DOCSLIB.ORG

KITP Newsletter, Fall 2005

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
KITP Newsletter, Fall 2005 Vol. 1 No. 1 • Fall / Winter 2005 KITP Director Awarded 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics DAVID J. GROSS, director of the Kavli Gross was awoken shortly after 2:30 Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and a.m. PST by a call from the Royal Swedish the first incumbent of the Frederick W. Academy of Sciences and participated by Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the phone in the press conference under way University of California, Santa Barbara, was in Stockholm. awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics Gross said, “This Nobel Prize for solving in 1973 the last great remaining recognizes the efforts not only by us, but problem of what has since come to also the community of high energy physics. be called “the Standard Model” of the Scientific explorations into fundamental quantum mechanical picture of reality. He reality are no longer the province of the and his co-recipients discovered how the lone genius such as Galileo or Newton nucleus of atoms works. or Einstein, but a collaborative effort by Gross shares the prize with Frank a community of scientists. Hundreds of Wilczek, who was Gross’s graduate student experimental physicists at the world’s at Princeton University, when the pair accelerator laboratories have designed completed the calculation that resulted in and run the experiments that gave us the discovery for which they have received early hints about how the strong force the Nobel Prize. Wilczek, now a physics operates and then, after we published our professor at the Massachusetts Institute of theory, proved it. The effort to explore the Technology, was a permanent member of subtleties of the nuclear force continues the then Institute for Theoretical Physics today; we still have many implications of (ITP) at Santa Barbara from 1980 to 1988. Arielle Viny the theory to work out.” The other recipient, H. David Politzer, a Frozen momentarily is the equation that garnered the Nobel Prize for David Gross. The ice The Swedish Academy cited the physics professor at the California Institute sculpture was created for a Bon Voyage à Stockholm party in Gross’s honor, hosted by Fred winners “for the discovery of asymptotic of Technology, was working independently and Linda Gluck at their Montecito home. Gluck endowed the chair in theoretical physics freedom in the theory of the strong on a similar calculation. that Gross holds at UC Santa Barbara. interaction.” SEE NOBEL ON PAGE 4 I N S I D E … INSIDE… New Kohn Hall Proves Whole Can Be More Than From the director, p. 2 Will whiplash confirm strings? p. 3 Sum Of Old and New Parts Nobelists read Einstein, p. 5 Michael Graves Executes Design to Enhance Probing biological physics, pp. 6-9 Collaborations Among Physicists New permanent member, p. 6 FOR 10 YEARS THE KEY LANDMARK for arrivals at the principal entrance to the ocean-side Postdoc in neuroscience, p. 7 campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) has been the flat-topped, Biologist hires physicists, p. 7 orange tower of Kohn Hall, home of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), which celebrated its 25-year existence under the aegis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Nell Campbell Brain workshop, p. 8 with an international conference on “The Future of Physics,” from Oct. 7 to 9, 2004. A Physicists watch fly movie, p. 8 decade after the opening of Kohn Hall (named for KITP founding director and winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize, Walter Kohn), an addition was dedicated at the outset of the Polchinski Elected Party fetes biophysics, p. 9 conference on Oct. 7. Quest for physics of biology, p. 9 Michael Graves, internationally known for the startling eclecticism of his postmodernist To National design, is the architect for both the original building and the new wing. The result—more than the sum of old plus new parts—is a wholly integrated and transformed structure Academy ‘Future of Physics’: 25 ?s, p. 11 superbly designed to enhance the practice of theoretical physics. First and foremost, Kohn Hall, both inside and out, with its predominant shades Upcoming, p. 12 of muted orange from peach tones to copper, is beautiful. The structure is both sited of Sciences and designed to direct inhabitants’ points of view to take advantage JOSEPH G. POLCHINSKI, professor of of the stunning vistas from the location on a bluff overlooking the physics at the University of California, blue Pacific. Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a permanent What does beauty have to do with physics? Over and over again, member of the Kavli Institute for the beauty of a given theory has been an indication of its accurate Theoretical Physics (KITP), has been representation of deep reality. But less fanciful a reason for the elected a member of the National beauty of this structure is its purpose in attracting physicists Academy of Sciences at the annual worldwide to leave their home institutions for weeks or spring meeting. He was cited as one of months to participate in KITP programs, which address the the “leading field and string theorists questions that define the leading edge of scientific research. of his generation, contributing many That purpose of creating a home away from home to significant ideas to both quantum field stimulate collaborative scientific exploration accounts for theory and to string theory.” the residential scale of the two-story KITP structure. Clean Polchinski’s discovery of D-branes but intimate architectural shaping and their properties is, according to of space—complemented by a the Academy citation, “one of the most surround of soft orange pigments important insights in 30 