NEWS OF INTEREST TO FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY PHYSICS ALUMNI Spring 2010

Members of the FSU Physics Department staff gathered for a recent group portrait A special message from our chair

It is a pleasure for me to introduce you to the Department of Physics newsletter for Spring 2010! As always our students, staff and faculty have been performing brilliantly and it is always a tough job to select the specific highlights we put into the newsletter. We hope you enjoy this year’s collection and invite you to our homepage at www.physics.fsu.edu for other items as well as the latest exciting news about the world of physics at FSU. As always, please do not hesitate to drop us a line; we would love to hear from you. It would be super to include in the future some news about what our distinguished alumni are doing. One of the greatest strengths of our department is the fantastic staff that we have. They are truly dedicated and really make the depart- ment the special place it is. The group photo above was taken outside the teaching laboratories one cold morning in February. It may have been cold but the sun was still shining! I would like to finish by thanking Drs Yang, Bonesteel and Cao for working on the newsletter and the mega-talented graphic artists Scott Baxter and Ken Ford for putting it together. Very best regards and happy reading! Mark Riley ([email protected]) 2 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES

Four FSU physicists named outstanding APS referees

From left to right: Kirby Kemper, Alex Gurevich, Joseph F. “Jeff” Owens III, Pedro Schlottmann

The American Physical Society recently Kemper said that one of the primary things Kemper has taught introductory physics recognized Florida State University’s Vice the APS does is publish scientific journals courses at FSU since he first became a fac- President for Research Kirby Kemper as an that allow cutting edge research to be dis- ulty member in 1971. “Outstanding Referee” for 2010. Kemper was seminated to the physics community at Kemper said he enjoys working with the one of only 130 members chosen to receive large. beginning undergraduate students because the honor out of the society’s 44,000 article “Articles submitted to the journals are he gets to help them figure out what type of reviewers worldwide. sent out to other physicists for review,” science they like best. “The designee of ‘Outstanding Referee’ Kemper said. “The reviewers volunteer their “When I first came to FSU, Kirby and I means that the editors and associate edi- time to work through the papers and pro- taught introductory physics classes together tors of the Physical Review, the major jour- vide an assessment of their results, which for five years or so,” said Mark Riley, FSU nal published by the APS and now probably gets communicated to the editor of the jour- professor of physics. “The students called us recognized as the premiere physics research nal, who then decides whether to publish ‘The Dynamic Duo’ — he was Batman and I journal in the world, feel that my contribu- the article or not based on the referees’ com- was Robin.” tions to the quality of the published research ments.” Riley said that he has known Kemper for have been valuable to them as they consider Kemper said that in addition to pub- almost 20 years since he arrived at FSU from whether to publish papers or not,” Kemper lishing journals, the APS organizes annual the UK in 1991. Riley said that Kemper is an said. “I got an e-mail toward the end of meetings of physicists and works to pro- incredible fellow and an inspiration to all. December telling me I had been selected for duce policy papers that help national and “This is a magnificent and well-deserved this designation and was truly surprised.” state leaders develop plans for the needs of acknowledgment of his contributions to sci- Kemper has been a member of the APS the country. since he was a graduate student in 1962. In addition to his research and service, continued on page 3 RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 3

APS referees — continued from page 2 part of my job as a practicing physicist and Field Laboratory. regard it as service to the profession,” Kemper The “Outstanding Referee” award is de- entific publishing,” Riley said. “It is only said. “I will continue to be a member of the signed to recognize scientists who have been because of the untiring efforts and expert APS as long as I live because of its impor- exceptionally helpful in assessing manu- knowledge of dedicated scholars like Dr. tance to furthering our understanding of the scripts for APS journals. Currently, the APS Kemper that the APS journals are considered world around us, as well as its work in fur- has about 42,000 active referees, and it hon- the best physics publications in the world.” thering our understanding of things of great ored 534 of them in 2008 and 340 of them Riley said that it is amazing how Kemper importance to society as a whole.” in 2009. Most of those honored in 2008 and continues to be so involved in the physics APS has also honored three Florida State 2009 — what the APS refers to as the catch- research world given the enormous demands University physicists — Joseph F. “Jeff” Owens up years of the award — have been dedicat- on his time as Vice President for Research. III, Pedro Schlottmann and Alex Gurev- ed reviewers for many years. In future years, “Back in my second year as a physics ich — as “Outstanding Referees” for 2009. the APS plans to honor about 130 referees major, I was spending a great deal of time Owens, an APS fellow, is the Guenter per year. The 2009 honorees, which come not being serious,” said Becky DiBari, a Schwarz Professor of Physics and associate from 35 countries, were chosen for the qual- former student of Kemper’s. “Kirby sat me dean for Research in Florida State’s College ity, number and timeliness of their reports, down for a honest talk, and it turned my path of Arts and Sciences; Schlottmann, a physics whether or not the scientists were members around.” professor who began his career in Germany, of the APS. DiBari said she owes all of her success is a Heisenberg fellow of the German Nation- “Peer review is a vital endeavor within to Kemper and that his award is very well al Science Foundation; and Gurevich, also an the academic and scientific enterprise,” said deserved. APS fellow, is a scholar/scientist and princi- Physics Chairman Mark Riley. “It is wonder- “I don’t keep track of how many papers I pal investigator in the Applied Superconduc- ful that APS has initiated this program to rec- referee and feel that refereeing papers is just tivity Center at the National High Magnetic ognize these previously unsung heroes.”

