Dr. Ryan C. Hickox,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College

Black Holes Near and Far: Environments and Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei


Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are ubiquitous in the centers of galaxies, and astronomers have now spectacularly obtained the first image of one in the nearby galaxy M87. Yet SMBHs are not just fascinating objects in their own right; they also have a key role to play in the cosmic evolution of their host galaxies and large-scale structures, as they grow and radiate energy in the form of active galactic nuclei (AGN). I will give an overview of recent breakthroughs in our understanding of AGN, exploring the smallest scales around the SMBH to the huge surrounding dark matter halos, and tracing the growth of SMBHs from the early Universe to the present epoch. I will conclude with a look forward at exciting prospects in AGN science with upcoming and proposed future observatories.

Coffee will be served prior to the talk, at 3:00 p.m., In Room GW-103

Dr. Jim Zickefoose,
Senior Research Scientist, Mirion Technologies

Applying a physics degree to positions in industry


I received my PhD from the University of Connecticut 9 years ago and since that time have been working in industry as a physicist for Canberra Inc. (now Mirion Technologies). There were a number of skills I gained during my studies as a PhD student that helped me obtain my job in industry as well as progress up the technical ladder. I will briefly discuss my primary PhD research topic, experimental nuclear astrophysics, identifying some of the skills obtained during my research that are vital in industry. Mirion is involved in the detection, quantification, remediation of nuclear radiation on a number of levels, most notable in the development of High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors. I will provide an overview of Mirion's core interests and describe how my current and previous roles there have contributed to those interests. As is true with any sector you will choose to work in, there are benefits and drawbacks to working there. I will discuss a number of aspects that are in my opinion assets of industrial work as well as number of points of frustration that I have found in industry. Finally, I have been involved in the hiring of a number of incoming physicist personnel at Mirion. I will discuss some key points to consider when searching for, applying to, interviewing for, and accepting positions in industry.

Dr. Ryan Carollo,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bates College

Blowing Bubbles... in Space!

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) can be used as sensitive probes or tests of delicate physics. However, gravitational sag equivalent to 100 nanokelvin per micron can adversely affect sensitive measurements or delicate potentials. NASA and JPL have solved this problem by installing a BEC machine (the Cold Atom Laboratory - CAL) on the International Space Station. We're using it to blow bubbles - fully-connected, quasi-2-dimensional shells of weakly-trapped condensate - and study them in a shape that can't be achieved on Earth.

Dr. Erin Cox, UConn Counseling & Mental Health Services

Career Development Series

In this semester's "Career Development Series" we will have a special session focusing on Mental Health. We will have a presentation from Dr. Erin Cox. Dr. Erin Cox is the Assistant Director/Director of Outreach at UConn's Counseling & Mental Health Services (CMHS). With over nine years in university counseling, she has expertise in supporting students with a wide variety of mental health concerns that can impact academic performance. In this workshop, Dr. Cox will provide tips on managing stress, and an overview of services available at CMHS.

Prof. Gerald Dunne, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut

Resurgent Extrapolation: Squeezing Non-Perturbative Information from Perturbation Theory


Extrapolation is an important problem in physics: how to use asymptotic data in one parametric regime to learn about the behavior of a physical function in another parametric regime. For example: extending weak coupling expansions to strong coupling, or high temperature expansions to low temperature, or vice versa. I present new methods from "resurgent asymptotics" that dramatically improve standard numerical procedures for performing such an extrapolation: Borel summation, Pad'e approximants and conformal mapping. I illustrate the method with the concrete example of one of the Painlev'e equations, a class of nonlinear equations with many applications in physics. Starting solely with a finite number of asymptotic coefficients, we obtain a high precision extrapolation of the function throughout the complex plane, even across a phase transition. The precision far exceeds that of state-of-the-art numerical integration methods.

Prof. Tracy Webb, Department of Physics, McGill University

The Growth of the Most Massive Galaxies in the Highest Density Regions: Evidence for In-Situ Star Formation in Brightest Cluster Galaxies


The most massive galaxies in the local universe reside at the centres of galaxy clusters. These so-called Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) exhibit, as a class, highly uniform properties and are distinct from the general galaxy population. This suggests formation processes which are themselves distinct from those which dominate in massive galaxies outside of cluster cores. The mass growth of BCGs is likely linked to the overall physics of hierarchical structure formation on galaxy cluster scales, including the fundamental processes of gas cooling, star formation, energy feedback and galaxy mergers, at the centers of giant dark matter halos. In this talk I will present new results from the largest study of high-redshift BCGs conducted to date, drawn from the SpARCS optical/NIR cluster survey. Using archival infrared data we show the star formation rate within BCGs increases to z~2, and can add as much mass to the BCG population as the previous standard model of growth by dry mergers. At low redshifts, and in X-ray/SZ selected clusters, the rare examples of star forming BCGs appear to be fed by large-scale cooling flows. However, the first of the SpARCS systems we have studied in detail, SpARCS1049, has revealed a very different phenomenon -- a train-wreck of a galaxy merger at the center of the cluster. This is the first example of such a process in high-redshift cluster cores and may represent a new phase of BCG evolution, previously unaccounted for.

Coffee and tea will be served prior to the talk, at 3:00 p.m., In Room GW-103

Dr. Drew Chieda, ASML

Physics Ph.D.'s in Private Sector Careers


Careers outside academia are a less common choice for Ph.D. physicists. Drew Chieda (Ph.D. 2012) took the less common path and is currently employed by ASML where he provides technical oversight into the development of semiconductor lithography tools.

This talk will be an open discussion forum where Drew will share his experiences and motivations to transition into the private sector. He will review some of what ASML does and why it's interesting work (for him), where some of his friends and former students are employed, how his Ph.D. skills fit into a commercial environment, and some interesting data from the American Institute of Physics.

Please come with questions!

Dr. Sarah Wellons,
CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow,
Northwestern University

Wild and Crazy Kids: Simulating Galaxy Formation in the Early Universe

As techniques have improved over the last decade, observations have peered deep into the Universe's history and begun to glimpse galaxies which formed in the first few billion years after the Big Bang. Evidence is mounting that galaxies in the early Universe appear and behave very differently from those nearby - for example, the most massive galaxies are extremely compact, and star-forming disks appear to have strange clumpy morphologies. In this talk, I will discuss galaxy formation at z > 2 from a theoretical perspective, presenting results drawn from both large-volume cosmological simulations (which allow us to compare and predict the statistical properties of galaxy populations) and high-resolution zoom-in simulations (which allow us to drill down on the physics governing individual systems). I will focus in particular on massive compact galaxies, whose varied formation and evolution present a case study on how galaxy populations evolve over time, and on massive disks, which are independently predicted by both simulation approaches to be very rapidly rotating at high redshift. The advents of JWST, LSST, and WFIRST over the next decade will provide us an unprecedented view of this dynamic and exciting time in the Universe's history. I will conclude by discussing future prospects for how high-z galaxy theory and simulation can anticipate and meet the challenges that these new observations will inevitably bring.