The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 ΦYAST ΦLYER The Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy Volume 21, Number 1 The OU-Higgs Connection Physicists at the elementary particles and fields and gives University of direction for future investigations. Oklahoma are In 1964, three independent groups proposed a members of one of mechanism that would give mass to certain the two particles. The current understanding of this experimental l-r: Hasib, Gutierrez, D. Bertsche, Walker, “Higgs” mechanism, named after Peter Higgs, a Severini, Skubic, Pearson, Abbott, C. collaborations Bertsche, Strauss, Saleem. member of one group, is that a scalar field that, on July 4, permeates all of space. As a fundamental particle 2012, announced propagates through this Higgs field, its the discovery of a new particle with properties of interaction with the field gives mass to the a Higgs boson. This groundbreaking discovery particle, with a mass value that is proportional to confirms the predictions of the standard model of the interaction strength. A consequence of this (continued on page 19) Remembering Neil Shafer-Ray
NEIL EVAN SHAFER- his indomitable presence in Nielsen Hall. RAY, professor of physics and astronomy at Neil was born in Boston, graduated from MIT in OU, passed away Dec. 1986 and received his doctorate from Columbia 26, 2012, at the age of 49. in 1990 under Professor Richard Bersohn. He Diagnosed with acute held postdoctoral positions at Hokkaido myeloid leukemia in July University in Japan (1990-1991) and at Stanford Neil Shafer-Ray 2011, Neil waged a University (1991-1995) in Richard Zare’s group. courageous and spirited battle, continuing to He joined the OU faculty in 1995 as a member of advance his research and advise his graduate the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics students as he fought this disease. Neil’s passing group. Neil’s principal areas of research, which leaves a large hole in the department that we will he pursued with passion and creativity, included feel for years to come.We all have fond molecular beam studies, reaction dynamics, cold memories of Neil racing off to class or the lab at molecules, and most recently, searching for the high speed, or explaining concepts to students on dipole moment of the electron. In addition to our hallway blackboards, and will greatly miss doing physics, Neil enjoyed snow skiing with (continued on page 16)
1 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 From The Chair by Greg Parker
It is unfortunate that Neil issued patent. Kieran Mullen received the Greg Parker Shafer-Ray passed away on Student Government Association Award as Dec. 26, 2012. He loved his family, students, Outstanding Faculty. Jim Shaffer was awarded friends, coworkers and physics. We will all miss the Ted and Cuba Webb Presidential his enthusiasm and knowledge of physics. Professorship. Brad Abbott, Chung Kao, Karen Respected by everyone, Neil was a true friend, Leighly, James Shaffer and Yun Wang were wonderful teacher and colleague. He was and recommended for promotion to full professor, will remain in our hearts and thoughts forever. and we expect their promotions to be approved His struggle with leukemia was very difficult and by the Board of Regents this summer. Yun Wang painful, but Neil always had a positive outlook. and Michael Santos are now Fellows of the We really appreciate all of the donations for the American Physical Society, and Phil Gutierrez, Neil Shafer-Ray Scholarship Fund, which was Lloyd Bumm, Matt Johnson, James Shaffer, Yun established by his family! Wang and Howie Baer received the Carl T. Bush Lectureship award. We were delighted to have Alberto Marino and John Wisniewski join our department in August. Michael Reynolds, a junior majoring in physics, In the past couple of years, we have had seven has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship from the faculty join and strengthen our department. In Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. In addition to addition, our graduate recruiting committee excelling in the classroom, Michael has admitted 17 graduate students last August and we performed experimental research on gold expect to have another 15 graduate students join nanostructures. His research has been conducted us this year. The A.T. Stair Fellowship for at OU with Lloyd Bumm during most of the past Physics and Astronomy Graduate Students fund two years and as an REU student at Rice raiser is under way. Please consider contributing. University last summer.
One of our alumni, Neal Lane, received the What a wonderful year! As always, our faculty, prestigious 2013 Vannevar Bush Award. Kimball postdoctoral fellows, staff and students continue Milton is a Simons Fellows in Theoretical to excel in research, teaching and service. We are Physics and will spend the 2013-2014 academic indeed fortunate to have a collegial, prestigious year in Paris. Matt Johnson received the VPR and highly productive department. We really Award for Outstanding Research Engagement. appreciate all of our former alumni who are Lloyd Bumm and Daminda Dahanayaka were contributing to the success of our department. recognized by the Office of Technology for an
The ΦYAST ΦLYER is the official newsletter of the Homer L. staff includes Dick Henry, Kim Milton, Deborah Watson and Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Bruno Uchoa. The University of Oklahoma is an equal Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma, and is published opportunity institution. All photographs are by Robert H. each spring by OU Printing Services at a cost of $1.70/copy Taylor unless otherwise noted. to the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma. The newsletter
2 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Hats Off to Our Students! Homer L. Dodge Departmental Awards
Dodge Outstanding Sophomore Dodge Outstanding Junior Fowler Prize Tyler Ashley Michael Reynolds Stephen Holleman Savannah Logan
Physics and Astronomy Awards
Dodge Scholarship Bailey Bedford, Catherine Ciampa Meritorious Scholarship J. Clarence Karcher Award Joseph Altermatt, Hunter Ash, Nathaniel Beck, Michael Wilkinson, Caleb Holt Bailey Bedford, Robert Behlen, Christopher Bender, Jodi Berdis, Austin Burkett, Galen Duane E. Roller Award Buttitta, Don Carmichael, Catherine Ciampa, Hunter Ash, Christopher Bender, Li Yang Sagen Cocklin, Brandon Curd, Theodore Curtis, Jennifer Davis, Daniel Dobrosky, Constance William Schriever Award Elmer, Zachary Eldredge, Jeffrey Gillean, David Steven Hefner, Sagen Cocklin Graham, Forest Grayson, Kramer Harrison, Steven Hefner, Stephen Holleman, Caleb Holt, Tarryn Outstanding Graduating Senior Kahre, Stephen Lacina, Savannah Logan, Adrian Kramer Harrison, Don Carmichael, Lucy, Heaven Manning, Neil McGlohon, Jamie Matthew Young Miller, Taylor Murphy, William Parker, Ryan Pentecost, John Pritchard, Josiah Purdum, Catie Webb Scholarship Raney, Michael Ray, Cody Ray, Michael Zachary Eldridge Reynolds, Vincent Rojas, Matthew Scheffler, Karcher Scholarship Benjamin Strickland, Joseph Tessmer, Jacob Tice, Brandon Curd, Adrian Lucy, Neil McGlohon, Aaron Wegner, Matthew Wepel, John Wiggins, Taylor Murphy, Catie Raney, Michael Reynolds, Michael Wilkinson, Edward Wilkinson, Li Yang, Bao Tran, Li Yang, Kyle Yates Kyle Yates, Matthew Young
Engineering Physics Awards
J. Clarence Karcher Award William Schriever Award Jeshurun Chisholm Eric Holbrook, Paul Hoang
Duane E. Roller Award Adams Scholarship Hayden Nunley Chase Hennion
3 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013
