May 2013

Astrophysicist discovers planets similar to Earth

Researchers for the first time 22, has a radius 2.4 have identified Earth-sized plan- times the radius of ets within the habitable zone of Earth, leaving research- a Sun-like star. Images of the ers less sure of its com- star taken by University of Notre position. Dame astrophysicist Justin Crepp rule out alternative expla- “From what we can tell, nations of the data, confirming from their radius and that five planets orbit Kepler- orbital period, these are 62, with two located in the hab- the most similar objects itable zone. The results were to Earth that we have found eclipsing binary stars, are not published in Science maga- yet,” said Crepp, the Freimann causing the fluctuation, a zine. A five-planet system with Assistant Professor of Physics. common “false positive” planets of 1.41 and 1.61 Earth- Data from the Kepler mission, encountered in the research. radii in the habitable zone of a launched in 2009 to identify Crepp noticed a faint dot Inside this issue: K2V star has been detected extrasolar planets, have so far near Kepler-62 a year ago, with the Kepler spacecraft and resulted in several dozen of leading to months of detailed Faculty news & notes 2 validated with high statistical some 3,000 “Kepler Objects of study to confirm the planet confidence,” the paper reports. Interest” having been studied in interpretation. Graduate student news 3 Those two, named Kepler-62 e detail. and f, are the outermost of the “What really helped is that this Special spring lectures 3 five observed planets and re- Researchers use fluctuations in star has five planets,” he said. ceive a solar flux from the star the brightness of a star to iden- “You can mimic one planet with Farthest supernovae discovered 4 similar to that received from the tify the presence of a potential another event, but when you Sun by Venus and Mars. Their planet whose transit periodical- have five of them and they’re Paper in PNAS 4 size suggests that they are ei- ly dims the light of the star. all periodic, that helps to put ther rocky, like Earth, or com- Crepp uses large ground-based the nail in the coffin. It’s hard posed mostly of solid water. A telescopes to image the host to make that kind of signature Contact information planet discovered more than a star and analyzes the system to with anything else that you can Phone: 574-631-6386 year ago in the habitable zone dream up.” Fax: 574-631-5952 make sure other astronomical E-mail: [email protected] of another Sun-like star, Kepler- phenomena, such as nearby

225 Nieuwland Science Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 Sigma Pi Sigma induction

Web site: physics.nd.edu The Department of Physics at Sigma Pi Sigma is the official Moser, Vu Nguyen, Timothy the honor society of the physics O’Brien, Stanislava Sevova, Alumni—let us know about inducted 11 undergraduate profession. Through election to Brandon Summa, Amanda Wil- your recent achievements and physics majors and 2 profes- Sigma Pi Sigma, distinctive liams, and Owen Zeng. The appointments. We look forward to hearing from you! sors into Sigma Pi Sigma on achievement and high scholar- professors inducted were Kevin Friday, April 26. Professor Peter ship in physics is recognized Lannon and Xiao-dong Tang. Mitchell Wayne, Garnavich, faculty advisor of the and celebrated. Department Chair Society of Physics Students, Kathie Newman, Director of Graduate Studies and Professor Mitchell Wayne, Students inducted were: Anthony Hyder, Director of Department Chair, presented Shannon Hughes, Kevin Undergraduate Studies the inductees with their honor Kelly, Kevin McDermott, cords. Patrick McIntyre, Bailey Page 2 Notre Dame Physics Tracks

