Physics and Astronomy News

The Spring 2012 term is now underway, which means a new spring colloquium series. Come to the Department on Thursdays for a free lunch and a fascinating set of talks.

The Winter 2012 Physics and Astronomy Colloquium series will begin on Thursday, January 12, at 12:40 pm (lunch at 12:15), with a talk by David LeSage from Harvard. The full colloquium schedule is online.

Title: A Sound Way to Measure Nanostructures: Ultrafast Optics and Picosecond Ultrasonics

Speaker: Brian Daly, Vassar College

Abstract: We can take it for granted that progress in nanoscale science and technology in the coming decades will depend heavily on imaging and sensing methods with nanometer resolution. A number of established techniques can provide us with this resolution (e.g. electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy) but these are restricted to objects on or very near the surface of a sample. A wide range of nanostructures are currently under development across the spectrum of the sciences, and in many cases these structures come in the form of multi-layered stacks. As such, a method for the study of buried nanostructures and films is required.

One solution to this problem is to use ultrasound, which has been successful in medical and industrial fields for imaging with optimum resolution in the range of 10’s to 100’s of micrometers. In order to obtain nanometer scale resolution, we must use waves that have a much shorter wavelength (higher frequency) than traditional ultrasound. To do this, we use one of the most versatile tools of the quantum mechanical age, the ultrafast laser. An ultrafast laser produces pulses of light that are shorter than 1 picosecond, and when these pulses are absorbed by a solid layer, they generate extremely high frequency sound waves: what we like to call “Picosecond Ultrasonics.”

In this presentation I will give an overview of the way in which we use light to generate and detect high-frequency ultrasound in solid samples. I will also describe a companion technique for measuring thermal properties of nanoscale films known as Time-Domain Thermoreflectance

As always, lunch will be provided at 12:20 in Room N304, and all are welcome. The full schedule for the Fall term Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Series is here.

Alex Safiq ‘14 explaining her research project.

Vaishali Parkash ‘14 explaining her research project

Students and faculty at the Summer Research Poster Session.

The N^th Annual Summer Student Poster Session will be held this Thursday, September 15. Students who did summer research projects either on campus or at other institutions will give posters on their work in the halls of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, beginning at 12:20 pm. As always, lunch will be provided at 12:20 in Room N304, and all are welcome to come hear about the exciting activities of our students.

The poster session is also the traditional kick-off for the Fall term Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Series, the full schedule for which is here.

Here are some of the nearly 20 students taking part in summer research this year in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Congratulations to the graduates of the class of 2011!

Left to right: Richie Bonventre ‘08, Mike Mastroianni ‘07, Prof. Wilkin, Tom Perry ‘09, Katie O’Brien, Michael Varughese, Peter Bonventre, Prof. Orzel, Prof. LaBrake, Chad Harrington, Danny Barringer, Pam Urresta, Prof. Surman, Prof. Vineyard, Colin Gleason, Prof. Marr.

The Spring 2011 Physics and Astronomy colloquium series is now underway. The complete schedule is on-line. Talks will be in Room N304 of the Science and Engineering Center at 12:40 pm, with pizza and soda provided at 12:20 for people attending the colloquium. All are welcome.

The Union College chapter of the Society of Physics Students was recognized as an outstanding chapter for 2010, one of just 50 chapters nationwide (out of more than 700 nationwide) given this award. Union was cited for “Extensive outreach, community service, and social activities.” This is the second year in a row that Union has earned this distinction.

Congratulations to all the SPS students whose hard work has made this possible.

Associate Professor Chad Orzel gave a presentation at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC, as part of a symposium titled “Science Without Borders: Learning from TIMSS Advanced 2008,” about the Trends in International Math and Science Survey, an international test of math and physics given to students in nine countries. Chad’s talk, “What Physics Knowledge Is Assessed in TIMSS Advanced 2008?” evaluated the content of the physics test by comparing them to college and high school curricula and tests developed through physics education research. Other speakers in the symposium included representatives from the international study center that administers TIMSS, and from the national test centers in Norway and Slovenia talking about their nations’ experience with TIMSS Advanced.

The AAAS is one the world’s largest general scientific society, and one of the premier science organizations in the world. This year’s meeting brought together several thousand scientists, educators, journalists, and policy makers from some 50 countries.

Katelyn O’Brien, ‘11, and Daniel Barringer, ‘11, presented posters about their research at the 217th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, WA, in January.

Daniel presented results from his Summer 2010 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) summer project at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ. Daniel worked with Connie Walker of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory on the “Effects Of Light Pollution On The Movements Of Leptonycteris Curasoae Yerbabuenae In
The Tucson Area.” Daniel used data from the GLOBE at Night project and telemetry-tracking data to study the effects of light pollution on the flight paths of the lesser long-nosed bats between their day roosts and night foraging areas around the city of Tucson, AZ, finding that these bats are able to tolerate a fair degree of urbanization. Daniel was one of 6 students selected from a pool of 157 applicants from across the US to be awarded an REU internship at Kitt Peak in summer 2010. Daniel is a physics major and astrophysics minor.