Meritorious Scholarship Nicholas Kantack, Hayden Nunley, Jocelyn Roberts, Steven Roberts, Rachel Rogers, Derek, Sealey, Jacob Tyler Ashley, Dillon Carroll, Olivia Caruthers, Young Becca Castleberry, Mary Chenot, Jeshurun Karcher Scholarship Chisholm, Timothy Corbley, Daniel Davidson, Daren Davis, Kevin Everly, Alec Forbes, Ryan Mary Chenot, Timothy Corbley, Kevin Everly, Griffith, Daniel Grimmer, Trenton Hamm, Joshua Kendall Harper, Seth Hodgson, Erik Holbrook, Hardisty, Kendall Harper, Jesse Harter, Patrick Jacob Young Helms, Chase Hennion, Paul Hoang, Seth Hodgson, Outstanding Graduating Senior Erik Holbrook, Blake Johnson, Madison Jones, Dillon Carroll and Chase Hennion
2013 student award recipients following the annual awards ceremony. Photo by Greg Parker
Graduate Student Dissertation Defenders Awards Ph.D.: Elom Abalo (Milton) Mohamed Razzak Merra Lebbai (Skubic) George Kalbfleisch Memorial Award Samanatha Gunawardana (Mullen) Ahmed Hasib Chia-Hsun Chuang (Wang) Arne Schwettmann (Shaffer) Parshuram Dahal (Abraham) Neil Shafer-Ray Memorial Scholarship Dharshani Bopege (Furneaux) James Coker Abdella Ait Moussa (Mullen) Dilhani Jayathilaka (Murphy) Tao Yang (Shafer-Ray) Roshan Bokalawela (Johnson) Nielsen Prize Jeff Crawford (Parker) Jonathan Tallant and Elom Abalo M.S.: Henry Bradsher (Henry) Leah Morabito (Dai)
4 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Alumni News
Daniel Sinars (BS Engineering Physics, 1996) physics. The majority received the 2011 Presidential Early Career of his research has been Award for Scientists and Engineers from the on the Sandia "Z" Department of Energy. The award was presented machine, the world’s during a ceremony at the Smithsonian Natural most energetic pulsed History Museum on July 31. The awardees met power machine. The Z with the president in the White House that same machine is used to afternoon. The official announcement by the deliver more than 80 White House Office of Science and Technology TW of electrical energy Policy can be found at: www.whitehouse.gov/ Daniel Sinars in a ~100 ns, 26 MA the-press-office/2012/07/23/president-obama- current pulse to fusion honors-outstanding-early-career-scientists. The targets. The resulting Lorentz forces are used to Sandia news release can be found at: accelerate and converge deuterium fuel to the share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/ conditions needed for fusion. Daniel’s most pecase/ recent research has focused on directly measuring the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor Dan’s official PECASE citation (a mouthful) instability in dense plasma liner implosions, for reads: “For developing innovative techniques to which he received a 2011 Department of Energy study the properties of instabilities in Early Career award of $500,000 per year for a magnetized-high-energy-density plasma, five-year period. enabling quantifiable comparison between experiment and simulation needed for validating Neal Lane, currently the Malcolm Gillis cutting-edge radiation-hydrodynamics codes, and University Professor at Rice University, is the for demonstrating substantial leadership qualities 2013 recipient of the Vannevar Bush Award. The in high-energy-density-laboratory-plasma announcement was made on March 26, by the physics.” National Science Board. ! #" Daniel attended OU from 1992 to 1996, and #! received his bachelor of science degree in ! engineering physics along with the Fowler Prize in 1996. Daniel obtained his doctorate in applied $ # #% physics from Cornell University in 2001, and *,+)$ ! joined Sandia National Laboratories as a senior # $! member of the technical staff that same year. He $ has worked at Sandia as an experimental # physicist since then in the areas of inertial $ confinement fusion and high energy density % (continued on page 6)
ALUMS AND FRIENDS OF THE DEPARTMENT: PLEASE LET US KNOW ([email protected]) WHAT YOU’RE UP TO, SO THAT WE CAN INCLUDE THE INFORMATION IN A FUTURE EDITION OF THE NEWSLETTER!
5 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013
(Alumni News Continued) Currently, Lane is a Senior Fellow of the James assistant to President Clinton for Science and A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, a member Technology and director of the White House of Rice University’s Department of Physics and Office of Science and Technology Policy from Astronomy, as well as a member of our August 1998 to January 2001. He was the NSF distinguished Board of Advisors led by Chun Lin director from October 1993 to August 1998. (Neal’s Ph.D. adviser at OU). Neal also served as (continued on page 15) Shop Talk by Joel Young The Department of Physics and Astronomy, as an Geology, Zoology, Mechanical Engineering, entity, began around 1907. Sometime before Electrical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, 1920, a German instrument maker, Otto Krause, Psychology and the Health Sciences community. was hired to maintain lecture demonstration Other non-science university units such as equipment. Krause ran the instrument shop for Printing Services, and over 20 years. Since that time, a number of Facilities Management dedicated individuals have supported the physical also have utilized the research needs of the department. Atomic- shop and maintain an molecular, solid-state, high-energy physics, and active working astronomy have all made extensive use of the relationship. Outside of instrument shop over the years. the university The instrument shop at the Department of Barry Bergeron community, the shop has Physics and Astronomy provided services to the U.S. Air Force, JPL- today is ably staffed by NASA and the Los Alamos National Lab. Joel Young, Barry Highlights of the past few years include: Bergeron and Sean (Work on the Higgs detector at CERN Atteberry. It has a long (production fixturing for 2,500 pixel detectors) as history of service and well as work on D0 in the 1980s (A wide variety support, primarily for the of custom detection array equipment) Joel Young experimental research (Design and fabrication of the monopole groups at the physics department; but for the past detector, which established new energy limits for 30 years the facility has been increasingly this very strange theoretical particle. involved with supporting a variety of research (Development of numerous high-vacuum programs outside the department. As OU has apparatus associated with atomic molecular grown, so have the needs of its scientific research collision work. One such system utilized the first community. The HLD instrument shop has reliable high temperature dissociation device for designed and fabricated many types of apparatus producing atomic fluorine. JPL requested a for other departments: Chemistry, Biochemistry, number of pieces of the critical and novel (continued on page 17)
6 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Faculty Research Programs