Research on Graphene chosen as APS ‘Editor’s Suggestion’

Assistant Professor Oskar Vafek and Pro- of two cones touching, two parabolic bands fessor Kun Yang, condensed matter theo- touch. rists here at FSU Physics Department, are The authors of this paper argue that co-authors of the article “Many-body insta- such a system is unstable even to infinitesi- bility of Coulomb interacting bilayer gra- mal electron-electron interactions and use phene: Renormalization group approach”, renormalization group to identify the most which was chosen in January 2010 as an likely broken symmetry ground state. In the Editor’s Suggestion and featured in the APS parameter regime studied by the authors journal Physics: Spotlighting Exceptional an interesting new electronic phase, called Oskar Vafek and Kun Yang Research. nematic, was found to have the most diver- Graphene is a new, essentially two tum, is experimentally found to be about gent susceptibility. This phase is character- dimensional, material made entirely of 300 times smaller than speed of light in ized by broken lattice rotational symmetry, carbon atoms. Its remarkable electronic vacuum. This ultra-relativistic-like disper- but unbroken lattice translational symme- properties place it at an intellectual fron- sion gives the system a certain degree of try and the authors propose ways to detect tier of condensed matter physics and at the robustness with respect to (weak) electron- it. At the moment, experiments on the same time as a potential material for novel electron interactions. bilayers are underway to further explore technological applications. The subtle A bilayer graphene is a system of two this system. interference of the electron waves in the carbon honeycomb latices stacked in the “Research on the special properties of presence of the honeycomb potential lead, so called A-B arrangement: atoms in the graphene is red hot right now. So the fact in the single atomic layer graphene, to an first layer and belonging to one of the sub- that the paper by Drs Vafek and Yang was effective loss of the electron mass: near the lattices have atoms directly above them selected as an Editor’s Suggestion and as Fermi level the electrons disperse as mass- in the second layer, while the atoms of the an APS Physics Spotlight featured article less Dirac particles in two spatial dimen- second sublattice sit below (above) the hon- is indeed exceptional! My congratulations sions. Their velocity, which is therefore not eycomb plaquettes. The massless Dirac dis- to them both.” says Mark Riley, chair of the necessarily proportional to their momen- persion in this case is modified and instead physics department. 4 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES

Hoffman wins 2010 National Dissertation Award

A recent doctoral graduate of The Florida State University has earned top honors in his discipline as the author of the nation’s best doctoral dissertation in nuclear physics. Calem R. Hoffman, who received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Florida State in April 2009, has been named the winner of the 2010 Dissertation in Nuclear Physics Award, pre- sented by the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society (APS). The award was formally presented to him Feb. 16 at an APS meeting in Washington, D.C. “To have been nominated for the Disser- tation in Nuclear Physics Award was already a great honor, and then to win it was truly amazing,” said Hoffman, who also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at Florida State in 2003 and 2006, respectively. “I am happy that this award will bring even Calem Hoffman, at left, with Dr. Sam Tabor, after receiving his award more recognition to an already world-class physics department at FSU, and I was excited to represent my alma mater at the American whom he worked as both an undergraduate graduate researcher. He then went on to even Physical Society meeting. and graduate student. greater success in graduate school with Dr. “I simply had fun every day doing nuclear “Calem was the top student in my intro- Tabor and the nuclear physics group. He is a physics research at Florida State, and this ductory physics class at FSU, and he just star, and this award is shining light on this honor was made possible by the opportuni- kept getting better!” said Tabor, the Norman fact.” ties Professor (Samuel L.) Tabor, the physics P. Heydenberg Professor of Physics. “In his The Dissertation in Nuclear Physics Award department and The Florida State University graduate studies, he became an absolute was established to recognize and encourage as a whole provided,” Hoffman said. master of every aspect of nuclear physics outstanding scholarship as represented by Hoffman’s dissertation experiment was research, from designing, constructing and an experimental or theoretical Ph.D. disser- performed at Michigan State University. performing experiments to conducting an tation for a degree awarded by a North Amer- He now is a postdoctoral research fellow at extremely careful analysis of the results to a ican institution within the past two years. It Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, deep search for the meaning of his work in a consists of a $2,500 monetary award and an one of the leading nuclear physics laborato- wider context. allowance for travel to the APS’ spring meet- ries in the United States. His long-term goal, “His research answered longstanding ing. he said, is “to continue on with fundamen- questions about the structure of atomic Hoffman also will receive a certificate tal nuclear structure research at the highest nuclei under extreme conditions,” Tabor said. from the APS containing the following cita- level. I hope to continue the advancement of “Calem published the research on which his tion: “For his dissertation describing the knowledge as it pertains to the structure of dissertation was based in the leading nuclear investigation of neutron-rich isotopes at the nuclei and the fundamental nuclear force. physics journals in the world, and these have drip line, and, in particular, for the identifica- “Being given the chance to view and par- helped establish him as one of the world’s tion of a systematic reduction in the effective ticipate in top-level nuclear research, espe- leading young nuclear scientists.” p-sd shell gap, indicating a weakening of the cially as an undergraduate, paved the way to Tabor’s praise was echoed by Mark Riley, gap as neutrons are added.” my current research position,” Hoffman said. chairman of the physics department, who In addition to his award, he will give an “The knowledge and support I received from also taught Hoffman in several courses. invited talk on his work at the APS the physics department and the entire FSU “This is a magnificent achievement,” Riley meeting. faculty was truly wonderful.” said. “”I remember him being the best stu- Hoffman is an active member of the At Florida State, Hoffman conducted dent in my modern physics class and doing a American Physical Society and the Sigma Pi research under the direction of Tabor, with great job working with Dr. Tabor as an under- Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies. RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 5