Faculty news & notes Zoltán Toroczkai, professor of resources for the nation's scien- the Space Telescope Science physics and concurrent profes- tific and technological needs. Institute (STScI) and Goddard sor of computer science and Space Flight Center on the sci- engineering, has Professor Michael Hildreth has entific operations of the Hubble been nominated to been named a 2013 CMS LPC Space Telescope and is jointly serve on the advi- Senior Fellow. The LHC Physics chosen by the STScI Director sory board Center (LPC) at and Hubble Space Telescope of Chaos: An Inter- is a re- Project Scientist at Goddard. disciplinary Journal of Nonlinear gional center of the Howk will serve a three-year Science. Chaos is a quarterly Compact Muon term, effective April 25. The Professors Carol Tanner and peer-reviewed journal that is Solenoid (CMS) Committee is charged advising Steven Ruggiero received an published by the American Insti- Collaboration. The the Hubble teams on normal award from the Office of Re- tute of Physics. The journal LPC serves as a resource and operations of the observatory search as part of the Faculty includes articles about the most physics analysis hub primarily and with recommending chang- Research Support Initiation recent developments in nonline- for the 700 U.S. physicists in es that will maximize its scien- Grant Program. ar sciences from the areas of the CMS collaboration. During tific productivity. The objective of the work is physics, mathematics, chemis- the coming year, Hildreth will be to create a powerful new optical try, biology, economics, and working with Fermilab experts cancer diagnostic instrument social science. on the study of the theories of for the diagnosis and study of As a member of the Chaos (SUSY) to look cancer. Their goals are to cre- advisory board, Toroczkai will for new physics in collider ate a new means to study the submit articles to the journal, events involving high energy fundamental physical proper- solicit articles from other re- photons. ties of cancer cells, and a highly searchers, and provide ideas Professor Grant Mathews has sensitive and quantitative diag- for the direction of future is- Don Lincoln, guest professor of been selected to receive a U.S. nostic tool for early cancer de- sues, including ideas for poten- physics and staff scientist at Faculty Scholar Grant from the tection. This new instrument will tial focus areas. He was select- Fermi National Accelerator La- Vietnam Education Foundation be used to obtain the wave- ed for his stature in the field of boratory, was the (VEF) for the 2013-14 academic length-dependent (ultraviolet to nonlinear science and his areas featured "hero in year. Mathews will be part of infrared) optical properties of of expertise. This appointment education" on the sixth group of faculty select- cancer cells and the number, to the board began January 1, the Daily Edven- ed. The VEF was established by size, and geometry of orga- 2013 and will last three years. tures blog on the U.S. Congress in December nelles within the cells. This work February 23. The 2000 as an independent feder- is motivated by substantial evi- Ani Aprahamian, Frank M. blog features an educator every al agency. VEF's primary pur- dence showing both significant Freimann Professor of Physics, day for 365 days and comes pose is to promote the bilateral optical changes in cancer ver- has been appointed to a three- from Microsoft Partners in relationship between the United sus normal cells, a propensity year term on the Learning, a global wide initiative States and Vietnam through for abnormal/enlarged orga- Physics Policy focused on improving teaching educational exchanges. This nelles (especially mitochondria) Committee of and learning by helping educa- faculty visit by Mathews from in a wide variety of cancer cells, the American tors and school leaders con- January to June 2014 will con- and the recognized diagnostic Physics Society nect, collaborate, create, and tribute to scientific education value of identifying both chang- (APS). The ap- share ideas so students can capacity building in Vietnam es in optical properties general- pointment was made by APS reach their full potential. through teaching of two modern ly and changes in organelle President Michael S. Turner and courses in astronomy and rela- morphology specifically in can- is effective January 1. The Phys- Professor J. Christopher tivity/cosmology and also cer cells. ics Policy committee addresses Howk has been appointed to a through collaborative research The work currently repre- science policy issues that affect three-year term with Vietnamese faculty in cos- sents a collaboration between the development of physics, the on the Space mology and astrophysics. the Department of Physics (N. health of the institutions in Telescope Users Sun, C. Tanner, and S. Ruggi- which physics is practiced, the Committee. The ero) and the Harper Cancer resources available to physics, Committee Research Institute (J. Johnson and the balanced use of these serves to advise and S. Stack). Notre Dame Physics Tracks Page 3

Graduate student news

Hayden earns Rodger that drives the acceleration of The Notre Dame chapter will Doxsey Prize the expansion of the universe. include activities for profession- He has examined SNe IAa from al development, outreach, and Brian Hayden cosmological perspective, in social activities. has been award- order to improve estimates of ed the Rodger the distance to each supernova, Doxsey Prize and has studied their progenitor Lyons founds AWIS at 2013 Graduate from the Ameri- systems, since the nature of the Notre Dame Student Teaching can Astronomi- stellar system that produces Stephanie Lyons is a founder Award Winners cal Society these explosions is not fully and the current president of the (AAS). The prize provides gradu- understood. Hayden’s current The 2013 Outstanding Gradu- Notre Dame chapter of Ameri- ate students or postdoctoral research focuses on the envi- ate Student Teaching Award, can Women in Science. researchers, within one year of ronments of SNe Ia, particularly which is given annually by the “My goals for receiving or receipt of their looking at the evolution of their Notre Dame Graduate School our local chap- Ph.D., a monetary prize to travel host galaxies to gain more and the Notre Dame Kaneb ter,” she says, to the AAS winter meeting to knowledge about the expansion Center for Teaching and Learn- “are to establish give an oral presentation of of the universe. He is working ing, honors graduate student a community of their dissertation. towards determining what ef- instructors and teaching assis- support for Hayden, who works fect a supernovae’s environ- tants whose teaching demon- women in the with Professor Peter Garnavich, ment has on distance esti- strates excellence in the class- science. In some fields—like studies type Ia supernovae mates, and what the environ- room or laboratory. physics—we are an underrepre- (SNe Ia), which are important ment can indicate about their The 2013 award recipients sented group. We are establish- cosmic distance indicators. progenitors. from the Department of Physics These supernovae were also ing a forum for our women grad- are William Bauder, Karen pivotal in the discovery of Dark uate students to discuss topics Ostdiek, and Allison Showalter. Energy, the mysterious force of common interest.”

