University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Cross Sections Physics and Astronomy Fall 2008 Cross Sections Fall 2008 Department of Physics and Astronomy Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk-cross Part of the Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons, and the Physics Commons Recommended Citation Department of Physics and Astronomy, "Cross Sections Fall 2008" (2008). Cross Sections. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk-cross/7 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the Physics and Astronomy at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cross Sections by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEWSLETTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY CROSS SECTIONS Fall 2008/Winter 2009 Flightpath 13: Home of Frosty Neutrons Flightpath 13 may not be the “We are studying the neutron rather than violation, the second research prong of the using the neutron to study materials, which is FNPB. In physics, parity is all about mirror most enchanting name, but for what everybody else at the SNS does,” Greene images. A right-handed system, for example, scientists like Geoff Greene the beauty is said. has a mirror image with identical properties in the science it makes possible. When the save one exception; the image is left-handed. shutter opened on this Spallation Neutron The scientific goals for the FNPB are three- A particle spinning clockwise would have a Source (SNS) beamline in late September, so fold: to understand beta decay, study parity mirror image that spins counter-clockwise. too did new prospects for understanding the violation, and search for the neutron electric Parity conservation says the mirror images life, decay, and characteristics of the neutron. dipole moment. obey the same laws of physics as the originals, In the process, the Fundamental Neutron Beta decay, as Greene described it, is “the with no distinction between right and Physics Beamline (FNPB) can help answer archetype of all radioactive decays; every beta left. This principle holds true in strong or questions about how elementary particles radioactive decay that one sees is actually electromagnetic reactions, but for reasons interact, what was going on in the Big Bang, the neutron decaying inside that nucleus. that are not fully clear, parity is violated in and why the universe is left-handed. Studying it in its pristine form allows one to weak interactions. see nuclear decay without the complexities of Greene explained that if you could recreate Research Highlight nuclear structure.” the Big Bang a few dozen times, about half Researchers like Greene are interested in this the time you’d expect to get a right-handed Greene, a professor of physics with a process because it’s such a fundamental part universe and half the time you’d get a left- joint appointment at Oak Ridge National of why the universe works the way it does. handed universe. The interesting question is Laboratory (ORNL), leads the effort on the whether left and right are equally probable. FNPB. The official project began in 2004 “For example, the main energy-producing Of course, such an experiment would be and is one of several experiments using process in the sun, proton-proton fusion, problematic on several levels, he said, “so beams provided by the SNS. At the SNS is actually the same mechanism by which a what we’re trying to do is look very, very a beam of protons hits a mercury target, neutron decays,” he said. “Studying neutron carefully at the parity violation in beta sending neutrons down a long hall where decay tells us how bright the sun should be; decay to see if there’s a little leftover right- they are directed off to different beamlines. it also ties into how many neutrinos should handedness from the time of the Big Bang Researchers will use those neutrons for come out of the sun, which is a hot topic. when there were, presumably, equal amounts studies in chemistry, superconductivity, Similarly, neutron decay was very important of right and left.” polymer science, and structural biology, during the first few minutes of the Big Bang among other fields. The FNPB is unique (when) the essential balance of light elements He provided an example (originally suggested in that the investigations on this line aren’t was established.” by Nobel Laureate Abdus Salaam) of dinner about using the neutron as a tool, but instead guests seated at a round table with a water Another mystery of the Big Bang—why our understanding it in its own right. glass between each place setting. Once the universe is left-handed—has to do with parity Continued on page 3 IN THIS ISSUE: A Message from Soren Sorensen {Page 2} Pengcheng Dai Named JIAM Chair {Page 4} Award-Winning Nuclear Collaboration {Page 5} Alumnus Profi le: John Cantrell {Page 6} Physics from a Distance {Page 8} Million Dollar Endowment {Page 9} Family News {page 10} Tough Times Soren Sorensen, Department Head These are tough times. The stock market has plummeted, administrative and financial staff now consists of only five people, who stores and factories are closing, and many people are losing their jobs. manage to run a “business” with approximately 200 employees. Here in Tennessee the tax revenues have been decreasing for the past We are not the only department or university facing tough times. The 12 months and will probably continue to do so for some time to come. trend all over our nation has been that state universities get less and As a direct consequence of these decreasing revenues, state funding less support from public funds. At some universities like Washington for the University of Tennessee was cut by 5% for this fiscal year, and and Virginia the state support is now less than 10% of the total during the recent budget hearings in Nashville Governor Bredesen revenue. I expect that the University of Tennessee will be following predicted budget cuts for higher education at the 10-15% level for the the same trend, so even when the financial situation for the state of next fiscal year. Tennessee hopefully gets better in a few years, I do not expect we will So how do these budget cuts influence our department? Profoundly! be able to fully recover what is now being lost. We now have 25.5 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) faculty members in The problem is being enhanced by the state control of tuition. Private our department. This is two less than just a year ago, since we lost universities have been able to increase tuition to unprecedented levels two positions as a result of the budget cuts in June. We have to go over the last decade, but UT will not be allowed substantial tuition all the way back to around 1960 to find fewer faculty members in increases, even if most of our students now are covered by the HOPE our department. We have partly compensated for this loss in FTEs scholarship funded by the state lottery. by having more Joint Faculty positions with ORNL, so the 25.5 FTE correspond to 33 actual living beings! However, in all this doom and gloom there is one bright spot. Here in the department we have been blessed by wonderful alumni and Our department used to have a large group of lecturers and adjunct donors, who over the past 8 years have increased our endowment teaching staff, who would be responsible for many of our large service from $100,000 to nearly $2,000,000. This has enabled us to provide courses and general education courses. Over the past several years scholarships and support for many of our students at both the we have lost many of them and have not had any funds to replace undergraduate and graduate level. Increasingly we will have to offset them, so we are now down to only 3 lecturers. This has placed a the diminishing state support by relying on the proceeds from our strong teaching responsibility on our faculty and they have responded endowment to provide a meaningful educational experience for our extremely well. Our physics faculty is now teaching more student students. Many of our donors have graciously made the stipulations of credit hours than any other department at the university, because our their donations very broad, which has enabled us to use the funds to faculty members have been willing and have had the skills to teach support a range of activities that used to be state supported: research general education astronomy and physics for biologists, engineers, and participation for undergraduate students during the summer semester, architects. In many other departments the students do not meet a real support for students on foreign exchange programs, support for professor before classes at the 200 or 300 level! equipment used by students in our educational labs, and even in a few This high efficiency, however, is coming at a cost. There is no more cases for research equipment benefitting our graduate students (and “slack” in the system in the form of professors who can teach more their advisors!). courses. If we have to implement additional budget cuts, we will have to cancel classes. This will result in much higher student dissatisfaction We will also increasingly be using our endowment proceeds as and, more importantly, longer graduation times for our majors, payment/scholarships for our junior and senior physics majors, when since many students will not be able to schedule 15 credit hours each they work in our tutoring center.