Eddie Baron’s supernova group has grown and consists Xinyu Dai continues to research such of graduate students Brian astronomical objects as gravitational lenses, Friesen, Jeremy Lusk and galaxy clusters, active galactic nuclei and Malia Jenks. Postdoc Bin gamma-ray bursts. Since the discovery of the Chen works with them on a first cosmological gravitational lens in 1979, part-time basis, sharing his gravitational lensing has become an important Eddie Baron time working on lensing tool in many astrophysical applications. In projects with professors Dai, Kantowski and particular, quasar microlensing provides a novel David Branch. Brian is working on including the method to map the quasar accretion disk physics of late-time pseudo nebular objects into structure. Utilizing the dependence of the PHOENIX code framework. Jeremy passed microlensing variability on the source size, we his specialist exam this semester on peculiar are able to resolve the disk structure that is Type II supernovae and will write up that work several orders of magnitude smaller than the and then move on to his yet-to-be defined thesis angular resolution of our current telescopes. project. Malia has been busy with coursework, Beside quasar microlensing, Xinyu also is but will work on metallicity effects in Type Ia interested in probing the interstellar medium of supernovae for her specialist project. Brian and lens galaxies and exploring the embedded Bin are working on a paper to develop a fully lensing model. Galaxy clusters are the largest general relativity framework for photon and gravitationally bound objects in the universe. neutrino transport that would be particularly They are ideal sites to constrain cosmological valuable in core collapse calculations. Eddie will parameters and study structure formation. Xinyu present work on 3D PHOENIX at the conference currently is working on the Swift soft X-ray Fifty One Ergs at North Carolina State serendipitous cluster survey. The survey has the University in May 2013. potential to find one of the largest X-ray selected cluster catalogs to date. Xinyu also is studying the missing Baryon problem in the universe. Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are very energetic Karen Leighly and students have made sources in the universe powered by supermassive significant progress in the past year. OU graduate black holes. Xinyu is interested in the feedback student Erin Cooper is working on HST data process of AGNs to their host galaxies, in from the low-luminosity Seyfert galaxy WPVS particular, the kinetic feedback carried out by 007. Leighly discovered the emergence of a winds. He is working on measuring the intrinsic broad absorption line with maximum velocity of fractions of broad absorption line quasars of 6,000 km/s in FUSE spectra of WPVS 007 taken various species and the average absorption in 2003. The HST spectrum, taken in 2010, column densities of these objects. In addition, he shows that the outflow is still present. However, studies the relationships between various AGN the maximum velocity is now 11,000 km/s, and parameters such as the broadband spectral index, the profile suggests that acceleration has X-ray spectral index, luminosity, Eddington occurred. This has never been seen before; ratio, and variability with the aim to constrain generally, absorption line variability is limited to AGN physics. changes in the optical depth with no changes in the velocity. This object also has an anomalously low luminosity for such a high- velocity outflow, and it is an X-ray transient. It is
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7 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 7) possible that the object is undergoing a rare paper on that study due out later this year. ejection event. This scenario will be tested with Finally, Dick is preparing to launch a two new HST observations scheduled for June comprehensive study of abundance patterns in and December 2013. OU undergraduate student the disk of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). This Adrian Lucy participated in the USRP program at galaxy seems to have had an interesting history, Goddard Space Flight Center last summer. He in that it may have formed out of the merger of worked with Bret Lehmer on Chandra X-ray data two smaller galaxies and then was later tidally from a z=2.23 proto-cluster, finding evidence for disrupted by a near collision with M33, another enhanced AGN activity. He presented a poster at spiral galaxy in the Local Group. Detailed the 221st AAS meeting, and the paper is now chemical evolution models will be used to published. He will spend this summer interpret abundance data for a large fraction of participating in an REU program at the National M31’s disk. Radio Astronomy Observatory, working on ALMA data from the Orion Nebula. Leighly John Wisniewski continued to continues to work on the HeI* sample. HST investigate a variety of observations scheduled for June will probe circumstellar disk systems with phosphorus absorption in the rest far UV in two large teams of international objects that are known to have HeI* absorption collaborators. He presented a in the rest frame optical and infrared. These data poster at the 2013 AAS will be used to investigate the physical origin of meeting reporting the partial covering, a poorly understood property John Wisniewski discovery of a B-type emission ubiquitous in Broad Absorption Line quasars, by John Wisniewski line star conundrum identified taking advantage of by the SDSS-III/APOGEE expected radial dependence of temperature in the project. The star exhibits abnormally large accretion disk. (FWHM ~1400 km/s) velocities, and is now believed to be a sigma Ori-E analog, i.e., a near- critically rotating B-type star with a magnetically Dick Henry’s research time has been split confined disk. John’s work with the Strategic roughly evenly among three projects related to Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru abundance measurements in the disks of spiral (SEEDS) continued. He analyzed spectra of a galaxies. First, he began a new project with Dana large subset of the planet-search target list to age- Balser at the National Radio Astronomy date each system, and also was part of the team Observatory to study the distribution of oxygen that reported the imaging discovery of a 13 over the plane of the Milky Way disk. The Jupiter-mass “Super Jupiter” around the star assumption by galaxy modelers has long been kappa Andromeda. John's research group will that as massive stars eject newly formed oxygen, welcome the addition of two postdocs in the it is instantaneously mixed into the local summer and fall of 2013, Jun Hashimoto interstellar medium. Dick and Dana are testing (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) that assumption by looking for abundance and Jamie Lomax (University of Denver). variations in both the radial and azimuthal (theta) dimensions. A second project, closely related to the first, is the use of integral field spectroscopy to study oxygen distribution in several external Mukremin Kilic’s group now consists of spiral galaxies. Data obtained at the McDonald postdoctoral fellow Alexandros Gianninas (PhD, Observatory is being used to do this. The project U. de Montreal), graduate students Sara Barber is being primarily carried out by Tim Miller as and Paul Canton, and undergraduate student Ben part of his dissertation. Tim is close to Strickland. Ben will start graduate school in completing an analysis of NGC 2403 with a physics at Oregon in the fall. Alex and Ben have