Department holds first Undergrad Research Poster Session

The Physics Department has always had a number of undergrad- uate students involved in research. Much of this research is car- ried out in the physics department, or at laboratories affiliated with the Department in some way, such as the National High Magnetic Field laboratory in Tallahassee, and the Thomas Jeffer- son National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. In 2009, it was decided to hold an Undergraduate Research Poster Session to showcase the broad range and quality of the research carried out by these undergraduates. In addition, the Lannutti Award Committee decided to use the poster session to choose the awardees for the Lannutti Awards, with cash awards of $750, $500 and $250 going to the top three posters. Nineteen students participated in the session, including a number of students from other departments working with physics faculty. A number of students presented posters from work they had done the previous summer as REU students at other institu- tions. The Lannutti Award winners were Kristen Collar, Alison Pawlicki and David Page. This year’s Poster Session was held April 1, 2010. From left: David Page, Alison Pawlicki and Kristen Collar

These students were selected into Sigma Pi Sigma based on excellent performance in their upper division physics classes. They represent the “cream of the crop” and are headed to very successful careers in physics and related fields. Many of them have performed research in collaboration with Physics Department faculty, and many are planning to attend graduate school. From left: David Page, Amy Rouinfar, Maksim Levental, Alison Pawlicki, Christopher Segal, David Morris, Nicholas Fitzsimmons, and Rutger Duggan. 6 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES

From left to right: Maitri Warusawithana , Andrew Askew and Takemichi Okui Department welcomes three new faculty

The physics department welcomed three new faculty members dimensions, to supersymmetry and strongly coupled dynam- to its ranks in 2009, Andrew Askew, Takemichi Okui and Maitri ics. Much of Professor Okui’s work is motivated by the prospect Warusawithana. All three are doing research at the forefront of for new data coming from the LHC, and the ideas he is work- some of today’s most exciting science. ing on, which go beyond the of particle phys- Professor Askew, a graduate of Rice University, is an exper- ics, will help provide the framework for interpreting this data imental particle physicist doing research both at Fermilab as the high energy community enters one of the most exciting and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN (Geneva, Swit- times it has lived through for the past several decades. zerland). Having Professor Askew on the faculty strengthens Professor Warusawithana, a graduate of the University of FSU’s already substantial involvement with the LHC, a pro- Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a condensed matter exper- ton-proton collider which will be probing matter at unprece- imentalist whose research involves the fabrication and study dentedly high energies and short length scales in the coming of oxide thin films and interfaces (work he will be carrying out years. By putting the standard model of to the at his lab at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory). The test, the work of Professor Askew and his many collaborators oxide interfaces Professor Warusawithana has been studying both at FSU and around the globe has the potential to revolu- show a wide range of fascinating phenomena associated with tionize our understanding of the fundamental constituents of strongly correlated quantum systems, including ferromag- matter. netism, superconductivity and ferroelectricity. In addition to Professor Okui, a graduate of the University of California being of great fundamental scientific interest in their own right, at Berkeley, is a theoretical particle physicist whose research these systems have the potential to be useful in the develop- interests range from the possible existence of hidden extra ment of new kinds of electronic devices. RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 7 Jenkins looks for life in the Takemichi Okui constants appear to have just the right values

SPECIAL TO RESONANCES to allow the formation of galaxies, planets, life, etc., and the states that those constants are observed to have Dr. Alejandro Jenkins, a postdoc in theoret- the values that they have because otherwise ical high energy physics here at FSU Physics intelligent observers (such as ourselves) sim- Department, is a co-author, with Dr. Gilad ply would not exist to measure them. Perez of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, of Clearly, such an argument works only if the thought-provoking article “Looking for there are a large number of universes with Life in the Multiverse,” featured as the cover different values of constants. A good analogy story of the January 2010 issue of Scientific is the distance between the Sun and Earth, American. which seems “finely tuned” (at a percent lev- The term “multiverse” refers to a collec- el) so that we neither freeze to death or boil tion of many causally disconnected univers- to death. But we know that there are count- es, and its existence follows robustly from less planets with different temperatures in the theory of cosmic . The theory is the universe and we just happen to be the fairly well understood and, during the past lucky ones. Similarly, the multiverse (which decade, astrophysical measurements have seems to be there anyway because of infla- knows. Therefore, the most sensible thing to offered convincing experimental confirma- tion) could allow us to use anthropic reason- do is to allow many of them to vary and in- tion of some of its predictions. It therefore ing to address fine tuning problems. vestigate how robustly the existence of gal- looks like we have to “live with” the multi- Note that anthropic reasoning becomes axies, the laws of chemistry, etc., hold up verse, whether we like it or not. weaker as you vary more parameters. For ex- against the variations. But since other universes are causally ample, the Earth-Sun distance can change Which fine tuning problems survive this disconnected from ours (by definition!), who drastically if we also vary the Sun’s temper- test? Is anthropic reasoning actually use- cares? Some physicists have argued that the ature. Now, the standard model of particle ful for “explaining” the values of funda- multiverse allows us to explain some of the physics and has over 20 param- mental constants in this universe? Dr. Jen- fundamental constants of nature in terms eters — which of them vary from universe kins’s take on it is expressed eloquently in his of the so-called “anthropic principle.” Those to universe? All of them? Only one? No one Scientific American article. Longtime machine shop supervisor Dan Baxter retires