years of work and light maple wood—creates a on string theory.” warm, inviting environment that SEE NEW WING ON PAGE 10 SEE POLCHINSKI ON PAGE 2 Peter Malinowski events are so weak that they will probably From the Director STRINGS only be visible in the later stages of the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 experiment. But, according to Polchinski, 2004-05 HAS BEEN AN EXCITING YEAR FOR THE KITP. We “the gravitational signatures from cosmic celebrated our 25th anniversary with a special conference, strings are remarkable because they are and we inaugurated our new wing. about the old instability argument potentially visible even from the early The conference on “The Future of Physics” celebrated against the existence of cosmic strings in stages of LIGO! That means ‘potentially not only the 25th anniversary of the Institute, but also the terms of Tye’s brane-antibrane Inflation, visible’ over the next year.” unity of physics, which is, after all, the assumption on which particularly as worked out in detail by Gravitational waves have yet to be the KITP is founded. Physics still has a common language six physicists in a 2003 paper, “Towards directly detected, which is the mission and a common community who do all these different Inflation in String Theory.” of the LIGO and LISA experiments. So in things from string theory to biology; physics is still one addition to the possibility of confirming field though moving in all these different directions [see Do cosmic strings exist? string theory, the JHEP paper offers a page 11 for 25 questions that represent the diversity of Using that model, Polchinski, Copeland, better target for initial LIGO detection of Tony MastresTony direction]. Special thanks go to the Kavli Foundation and and Myers calculated the decay rates for gravitational waves than any other from to the University of California, Santa Barbara for the support that made this stimulating cosmic strings and discovered how slow cosmic events. conference possible. the rates could be—so slow, in fact, that the The new wing is more than an addition. It has given us an opportunity to re-conceive strings would survive to the present day. and thereby do more with the pre-existing space in Kohn Hall. I especially like the new Will LIGO detect whiplash? By “survive” they mean not just detecting Identifying the gravitational signature enclosed courtyard because it provides such a spectacular, centrally located meeting space, the gravitational footprint left long ago in of cosmic strings is the work of Vilenkin where conference participants and visitors can confer via outdoor blackboards or eat the cosmic microwave background and and Thibault Damour (Institut des Hautes together under blue skies or a sun-shading canopy. “seen” by looking back in time, but actually Etudes Scientifiques, France). They figured The addition was prompted by the need for more space to accommodate more seeing the gravitational effects of cosmic out that when cosmic strings oscillate, science, and indeed we are now able to run three programs at the same time. We tried strings existing if not now, then billions of every once in a while, they crack like a this before the addition, and had to limit the number of participants so that each of the years after the genesis of the universe. whip. “It’s surprising,” said Polchinski, “but programs lacked the critical mass for the most productive of intellectual exchanges. We still Polchinski said their calculations when you write out the equations for an have more applicants than places for our programs (see the exciting line-up for 2006 on the showed that both F and D cosmic strings oscillating string, a little piece of the string back page), which speaks well, we think, for our programming efforts; but because we can could exist and that the JHEP article snaps and moves very fast. Basically, the routinely welcome enough participants to each of three simultaneous programs, we are explains how to distinguish the signature tip will move at the speed of light. When now much better able to serve the diverse research interests of the community.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 2018 APS Prize and Award Recipients
    APS Announces 2018 Prize and Award Recipients The APS would like to congratulate the recipients of these APS prizes and awards. They will be presented during APS award ceremonies throughout the year. Both March and April meeting award ceremonies are open to all APS members and their guests. At the March Meeting, the APS Prizes and Awards Ceremony will be held Monday, March 5, 5:45 - 6:45 p.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) in Los Angeles, CA. At the April Meeting, the APS Prizes and Awards Ceremony will be held Sunday, April 15, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH. In addition to the award ceremonies, most prize and award recipients will give invited talks during the meeting. Some recipients of prizes, awards are recognized at APS unit meetings. For the schedule of APS meetings, please visit http://www.aps.org/meetings/calendar.cfm. Nominations are open for most 2019 prizes and awards. We encourage members to nominate their highly-qualified peers, and to consider broadening the diversity and depth of the nomination pool from which honorees are selected. For nomination submission instructions, please visit the APS web site (http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/index.cfm). Prizes 2018 APS MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN PHYSICS 2018 PRIZE FOR A FACULTY MEMBER FOR RESEARCH IN AN UNDERGRADUATE INSTITUTION Eugene N. Parker University of Chicago Warren F. Rogers In recognition of many fundamental contributions to space physics, Indiana Wesleyan University plasma physics, solar physics and astrophysics for over 60 years.