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8 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 8) co-authored a paper on limb-darkening generous donations in memory of Neil, coefficients for eclipsing white dwarfs that will especially by Jules and Marcia Shafer, Neil’s be detected by the Large Synoptic Survey father and mother. James Cocker, a graduate Telescope. Alex and Mukremin have used the student working on the e-EDM project, is Keck 10m telescope in February 2013 to observe receiving the first award from this donation. a 12-min orbital period double white dwarf binary every 30 seconds. Mukremin, Alex and During this past year, Neil was incredibly collaborators Hermes (Texas) and Brown productive even while battling acute myeloid (Smithsonian) are using the Gemini 8m and leukemia. He in large part authored three papers, McDonald Observatory telescopes to measure wrote two NSF proposals, and completed the the rate of period change of the same system to design of the Ramsey Cavity experiment to indirectly detect gravitational waves and to test measure the e-EDM in PbF. To complement his Einstein’s theory of relativity. Sara used the 6.5m efforts, Tao Yang and James Cocker, graduate MMT to image two dozen candidate white students in the group, and Jeff Gillian, a physics dwarfs with debris disks. These disks are the undergraduate, have been improving the stability tidally disrupted remains of asteroids and small of the diode laser system that will accomplish the planets, similar to Saturn’s rings. Sara also has important quantum state coherence received Spitzer Space Telescope time in 2013 to measurements that are at the heart of our e-EDM image 100 massive white dwarfs to constrain the search. They have been testing this system by frequency of disks around them and to constrain measuring precise, saturated absorption 130 the frequency of planets around their progenitor spectroscopy of Te2. This work is important in 130 massive stars. Sara and Alex attended the itself as Te2 is used as a frequency reference at European White Dwarf Workshop in Poland last green and blue visible wavelengths. James has summer and the AAS meeting in Long Beach in managed to decipher parts of this complicated January 2013. Paul, Alex and Mukremin are spectrum and is in the process of establishing 130 using the Kitt Peak 4m telescope to identify short new spectroscopic constants for Te2 with period binary white dwarfs in the ELM Survey. unprecedented precision and accuracy. The team also has used the Chandra X-ray observatory to search for pulsar companions to Neil’s former students are doing well. Chris several of these binary systems. McRaven continues to work with Trevor Sears at Brookhaven National Laboratory and SUNY Stony Brook. Milinda Rupasinghe completed his post-doc at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Cal Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Tech and is now teaching at Cameron University in Lawton. He also is helping us in the lab. John Moore-Furneaux is Finally, Tao Yang, who completed his Ph.D. in continuing the efforts pioneered August 2012, has a post-doctoral position with by the Neil Shafer-Ray group to Rolf Kaiser at the University of Hawaii. measure the electron’s Electric Dipole Moment (e-EDM) using John Moore-Furneaux a molecular beam of PbF. Neil and his collaborators, Jens Jim Shaffer’s group has had an exciting year. Grabow at the University of Hannover and Harald Kuebler completed a successful year as a Richard Mawhorter of Pomona College, were postdoc in the group. He is back off to Stuttgart. able to measure the ground state of PbF to great Jim is sure he will return to visit them again accuracy, about 100 Hz, which enabled the soon. A former undergraduate student, Patrick design of a Ramsey Cavity experiment with the Zabawa, returned to the group as a postdoc. potential to put new limits on the size of the e- Santosh Kumar from Jawaharlal Nehru EDM. We are now in the process of gathering University, India, and Orsay, France, will join the the resources to actually accomplish Neil’s group to take Harald’s place. Jonathan Tallant dream. This effort has been facilitated by the successfully defended his thesis and is now working with Luis Marcassa at the University of continued on page 10
9 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 9)
Sao Paulo in Brazil. Arne Schwettman, now at Deborah Watson spent her NIST-Gaithersburg, won the Nielsen Award this sabbatical year changing past year. Two new graduate students also joined research directions from the group this year: Charles Ewel and Jin Yang. studying systems of cold bosons They are both off to a good start. Luis Marcassa to studying systems of cold visited several times to talk about Rydberg atom Deborah Watson fermions. Fermions are the interactions. Renate Daschner, from Stuttgart, building blocks of visible matter also visited for two months to work on the RF and comprise a number of important systems in electric field sensing project. It has been a steady different fields of physics, including nuclei, stream of new people and ideas flowing through electrons in metals, superconductors, the quark- the Shaffer group. Jim’s group also had a gluon plasma in the early universe, and white successful year publishing papers. They had dwarf and neutron stars. Ultracold fermion publications in Physical Review Letters (editors’ systems have provided physicists with new types choice) and Nature Physics. The PRL earned of large systems to study whose interactions can them an invited talk at DAMOP this year. The be controlled with great precision. These group also has submitted a paper on vector systems can be tuned to have strong interactions sensing of electric fields with atoms and on a and thus provide an important testing ground for method to count photons using a decoherent many-body theories. Previous work by process as a fundamental tool for quantum Deborah’s group had formulated a many-body devices. The latter paper also deals with perturbation method to handle fully interacting Rydberg atom – surface phonon polariton bosons through first-order effects. interactions. As for conferences, the group is Reformulating this method to handle fermions giving two talks and three posters at DAMOP requires a major overhaul of the method. this year. They also presented invited talks at Fermions are especially challenging to describe the DLS/OSA meeting in Rochester, ITAMP, the due to the Pauli principle, which forbids two University of Wisconsin, University of identical fermions from occupying the same California-Merced, University of Stuttgart, quantum state. Enforcing the Pauli principle in a University of Sao Paulo, and Oklahoma State many-body calculation is time-consuming and University this year. They participated in the thus quite expensive. The approach chosen by AMO mini-conference between OU and Watson and her collaborators uses mathematical Oklahoma State, and they are hoping that much techniques such as group theory and graphical valuable collaboration comes out of talks techniques instead of computers to do the initiated at the conference. In the lab, Don “heavy lifting.” The difficulty of describing Booth, Patrick and Jin improved the Cs system fully interacting exact quantum wave functions so that they can do better experiments on scales exponentially with N, the number of Rydberg atom interactions, particularly on particles “hitting a wall” around N=10 particles, anisotropic interactions and trilobite states. Don a surprisingly low number. By taking advantage also is working with Greg Parker on doing of symmetry, Watson’s group successfully has accurate scattering calculations on their Rydberg reconstructed this “exponential wall” using interaction potentials. Jon Sedlacek, Haoquan analytic building blocks, allowing calculations to Fan, Charles and Harald are continuing to work be performed for very large systems through low on Rydberg atom surface interactions and order in the perturbation series. The goal is to electric field sensing with Rydberg atoms. acquire insight into the transition from Shaffer’s group has made a lot of progress on microscopic interactions to macroscopic these projects but it is a little too much to behavior for these large and technologically describe here. All in all, it has been a pretty important systems. good year. Next year looks to be even better!