In August 2009, Dan Baxter retired after 18 years as Supervisor of the Keen Phys- ics Building Machine Shop. Beginning in 1998, he took on the additional duties of supervising the machine shop in the Collins Research Building. Through his consistent leadership, Dan molded his crew of engi- neers into a wonderfully productive and tal- ented group. The instrument shops became key assets in a wide range of projects for the Physics Department. Dan was always able to find a way to schedule projects for many other research groups around campus. Dan instilled and fostered a sense of pride in work that carries forward even in his absence. We miss Dan (and the shop Christmas party), and wish him the best in retirement as he Dan Baxter, third from right, led the Keen Building machine shop for 18 years. pursues his love of antique vehicles. 8 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES

Physicists get first look at single top Scientists at the U.S. Department of Ener- gy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), including six from The Flor- ida State University, have made the first observation of the production of single top quarks, one of the elementary particles of matter. Researchers believe that top quarks provide clues to solving longstanding mys- teries of the universe. The observation of single top quarks resulted from the painstaking analysis of billions of proton-antiproton collisions recorded by the DØ (DZero) detector in Fermilab’s Tevatron, the world’s highest- energy particle collider. Physics research- ers from Florida State who participate in the DØ collaboration are Associate Profes- sor Todd Adams, Professor Susan Blessing, staff physicist Sharon Hagopian, Professor Harrison Prosper, postdoctoral research associate Jedranka Sekaric and Professor From left — Horst Wahl, Susan Blessing, Todd Adams, and Harrison Prosper Horst Wahl, along with their graduate stu- dents. Previously, top quarks had only been At 200 times the mass of a proton, which The DØ collaboration is an international observed when produced by the strong is roughly the mass of a gold atom, the top team of nearly 500 scientists studying high- interaction between elementary parti- is by far the heaviest elementary par- energy particle collisions. cles. That process leads to the production ticle -- yet it has no discernable size. Under- The Fermilab collaborators identified of pairs of top quarks. The production of stood as an ingredient of the particle soup several thousand events that looked the way single top quarks, which involves the weak created just after the Big Bang, today top single top events are expected to appear. nuclear force, is much harder to identify quark pairs exist only fleetingly within Using sophisticated statistical analysis experimentally. But almost 14 years to the atoms, according to the laws of quantum and detailed modeling of background pro- day after the top quark discovery in 1995, theory. Therefore, in order to study the top cesses, the team showed that a few hundred the production of single top quarks has now quark in detail it must be created experi- collision events produced the real thing. been observed. mentally in a high-energy particle acceler- The researchers submitted their results “I am simply elated,” said Prosper, the ator, such as the Tevatron, that can recreate to Physical Review Letters on March 4, K irby W. Kemper Professor of Physics at Flor- the conditions of the very early universe. 2009. ida State. “Fourteen years ago, the search for “This was a difficult analysis, carried out “This discovery, in which Florida State single top quarks seemed an almost impos- by a very dedicated and persistent group,” University scientists played a pivotal role, sible task. Yet several Ph.D.s later — includ- said Blessing, a professor of high-energy is a spectacular example of the truism that, ing two from Florida State — my colleagues physics and director of Florida State’s even in a collaboration of some 500 scien- and I finally succeeded.” Women in Math, Science and Engineering tists, individuals can make significant con- Searching for single-top production is program. “Their search began 15 years ago tributions,” Prosper said. an extremely difficult business because and required that we understand our detec- High-energy physics is about what only one in every 20 billion proton-antipro- tor and the data extremely well. This bodes makes up the world and what holds it ton collisions produces a single top quark. well for future searches.” together. Its Standard Model is the most Moreover, the signal of these rare occur- To make the single top quark discovery, comprehensive theory ever created and rences, called “events,” is easily mimicked the researchers spent two years combing explains in detail the interactions between by other processes, referred to as “back- through the results of proton-antiproton all elementary particles. ground,” that occur at much higher rates. collisions recorded by the DØ experiment. continued on page 12 RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 9

Book sheds light on Dirac — ‘The Strangest Man’

