Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook

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Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook
A brief introduction to the Department and its
research opportunities
Paul Grannis March 15, 2002
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Physics and astronomy research evolves as new
discoveries ideas or new technological tools
emerge. In a real sense, Physics is defined by
what physicists or astronomers do. A snapshot
today differs from that of a year ago!
(A case in point is a recent study of the
question why is crumpled paper so much more
rigid than expected? ) However, Physics and
Astronomy as a field has some overarching Big
Questions as given by a recent National Academy
of Sciences report

• Developing Quantum Technologies
• Understanding Complex Systems
• Applying Physics to Biology
• Creating New Materials
• Exploring the Universe
• Unifying the Forces of Nature

We would like to participate in these Grand
Challenges !
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A Profile of the Department
47 regular Departmental academic faculty (13
theory 34 experiment) 12 in Yang Institute for
Theoretical Physics (all also in Department) 14
active research/emeritus/visiting faculty 10
adjunct faculty (many from BNL, some in other SB
departments) 3 on extended leave (University
Provost, Acting Director of BNL, Presidents
Science Advisor)
Research areas acad. fac.
research/emeritus adjunct Astronomy
Astrophysics 9 1 1 Accelerator
physics 0 0 2 Condensed matter 11 3 2 X-ray
imaging 2 1 Atomic Molecular Optical
4 4 2 Nuclear Physics 11 3 1 Particle
Physics 13 2 Formal theory 8 2 Physics
education 1 1
Size of structure ?
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A Profile of the Department

• 175 Graduate students
• Research funding at approximately 13-14M per
  year
• Some rankings of the department
• 1998 Citation impact (frequency of our
  papers being cited) 8th
• RD expenditures
  14th
• Astronomy citation density
  8th