    [Show full text]
  • July 2007 (Volume 16, Number 7) Entire Issue
    July 2007 Volume 16, No. 7 www.aps.org/publications/apsnews APS NEWS Election Preview A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY • WWW.apS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/apSNEWS Pages 6-7 Executive Board Resolution Thanks US physics team trains for competition in Iran By Katherine McAlpine Legislators for Support of Science Twenty-four high school stu- The APS Executive Board bill authorizes nearly $60 billion dents comprising the US Phys- has passed a resolution thanking for various programs for FY 2008 ics Olympiad team vied for five House and Senate policy makers through FY 2011. The bill would places on the traveling team at for recently-passed legislation double the NSF budget over five the University of Maryland from that strengthens the science, math years and double the DOE Office May 22nd to June 1st. Those and engineering activities of our of Science budget over 10 years. chosen to travel will compete nation. The House of Representatives this month against teams from “Sustaining and improving the passed five separate authorization all over the world at Isfahan standard of living of American bills, which were then combined University of Technology in Is- citizens, achieving energy security into one bill, H.R. 2272, the 21st fahan, Iran. and environmental sustainability, Century Competitiveness Act of Over 3,100 US Physics Team providing the jobs of tomorrow 2007. The bill would put the NSF hopefuls took the preliminary and defending our nation against budget and the NIST Scientific examination in January, and 200 aggressors all require federal in- and Technical Research and Ser- were given a second exam in vestments in science education vices budget on track to double in March to determine the top 24 and research… The Board con- 10 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Advances in Theoretical & Computational Physics
    ISSN: 2639-0108 Research Article Advances in Theoretical & Computational Physics Supreme Theory of Everything Ulaanbaatar Tarzad *Corresponding author Ulaanbaatar Tarzad, Department of Physics, School of Applied Sciences, Department of Physics, School of Applied Sciences, Mongolian Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, University of Science and Technology E-mail: [email protected] Submitted: 27 Mar 2019; Accepted: 24 Apr 2019; Published: 06 June 2019 Abstract Not only universe, but everything has general characters as eternal, infinite, cyclic and wave-particle duality. Everything from elementary particles to celestial bodies, from electromagnetic wave to gravity is in eternal motions, which dissects only to circle. Since everything is described only by trigonometry. Without trigonometry and mathematical circle, the science cannot indicate all the beauty of harmonic universe. Other method may be very good, but it is not perfect. Some part is very nice, another part is problematic. General Theory of Relativity holds that gravity is geometric. Quantum Mechanics describes all particles by wave function of trigonometry. In this paper using trigonometry, particularly mathematics circle, a possible version of the unification of partial theories, evolution history and structure of expanding universe, and the parallel universes are shown. Keywords: HRD, Trigonometry, Projection of Circle, Singularity, The reality of universe describes by geometry, because of that not Celestial Body, Black Hole and Parallel Universes. only gravity is geometrical, but everything is it and nothing is linear. One of the important branches of geometry is trigonometry dealing Introduction with circle and triangle. For this reason, it is easier to describe nature Today scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial of universe by mathematics circle.