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10 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 10) Barbara Capogrosso- numerical software for studying triatomic Sansone’s research quantum reactive scattering. The time-dependent interests lie in the field method offers an intuitive, physically of ultracold atoms and meaningful picture of the reaction dynamics, as a molecules. She has wave packet can be observed as it propagates been interested in along the triatomic potential energy surface. The Barbara Capogrosso-Sansone studying quantum use of wave packets provides information over a phases of many-body distribution of scattering energies for a single strongly correlated systems by means of large- propagation in time, and as the wave packet scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Barbara returns to the product regions of the PES, and her collaborator, Arghavan Safavi-Naini “snapshots'' are taken at each time step to from MIT, have been closely working on several determine constituent final states. Using extensions of the Worm algorithm for path hyperspherical coordinates increases the integral Monte Carlo, which will allow the study computational efficiency. For three identical of exotic states of dipolar bosonic systems in an particles, the triatomic PES becomes symmetric, accurate and unbiased manner. The dipole-dipole reducing the amount of coordinate space interaction can be tuned and shaped via external required to represent the evolving wave packet. static and microwave electric fields. Its long- Reactive scattering results are important in the ranged and anisotropic nature results in more areas of combustion chemistry, atmospheric interesting states of matter, compared to what chemistry, ultracold dynamics and trap loss in can be realized by contact interaction. Within the Bose-Einstein condensates. Jeff admirably theoretical and experimental communities, the defended his dissertation on Jan. 23, and is importance of unbiased Monte Carlo techniques enjoying his new job at Halliburton in Houston. capable of simulating experimentally realizable Undergraduate Research Day is a blue-ribbon models has been widely recognized. To this day, event that was held on April 13 at OU. Zachary not many groups in the world have access to Eldredge, an undergraduate student working such powerful techniques. As far as is known, with Greg, won the Roland Lehr Phi Beta Kappa the developments Capogrosso-Sansone and her Award for Distinguished Undergraduate colleague have made are not yet available to any Research. Zach currently is incorporating other group. Experimental realizations of additional capabilities, such as external fields quantum many-body dipolar systems with large and conical intersections into the time-dependent induced electric dipole moment, e.g. polar hyperspherical method developed by Jeff. molecules, seem to be imminent. Hence, accurate and unbiased theoretical predictions are timely and crucial to guide experimentalists. Capogrosso-Sansone enjoys collaborations New AMO assistant professor Alberto Marino within the United States, Europe and Brazil. She spent the last year building a quantum optics recently has co-organized a successful workshop laboratory in Nielsen Hall, which involved a hosted by ITAMP (Institute for Theoretical significant renovation of Room 320 on the third Atomic, Molecular and Optical physics) titled floor. The renovations are almost finished, and “Finite temperature and low energy effects in the initial setup of the apparatus is now taking cold atomic and molecular few- and many-body place. Alberto and graduate student Ailing Deng systems” which brought together top scientists have been working on characterizing the from all over the world. equipment and setting up the basic experimental apparatus. The apparatus consists of two Ti:Sapphire lasers that are used to implement a four-wave mixing process in an atomic vapor Greg Parker: Greg’s graduate student Jeff cell. This system will make it possible to Crawford developed a time-dependent generate highly entangled beams of light, known hyperspherical coordinate method and associated as twin beams, that will be used for applications in quantum information science and quantum continued on page 12
11 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 11) metrology. The use of an atomic system to plane. Unlike in real magnetic fields, in strained generate twin beams makes it possible to obtain graphene there is no net magnetic flux, but a large degree of entanglement without the need nevertheless, the electrons move in circular of a cavity. This makes the twin beams orbits and show a remarkable quantum property intrinsically multi-spatial mode, which means only observed in semiconductors at very large that they contain spatial quantum correlations. magnetic fields, known as Landau level Once the initial setup is finished, the initial quantization. In a recent article, Bruno proposed experiments will study the dependence of the an unprecedented possibility of spatial correlation on the different experimental superconductivity, a state of matter where the parameters to find ways to use this degree of electrons propagate without dissipation, being freedom for quantum information applications. spontaneously generated by Landau level Undergraduate student Kramer Harrison has quantization in strained graphene. His proposal been working on his senior capstone project to opens the possibility for a first-time observation develop a temperature stabilization circuit based of superconductivity in this material, a discovery on the Arduino microprocessor system. This that could have a tremendous impact for system offers a versatile way of controlling applications. different aspects of the experiment. If all goes well, the first entangled light generated in Nielsen Hall should be produced this summer. This last year has involved extensive Condensed Matter Physics development of the experimental capability in Ian Sellers’ laboratory here at OU. The During the past year, Bruno equipment currently under construction includes Uchoa started his research various optical and optoelectronic capabilities, group with the arrival of the which offer the ability to investigate postdoctoral fellow Akbar semiconductor materials from the UV to IR, at Jaefari and graduate student Xu low and high temperature, and at magnetic fields Dou. In this period, Bruno to 7 Tesla. The techniques available include published one review article in photo and electroluminescence, absorption/ Reviews of Modern Physics, transmission, photo-modulation spectroscopy, Bruno Uchoa two papers in Physical Review and PLE (among others). The recent delivery of B and one article in Physica Scripta T for the a new optical-access superconducting magnet proceedings of the Nobel Symposium on also allows the investigation of single graphene, held in Stockholm. He was an invited semiconductor nanostructures. This system is speaker in the 2013 APS March meeting, and predominantly for the investigation of presented his work at University of Texas A&M semiconductor nanorings, and single magnetic and the University of Indiana. Bruno has been quantum dots. In addition to the experiments theoretically searching for new exotic quantum already described, the laboratory also is fully states of matter in low-dimensional systems. A equipped for solar cell characterization and typical system of interest is graphene, a flat giant photovoltaic materials development. These molecule made of carbon atoms that can be techniques facilitate our research in next hundreds of microns wide and long, but just one generation solar cells. Indeed, in the past year atom thick. The electrons in graphene propagate Ian also has continued very fruitful collaborative as relativistic massless neutrinos, and show a research programs with partners at University variety of properties familiar in quantum College London, Oxford University and SUNY electrodynamics. One remarkable property of Buffalo. As a result, articles have been published graphene is that when it is stretched in a related to the viability of semiconductor particular way, the electrons behave as if they quantum dots for photovoltaics [Applied Physics were in the presence of an extremely large Letter, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells], magnetic field perpendicular to the graphene along with work on the dilute nitrides for multi-