Courtney Griffin Farmelo, biographer and senior re- SPECIAL TO RESONANCES search fellow at the London Science Mu- seum, hosted a presentation on his book, A standing-room-only crowd turned out at The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul the Alumni Center on October 1, 2009 to hear Dirac, Mystic of the Atom with the help of the author of a new biography talk about several FSU departments on Thursday, “Paul Dirac’s Road to Tallahassee.” Oct. 1 in the FSU Alumni Center. Farme- The author, Graham Farmelo, traced lo depicted Dirac as a man of great mod- the Nobel Prize winner’s life from his esty and a lack of conversational skills childhood in England to his work as a (typically limiting his responses to “yes,” physics professor at Florida State from “no” and “I don’t mind” after 30 seconds 1971-1984. Based on previously undis- of thought) but also of immense achieve- covered archives, the book, titled The ment. Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac contributed to the early devel- Dirac, Mystic of the Atom, has received opment of as well much critical acclaim. as to the prediction of the existence of A reviewer for The New York Times antimatter. Farmelo interspersed dis- calls it “the most satisfying and mem- cussions of scientific discovery with sto- orable biography I have read in years,” ries of Dirac’s love of Cher, Mickey Mouse while Publisher’s Weekly says Farme- and James Bond films and the physicist general population,” Riley said. “If you lo’s “great affection for his odd but bril- learning to water ski in his mid-70s. can imagine having Shakespeare as a liant subject shows on every page, giving “He is a hero to modern theoretical member of the English Department, then Dirac the biography any great scientist physicists,” Farmelo said. “I knew he had you can understand what it was to have deserves.” While he was researching the an unusual life, but I didn’t realize how Dirac as a faculty member in Physics.” book, Farmelo spent time at the Dirac rich a life he had, and that’s why I want- Dirac held the position of Lucasian Science Library as well as elsewhere on ed to write it.” Farmelo’s book has al- Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge campus collecting Dirac anecdotes from ready made Time magazine’s online “Top from 1932 until 1969, when he retired and FSU faculty members and friends. In fact, 5 Things to Do” for the week of Sept. 18, moved to Florida. Farmelo featured comments from Dirac’s 2009. “Dirac has been an idol of mine since friend Kurt Hofer, Robert O. Lawton Dis- Over 200 people attended the presen- I was a teenager and picked up my first tinguished Professor Emeritus of biolo- tation to learn more about the book and book on quantum mechanics,” Riley gy at Florida State, extensively in the pro- Dirac himself. said. “Very early on, I learned he was a logue. “The event marked the official U.S. very gentle quiet fellow, a man of very few The talk marked the U.S. launch of launch of the new book by Graham words indeed.” the book, and the following day the au- Farmelo about Dirac,” said Mark Ri- Following the presentation, several thor was a guest on National Public Ra- ley, chair of the Department of Phys- audience members stood up and spoke dio’s Science Friday. The event was hosted ics. “It was a spectacular success. Extra about their personal interaction with by Dean Joseph Travis of Arts & Sciences, chairs had to be brought in for the huge Dirac during his time here and how his Dean Julia Zimmerman of University Li- crowd, and even then, many people had presence influenced them. braries, the Department of Physics, and to stand.” “I used to talk to him as he was walk- Friends of FSU Libraries. Riley said that the presentation was ing from his house to the physics build- The name Paul Dirac is attributed to designed to allow community members ing,” professor of biology Marc Freeman the campus science library and to the late to learn more about the man who spent said. “He didn’t have much to say, but I’ve Nobel Prize winning Florida State Uni- his last 14 years in Tallahassee. He said read a great deal about him and he was versity professor, but a new book by Gra- the feedback he’s received of the event fantastic.” ham Farmelo sheds light on the life of a has been universally glowing. Freeman said that it was the students remarkable man who held ranks with the “Although (Dirac) is probably FSU’s who always benefited the most from likes of Albert Einstein and Issac Newton most famous faculty member ever, very continued on page 12 in the field of 20th century physics. little is actually known about him by the 10 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES Berg elected Secretary-Treasurer of DCOMP Bernd Berg, Dirac Professor in the Depart- ation in these activities. ment of Physics, was elected for a three year In particular DCOMP is instrumen- term as Secretary-Treasurer of the Division tal in awarding once a year the Rahman of Computational Physics (DCOMP) of the Prize, which is the highest APS award for American Physical Society (APS). Computational Physics and the Metrop- DCOMP has more than 2000 mem- olis Prize for the best Ph.D. Thesis of the bers and the objective of the Division is year in Computational Physics. As other the advancement and dissemination of APS Divisions, DCOMP awards annually knowledge regarding the use of computers its share of the prestigious APS Fellow- in physics research and education. This ships. includes, among other areas, their appli- According to Berg, a strength, but also a cation to experiments, theory, and educa- difficulty of DCOMP is its diversity, which tion as well as the application of physics brings together physicists from many sub- to the development of computer technol- fields, held together by the common inter- ogy. The division provides to its members, est in computational techniques. This and to all APS members, an opportunity is an opportunity of true interdisciplin- for coordination and a forum for discus- ary work, which also incorporates neigh- Bernd Berg sion and communication. In addition, the boring disciplines like Computer Science, Division promotes research and develop- Applied Mathematics and Computational disciplines. ment in computational physics; enhances Chemistry and Biochemistry, to name a Besides keeping track of the budget, the prestige and professional standing of its few. On the other hand it faces often severe duties of the Secretary-Treasurer include members; encourages scholarly publica- communication problems due to rather preparing the agenda of Executive Com- tion; and promotes international cooper- distinct scientific cultures in the various mittee meetings and Business Sessions. Thayer gets prestigious National Fellowship