    [Show full text]
  • TASI Lectures on Emergence of Supersymmetry, Gauge Theory And
    TASI Lectures on Emergence of Supersymmetry, Gauge Theory and String in Condensed Matter Systems Sung-Sik Lee1,2 1Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton ON L8S4M1, Canada 2Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St. N., Waterloo ON N2L2Y5, Canada Abstract The lecture note consists of four parts. In the first part, we review a 2+1 dimen- sional lattice model which realizes emergent supersymmetry at a quantum critical point. The second part is devoted to a phenomenon called fractionalization where gauge boson and fractionalized particles emerge as low energy excitations as a result of strong interactions between gauge neutral particles. In the third part, we discuss about stability and low energy effective theory of a critical spin liquid state where stringy excitations emerge in a large N limit. In the last part, we discuss about an attempt to come up with a prescription to derive holographic theory for general quantum field theory. arXiv:1009.5127v2 [hep-th] 16 Dec 2010 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Emergent supersymmetry 2 2.1 Emergence of (bosonic) space-time symmetry . .... 3 2.2 Emergentsupersymmetry . .. .. 4 2.2.1 Model ................................... 5 2.2.2 RGflow .................................. 7 3 Emergent gauge theory 10 3.1 Model ....................................... 10 3.2 Slave-particletheory ............................... 10 3.3 Worldlinepicture................................. 12 4 Critical spin liquid with Fermi surface 14 4.1 Fromspinmodeltogaugetheory . 14 4.1.1 Slave-particle approach to spin-liquid states . 14 4.1.2 Stability of deconfinement phase in the presence of Fermi surface... 16 4.2 Lowenergyeffectivetheory . .. .. 17 4.2.1 Failure of a perturbative 1/N expansion ...............
    [Show full text]
  • Round Table Talk: Conversation with Nathan Seiberg
    Round Table Talk: Conversation with Nathan Seiberg Nathan Seiberg Professor, the School of Natural Sciences, The Institute for Advanced Study Hirosi Ooguri Kavli IPMU Principal Investigator Yuji Tachikawa Kavli IPMU Professor Ooguri: Over the past few decades, there have been remarkable developments in quantum eld theory and string theory, and you have made signicant contributions to them. There are many ideas and techniques that have been named Hirosi Ooguri Nathan Seiberg Yuji Tachikawa after you, such as the Seiberg duality in 4d N=1 theories, the two of you, the Director, the rest of about supersymmetry. You started Seiberg-Witten solutions to 4d N=2 the faculty and postdocs, and the to work on supersymmetry almost theories, the Seiberg-Witten map administrative staff have gone out immediately or maybe a year after of noncommutative gauge theories, of their way to help me and to make you went to the Institute, is that right? the Seiberg bound in the Liouville the visit successful and productive – Seiberg: Almost immediately. I theory, the Moore-Seiberg equations it is quite amazing. I don’t remember remember studying supersymmetry in conformal eld theory, the Afeck- being treated like this, so I’m very during the 1982/83 Christmas break. Dine-Seiberg superpotential, the thankful and embarrassed. Ooguri: So, you changed the direction Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih metastable Ooguri: Thank you for your kind of your research completely after supersymmetry breaking, and many words. arriving the Institute. I understand more. Each one of them has marked You received your Ph.D. at the that, at the Weizmann, you were important steps in our progress.
    [Show full text]
  • David Olive: His Life and Work
    David Olive his life and work Edward Corrigan Department of Mathematics, University of York, YO10 5DD, UK Peter Goddard Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA St John's College, Cambridge, CB2 1TP, UK Abstract David Olive, who died in Barton, Cambridgeshire, on 7 November 2012, aged 75, was a theoretical physicist who made seminal contributions to the development of string theory and to our understanding of the structure of quantum field theory. In early work on S-matrix theory, he helped to provide the conceptual framework within which string theory was initially formulated. His work, with Gliozzi and Scherk, on supersymmetry in string theory made possible the whole idea of superstrings, now understood as the natural framework for string theory. Olive's pioneering insights about the duality between electric and magnetic objects in gauge theories were way ahead of their time; it took two decades before his bold and courageous duality conjectures began to be understood. Although somewhat quiet and reserved, he took delight in the company of others, generously sharing his emerging understanding of new ideas with students and colleagues. He was widely influential, not only through the depth and vision of his original work, but also because the clarity, simplicity and elegance of his expositions of new and difficult ideas and theories provided routes into emerging areas of research, both for students and for the theoretical physics community more generally. arXiv:2009.05849v1 [physics.hist-ph] 12 Sep 2020 [A version of section I Biography is to be published in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.] I Biography Childhood David Olive was born on 16 April, 1937, somewhat prematurely, in a nursing home in Staines, near the family home in Scotts Avenue, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey.