Katelyn presented results from her senior thesis project with Associate Professor Rebecca Koopmann, ‘89. Entitled “SMARTS Hα
Observations Of ALFALFA Gas-rich Galaxies In NGC 5846″, the poster described Katelyn’s analysis of star formation from images of galaxies obtained at the Cerro Tololo National Observatory in Chile through Union’s participation in the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) consortium. Katelyn is pursuing a major in physics and minors in astrophysics and Spanish.

The American Astronomical Society is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America.

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Rebecca Koopmann, ‘89, organized the fourth annual NSF-sponsored ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Undergraduate Team Workshop at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico January 16-20, 2011. The Arecibo Observatory is home to the 305-m diameter Arecibo telescope, the largest telescope in the world.

Halley Darling, ‘13, a Physics & Astronomy major, accompanied Koopmann and a select group of 16 other undergraduate students and 12 faculty members from 14 colleges and universities across the United States. Together they conducted observing runs, toured the telescope, and worked on group activities designed to model scientific collaborations.

As part of the workshop, Darling presented a poster about her Summer 2010 research project at Union (sponsored by NASA New York Space Grant). Entitled “ALFALFA HI Observations of the NGC 5846 Group of Galaxies,” the poster described the Union team’s research on environmental effects (such as gravitational interactions) on a concentration of galaxies. Ana Mikler, ‘12, and SreyNoch Chin, ‘12, were coauthors on the poster.

Darling used her new skills to help Koopmann conduct a remote observing run from her Union campus lab in Science and Engineering. Two first-year students, Lucas Viani ‘14 and Alexandrea Safiq ‘14, were enthusiastic participants. They can be seen steering the telescope on the ALFALFA blog.

The ALFALFA project, led by astronomers Riccardo Giovanelli and Martha Haynes of Cornell, is a multiyear survey of a large area of the sky at radio wavelengths appropriate for the detection of neutral hydrogen gas in other galaxies. It is expected that more than 30,000 galaxies out to a distance of 750 million light years will be detected by the survey.

Speaker: Ann Martin, Cornell University

Title: ALFALFA and the Hunt for Extreme-Mass Galaxies

Abstract: The ongoing Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey is using the Arecibo Observatory to make a census of neutral hydrogen gas in ~ 30,000 nearby galaxies. This method is efficient at finding very low mass, very faint galaxies as well as distant, rare high-mass galaxies. The statistical distributions of gas-rich galaxies in the local Universe will reveal relationships between galaxies’ stellar properties, star formation histories, gas masses, and environment, helping us to untangle galaxy evolution. I will describe ongoing projects that challenge our current understanding of both very small and very large galaxies. I will discuss two statistics, the neutral hydrogen mass function and the correlation function, and how they reflect the cosmological implications of the characteristics of the ALFALFA sample.

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Winter 2011 colloquium schedule.

Speaker: Jason E. Sanabia ‘96, Ph.D., President & CEO Raith USA, Inc.

Title The Roles of High and Low Energy Electrons in Nanofabrication

Abstract In his 1959 speech entitled There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom, Richard Feynman asked “Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes the Encyclopedia Brittanica on the head of a pin?” After explaining how it was possible, Richard Feynman next asked “How do we write it?” and then hypothesized “We can reverse the lenses of the electron microscope.” Toward the end of his speech, Richard Feynman offered a price of $1,000 to “the first guy who can take the information on the page of a book, and put it on an area 1/25,000 smaller in linear scale, in such manner that it can be read by an electron microscope.” In 1985, Richard Feynman mailed a check for $1000 to Tom Newman, then a graduate student in R. Fabian W. Pease’s group at Stanford University, who used electron beam lithography to write the opening page of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities at a scale of nanometers.

Today, 50 years since Richard Feynman launched the field of nanotechnology, electron beam lithography is a critical facility for the world’s research in nanotechnology. Device physics research (graphene and spintronics), materials science (bit patterned media), electrical engineering (transistors), mechanical engineering (nanoelectromechanical systems, NEMS), optical engineering (waveguides and photonic structures), and biophysics (single molecule detection) are examples of today’s active fields of research that benefit from electron beam lithography facilities. But why cannot electron beam lithography do everything? Why is it difficult to control matter below 10 nm with electron beam lithography? What prevents the manufacture of computer chips using electron beam lithography? I will introduce the basic concepts of electron beam lithography, with particular emphasis on the roles of the high and low energy electrons. Within this framework, I will discuss today’s challenges that limit the application of electron beam lithography.

Joint colloquium with Chemistry Department

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Winter 2011 colloquium schedule.

Instead of a Physics and Astronomy colloquium this Thursday, January 27th, we will be having a departmental pot-luck luncheon at the usual colloquium time of 12:40. If you’re around, stop by the department office to sample the cooking of your favorite professors.