Laura Reina wide. One of the recipients of the Graduate SPECIAL TO RESONANCES Student LHC-TI Fellowship is Benjamin Thay- er, from Florida State University’s Department With the imminence of the first proton-proton of Physics. Working under the guidance of collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Prof. Laura Reina, Thayer’s research seeks to located at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland), the answer some of these fundamental problems world of particle physics stands at the verge by improving the precision of theoretical cal- of a “golden age” in exploring the universe at culations for particularly important particle the smallest of distance scales. Such explora- reactions at the LHC, such as the production tions hope to shed light on fundamental prob- of heavy quarks (known as bottom and top lems such as the origin of Dark Matter in the quarks) with pseudoscalar particles, known universe, the possible existence of new forces to appear in several extensions of the Stan- and extra spatial dimensions, and the origin dard Model. Utilizing some recently proposed of mass in fundamental particles such as elec- Benjamin Thayer mathematical techniques, Thayer hopes to trons and the quarks. develop and test more efficient methods for To aid in these endeavors, starting in 2007 and travel needs, for a maximum of two years. calculating particle physics observables than the National Science Foundation has an- Awardees are selected by a national commit- the traditional techniques used presently. If nounced the Large Hadron Collider Theory tee of renowned particle physicists on the ba- successful, the new techniques will help sig- Initiative (LHC-TI) Fellowships. These pres- sis of their scientific merits and the relevance nificantly improve the precision of particle re- tigious Fellowships assist selected young the- of their scientific work to the physics of the action cross sections, and thereby help phys- oretical particle physicists, either graduate LHC. icists at the LHC better distinguish between students or postdocs, with a competitive sal- In 2009, three Graduate Student and two signals of “new physics” from background ary and extra funds for research, computing Postdoc Fellowships were awarded nation- Standard Model processes. RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 11

Serbia lauds native son with award in physical science

Jeffrey Seay ever they want.” SPECIAL TO RESONANCES Former Marko V. Jaric Prize laureates and members of Dobrosavljevic’s fami- A Florida State University physicist who ly attended the March 17 award ceremo- is a native of Serbia has been awarded ny, along with scientists representing that nation’s highest professional award all of Serbia’s national research institu- in the field of physical science for his tions, including the Serbian Academy of “exceptional research in physics.” Arts and Sciences and the Serbian Phys- Professor Vladimir Dobrosavljevic, ical Society. who directs the Theory Program at the Dobrosavljevic left Serbia for the National High Magnetic Field Laborato- United States almost 26 years ago after ry, received the Marko V. Jaric Prize for earning his bachelor’s degree. Outstanding Scientific Achievement in “My friends threw me a big going- Physics for his contribution to the devel- away party where they broke all the fur- opment of the theory of correlated dis- niture in my parents’ house,” Dobro- ordered electronic systems. savljevic joked. “If I had come back as a The award was presented during a failure, my parents wouldn’t have been March 17, 2009 ceremony at the Univer- Vladimir Dobrosavljevic happy! So it was a good feeling to come sity of Belgrade by Bozidar Djelic, Serbi- back with some measure of success.” an deputy prime minister for European Now that he has attained such dis- Union integration and minister of sci- Djelic presented Vladimir Dobrosav- tinction in his career, Dobrosavljevic ence and technological development. ljevic with the award for exceptional is enthusiastic about the new opportu- Dobrosavljevic studies the funda- research in physics, established by the nities it will afford him, especially in mental properties that tell electrons to Professor Marko Jaric Fund. terms of giving back to his native Ser- stop or go. This is important in the de- “Imagine that you are on Fifth Avenue bia. After wrestling with the challeng- sign of electronics — from TVs to iPods in New York City the day before Christ- es of privatization in a post-communist — where electrical currents need to be mas,” Dobrosavljevic said. “There is a economy, Dobrosavljevic says Serbia is turned on and off inside increasingly huge crowd of people trying to find their striving to develop scientific programs miniaturized parts. way to the stores, but it’s very hard for with grants it has received from the Eu- In metals, electrons move around you to move around unless the person ropean Union with which to reach out to freely at high velocities, conducting next to you moves out of your way. You scientists around the world. electricity. In other materials known can’t just freely move, but you have to “Serbia has built a very large super- as insulators, electrons can be trapped, look where the others let you bump into computer, which is larger than the one stopped dead in their tracks. them.” we have at FSU,” he said. “So now, they Understanding a correlated disor- When electrons are correlated or syn- are seeking collaborations and projects. dered electronic system hinges on un- chronized in a particular way, they can In fact, one of my former Ph.D. students derstanding how effectively electrons either move around or, under certain is now an assistant professor in Serbia. can repel each other. Electrons can conditions, stop. The two of us have started a cooperative move only if other electrons get out of “The electrons form this kind of quan- effort. I’m very excited about it because the way. tum dance,” he said. “It’s very coordi- Serbia has a lot of very well-trained Deputy Prime Minister for EU in- nated, like an troupe of choreographed younger students, so I think this will be tegration and Minister of Science and belly dancers moving together, instead a source of cooperation for me, and it Technological Development Bozidar of individual belly dancers doing what- will also be helpful to them.” 12 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES Brown wins 2009 ACM Gordon Bell Prize

