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Cross Sections DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER WINTER 2005 Physics and Astronomy • WINTER 2005 Message from the Chair —Arie Bodek awarded the University Award for continue (or begin) that tradition of giv- I would like to thank all of our Excellence in Graduate Teaching. ing that will assure the future excellence alumni who have contributed to the Our particle physics graduate students of the department. Other ways to help Mandel Endowment this past year. On have also done well this past year. Grad- our cause are to inform any promising Meliora Weekend 2004, uate student Maria Florencia Canelli students about our summer undergrad- the new Mandel Con- was awarded the URA-Fermilab Best uate research program (REU) and to ference Room was ded- Ph.D. Thesis Award in 2004. This is the encourage students interested in careers icated (for pictures, see third time that a University of Rochester in physics or astronomy to apply for the department news student has been so honored since this graduate study at Rochester. Application story of October 29, award was instituted seven years ago. material for all these programs is avail- 2004). The Mandel Joe Eberly was elected as vice president able on our Web pages (www.pas. endowment has reached (2004) and president (2007) of the Optical rochester.edu). If you know of any ex- the level of $100,000, and we hope that Society of America. Tom Foster was ap- ceptional undergraduates whom we with additional contributions we will pointed to the prestigious NIH Center for should consider either for our REU pro- raise a similar amount in 2004–2005. Scientific Review (Radiation Therapeutics gram or for graduate studies, we would Several of our faculty and students and Biology Study Section) in 2004. appreciate it if you would please send have received awards during this past The Board of Trustees recently chose their names and e-mail addresses to academic year. I will only mention a a new president for the University of Barbara Warren ([email protected]. few of these awards and refer you to Rochester: J. Seligman, who is currently edu), and we will contact them directly. news stories on our department Web the dean of the law school at Washing- Any help from our alumnae and alumni page for the others. Susumu Okubo ton University in St. Louis. Our own along these lines would be greatly was selected to receive the 2005 Amer- Nick Bigelow chaired the faculty com- welcomed. ican Physical Society (APS) J. J. Sakurai mittee that conducted this search. Several years ago, the University in- Prize in Theoretical Particle Physics Also in 2004, Rochester was selected itiated a tradition of hosting yearly Meliora (see story on page 4). Okubo is the as a Fusion Science Center of Excellence Weekend reunions (see www.rochester. third faculty member of the high-energy by the DOE. This center is to be headed edu/alumni). I encourage all our alumnae, physics group to receive an APS award by Professor Riccardo Betti. alumni, and friends to come and visit us in recent years. He joins Arie Bodek We wish to take this opportunity to in fall ’05. For the latest news about the and Ed Thorndike, who were awarded thank all our friends who have contrib- department, please visit our Web page, the APS Panofsky Prize in Experimental uted so generously to the support of the where you can also find the current and Particle Physics in 2004 and 1999, re- department. By completing the form on several recent issues of Cross Sections spectively. Professor Arie Bodek was the last page of our newsletter, you can online. Cross Sections On the Cover Important notices: Department phone: (585) 275-4344 and fax: (585) 273-3237. Editor: S. Rajeev and R. Demina If you change your mailing address, please Published by the Department of Physics and The cover shows the decuplet of spin contact Bob Knox with your new whereabouts Astronomy of the University of Rochester, and 3/2 baryons. The Gell-Mann-Okubo mass ([email protected]). Also let him know distributed to alumni and friends free of charge. formula (for which Professor Okubo was your current e-mail address. Copies may be obtained by writing to CROSS awarded the J. Sakurai prize this year) SECTIONS, Department of Physics and Astronomy, predicted the mass of the Omega minus. University of Rochester, Rochester, New York Its discovery was an early success on 14627-0171 USA. the way to building the standard model of elementary particles. To catch up with the happenings at the Univer- sity, log in to www.pas.rochester.edu and find the latest news. For previous editions of this newsletter, go to the Alumni and Friends page from the Home section. Or point your Web browser to http://spider. pas.rochester.edu/mainFrame/home/alumni.html. —Webmaster, Steve Teitel 