The answer may hinge on the relative strength of their respective allies, Tunneling and Temperature.
- Host: Walker
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
- R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
- Vortex dynamics in tailored superconducting channels: ratchets and circles
- Time: 10:00 am
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Britton Plourde, Syracuse University
- Abstract: The dynamics of vortex flow in confined geometries can be explored with tailored weak-pinning channels of superconducting a-NbGe surrounded by strong-pinning NbN channel edges. The lack of pinning allows the vortices to move through the channels with the dominant interaction determined by the shape of the channel walls. We have fabricated such weak-pinning channels with asymmetric sawtooth edges for controlling the motion of vortices. I will present our measurements of substantial asymmetries in the vortex dynamics in these channels, characteristic of a ratchet, and compare these with similar measurements on a set of channels with uniform width. We have also studied vortices flowing in circular channels arranged in a Corbino disk geometry. We have developed a SQUID voltmeter arrangement for resolving the flux flow voltage from a small number of vortices moving through such a single circular mesoscopic channel free from edge barriers.
- Host: McDermott
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Searching for double beta decay with the Enriched Xenon Observatory
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Carter Hall, University of Maryland
- Abstract: An observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would have profound consequences for our understanding of the lepton sector of the standard model. Double beta decay is only allowed if the neutrino and anti-neutrino are identical, which is a basic prediction of many extensions of the standard model, including many grand unified theories. Secondly, double beta decay could shed light on the scale of the neutrino mass spectrum. The EXO collaboration is developing sensitive searches for the double beta decay of Xenon-136. Our first experiment, EXO-200, is rapidly being constructed, and will be by far the largest double beta decay experiment ever attempted. We are also pursuing R&D to realize a system to tag the daughter barium nucleus of the decay using the techniques of single-ion spectroscopy. This would eliminate all conventional backgrounds, resulting in an ideal experiment.
Friday, April 4th, 2008
- No events scheduled