A team including Florida State Universi- the effect of temperature on magnetic ty’s Gregory Brown was named a winner systems. The application achieved this of the 2009 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, which performance on ORNL’s Cray XT5 Jaguar honors the world’s highest-performing system, making use of more than 223,000 scientific computing applications. The processing cores and reaching nearly 80 results were announced in Portland, Ore., percent of Jaguar’s peak performance. during the SC09 international supercom- The application combines a meth- puting conference. od which solves the Dirac equation de- Dr. Brown, a scientist with Paral- scribing the relativistic wave equation lax Research, Inc., in Tallahassee, holds for electron behavior with a Monte Car- a courtesy appointment in the FSU De- lo method known as Wang-Landau al- partment of Physics, where he has a long- gorithim which guides the relativistic standing collaboration with Prof. Rikvold calculation. This sets aside empirical and co-supervises his graduate students. models and allows accurate calcula- Prof. Rikvold says: “My students and I are tion from first principles of the temper- extremely lucky and very honored that a ature above which a material loses its superb computational physicist like Dr. magnetism. By accurately revealing the Brown chooses to be an advisor to my re- magnetic properties of specific mate- search group. Through his courtesy ap- Gregory Brown rials — even materials that have not yet pointment he makes his unique expertise been produced — the project promises in extreme high-performance computing versity, and the Institute for Theoretical to boost the search for stronger, more available to our graduate students.” Physics and Swiss National Supercomput- stable magnets, thereby contributing Led by Markus Eisenbach the team, ing Center, achieved 1.84 thousand tril- to advances in such areas as magnetic consisting of colleagues from Oak Ridge lion calculations per second (1.84 peta- storage and the development of lighter, National Laboratory, Florida State Uni- flops) using an application that analyzes stronger motors for electric vehicles.

Top Quarks — continued from page 6 Dirac book — continued from page 7

Having more precise information about Dirac. ing problems with physics, whose name the top quark gives scientists clues in their “As opposed to most prima donnas will be taught in classrooms a thousand search for another missing puzzle piece, the who don’t teach courses, he taught cours- years from now, who lived on Chapel Higgs boson, which many physicists believe es and enjoyed it, and the students loved Drive just around the corner from Doak will solve longstanding mysteries about the him as well,” Freeman said. “I only hope Campbell Stadium and who has a grave- universe, such as why particles like elec- that he could have lived longer. ” stone in Westminster Abbey right next to trons have mass. The work done by FSU sci- Freeman said that this book was a Isaac Newton but chose to be buried here entists is also helping to prepare the ground long time coming — too long. in Tallahassee. for what many believe will be a new era of “It is a wonderful book which brings Farmelo said he hopes the book will discovery at the Large Hadron Collider long overdue insight and recognition give people a three-dimensional picture (LHC), the world’s highest-energy particle to this towering scientist, ” Riley said. “I of Dirac and allow them to fully appre- accelerator. The $10 billion LHC is located hope FSU students will appreciate that ciate the extent of his achievements in at CERN, the European Laboratory for Par- Dirac is not just a curious statue next to physics. ticle Physics, in Geneva, Switzerland. the library but one of the greatest scien- “FSU has many very distinguished Major funding for the study was pro- tists of all time, someone who fundamen- faculty (members), but I suspect he will vided by the U.S. Department of Energy. tally changed the way we think about our long remain perhaps the most distin- Fermilab, located in Batavia, Ill., is the universe (and) someone who laid the guished,” Farmelo said. “He was an in- United States’ top facility for research in foundation of modern technology.” comparably bright man who is still pro- the field of high-energy physics. Read more Riley described Dirac as someone who ductive even after death because of the about it at www.fnal.gov. helped Einstein when Einstein was hav- rotundity of his contributions.” RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 13

2009 DREB conference attendees gather for a group portrait. Physics Department hosts 2009 DREB

The VI International Workshop on Direct sity of Surrey (England), in 2005 at Michi- workshop, oral presentations slides and Reactions with Exotic Beams (DREB 2009) gan State University (USA), and in 2007 at workshop Photo Album are posted online was hosted by The Florida State Univer- RIKEN (Japan). at http://dreb2009.physics.fsu.edu. sity nuclear structure group in the Depart- One hundred physicists from all over the “This is a major event indeed, and is a ment of Physics from December 15th to world came to Tallahassee to discuss issues strong indicator of the international rec- 18th. The meeting is a major biannual sci- related to studies of nuclear structure and ognition and strength of our department,” entific event, previously held in 1999 at nuclear astrophysics using nuclear reac- said Mark Riley, Florida State’s Raymond Michigan State University (USA), in 2001 at tions induced by beams of exotic, short- K. Sheline Professor of Physics and chair of IPN Orsay (France), in 2003 at the Univer- lived nuclei. Detailed descriptions of the the physics department. 14 f SPRING 2010 f RESONANCES