Scott LaBrake, Senior Lecturer of Physics and Astronomy and accelerator manager, and Maria Battaglia ’12 attended the 21st international Conference on the Applications of Accelerator in Research and Industry (CAARI) in Fort Worth, Texas in August. LaBrake gave an invited talk on Teaching Materials Analysis using PIXE at Union College, which detailed the use of the departments 1MV particle accelerator to study environmental pollution in atmospheric aerosols and liquid precipitation in New York State using the ion beam analysis technique of PIXE. Battaglia presented a poster detailing her research project on the Trace Elemental Composition & Concentration of Liquid Precipitation in New York Using PIXE that demonstrated seasonal variations in the elemental composition and concentration of rainwater and snow. LaBrake also submitted a paper at the conference that has been accepted for publication in a special edition of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B along with co-authors Mike Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Maria Battaglia ’12, Chad Harrington ’11, Colin Gleason ’11, Katie Schuff ’12, Shivani Pathak ’10, Rob Moore ’12, and Colin Turley ’13.

Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, gave a talk titled “Rutherford Back-Scattering Experiment in the First-Year Seminar at Union College” at the 2011 Winter Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Jacksonville, FL, in January. The meeting celebrated 100 years of nuclear physics that began with the discovery of the atomic nucleus in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford. Scott LaBrake, Senior Lecturer and Accelerator Manager, was co-author of the paper.

Speaker: Prof. Chad Orzel, Union

Title: “Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication Matters, and How Social Media Can Help”

Abstract:: At a time when the primary challenges facing the world are scientific in nature– pandemic disease, global climate change, green energy and technology– it is more important than ever that the general public have some understanding of and appreciation for science. At the same time, polls show that public understanding of science lags far behind the necessary level, and well-funded media operations attempting to sow doubt about issues like climate change have had a major negative impact. In this talk, I will discuss some of the problems with communicating science to the general public, and discuss the new opportunities for public communication afforded by Internet technologies.

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Winter 2011 colloquium schedule.

Speaker: Jason Slaunwhite ‘04, CERN

Title: Exploring the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract: The Large Hardron Collider (LHC) is one of the world’s largest scientific experiments. It aspires to answer some of the most exciting questions in particle physics today. In this talk, I will discuss the current model of particle physics and describe some of the outstanding questions. I will explain how we use the LHC answer these questions and highlight some recent results.

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Winter 2011 colloquium schedule.

Michael Varughese ‘11 worked with Prof. Jay Newman this summer, using dynamic light scattering to study the way that insulin molecules clump together over time. In addition to providing information about insulin itself, the processes by which insulin molecules aggregate are similar to those of β-amyloid, which has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.

Michael’s Poster (673 kB GIF)

Speaker:Dr. William Ostendorff, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Title: Principles of Physics for Nuclear Power

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Fall 2010 colloquium schedule.

Halley Darling ‘13, shown explaining her summer research poster to Prof. Mike Vineyard, worked with Professor Koopmann using the Arecibo telescope to study hydrogen gas in a nearby group of galaxies. Their observations will help astronomers understand the evolution of galaxies and star formation within galaxies.

Halley’s Poster (6.9 MB PDF)

Mark Sullivan ‘13 worked with Anna Sise ‘12 (who is on term abroad this Fall) and Prof. Reich doing computer simulations of atoms in lattices. The systems they studied are related to the physics of phase transitions in magnetic materials.

Mark’s poster (519 KB .gif)

Speaker: Prof. John Cummings, Siena College

Title: Neutrino Physics and The Dayabay Experiment

Abstract: There has been a resurgence in interest in neutrino physics in the last 10 years. The observations of the Super-Kamiokande Experiment in 1998 indicated the “oscillation” of one flavor neutrino into another. Several experiments, now running or soon to begin, are attempting to map out the details of the neutrino mixing responsible for this oscillation phenomena. I will present a (brief) history of our understanding of the neutrino, and describe the phenomena of neutrino oscillations and what we can learn from them. Finally, I’ll describe the Dayabay experiment and it’s goals.

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Fall 2010 colloquium schedule.

Speaker: Prof. Charles Freeman, SUNY Geneseo

Title: The Physics of Baseball

Abstract: Baseball is a particularly interesting game for a physicist to study. What makes a curve ball curve? How much farther does the ball really travel at Coors Field in Denver than at Citi Field in New York? Why do left handed pitchers have more success against left handed batters (and right handed pitchers have more success against right handed batters)? What is the difference between a two-seam and a four-seam fastball? How do you throw a split-fingered fastball, anyway? An ex-pitcher and current physicist sheds some light on these questions and discusses some other interesting physics at work in our national pastime. Feel free to bring your glove — you just might catch a souvenir.

As always, the colloquium will be at 12:40 in Room N304, with pizza and soda available at 12:20 for those attending the talk. For details of future colloquia, see the Fall 2010 colloquium schedule.