Our space (Graduate Physics Building)
D level (particle/Xray)
C level (nuclear/library)
YITP 6th floor of Math Building
B level (condensed matter)
A level (instructional labs)
P level (office/classrooms)
Astronomy 4th floor of ESS Building
S level (CM/AMO labs Nuclear Structure Lab.)
X
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Astronomy/Astrophysics
Stellar evolution, star formation regions, low
mass stars, and discovery of the nearest neutron
star using the Cerro Tololo telescopes (Chile)
Fred Walter and students. The constitution of
planet forming disks around young stars, and the
reason for mostly binary star formation are
studied by Mike Simon and colleagues at Mauna Kea
and Kitt Peak. Deane Peterson works to calibrate
the cosmic distance scale (standard candles)
Studies of violent and extreme explosive events
the origin of heavy elements in supernovae bursts
(Jim Lattimer), formation of stellar mass black
holes from neutron stars (Madappa Prakash/ Gerry
Brown), explanation of gamma ray bursters (Ralph
Wijers)
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Astronomy/Astrophysics
The deepest views of the cosmos from the Hubble
Space Telescope indicate an epoch of rapid star
formation just 100 million years after the Big
Bang, much earlier than earlier thought. The
analysis uses Lyman a absorption lines due to
intervening dust, red-shifted into the visible
inferring the intensity of distant sources. Such
early ignition of stars disagrees with previous
theory. (NASA press conference, Jan 8, 2002)
Ken Lanzetta
NASA simulation
Aaron Evans uses infrared measurements to study
active galaxies and galactic mergers. Phil
Solomon has pioneered the study of galactic
molecular clounds using radio telescopes. Amos
Yahil has made a variety of contributions to
cosmology and dark matter.
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X-ray imaging
Fresnel zone plates (electron beam lithography)
with 30 nm structure size are used as lenses for
X-rays. X-ray microscopy complements electron
microscopes in that wet (living) biological
specimens can be imaged with low doses. (Chris
Jacobsen, Janos Kirz)
X-ray image of fibroblast
Section of zone plate
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Condensed matter physics
How do you raise TC for the Buckyball fullerenes?
The lore was that if one inserts filler
(chloroform etc.), the expanded lattice gives a
higher density of states and larger TC. Peter
Stephens group says it is not so the fillers
dont expand the lattice!
Superconducting quantized flux loops can switch
states at 770 GHz, and used to make superfast,
compact computers. (A 2 GHz Pentium 4 that
dissipates 100 nW!) Vasili Semenov, Kostya
Likharev, Dima Averin and industry collaborators.
Use chemical self-assembly of molecular single
electron transistors on prefabricated nanowire
structures the resulting circuits are expected
to evolve into neural networks that can simulate
the cerebral cortex. Work in progress by Kostya
Likharev, in conjunction with Physics, Chemistry,
Computer Science, BNL and ORNL.
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Condensed matter physics
Vladimir Goldmans group has fabricated quantum
antidots (S) that collect either electrons or
quasiparticle states a sensitive capacitor
shows the existence of fractional charge
collective states, as predicted by theory.
Use BNL NSLS infrared light to excite electron
spin resonance at very high magnetic fields (15T)
to probe the collective electron interactions vs.
temperature. The clear departures seen by Laszlo
Mihalys group from hnmBB indicate the presence
of very strong local temperature dependent B
fields due to the electron system.
hnmB
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Condensed matter physics
SQUID flux toroid constructed with a Josephson
junction in a gap. Two initially degenerate
states of macroscopic quantized flux, each with
billions of electrons in currents. With quantum
tunnelling and small interaction with the
environment, a superposition of symmetric and
antisymmetric states can be formed with slightly
different energies, just like the spin singlet
and triplet states in atoms. These
macroscopically large quantum systems approximate
the Schrödingers cat experiment, and can form
the basis for quantum computing. Lab of Jim
Lukens.
Emilio Mendez group has constructed
semiconductor microcavities that can be tuned by
applied E field. Mixed states arise from
photon/exciton interference probe the modes of
the cavity. The technique gives a very broad
band semiconductor laser.
n-type Al As/AlGaAS Left mirror
New sensitive infrared photo-optic devices are
investigated by Michael Gurvitch
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Atomic and optical physics
Coupled systems of a weak EM cavity field and
trapped atoms are in a tangled wave function that
can be disturbed by emission of a single photon.
Emission of a photon at the coupling frequency
disturbs the wave function, but carefully phased
EM pulses can shape it. Control of the process
with rapid feedback allows preparation of
interesting states for quantum information
systems. Luis Orozco and collaborators.
Gene Sprouse and Luis Orozco use the Stony Brook
Linac to make Francium nuclei (T1/2 3 min) and
put it in an atomic trap contained by
lasers/fields. The very cold (10 m/s) atoms are
stored for 30 sec, and the spectroscopy has been
revealed for the first time. Fr decays should
provide one of the most sensitive studies of
Parity violation, and thus will shed light on the
Electroweak symmetry breaking of particle physics.
Nuclear accelerator ? Atomic experiment ? insight
into central problem of Particle Physics !
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Atomic and optical physics
Quantum chaos highly excited states of
hydrogen, driven by microwave electric fields
exhibit chaotic behavior involving collective
behavior with hundreds of photons. Various
circumstances (polarization, static and microwave
fields, bichromatic fields) alter the outcome and
display both classical and quantum
characteristics. These lead to new theories of
chaotic systems in the lab of Peter Koch.
Control of atomic motion using laser cooling is
investigated in Hal Metcalfs lab. Interference
of deBroglie matter waves and optical light waves
give a fascinating insight into fundamental
interactions. The plot shows specially prepared
atomic states whose wave functions are
superpositions of different momenta, so parts of
the atom are moving in different directions
(again, the Schrödingers cat !).
Atomic velocity ?
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Nuclear physics
Nuclei have distinct left- and right-handed
states (like DNA or neutrinos), as shown by
recent studies of Dave Fossan and Kzystztof
Starosta. This establishes the existence of
triaxial nuclei, and offers a new place to study
chiral symmetry.
The nucleon-nucleon potential can be calculated
from known effective interactions but give
differing results (left panel). Use of
renormalization group techniques by Gerry Brown,
Tom Kuo and group can fix the high momentum
components, leading to the same low momentum
potential (right panel) extremely useful for
calculating many-body effects.
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Heavy ion physics
The Stony Brook group of Barbara Jacak, Axel
Drees, Tom Hemmick (Michael Marx) were leaders in
building the PHENIX experiment at the BNL
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. With first data
in 2000, new results indicating the existence of
a quark gluon plasma are emerging. The plot
shows the deficit of quark jets emerging from
Au-Au scattering, relative to what was observed
at lower energy and lower nucleon number. The
hard scattered quarks presumably radiate
significant energy while in the quark-gluon soup
Phys Rev Letters cover, Jan 14, 2002
Edward Shuryak, pioneer of the quark-gluon plasma
idea, investigates many aspects of
non-perturbative QCD, including new ideas on the
production of sphalerons (spherical clusters of
gluons), energy flow mechanisms from the
projectiles to the hot nuclear matter, and with
Thomas Schaefer, the possibility of color
superconductivity.
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Particle physics
The SuperKamiokande experiment (Chang Kee Jung,
Clark McGrew, Chiaki Yanagisawa) underground in
Japan contains 50,000 tons of H2O for detecting
neutrinos by Cerenkov light. Only half the
neutrinos expected from the sun are seen. Muon
neutrinos born in cosmic ray collisions in the
atmosphere oscillate to other types on their
way to the detector a larger deficit for those
produced on the far side of earth. n oscillation
requires that n s have mass!
electron Cerenkov ring seen by 100s of
phototubes
ne nm (observed / expected)
Cosmic ray
n
air
ne
nm
n
downgoing
upgoing
earth
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Particle physics
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The DØ experiment (Rod Engelmann, Paul Grannis,
John Hobbs, Bob McCarthy, Michael Rijssenbeek) at
the Fermilab Tevatron pp collider discovered the
top quark in 1995 and made precise measurements
of the W boson mass these confirm the Standard
Model to high precision and predict a Higgs boson
mass below 200 GeV. The current DØ run should
discover such a Higgs boson.
mjet event with b-tag( m )
ET
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Michael Marx is building a BNL experiment to
measure the decay Ko? p0 n n (BR 10-12) which
will delineate the source of CP violation.
Strong theoretical efforts in particle physics
from Fred Goldhaber, Concha Gonzales-Garcia,
Jack Smith, Robert Shrock, George Sterman
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Formal Theory
Some of our theorists work on problems that
transcend particular fields String/membrane
theory and supergravity Zurab Kakushadze,
Martin Rocek, Warren Siegel, Peter van
Nieuwenhuizen, Bill Weisberger. Statistical
mechanics/solvable models and correlations
Vladimir Korepin, Barry McCoy Mesoscopic
systems, and correlated electron systems Sasha
Abanov, Igor Aleiner, Phil Allen. QCD and
non-perturbative strongly-coupled nuclear
hadronic systems Thomas Schaefer, Ed Shuryak,
George Sterman, Jac Verbaarschot, Ismail
Zahed Non-linear systems Peter Kahn
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Some of the prizes and awards to our faculty
38 American Physical Society fellows 7 American
Association for the Advancement of Science
fellows 14 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowships 11
Humboldt Senior Scientist awards 5 APS prize
winners 11 Guggenheim Foundation fellows 2
members of the National Academy for
Sciences Nobel Prize Benjamin Franklin
Medal Dirac Medal and Prize King Faisal
International Prize for Physics Dennis Gabor
award Presidential Faculty Fellow Principe de
Asturias Prize for Science and Technology Wetheril
l Medal of the Franklin Institute
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Partnerships
Our students and faculty work closely with many
scientists at BNL world class facilities in our
back yard! (Sam Aronson Doon Gibbs will
describe some of the BNL activities) Our
collaborations extend to most prominent US
universities, and many leading institutes and
laboratories around the world. Some of the
laboratories/telescopes where we work
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Future projects
A variety of major new initiatives are being
developed by Stony Brook faculty so that even
when you come to Stony Brook next fall, the
landscape may have changed ! All are somewhat
speculative so not all will be done. Some
examples