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12 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 12) junction solar cells [Applied Physics Letters]. decay mode is quite challenging to see due to Coupled with all this, Ian also has been very extremely large backgrounds and the difficulty of busy writing grant proposal submissions! triggering on events with lower momentum particles. However, many theories, like supersymmetry, that extend the standard model of particles and fields, predict that other Higgs Kieran Mullen has been bosons should exist and can be discovered at the working on the theory of heat LHC. We expect that the discovery of the Higgs transport in carbon nanotubes last summer is just a pre-cursor to the many and graphene, a single atom exciting discoveries that will come from the thick sheet of carbon. These LHC in the next decades. materials have enormous potential application in plastic Kieran Mullen composites, if the barrier to Howie Baer: The year getting heat in and out of the 2012 was dominated by molecules can be reduced. In addition he has the discovery of the been doing calculations on the properties of Higgs boson at the Large electrons in unusual geometries, specifically Hadron Collider with rings and shells. These systems are unusual in mass 125 GeV. But still that the electrons live in a compact yet periodic there is no sign of space, allowing novel behavior. Howie Baer supersymmetric matter. These results exacerbate High-energy Particle Physics what has become known as the Little Hierarchy Problem: how can superparticles live above the This has been a year of transition for Mike TeV scale while the Z and Higgs mass sit around Strauss, as he has changed the focus of his 100 GeV? We have created a new scenario research from primarily working with the D0 known as Radiatively-driven Natural collaboration at Fermilab to primarily working Supersymmetry or RNS (see Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 with the ATLAS collaboration using the Large (2012) 161802 and arXiv:1212.2655) which Hadron Collider at CERN. Of course, ATLAS implements a new measure of naturalness for was one of the two experiments to discover the supersymmetric models. We find that the key Higgs Boson as announced in July. Details about feature for natural supersymmetry is a spectrum the importance of this discovery can be found in of light higgsinos (supersymmetric partners to another article in this newsletter. In the first half the Higgs boson) with mass similar to that of the of the year Mike served as the co-convener of the Higgs: 100-200 GeV. The higgsinos are very D0 QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) physics difficult to see at LHC due to their compressed working group at D0, supervising and directing spectrum and low energy release from decays. A all QCD analysis within the D0 collaboration. linear electron-positron collider is required to He worked with Peter Svoisky, an OU post- fully test this model. For RNS models, we expect doctoral researcher, on measuring the differential dark matter to consist of a higgsino-axion production cross section for two photons. A admixture, where the higgsinos ought to be paper from this research has been submitted to detectable at the Xenon-1-ton WIMP (Weakly Phys. Lett. B. During the last half of the year, Interacting Massive Particle) detector. The RNS Mike has been working with two OU graduate model is a key feature of the 2013 Snowmass students, Ben Pearson and Callie Bertsche, study on the future of High Energy Physics, looking at ATLAS data. In particular, they since it provides strong motivation for the United currently are looking for the decay of a Higgs States to become a major supporter of the boson to two W bosons, which then decay to two Japanese-led initiative to build an International leptons and two quarks. This is a decay mode Linear electron-positron Collider (ILC). In this that has not yet been seen by either detector at case, the ILC would be not only a Higgs boson the LHC. For a Higgs Boson at 125 GeV, (the factory, but also likely a higgsino factory as well! mass of the recently discovered particle), this continued on page 14
13 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 Research Programs (continued from page 13) extending this scalar calculation to include full electromagnetism. Kim will continue his studies of the applications of quantum vacuum physics Kim Milton’s group, currently consisting of two next year while he is on sabbatical at the postdocs (Elom Abalo and Prachi Parashar), one Laboratoire Kastler Brossel at the Universite graduate student (Yifan Zhang), one Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, working with undergraduate capstone student (Stephen Astrid Lambrecht and Serge Reynaud there. Holleman), and one visiting sabbatical scholar (Fardin Kheirandish, on leave from Isfahan University, Iran), as well as numerous outside collaborators, including Iver Brevik, Steve During the past year, Phil Fulling, K. V. Shajesh and Klaus Kirsten, has Gutierrez has been working continued to be active, with thrice weekly as a member of both the meetings, 2 to 6 p.m. each MWF. Their work on Fermilab D0 and CERN “PT-Symmetric Quantum Electrodynamics and ATLAS collaborations. He is Unitarity,” in which they show that non- participating in two Hermitian quantum theories seem to have a fatal Phil Gutierrez measurements using D0 data, problem with unitarity, was published in the both studying properties of the world’s first science journal, Philosophical top quark. The first is the measurement of the top Transactions of the Royal Society, in April. They quark mass in the all hardons final state with OU continued to explore “Thermal Issues in Casimir graduate student Ayesh Jayasinghe, who will Forces Between Conductors and defend his dissertation this summer. The second Semiconductors,” and concluded that there is a analysis is a collaboration with non-OU D0 serious conflict between experiment and theory collaborators, which is a measurement of the top in quantum vacuum physics. In “Electromagnetic anti-top production cross section in the tau lepton semitransparent delta-function plate: Casimir plus hadrons final state. This mode is not very interaction energy between parallel well measured; therefore, it can be used to infinitesimally thin plates,” they develop the improve limits on non Standard Model physics. machinery to consistently describe conducting (OU graduate student Sohrab Hossain and Phil plates of negligible thickness, and in the process performed the first and only measurement in this show that Bordag’s old claim of an anomaly in final state using Fermilab data.) They have made the interaction of a polarizable atom with a many improvements to this measurement and conductor is erroneous. With REU student hope to finish and publish the results this year. Giulio Meille, they attempted to demonstrate in Another analysis that is being carried out with “Electromagnetic Angular Momentum and D0 data is the study of multi-parton interactions. Relativity” the fallacy of Mansuripur’s claim of The work is being performed with OU post doc inconsistency between Maxwell’s equations and Peter Svoisky. They are using two final state special relativity. In soon to be published work, channels for this measurement. The first uses two “Three-body Casimir-Polder interactions and photons plus two hadronic jets (clusters) and the Casimir interaction energies for magneto-electric second looks for two J/psi particles. To delta-function plates,” they examine the disentangle single parton from multi-parton interaction of two atoms with a plate, and extend interactions, one looks at the angular correlations the thin plate description to magnetic materials, between the final state particles. This is then respectively. They currently are completing a compared with theoretical models to extract the paper in which they show how to consistently fraction of multi-parton interactions that have renormalize the quantum vacuum energy of an occurred. Both these analyses are moving toward annular region between two concentric publication. To make the transition to the ATLAS conducting cylinders, intercut with a conducting experiment, Phil decided to pursue the same wedge. The torque on one wedge surface is analysis as on D0, the production cross section of indeed the negative derivative of the energy with top anti-top quarks in the tau lepton plus respect to the wedge angle. They are at present hadronic final state. This measurement is at a continued on page 15
14 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013
Research Programs (continued from page 14) higher energy, so will be a new result. This quarks and gluons within the proton. Using the analysis is using the recently collected data at 8 latest data set collected at ATLAS, they also have TeV center of mass energy and is being recently began searching for new performed with OU graduate student Ahmed supersymmetric particles by searching for events Hasib. In addition, with Ahmed and OU engineer containing leptons, photons and large missing Rusty Boyd, they are performing some tests on transverse energy. With this analysis they hope to the ATLAS silicon pixel detector to improve its place the world’s most stringent limits on a performance for future high-intensity data- number of SUSY particles. David Bertsche and taking. Brad have been working on studying QCD backgrounds for two of the analyses that their group has been studying, namely Higgs decaying to two W bosons and top anti-top decays to tau + jets. David is expected to move Brad Abbott: This past year to CERN, where he will begin working on has been very exciting for high designing and building the next generation energy physics with the ATLAS detector. Brad also is continuing to work discovery of the Higgs boson at in B physics at the D0 experiment, studying the the LHC. Hopefully, more Brad Abbott decays of B mesons decaying to a J/Psi particle + exciting discoveries are in the anything. In 2012 two publications on B future. Brad has been focusing more of his decaying to J/Psi f0(980) and B decaying to J/Psi research time at CERN with his two graduate K+ K- were published. Brad currently is students Scarlet Norberg and David Bertsche. working on measuring the Bs lifetime of CP odd Scarlet currently is a resident at CERN, where state Bs decaying to J/Psi f0(980). He will be on they have been studying the inclusive photon sabbatical during the fall 2013 semester and cross section. This analysis allows them to probe hopes to spend more of his time at CERN the structure of the proton by allowing the group working on SUSY analysis and helping build the to extract the momentum distribution of the upgraded ATLAS detector.