2009 Hadron conference attendees in a large group portrait. FSU hosts 2009 Hadron conference

The Thirteenth International Confer- studies the structure of the hadrons, the light hybrid meson candidate by COMPASS. ence on Hadron Spectroscopy (HADRON nature of their constituents and the inter- Presentations were made about continuing 2009) took place at Florida State University actions between them. work at Jefferson Lab and in Germany on from Sunday, November 29, 2009 to Friday, In this conference, many of the latest the light baryon spectrum, with the theme December 4, 2009. The conference featured results from different experiments were of performing “complete” experiments 35 plenary talks and 32 parallel sessions and presented and the latest theoretical ideas with polarized targets and beams. Many was attended by approximately 220 scien- and calculations were discussed. measurements in progress at CLAS, ELSA, tists from 24 countries. Perspectives on the theoretical status MAMI and COSY were discussed. This conference was the latest in a series of mesons and baryons were presented Finally, future facilities were covered of successful conferences which takes place by a number of speakers. Specific topics in a number of talks, including PANDA at every two years. The first conference in the included: charmonium production, lat- FAIR, GlueX & CLAS-12 at Jefferson Lab, series started at the University of Maryland tice-QCD calculations of baryon and J-PARC at KEK/Japan, and the Super B fac- in 1985, and the follow up conferences took charmonium spectroscopy and radia- tories. place at Tsukuba/Japan, Corsica/France, tive transitions, and exotic mesons. Other Members of the Local Organizing Com- Maryland/USA, Lake Como/Italy, Man- theory reviews discussed scalar mesons, mittee were FSU Physics Professors Paul chester/UK, New York/USA, Beijing/China, multiquark states, chiral dynamics, the Eugenio (Chairman and Co-Editor), Volker Protvino/Russia, Aschaffenburgh/Ger- large-Nc formalism, and light-front holog- Crede (Co-Ed itor), Todd Ada m s, Si mon Cap- many, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil, and Frascati/ raphy. stick, Winston Roberts, and FSU Research Italy. The next conference, the Fourteenth Among the recent experimental results Physicist Alexander Ostrovidov. International Conference on Hadron Spec- presented were observations and confir- The conference was sponsored by Flor- troscopy (HADRON 2011) will take place in mations of new heavyquark mesons from ida State University, Jefferson Science Munich/Germany. BaBar, Belle, BES, and CLEO, the first obser- Associates, Thomas Jefferson National The scope of HADRON 2009 was to vation of a meson decaying into three pho- Accelerator Facility, Fermi National Accel- bring together theoretical and experimen- tons, heavy baryon measurements by erator Laboratory, U.S. Department of tal experts in all areas of physics relevant to BaBar, CDF, and D0, new experimental Energy, the International Society of Tech- hadron spectroscopy and related aspects results on the X, Y, Z heavy meson exotic nical Environmental Professionals, and the of hadron dynamics. Hadron spectroscopy candidates, and observation of the π 1(1600) European Physical Journal. RESONANCES f SPRING 2010 f 15 ‘Flying Circus’ brings fun to physics

The paper airplane contest is one of the fun highlights of the biennial ‘Flying Circus of Physics’ — and a way to interest all ages in the wonders of science.

Parth Desai learn and enjoy. Some of the children at Flying Circus of Physics was a planetari-

SPECIAL TO RESONANCES the event particularly enjoyed an experi- um show called “Dawn of the Space Age,” ment where a demonstrator manipulated which honored the 40th anniversary since The physics department at Florida State the air content in a marshmallow, causing the first moon landing. The show detailed University hosted its biennial open house, it to expand and contract. space exploration from the launch of the known as the Flying Circus of Physics, “(My favorite experiment was) proba- first artificial satellite, Sputnik, to modern on Saturday, Oct. 17. The event featured bly the marshmallows,” said first grade times. hands-on activities, scientific demonstra- student Robert Kustom. “Because they are In a presentation titled “Physics of tions, science videos and live presenta- big, and then they go little.” Sports,” FSU physics professor David Lind tions. The event highlighted basic concepts demonstrated how fundamental princi- The open house tradition began in 1991 of physics such as friction, torque and the ples of physics apply to a variety of sports. and typically hosts about 400 to 500 guests conservation of energy in an accessible He explained that a curveball pitch every other year. manner to better capture the interest of takes on a curvilinear path due to the ef- Children and parents, some local and the young students. To educate students fects of spin on fluid flow. some from farther away, participated in on basic principles of aerodynamics, vol- Also, Lind demonstrated how friction the hands-on activities and interactive ex- unteers facilitated a paper plane making provided by the edges of skis is important periments. One experiment, which fasci- and flying contest. Graduate students ex- for turning when skiing, while a lack of nated some onlookers, demonstrated how plained to the students why the plane held friction on the bottom of skis enables ski- particles of light reflect off water. up in air. ers to move forward at high speeds. “I’m kind of interested in how light “If you show them the math, they’re not “There’s this perception that physics is moves,” said Augusta Raa Middle School going to like it,” said FSU physics gradu- hard and boring,” said FSU physics profes- seventh grader Harrison Reid. “I like how ate student and event volunteer Anthony sor Grigory Rogachev. “We definitely want the particles reflect off of things.” Kuchera. “But if you show them the results, to fight that perception and we want to in- The wide variety of experiments there it’s impressive.” spire kids really to do physics — that’s the was something people of all ages could One of the marquee exhibitions at the major goal of this event.” 6 f FALL 2002 f RESONANCES

Former administrative assistant Maureen Jackson passes away

Longtime administrative assistant Maureen Jackson, who joined the FSU Physics Depart- ment in 1997, died on February 14, 2010, fol- lowing a long battle with cancer. In an e-mail message to faculty and staff, which included a photograph of Maureen and a post card from Paris that she sent to the department last year, department chair Dr. Mark Riley said, “It is with great sadness that I inform you that our beloved Maureen Jackson lost her brave fight with cancer and passed away yesterday. Maureen joined the physics family in 1997 and I think we all agree she was an amaz- ing person. She loved this department and everyone in it. We will all miss her deeply. Our love and sympathy go out to her family.” Maureen is survived by her husband, Louis T. Jackson, Jr, and her children Thomas Adam Jackson and Tamara Gilbert.