• Large Area Mercury Array (LAMA) 18 rotating
  liquid mercury mirrors with 25X resolution and
  100X light gathering of Hubble Deep Field
  telescope. (Lanzetta, Evans, Sprouse)
• UNO 450 kiloton H2O detector (20X
  SuperKamiokande) underground detector to study
  proton decay, neutrino oscillations, supernova
  neutrino detection (Jung, McGrew)
• Single electron device arrays as artificial
  intelligence (Likharev, Semenov)
• Addition of electron beams to RHIC (Jacak)
• Quantum computers using RFSQ and quantum dots
  (Averin, Lukens, Korepin)
• TeV class ee- linear collider to understand
  the origin of Electroweak Symmetry breaking
  (Hobbs, Grannis)

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Conclusions
We are working on a host of exciting research
projects ranging from

• 1-dimensional quantum dot arrays to
  11-dimensional space-time manifolds
• Object sizes from the universe (1026 m) to
  quark substructure (10-18 m)
• Temperatures from guark-gluon plasma states of
  2 TeraK to macroscopic Bose Einstein condensates
  at mK
• Practical development of new infrared sensors
  for satellite imaging to the understanding the
  structure of quantum gravity

We think that you have a bright prospect for
exciting times here and hope you will join us
in Stony Brook this summer!
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n image of the sun
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n-type Al As/AlGaAS Left mirror