Physics Major Awarded Astronaut Scholarship Michael Reynolds, a junior majoring in of the past two years and as an REU student at physics, has been awarded a $10,000 Rice University last summer. According to the scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, “Ideal Foundation for the 2013-2014 academic year. In candidates will have exhibited motivation, addition to excelling in the classroom, Michael imagination and exceptional performance in has performed experimental research on gold their fields, as well as intellectual daring and a nanostructures. His research has been genuine desire to positively change the world conducted at OU with Lloyd Bumm during most around them, both in and out of the classroom.”
(Alumni News Continued) was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2012. He was nominated by the Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics “for innovative and pioneering work in quantum phenomena at the intersection of atomic and condensed matter physics.” He received a BS in physics and math from OU in 1998 and performed capstone research with Sheena Murphy. Paul McEuen, who received a BS in engineering physics from OU in 1985, was elected to the OU College of Engineering’s Distinguished Graduates Society in May 2013. Selection is based upon prominent and distinguished professional or technical achievement, notable public service, outstanding contribution to and support of education, honors of election in organizations, and other contributions to the engineering profession. Paul is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics at Cornell University as well as the director of their Laboratory for Atomic and Solid State Physics and the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science.
15 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 (Neil Shafer-Ray continued from page 1) friends and family, playing sports with his boys, top. A ruler was placed inside the filled beer glass inventing games to include any age child, and to provide accurate measurements. Enough beer over-engineering home improvement projects. had been carelessly spilled that the room reeked of its presence. This led to one of my favorite Neil’s death brought an outpouring of thoughts and scientific publications, “Through a Beer Glass memories from friends, colleagues and students, Darkly,” Physics Today 44(10), 48 (1991), in many of whom returned for the Jan. 5 memorial which Neil was the first author. It captured the idea service, which overflowed capacity. We have that physics and chemistry were all about us and its included some excerpts: appreciation could bring great joy. Neil Shafer& Ray will be sorely missed. “ -Richard Zare, “Neil and I had many discussions on his eEDM Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural project and on mine. There’s a sense in which Neil Science, Stanford University was a physicist very much in the tradition of Feynman. He liked to work everything out for “A particular memory was one time when my car himself. He didn’t trust the conventional wisdom. broke down and I was dead broke. He gave me For this reason he often had his own idiosyncratic one of his cars and $400. I don't even think he expected me to pay him back. He said he didn't want me to be distracted from research by little things. I paid him back, but was really amazed at how willing he was to help, and with no hesitation at all.” -James Coker, current Ph.D. student.
“The last time I saw Neil, I was visiting OU with my then-girlfriend and now wife in September 2009. He was excited to tell me all the new ideas in the EDM project, but was worried that my wife, l-r: M. Rupasinghe, A. Schwettmann, Neil, S. Poopalasingam, T. Yang who does not speak English well and who is not a way of describing things. Several times Neil and I physicist, would be bored, so we all went to the art disagreed on some point about molecular structure, museum on campus, where Neil proceeded to tell but then I realized what he was saying made sense me about the latest results while my wife could - it just wasn’t the way I was used to hearing the admire the artwork.” -Sam Meek, former idea presented. He was a very creative scientist, undergraduate in Neil’s group, currently at the Fritz and I and the rest of the world of molecular physics Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, will miss him.” -Eric Cornell, Nobel Laureate, recipient of the 2010 Otto Hahn Medal 2001. “I would walk along the hallway in Nielsen with “Perhaps, the most vivid memory I have of him is Neil coming the other way, greet him, and have of us sitting together in a stinking, darkened room him look through me; then 10 minutes later have staring intently at the bubbles rising in a glass of him interrupt my preparation for class with `I’ve beer. The glass was being backlit so that we could figured out how to ... make a better widget, make a record photographically a bubble’s acceleration better measurement, make a better presentation, and growth in size as it rose from the bottom to the explain this puzzling set of data, teach this piece of (continued on page 17)
16 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 (Neil Shafer-Ray continued) physics more effectively.’” -John Furneaux, OU “All the hallway chalkboards in the Neilsen Hall professor of physics remind me of Neil; not only that, he derived things for us on napkins at restaurants while waiting for “Neil was so focused on physics that he was often food. Besides a great adviser, Neil was one of the oblivious to his external environment, especially to greatest human beings I ever met in my life. No the status of his shoe laces.” -Ryan Doezema, doubt that his death is a huge loss for everyone former chair of the Physics and Astronomy who knew him closely as well as for entire AMO Department community. I’m still sad when I think about Neil.” Melinda Rupasinghe, former Ph.D. student of Neil “Neil had a passion for his work. You could tell that he always had something going on in his mind Neil’s death is a great loss for the Homer L. Dodge because he was so focused. His shirts were Physics and Astronomy Department, OU and the typically wrinkled and only halfway tucked in and wider scientific community. He was an his shoelaces. Well they rarely stayed tied and I exceptional human being, the epitome of a remember once he came in with two different dedicated, creative scientist and a superb adviser shoes on. But regardless of his sometimes for his students. He will long be remembered for wayward chalky outside appearance, he was a his zest for physics and for his generosity of spirit, brilliant scientist. I learned quickly not to be which influenced all his interactions both offended if he didn’t acknowledge me when I professional and personal. would wish him a good morning. It isn’t that he didn’t hear me, because he did. At times, yelling Neil is survived by his wife, Kerry Shafer-Ray, his back down from the opposite end of the hallway two sons, Reed and Cole; his parents, Jules and good morning. I am sure he was working on a Marcia Shafer of Gwynedd Valley, Penn.; his physics problem in his head and had been in his lab brother Howard Shafer and wife Kate of West since 3 a.m. or earlier. Later in the day he would Hartford, Conn.; and his sister Toby Petti and come in and apologize, ask me about my children husband Michael of Buffalo Grove, Ill. and ask how things are going for me. He was always interested in what was going on in our Contributed by Eric Abraham, John Moore- lives.” -Danette Loyd, assistant to the chair Furneaux and Deborah Watson