    [Show full text]
  • Quantum Aspects of Life / Editors, Derek Abbott, Paul C.W
    Quantum Aspectsof Life P581tp.indd 1 8/18/08 8:42:58 AM This page intentionally left blank foreword by SIR ROGER PENROSE editors Derek Abbott (University of Adelaide, Australia) Paul C. W. Davies (Arizona State University, USAU Arun K. Pati (Institute of Physics, Orissa, India) Imperial College Press ICP P581tp.indd 2 8/18/08 8:42:58 AM Published by Imperial College Press 57 Shelton Street Covent Garden London WC2H 9HE Distributed by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Quantum aspects of life / editors, Derek Abbott, Paul C.W. Davies, Arun K. Pati ; foreword by Sir Roger Penrose. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-84816-253-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-84816-253-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-84816-267-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-84816-267-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Quantum biochemistry. I. Abbott, Derek, 1960– II. Davies, P. C. W. III. Pati, Arun K. [DNLM: 1. Biogenesis. 2. Quantum Theory. 3. Evolution, Molecular. QH 325 Q15 2008] QP517.Q34.Q36 2008 576.8'3--dc22 2008029345 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Photo credit: Abigail P. Abbott for the photo on cover and title page. Copyright © 2008 by Imperial College Press All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • SUSY, Landscape and the Higgs
    SUSY, Landscape and the Higgs Michael Dine Department of Physics University of California, Santa Cruz Workshop: Nature Guiding Theory, Fermilab 2014 Michael Dine SUSY, Landscape and the Higgs A tension between naturalness and simplicity There have been lots of good arguments to expect that some dramatic new phenomena should appear at the TeV scale to account for electroweak symmetry breaking. But given the exquisite successes of the Model, the simplest possibility has always been the appearance of a single Higgs particle, with a mass not much above the LEP exclusions. In Quantum Field Theory, simple has a precise meaning: a single Higgs doublet is the minimal set of additional (previously unobserved) degrees of freedom which can account for the elementary particle masses. Michael Dine SUSY, Landscape and the Higgs Higgs Discovery; LHC Exclusions So far, simplicity appears to be winning. Single light higgs, with couplings which seem consistent with the minimal Standard Model. Exclusion of a variety of new phenomena; supersymmetry ruled out into the TeV range over much of the parameter space. Tunings at the part in 100 1000 level. − Most other ideas (technicolor, composite Higgs,...) in comparable or more severe trouble. At least an elementary Higgs is an expectation of supersymmetry. But in MSSM, requires a large mass for stops. Michael Dine SUSY, Landscape and the Higgs Top quark/squark loop corrections to observed physical Higgs mass (A 0; tan β > 20) ≈ In MSSM, without additional degrees of freedom: 126 L 124 GeV H h m 122 120 4000 6000 8000 10 000 12 000 14 000 HMSUSYGeVL Michael Dine SUSY, Landscape and the Higgs 6y 2 δm2 = t m~ 2 log(Λ2=m2 ) H −16π2 t susy So if 8 TeV, correction to Higgs mass-squred parameter in effective action easily 1000 times the observed Higgs mass-squared.
