Events Archive

Sep
20
2012
Attosecond transient absorption in strong-field controlled atoms
Coherent manipulation of atoms by strong electromagnetic radiation can be used to engineer new optical properties of matter. The technique of using a strong control field to manipulate the transmission of a weak probe field, such as it is done in Autler-Townes splitting, has recently been extended to control the transmission of x rays.
Sep
19
2012
The Onset of Turbulence in Pipe Flow
 PLEASE NOTE: This is a WEBINAR More than 125 years ago Osborne Reynolds launched the quantitative study of turbulent transition as he sought to understand the conditions under which fluid flowing through a pipe would be laminar or turbulent. Since laminar and turbulent flow have vastly different drag laws, this question is as important now as it was in Reynolds' day.  Reynolds understood how one should define ``the real critical value'' for the fluid velocity beyond...
Sep
17
2012
Scalable Technologies for Quantum Computing with Trapped Atomic Ions
Sep
14
2012
Protons and cancer therapy
Curative cancer treatment requires radiotherapy (RT) in almost 2/3rd of all cases. Unfortunately, children are highly susceptible to the development of debilitating toxicities and secondary malignancies from RT. Normal tissue sparing with hadron-beam therapy is being actively investigated to reduce RT side-effects. The objective of this talk is to describe conventional and novel normal tissue-sparing applications of photon and proton beam therapy, respectively; radiobiological interplay with the tumor microenvironment will also be discussed.
Sep
10
2012
Spin Electronics: Magnetic Moments and Amorphous Semiconductors
  Spin electronics in its broadest definition is the study of systems where both the charge and the spin of the electron play a role.  The term was originally intended as a new technological concept, where traditionally the electron’s charge is important because transistors rely on currents and voltages, while the electron’s spin is important only in magnetic materials used for memory; spin electronics represents a new hybrid system.  Examples range from technological developments such as MRAM (magnetic random access memory) that are based on magnetic tunnel junctions, to some forms...
Sep
06
2012
Gauge Fields with Cold Atoms
Here I present our experimental work synthesizing static gauge fields for ultracold neutral atoms (bosonic and fermionic alkali atoms).  I will discuss this gauge field in the language of spin-orbit coupling where it consists of an equal sum of Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings. In experiment, we couple two internal states of our alkali atoms with a pair of ``Raman'' lasers and load our degenerate quantum...
Aug
30
2012
Dark Matter: and how we would not be alive without it
Most of the mass in the Universe is of some unknown form of matter. While we have some guesses what it might be we are not sure. In this talk for a non-specialist audience, Professor Abel will explain how observations using telescopes convinced the scientists that Dark Matter must exist. He will also show how without it we would not even be here. Using videos produced from his supercomputer calculations we can see how stars and galaxies are formed in virtual universes that have a striking resemblance to our own. Without dark matter none of this would work. The talk...
Aug
30
2012
Slow Light in Cold Rydberg Gases
Aug
27
2012
US Fusion Research
This review of the US fusion research program has two parts.  The first part (after a brief primer on fusion) surveys the plasma and fusion research issues that dominate the present US program.  The second part discusses in more detail two specific topics---the fusion-fission hybrid and the possibility of thermal equilibrium confinement---in more detail. The review assumes very little prior knowledge of plasma physics or fusion research.  ...
Aug
20
2012
School of Physics Annual Gathering
School Chair's Annual Address to the School. Reception immediately following in the East courtyard of Howey (between main building and lecture rooms on first floor).

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