(Shop Talk continued from page 3) component, a magnesium (Producing a wide variety of low-temperature fluoride tube with an elaborate cryostat hardware. internal geometry. Other (Finally, around 2008 the shop designed and built an systems incorporate complex apparatus for a research unit in the OU Department magnet geometry and external of Geology and Geophysics. This device took more laser input to produce ultra-cold than a year to complete, and produced data that had a atoms. significant impact on the associated field of interest. (Assembling a complete See phys.org/news/2012-10-earthquake- Sean Atteberry hardware and plumbing simulator.html and www.popsci.com/technology/ infrastructure to support a multi- article/2013-03/earthquake-machine chamber MBE system, including STM and E-Beam % $ ! analysis. !!!%% % ' %
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First Oklahoma AMO Research Day The groups in the field of Atomic, Molecular, and research conducted by the other groups and explore Optical physics from OU and Oklahoma State possible mutual research interests. Due to the University organized a research day March 15. considerable overlap between the research done by The event was hosted by OSU and was attended by the AMO groups in both universities, it is expected professors Eric Abraham, John Furneaux, Alberto that this event will lead to significant collaboration Marino, Gregory Parker, James Shaffer and that will be highly beneficial for both universities. Deborah Watson from OU, and professors Girish Agarwal, Mario Borunda, Bret Danilowicz, We hope that this will be a yearly event and we are Yingmei Liu, John Mintmire, Jacques Perk, Al looking forward to hosting it on OU’s campus next Rosenberger and Gil Summy from OSU, and more year. The event was supported in part by OU’s than 20 postdocs, graduate students and VPR office, OSU’s Women-in-Physics program, undergraduate students. In total, 25 people from and by the physics departments from OU and OSU. OU attended the event which was held in the OSU Student Union. During the one-day meeting, a series of talks, one from each of the AMO groups, was given, primarily by faculty members from both universities. The talks were followed by a poster session, during which the students had the opportunity to present their research. The event also included tours of the labs of rofessors Liu, Rosenberger and Summy and concluded with a catered dinner in which the participants were able to further discuss their research. The goal of the first Oklahoma AMO research day Students and faculty members of both OU and OSU at was to foster collaboration between the two the AMO Research Day event. universities. During the event, the different research groups were able to learn about the Summer Research for Undergraduates One dozen students from OU as well as from Charlotte, Leighly), Jeffrey Gillean (OU, around the country will be helping to conduct Furneaux), Seth Hodgson (OU, Johnson), Paul research in the department for two months this Inman (Ok. Baptist U., Bumm), Meredith summer, thanks to the NSF-sponsored Research McLinn (Minn. St. U. Moorhead, Baron), for Undergraduates program. The program is run Rahman Mohd (CUNY, Baron), James by professor Eric Abraham. The students, home O’Deherty (Cameron U., Furneaux), Nick Pellatz institutions and mentors are: Brent Chappell (Whitman College, Milton), and Aaron Wegner (Cameron U., Abbott/Strauss), Rita Congdon (OU, Sellers). We welcome these students and (Westminster College, Marino), Theodore Curtis wish them success in their summer work. (OU, Shaffer), Kenya Davis (U. North Carolina
18 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013 (OU-Higgs continued from page 1) prediction is that the Higgs field should Geneva, Switzerland. ATLAS is a collaboration manifest itself as individual Higgs particles or of about 3,500 physicists from 40 countries. bosons, similar to the way a pool of water is The ATLAS detector is a multipurpose particle made of individual water molecules. The Higgs detector designed to see what happens when particle was the one missing piece of the protons collide every 25 ns. A Higgs particle is produced about one out of every 10 billion standard model that had not been discovered. collisions and almost instantaneously decays to The standard model is a comprehensive theory other particles. about the fundamental particles and fields of nature that have been confirmed with many The OU High Energy Physics group was experiments over previous decades. If the Higgs responsible for building and testing electronic circuits for the ATLAS pixel detector, a was not found, that would be an indication that component of the experiment designed to the standard model was not actually correct or measure the momentum and position of charged complete. particles. In addition, the OU group has OU professors Pat Skubic, Phil Gutierrez, Mike searched for the decay of the Higgs particle to Strauss, and Brad Abbott are members of the two W bosons which, in turn, decay to two ATLAS experiment which takes data at the leptons and two quarks. Due to high Large Hadron Collider at CERN laboratory in backgrounds, this decay mode has not yet been observed. Wang and Santos Elected APS Fellows Two faculty members have recently been elected priority astrophysics mission WFIRST (Wide fellows of the American Physical Society: Yun Field Infrared SurveyTelescope), with a target Wang and Mike Santos. launch date of 2021, and a founding member of the European Space Agency (with NASA Yun Wang has extensive experience in exploring participation) dark energy space mission, dark energy. Yun's nomination as an APS fellow EUCLID, which is scheduled for launch in 2019. came as a recognition “for her leadership in dark She also is a member of the Large Synoptic energy research, especially in developing a Survey Telescope collaborations on dark energy robust and consistent framework for analysing and supernovae. and interpreting cosmological data to place model-independent constraints on dark energy, Mike Santos made significant contributions to and in optimizing the science return of planned the development of high quality semiconductor space missions to probe dark energy.” materials, which currently are used in such hard Yun developed the basic framework for core sciences as materials sciences. Some of the extracting dark energy constraints from materials produced in his lab, such as InAs/ cosmological data, a framework that is now GaSb structures and InSb, currently are being widely adopted by the cosmology community. used by the Condensed Matter physics She also developed strategies for optimizing community to investigate new quantum states of future surveys to probe dark energy, and created matter known as topological insulators. Mike a mission concept for the Joint Dark Energy was nominated for his work on “growth of Mission, and the Joint Efficient Dark-energy compound semiconductor nanostructures and Investigation, where she served as the PI spin transport.” Mike is a Charles L. Blackburn (2004-2006). Yun is a member of the Professor in Engineering Physics and Ted and Science Definition Team for the NASA top Cuba Webb Presidential Professor.
19 The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA SPRING 2013
2013 Faculty Awards Matt Johnson Mike Santos VPR Award, Outstanding Research Engagement Fellow, American Physical Society
Jim Shaffer Yun Wang Ted and Cuba Webb Presidential Professor Fellow, American Physical Society
Kieran Mullen Kim Milton Student Government Association Award for an Simons Fellow in Theoretical Physics Outstanding Faculty Member Lloyd Bumm Recognized by Office of Technology for an issued patent
Please consider making a donation to the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! To make a donation, go to www.nhn.ou.edu/donate/
Nielsen Hall, home of the Homer L. Dodge Foucault pendulum, located in the Nielsen Department of Physics and Astronomy Hall atrium
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