2 SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS Physics and Astronomy • WINTER 2005 Boyd and Howell Use Quantum-Entangled Photons for Imaging Quantum imaging entails techniques of the imaging detector only when trig- The Rochester team of Robert W. Boyd, that can construct images that are sharper gered by the bucket detector. In this man- Ryan S. Bennink, and Sean J. Bentley at or more noise-free than those produced ner, a sharp image of the object is ob- The Institute of Optics, and John Howell by conventional imaging techniques. tained, even though the photons that of the physics department have put this A laser beam excites a second-order fall onto the imaging detector have never idea to experimental test. And it works! nonlinear optical crystal, and through the interacted with the object to be imaged! These results can be understood from process of parametric down-conversion, Recently Gatti and others have argued the point of view that, in the quantum a pair of entangled photons is created. theoretically that coincidence imaging case, the observer can wait until the One of these photons illuminates an can be performed using classical corre- photon pair is emitted before deciding object, and a non-imaging detector (a lations for an object at a known distance whether to measure the position or “bucket” detector) registers the scattering from the apparatus, but that quantum (transverse) momentum of one of the of the photon from this object. The other entanglement is required if one wants photons. The analogous quantity for photon of the pair is directed onto an to obtain a sharp image of an object the other photon is then precisely imaging device, a photo-detector array. that might be either in the near or far determined. A coincidence circuit records the output field of the light source. EDFEST: A Symposium to Celebrate E. H. Thorndike’s Contributions to Physics The department hosted a symposium Harvard University—where he worked NSF Predoctoral Fellowship from 1956 to on Saturday, August 7, to celebrate Ed with Richard Wilson on nucleon-nucleon 1960, an NSF Senior Postdoctoral Fellow- Thorndike’s contributions to physics. Ed scattering at the Harvard Cyclotron Lab- ship in 1970, and a Guggenheim Fellow- is the recipient of the Panofsky Prize of oratory—in 1960. After a postdoctoral ship from 1987 to 1988. the American Physical Society for his position at Harvard, he joined the Uni- Thorndike was director of the Rochester discovery of the rare decays of the b- versity of Rochester faculty as assistant 130" Cyclotron Lab from 1965 to 1969. quark, and is one of the leading particle professor of physics in 1961 and was He was spokesperson of the CLEO Collab- physicists in the world. promoted to associate professor in 1965. oration for three years from 1981 to 1984, Thorndike received his A.B. in physics He was made a full professor in 1972. for two years from 1990 to 1992, and from Wesleyan University in 1956, his Thorndike is the author of the book, co-spokesperson (with George Branden- M.S. in physics from Stanford University Energy and Environment, a Primer for burg) for two years from 1997 to 1999. in 1957, and his Ph.D. in physics from Scientists and Engineers. He held an Rochester Center for Brain Imaging Opens The goal of the Rochester Center for functional MRI data from the normal doctoral fellows, graduate and under- Brain Imaging (RCBI) is to provide re- adult brain as participants perform a graduate students, and members of the searchers at the University of Rochester, variety of tasks, it is capable of provid- greater Rochester community, including as well as neighboring institutions, with ing structural images of many anatom- the physics department. Jianhui Zhong access to a state-of-the-art 3T magnet ical structures. The RCBI also has a is teaching a related course, MR Imaging: for research using magnetic resonance key educational mission and will offer from Spins to Brains, this fall semester. imaging (MRI). Although the primary courses, summer research experiences, use of the Center will be to gather and demonstrations for faculty, post- 3 HONORS AND AWARDS Physics and Astronomy •WINTER 2005 Okubo Wins the Coveted Sakurai Prize The American Physical Society’s J.J. matical exercise without any physical whom Marshak discovered the V-A theory Sakurai Prize in Theoretical Particle relevance by most particle physicists. of the weak interaction of elementary Physics was established to recognize This paper helped change that view, particles, received his Ph.D. at Rochester. and encourage outstanding achievement with the first exposition of unitary sym- Faculty included Guralnik and Hagen, in particle theory. The citation for Susumu metry comprehensible to particle phys- who discovered the mechanism for mass Okubo’s award reads: icists.