    [Show full text]
  • Works of Love
    reader.ad section 9/21/05 12:38 PM Page 2 AMAZING LIGHT: Visions for Discovery AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM IN HONOR OF THE 90TH BIRTHDAY YEAR OF CHARLES TOWNES October 6-8, 2005 — University of California, Berkeley Amazing Light Symposium and Gala Celebration c/o Metanexus Institute 3624 Market Street, Suite 301, Philadelphia, PA 19104 215.789.2200, [email protected] www.foundationalquestions.net/townes Saturday, October 8, 2005 We explore. What path to explore is important, as well as what we notice along the path. And there are always unturned stones along even well-trod paths. Discovery awaits those who spot and take the trouble to turn the stones. -- Charles H. Townes Table of Contents Table of Contents.............................................................................................................. 3 Welcome Letter................................................................................................................. 5 Conference Supporters and Organizers ............................................................................ 7 Sponsors.......................................................................................................................... 13 Program Agenda ............................................................................................................. 29 Amazing Light Young Scholars Competition................................................................. 37 Amazing Light Laser Challenge Website Competition.................................................. 41 Foundational
    [Show full text]
  • The Discovery of Asymptotic Freedom
    The Discovery of Asymptotic Freedom The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to David Gross, Frank Wilczek, and David Politzer, recognizes the key discovery that explained how quarks, the elementary constituents of the atomic nucleus, are bound together to form protons and neutrons. In 1973, Gross and Wilczek, working at Princeton, and Politzer, working independently at Harvard, showed that the attraction between quarks grows weaker as the quarks approach one another more closely, and correspondingly that the attraction grows stronger as the quarks are separated. This discovery, known as “asymptotic freedom,” established quantum chromodynamics (QCD) as the correct theory of the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces in Nature. At the time of the discovery, Wilczek was a 21-year-old graduate student working under Gross’s supervision at Princeton, while Politzer was a 23-year-old graduate student at Harvard. Currently Gross is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Wilczek is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT. Politzer is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech; he joined the Caltech faculty in 1976. Of the four fundamental forces --- the others besides the strong nuclear force are electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force (responsible for the decay of radioactive nuclei), and gravitation --- the strong force was by far the most poorly understood in the early 1970s. It had been suggested in 1964 by Caltech physicist Murray Gell-Mann that protons and neutrons contain more elementary objects, which he called quarks. Yet isolated quarks are never seen, indicating that the quarks are permanently bound together by powerful nuclear forces.
    [Show full text]
  • Montgomery to Take the Helm at Jefferson Lab
    FACES AND PLACES APPOINTMENTS Montgomery to take the helm at Jefferson Lab Hugh Montgomery is to become director Fermilab in 2002, overseeing the particle of the US Department of Energy’s Thomas physics and particle astrophysics research Jefferson National Accelerator Facility programmes at the laboratory. (Jefferson Lab). Currently the associate “After almost 25 years at Fermilab, this director for research at Fermilab, he begins move certainly represents a major change his new duties on 2 September. He succeeds in my life,” Montgomery commented on the Christoph Leemann, director from 2000 and news. “The new position will be an enormous who announced his retirement in 2007. challenge for me, but also an enormous Montgomery’s career has been firmly opportunity to which I am looking forward.” grounded in particle physics, in particular Montgomery will be only the third director with muon scattering experiments at CERN in Jefferson Lab’s 23-year-old history. He and Fermilab, and in the D0 experiment will also serve as president of Jefferson at Fermilab. He received his PhD from Science Associates, LLC, which is a Manchester University in 1972, and served on joint venture between the Southeastern the scientific staff of the Daresbury Nuclear Universities Research Association and Physics Laboratory and the Rutherford High Computer Sciences Corporation Applied Energy Laboratory until 1978. He then joined Technologies, created specifically to manage the staff at CERN, before moving to Fermilab and operate Jefferson Lab for the scientific in 1983. He became associate director at user community. Hugh Montgomery. (Courtesy Jefferson Lab.) VISITS Ian Pearson, UK Minister for Science and Innovation, left, made his first trip to CERN on 15 April.
    [Show full text]
  • Brief Newsletter from World Scientific February 2017
    Brief Newsletter from World Scientific February 2017 Exclusive Interview with 2003 Nobel Laureate One of the Top Condensed Matter Theorists and World Scientific Author Anthony Leggett Sir Professor Anthony James Leggett is a distinguished physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003 for his pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids. He is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prof Leggett gave a presentation at the 2016 APS March Meeting in Baltimore, USA on “Reflections on the past, present and future of condensed matter physics”. In a phone interview, he shared with us some of his thoughts and further musings on the future of condensed matter physics. Paradigm Shift and Our Quest for the Unknown Chad Hollingsworth Your talk at the APS March Meeting 2016 mentioned developments That probably depends on your current tenure status! Certainly, if that you classified as “paradigm shifts”. Are there any recent you have a secure, tenured job (as I have been fortunate enough to discoveries that you would classify as paradigm shifts? have for the last few decades), then I think most certainly it’s better Well, if we go slightly outside the area of condensed matter physics to explore the unknown. But, of course, I appreciate that in the current as it has been conventionally defined, then, undoubtedly, any employment situation, people who have not got a tenured job need revolution which overthrew the view of quantum mechanics as a to think about their future. This may well be a rather strong pressure complete account of the world would, I think, certainly qualify as a to basically explore the known further.
    [Show full text]