Two special spring lectures

George Crabtree, Director of the solar, and utility-scale electric 2011 National Medal of Sci- important, and what does the Joint Center for Energy Storage storage enables the grid to ence Recipient. observation of this particle Research bridge the peaks and valleys of His lecture was titled The mean for our understanding of (JCESR) at variable wind and solar genera- ABEGHHK’tH Resolution. The the universe? These questions Argonne tion and of consumer demand. observation by CERN of the and more were addressed. National JCESR looks beyond Li-ion tech- was hailed as one Gates’ visit was organized in Laboratory nology to new materials and of the most significant scientific part by the Society of Physics and Profes- phenomena to achieve the fac- events of recent times. What is Students undergraduate group. sor at the tor of five increases in perfor- the Higgs boson, why is it so University of Illinois visited cam- mance needed to realize these pus on Friday, April 19. Beyond transformational societal out- Lithium-Ion Batteries was the comes. title of this special Nieuwland Lecture Series event.  JCESR develops concepts and technologies for portable On Monday, April 29, Prof. S. electricity storage for transpor- James Gates, Jr., presented a tation and stationary electric talk as part of the Lynch Lec- storage for the electricity grid. ture series. Gates is University Electrified transportation re- System of Maryland Regents places foreign oil with a host of Professor, John S. Toll Professor domestic electricity sources of Physics, Center for String & such as gas, nuclear, wind and Particle Theory Director, and a Notre Dame Physics Tracks Page 4

Notre Dame astrophysicists discover farthest supernova using Hubble Space Telescope

Professor Peter M. Garnavich, “We realized that in building up selves to test and physics graduate student the deep images, we could take how well we un- Brian Hayden are members of data every few months, and by derstand them.” the CANDELS+ CLASH Superno- staggering the visits we could Reiss, who won va Project that recently discov- search for fresh exploding the Nobel Prize ered a supernova that exploded stars,” Garnavich said, adding for his discovery more than 10 billion years ago. that Hayden’s dissertation is on of the accelerat- The Type Ia supernova, part of a the study of Type Ia superno- ing universe, and class used for measuring the vae. “Brian and I have great fun Garnavich were member of the from another. Understanding expansion of space, is the far- searching for supernovae in the High-Z team, one of two teams supernovae explosions can also thest yet found by NASA’s Hub- Hubble data, and we have per- that discovered the acceleration provide insight into the nature ble Space Telescope. Garnavich sonally found a few. We have using Type Ia supernovae. of dark energy and the produc- and Hayden are co-authors of a also contributed to the ground- tion of iron and other heavy paper announcing the discovery based follow-up studies includ- The supernova is named SN elements in the universe. which has been accepted for ing observations with the Large Wilson after President Woodrow publication in The Astrophysical Binocular Telescope (LBT).” Wilson. The CANDELS+CLASH “The addition of the new infra- Journal. The LBT, which is partly funded collaboration has found more red camera on Hubble has by Notre Dame, is one of the than 100 supernovae, including made this supernova search Since 2010, Hubble’s Wide largest telescopes in the world. SN Wilson, 350 million years and study of early galaxy for- Field Camera 3 has surveyed older than the previous record, mation possible,” Garnavich faraway Type Ia supernovae to “These supernovae are im- and seven other Type Ia super- said. “But NASA’s Shuttle pro- determine whether they have portant tools for studying the novae that exploded more than gram has ended, so that was changed over the 13.8 billion dark energy that is speeding up 9 billion years ago. the last visit by astronauts to years since the . The the expansion of space,” said improve the Hubble. We will Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared census leader Adam Riess of Among other things, the study need new telescopes in space if Deep Extragalactic Legacy Sur- the Space Telescope Science has provided evidence that we want to continue to under- vey (CANDELS) and the Cluster Institute in Baltimore and Johns supernovae result from the stand the early universe.” Lensing and Supernova Survey Hopkins University. “This study merger of two white dwarfs, with Hubble (CLASH) have stud- gives us a chance to ‘stress rather than the explosion of one ied thousands of galaxies. test’ the supernovae them- white dwarf that was feeding Toroczkai publishes paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA journal

Professor Zoltán Toroczkai has co-authored a paper in March 26 The weight of the issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The pathways that link the paper, “The role of long-range connections on the specificity of the cortical areas likely macaque interareal cortical network,” was written in collaboration plays an important with a group of neuroanatomists from Lyon, France. role in determining the physiological func- The group investigated the influence of interareal distance on con- tion of each cortical nectivity patterns in a database obtained from the injection of area. Long-distance connections are in low abundance and also retrograde tracers (experiments performed by the French group) in weak, but they are highly consistent across brains. Their observa- 29 areas distributed over six regions in the brain—occipital, tem- tions suggest that these connections have a prominent role in brain- poral, parietal, frontal, prefrontal, and limbic. wide communication and information integration.

Their findings showed that long-distance connections in the pri- Photo: Surface maps of cortical connectivity for an exemplar inject- mate brain make important contributions to the specificity of the ed area (area F2, in black). (Upper) Known connections; (Lower) cortical networks. Although the axons of these neurons are only NFPs. (Left) Flat maps; (Center) lateral inflated maps; (Right) medial about one micrometer thick (10-6m), they can make connections inflated maps. Connection strengths are color coded as values of across the whole brain reaching to areas many centimeters away. log10(FLNe), varying from 0 (red) to −6 (yellow). Area injected is in black. Image courtesy of www.pnas.org.